i would love to see some pictures of oak cabinets and what color paint you used with them. i have golden oak in my kitchen, and i don't really like them. the light tan i have looks awful, and i'm toying with green, sw blonde, or even burgundy. help please!!

I have honey oak kitchen cabinets and due to their warm coloration, have found that greens and blues work best. Your scheme is not limited to those two colors however. You can even opt for a med. to dk. brown (VERY CURRENT AND STRIKING!), reddish brown (NOT ORANGE), or dare I say...BLACK?! to name a few if you prefer to remain neutral and/or earthy. Contrast is essential as is your lighting. BTW, when I say greens, you can go dark w/ blue undertones to light w/ yellow undertones (OLIVES ARE YUMMY). When I say blues, you can go sky blue to silvery blue to periwinkle to teals, to midnight blue/navy.

FYI, my previous kitchen palette consisted of a floral paper in predominately forest green w/ pale blue, white, golden camel, pinks. I have recently stripped the paper and painted the walls above our golden pine wainscote in Ben Moore's Potpourri, a warm "playful" green w/yellow undertones. My appliances are white, my floor natural oak, my light fixtures (and hopefully my new kitchen hardware) are oil rubbed bronze, my countertops are Corian Sahara and my trim white. It's much fresher and to date w/ the new lighter color.

Note: re. burgundy as an option, it sounds very doable. Certain plum/auburgine families would be delicious too. The key to establishing your scheme is via prints such as fabrics used (window, tabletop, seat cushions, towels, etc.) or even your china. Generally speaking, scheme should flow to a degree from public space to public space w/ variations of predominate colors, hue values, prints, etc. You may pull a color from an adjoining public space for your walls in a value that best works w/ your cabinetry, appliances, countertop and flooring.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Froo Froo,

A friend of mine went with the aubergine color that Froo Froo suggested and it is spectacular!

Here's mine. I sort of have a country farm kitchen. I used Ben Moore ivory lustre. It's a really light yellow. I wish I would of gone a little darker with the yellow. I used Ben Moore antique jade in my dining room for an accent wall. I love that color . It looks really nice with oak cabinets too.

Not the best picture of my cabinets but maybe you can get an idea. Here's the antique jade wall. The buffet and dining room table are cherry . They are antique and belonged to hubby's grandparents. I really like the way the antique jade looks with the cherry wood too. I know some one that used antique jade in their bedroom with oak furniture. It was really pretty. Hope this gives you some ideas.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Lori 3,

Here's another picture of my cabinets looking down the hall way don't know if it will help or not

Last one... here's one were you can kind of get an idea of what the wall look like together

Here's our oak corner cabinet.

David

we just bought this home brand new and we were only able to select 3 colors, so had to keep things neutral for now....however, i do like the color we chose, its BM's Seaspray...one down on the swatch with buttercream....it does have somewhat of a green undertone. Im not really sure what color of oak our cabinets are, they called them natural.

Medium red oak cabinets-Laura Ashley Gold 3 for kitchen. No pics yet. I also looked at greens. (wasn't working with my counter tops)

We bought an OLDER home with NEW cabinets...I probably would have done something different, but these were brand new. They will work just fine.

Here's my oak cabinets with SW Hathaway Gold. I have black window treatment accents.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: lenie,

Here's another pic that has more of the gold showing on the walls.

CatieCupCake,
Your cabinets look like mine. You say they are new? We built 12 years ago, preHGTV, and if I knew then what I know now, I'd do them all differently, but like you, they will work just fine. I like the red in your kitchen!

Light oak cabinets with SW Fen

Here's a pix of when we were getting ready to paint with the SW Fen