Love the Navajo White. Perfect! Before you commit to doing two tone, white on top, red on bottom, notice how well lit the inspiration picture above is. There's a lot of artificial light in the picture.

Will your kitchen be as bright to make it work like in the picture? If not, even white can be drab without the right lighting.

ours our BM clay beige OC-11. It's a pretty decent match to fiesta ware ivory plates? I can't attach my pics from flikr anymore and I don't know why?? But I attached the link!

Here is a link that might be useful: OC-11 Cabs

I know that the amount of natural lighting in my space will affect how well the lighter cabinets translate, but this will also be done to break up the expanse of red that dominates the cabinet wall, which is just overwhelming the space. I've been consulting with an artist friend who tells me that she is considering doing the same thing in her kitchen. She says that lighter on the top / darker on the bottom is an old trick that provides visual "relief" to a space.

Christine40, thank you for sharing that color! It does indeed look like a great match to the Fiestaware ivory dishes! After further consideration, though, I think I need a shade just slightly more white than that (although I do love, love, love my ivory dishes).

I'm pretty much sold on the color of the little pitcher posted above. I've been cautioned to try to color match by looking at chips instead of having BM try to do it for me. I've been told that if I have a decent eye for color, I may have better luck doing this than relying on their computer to get it right -- so I think I'll try that first.

And the winner is ... BM Indian White. This shade is very close to Navajo White, which was the forerunner, but has just a touch more warmth to it, which the BM salesman said should work better in my space considering the direction the windows face. Can't wait to get busy on this project. I've got everything I need, but need to make sure I properly and thoroughly prep first.

[Paints Stains And Glazes[(https://www.houzz.com/products/paint-prbr0-br~t_505)

And so it begins. This paint is a dream to work with. It covers even this deep red beautifully!

I'm way late to the party. It's going to look great! Love the color you chose. Which BM paint did you go with?

We have cream cabinets with a strong yellow undertone combined with soapstone counters. Love the combination.

Beautiful kitchen hippie!!

Thanks, Shee! I chose BM Indian White, and THOUGHT it would be perfect - but I always have a little bit of apprehension until I open the can and start painting. I'm extremely pleased with this color, and think it's going to provide just the right amount of cream, while not being too yellow against the white that's in the room.

vwhippiechick - wow, your space is indeed beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing and providing me even more inspiration!

Wow, it looks perfect, can't wait to see more progress pics. :)

Oh sorry! I was asking what type of BM paint did you use? (You mentioned it covered nice and I was curious.)

oh my goodness!! i think your kitchen will look fantastic with creamy cabinets and trim!! it is a very tedious undertaking, but i think it will be well worth it!

Neat-o kitchen and house. I see you are already underway. No one asked or pointed out what is one of my meh-points in white/cream kitchens. How do you feel about the play of Indian Cream, and other creamy ironstone colors, with the stark white of your backsplash, counter, and appliances?

Frequently I am not a fan of them together. I include two pictures to illustrate what I consider to be pleasing pairings (first two pictures) and the not so pleasing:

[Transitional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/transitional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2112) by San Francisco Interior Designers & Decorators Artistic Designs for Living, Tineke Triggs

[Contemporary Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2103)

div>

[Traditional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Excelsior General Contractors Erotas Building Corporation

I wish I was better able to expound upon this subject. In the first example I like (perhaps not the best example because it is lacking white appliances etc) the cabinet color is BM HC-83 Grant Beige. In the #2 favorite, the paint color is not listed. In the last photo the cabinet color is BM Ivory White 925. I do not have that paint chip in my BM fan deck so I cannot compare the two colors.

Comparing Grant Beige HC-83 to your choice, Indian White HC-88, the Indian White is yellowy and the Grant Beige is grayish.

I too love the interplay of red and green as in the color schemes of vintage utensils. My admittedly uneducated and dilettante color theory is that you can't always use the exact colors because the scale of a room versus that of a small object changes the feel, as do the interplay of other colors of the room. Such as a floor being a different tone than that of the wood rolling pin.

So to lazily sum up -- I do hope you have thought out what combo you like before you paint all the cabinets. What you like in the ironstone pitcher might not be the effect you get with the cabinets next to the white counters & backsplash.

**** edited to correct photo omission

This post was edited by onedogedie on Sat, May 17, 14 at 12:50

onedogedie- in the bottom pic, the tile seems to be a 'cool white' which doesn't look very nice with the yellow white of the cabinets--- i don't see that same problem with the indian white cabinet sample and OP's backsplash white...

busybee3 - Agreed!

And I didn't say, but hope I implied, that the creamy yellow that can show up in the final product is as it should be if that is the look one likes. I would assume that the owners of the Traditional Kitchen are quite pleased with their kitchen!

I can't wait to see the results of SunnyCottage's hard work.

Well, I'm making progress but it's rather slow going. I'm loving the lighter feel the creamy white uppers bring to this space and wish I'd done this years ago. I'm using BM Advance paint.

Okay I know this isn,t my kiltchen but I am so excited for you! It looks great so far.

Love this! It's going to be spectacular!

Looking really terrific!

Looks great! It will be worth all the hard work!

onedogedie - thanks so much for the photos! They illustrate your point very well. I agree that sometimes the combo can be a bit ... "off." The Indian White is actually not quite the creamy, more yellow-based tone that I initially had in mind, but it feels perfect in the room. I got a bit more done last night ... For now I'm going to leave the window painted red. The trim around it all has sort of a "separate" feel to it anyway, so I think I can get away with that. We're soon to be in the process of replacing windows, so I'm not going to spend time painting what's there; I think the red will be a fun accent there, and keep the tie-in with the rest of the space going on. I'm also going to leave the little shelf just below the cabinets red, as that's where my Fiesta ivory teacups reside, and they show up nicely against the red.

Thanks again for all of the encouragement and inspiration! Can't believe I waited so long to do this!

SunnyCottage I stressed about this all night . When painting cab doors up you need to keep them at least partically open for a week to a month depending on your humitity level. My freind who has a paints homes for a living gave me that tip because we have low temps with 90 plus humidity so drying times are really slow.Dry to touch is not the same as really being usably dry. I can,t wait to see the finished produce its stunning so for, you made a great color choice. I think I would paint the sides of the cabs around the window and do exactly what you said about the window trim staying red. It will really make that window stand out and tye the whole look together.

Thanks, madeyna! I've kept the cabs at least partially open - but will make sure DH doesn't go around closing them when I'm not at home. ;-) I understand what you mean about "dry to the touch" not really being fully dry. Good tip.

Yep, I'm painting the sides of the cabinets next to the window, and the top where the light over the sink is, but will leave the window and trim around it red.

Thanks for your kind words. These are really just old, tired cabinets from 1940 -- but they are real wood, so I guess they've at least got that going for them. ;-)

When I get done painting the cabinets, I'm going to have the red color-matched and go around touching up a lot of places that have gotten nicked up over the years. Of course, I'm sure the new paint won't be absolutely identical to what's there, so I'll end up repainting some red areas as well. Never-ending, it seems!

I haven't read all the posts, but want to say that I just LOVE, LOVE the white creamy uppers with the red lowers and the black in the tile and handles.
Are you keeping the walls and moldings as is or paint those in the creamy white, too?

Thanks, nosoccermom! I'm keeping the green walls and red trim throughout -- at least for the foreseeable future. The thought of redoing all the trim (and walls) makes me feel a bit woozy. ;-) The uppers that I've painted thus far really do bring a much lighter feel to the space and provide definite "visual relief" from what was red overload on this particular wall.

I took my probly old wood cabs out of this 1915 house and replaced with a nice kitchen that has all the bells and whistles I wanted like pull out spice racks. I have been whining ever since because I miss my painted cabs. There is something to be said for being able to do anything you want with them with out devalueing the home. I did cream on top and eggplant purple on bottom and it was great.

That sounds gorgeous, madeyna! I would love to have a new-but-vintage-looking kitchen, but that's not gonna happen anytime soon. It's funny, but before I started painting the uppers and was discussing this with DH, he said that if they didn't turn out the way I hoped, we'd just start saving our $$ to have new cabinets installed! (I don't think he has a clue what that would actually cost though!)

I would have been happy with my old ones but they were too narrow for a plate to set in and the shelves to short for a box of cerial to stand in. So when when we discovered the lower cab the sink was in was rotten we decided to replace them all rather than just rebuild the one. With the housing market still soft I think most people would be better off just doing what your doing and rehabing the old ones.

What a fun transformation. I would leave the window red too. Should you find that the hinges are unhappy with another coat of paint, you can get new ones. House of Antique Hardware has some, which they call Victorian Butterfly Hinges and also Hardware Hut, though it might be hard to match the profile exactly depending on the size.

Why did I not open this post sooner? (Maybe because I have dark dreary cabinets! )Wow. I can't wait to see where you stop! I so want to do this. I dont know what I was thinking with my kitchen and house. Maybe I was in a dark mood when I had my cabinets stained from orange to dark brown? In denial about the light? I have no idea! But I need to do it too! :)

OK, done yelling at myself.

PS - see what I mean? I want to go get paint samples now too :) I wonder what it will take to convince DH.

LOL at boop! I know exactly how you feel. I've toyed with the idea of doing something different with my cabinets for a long time, but once I finally arrived at the decision to go for it, I felt like nothing would stop me! I'm not quite halfway done now ... darn other commitments keep getting in the way of my painting ... but I hope to be finished, or nearly there, by the end of the day on Monday. Even though it's only a partial job thus far, I still feel my spirits lift now when I'm in the kitchen. I hadn't realized how oppressive the dark upper cabinets really were until I started making the change. The lighter color also somehow seems to make the whole space feel more vintage -- more true to the house's age and era. Go for it! :-D

I can't resist posting a "nearly there" progress pic! One more cabinet to paint white, and I'm done. ;-)

I'm still toying with the idea of painting the little shelf under each bank of cabinets (where you can see my teacups displayed) the same color as the cabinets. I will leave the molding and window trim red though.

It looks AMAZING, AWESOME, (I can't think of another A word. ) :) Do you love it? Do you feel like a weight is lifted?

Looks wonderful!

It looks great! I would probably paint those shelves as well, to reflect more light towards your teacups.

Thanks so much! I've started in on the last cabinet, so will probably get that finished up in the next day or so. I agree that painting the little "under-shelves" would brighten that area as well. That may be my weekend project. :-)

Boop, the whole room seems larger and airier now! I love the change.

Amazing transformation! I'm so impressed how well the paint has covered the strong RED. I may have missed how you proceeded. Did you sand, prime? How many coats to achieve this look? Did you paint in place?

It looks like it really brightens that side of the room up.

Linelle - Following the instructions of the salesman at the Benjamin Moore store, I wiped down the cabinets and then very lightly sanded, just enough to take the gloss off the old red paint. I was all prepared to prime first, but he said it wasn't necessary with the Advance paint. He cautioned me not to lay down the first coat too heavily and warned me that it would look like it wasn't covering at all, but just to proceed with a second and third coat. The first coat really does make me go, "ugh, this looks awful!" -- but the second starts looking a lot better, and the third glides on "like buttah" and covers completely. I absolutely love this paint, and think it made even these old, crummy cabinets look as good as they possibly could. I did paint everything in place (removing the handles, of course), which has caused me to have to twist into various pretzel shapes at times -- but I think if we'd taken these old cabinets off to paint we would have quite possibly had more problems than we bargained for in trying to rehang them.

Looks wonderful! I agree, paint those little shelves.

ML

Yeah -- those little shelves do look like they are meant to be a part of the cabinets, don't they? Thanks! :-)

Just in the door from a road trip -- and I adore your new light-and-wonderful cabinets!!! LOVE the color -- and it really suits the tile color and the whole room!

Very well done indeed! :)

I can't believe how much you've done!! It looks fabulous!! YAY!

I love the change it looks great! I kept looking at the picture to figure out why my eye was bothered--I think it's the red crown above the cream cabs. it breaks up too much for me...if those cabs take the whole wall would you/could you paint the crown to match? would give the illusion that it belongs to the cabs and not the wall? I'm not totally sure without being in the whole room, I just think it's too broken up for my eye!

Christine - good point, and I'm still mulling over that trim. I think you do get a different perspective when viewing the room as a whole, and not just the one cabinet wall that I've been posting. The red crown molding goes all around the kitchen and the adjoining breakfast room, so it does tie together, I think, better than reflected here. I'll post pics of the entire space once I get that last cabinet painted and do the little shelves underneath as well and would like to see what you think then. :-)

Hello SunnyCottage! I would agree that your paint project is going to creep further aground! Here's some food for thought, mined from the web.

"A room with crown molding most likely has other trim as well, such as around doors and windows. Painting the crown molding to match the other molding in the room creates a cohesive environment. If the other trim in the room is stained, stain the crown molding to match. One exception is when the ceiling seems low in the room already -- a crown molding that is painted a different color than the walls may make the ceiling seem even lower because the highlighted molding draws the eyes upward. In this case, you might opt to paint crown molding and walls to match."

I took one of my little forays into Photoshop to explore. This example shows painting the crown to match the ceiling (which was also given as an option to optically raise a ceiling on other websites). At least that is the intention of my doctored photo, but I think my attempts provide a laugh for experienced photoshoppers.

It might be against the rules of crown molding but I lean towards matching the walls & the cabinet. Ideally the green would perfectly match.

Anyhow, your home is an exuberant joy and no matter where the paint begins or ends, it will be perfect.

I think the second picture posted really illustrates my point that the crown should be painted the cab color---to my eye, that makes a big difference! although I am not a red fan, I wonder if trim should be neutral (door trim, window trim, and crown) and allow the red lower cabs to really stand on their own??

Talk about scope creep! sorry for suggesting it sunny cottage!