me smacking my head on this darn trim

Marcolo, appreciate your bluntness :-)

I was wrong. The "lip" is about 1.5 inches in height, the one-by (straight board) above the lip is 2.5 inches, so there's a total of 4 inches of trim.

So what do you think? Paint the trim the same color as the cabinets or a different color white?

We painted our trim the same color as the cabinets and moldings.
I like the look. It is very calm.
We saved the slight contrast in whites for the tile backsplash,
which is lighter than our cabinets and trim.

We painted our ceiling a standard ceiling white.
Down the road I may experiment with a very slight color in the ceiling --
one drop of gray or blue.

Francoise47 -- your breakfast area looks very nice!

We had our local BM paintshop custom match the cabinet color and used it for the trim work as well; quite happy with it. I'm using it in adjacent rooms as well.

Hi Oldbat2 -- Thanks!
I like the flow and continuity of the matching trim color/cabinet color so much
that I'm thinking of bringing that trim color into the adjacent dining room
by painting the dining room plaster moldings the exact same off white as the kitchen cabinets and trim.

We have a slightly creamy cabinet and I had planned on painting all the trim in the house a bright white. I realized very quickly that (to me) it looks wrong near my cream cabinets, especially around the window over the sink. On our to-do list today is taking a piece of trim and bringing it to have some paint color matched to repaint all the trim in the kitchen - and quite possibly the adjacent rooms as well.

Thanks for all the feedback. Francoise, your kitchen looks lovely, I hadn't seen your photos in awhile, I will sneak peaks at them again today!

Kristin, so you did try this and it didn't look right, good to know. I think most all white kitchens I've seen have the trim color = cabinet color.

My gut has always been to do one color for both the cabinets and trim. But our architect suggested using Farrow & Ball's Pointing for the cabinets and All White for the trim. At this point, I'm going to pick the cabinet color and assume the trim will be one color, but put a brighter white up on the trim once it's in place to see what it looks like. No harm in trying this, even though it's not my first instinct :-)

Did any of you have to pick your cabinet color prior to seeing it with your countertops? I am still trying to find marble (Calacutta Gold), and am hoping slabs coming into the stone yard nearby in two weeks will work....

If you have any white color suggestions for this marble type, please let me know!

Hi jmcgowan,

Can't wait to see your F&B Pointing painted cabinets.
Pointing was one of our top choices -- such a beautiful color!

Our kitchen isn't that big by kitchen standards these days
(it is 274 square feet).
So the calm continuity of the same color on cabinets and trim
works well in our ''smaller'' space.
In general, however, I do like the play of different shades of white
layered together in a room.
So I certainly don't think there is anything wrong
with picking a different white for the trim.
In some cases it might add the depth or slight contrast that the room needs.
My sense from your drawing is that your kitchen is quite a bit larger;
perhaps that is why your architect thinks that in your space
having different trim and cabinet colors will work well.
I'd encourage him to tell you a bit more about his thinking on this.
Again, he may well be right.

In any case, once your cabinets are installed,
if you decide you want to match (or not match)
you can make that decision at that time.

As for the counters, we had some rough ideas
about what our counter top colors/material might be
before we ordered the paint color for our cabinets;
but we didn't know for sure.
That was a bit of a gamble.

jmcgowan we are also redoing our kitchen, and wonder about ceiling paint vs trim and cabinets. Trim and cabinets are going to be SW Alabaster, but I don't know if the ceiling should also be the same color as the trim. Because Alabaster is a creamy white, would a brighter white ceiling make the trim look dull? Walls are Repose Gray.

I simply painted my ceilings 75% of the color matched cab paint; it works to my eye....the undertones are the same but a slight muted difference from cabs and flat ceiling molding.