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laberglund

White kitchen help please

Laberglund
11 years ago

Trying to figure out the best color for my new kitchen.

I have it narrowed down to:

BM white dove

BM simply white

BM cloud white

I went into the store thinking I was going to for sure go with white dove, since so many here have used it and have such gorgeous kitchens. However, when I hold the white dove up, it seems a little cool to me, and I was really wanting a warm, softer creamy kitchen that reads white, not too ivory. The lady at the store told me to look at it in the light of my own kitchen, but that's not possible since we're a new build, and my kitchen doesn't exist yet.

For those of you who used one of the three colors above, what made you choose it over the rest of the hundreds of whites out there?

For what it's worth, we're using a dark chocolate brown hickory floor, and most likely using a black laminate on the perimeter cabs. I haven't decided on the island yet...it will either be white as well, or possibly an espresso stain. We have one 36" window that faces north.

Thanks for any thoughts/help you can give. (And I realize that colors can be messed up royally on the computer screen, but I LOVE looking at pictures of white kitchens, so if you feel like posting a few, I wouldn't mind!!).

Comments (24)

  • rosie
    11 years ago

    What kind of glass goes in the windows? Here in our county in Georgia low-E glass is required that casts a dingy sunglass-green tint over everything.

  • Laberglund
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    No low-E glass required here. We live in WI.

  • enright5
    11 years ago

    We are in Wi too- where are you? I have the BEST color that was used 9 years ago by our builder for all our wood work. Unfortualy I don't have a manufacturer or color name I just keep getting it mayched at my local BM store.

    We are about to have our cabinets painted in about 2-3 weeks and do the kitchen remodel. I am using this color for our cabinets. It is the BEST most perfect white. It is on the cream side but not yellowy creamy.

    I will try to stop at my BM store today and get the formula. I wish had a finished kitchen to show you but not for about 4 weeks.

    I will take a pic of my wood work and hopefully you can tell from that.

  • suzanne_sl
    11 years ago

    Rosie, we went with low-e glass in all our windows several years ago (new windows throughout the house). When we first looked we saw those green tint ones you're talking about. We kept looking. The ones we had installed have no color tint. Low-E is an excellent idea, so good to know that it doesn't have to look dingy.

    Laberglund, we didn't do white cabinets, but we did have to choose a white for the trim - doors, door moldings, crown moldings. I put the white color chips down on the counter and chose the one that picked up color in our Kashmir Gold granite. It turned out to be Bavarian Cream. In spite of the name, it's doesn't have a yellow cast. Our walls are all blues and grays at this point and we keep using that same gallon of paint. It keeps looking good. If you have an idea of what you want for countertops, that might be a way to narrow down which white. Did you mean you're thinking of a black laminate countertop for the perimeter? Even if you're using a black, try your whites against that and see if that helps you make up your mind. Another idea is to think about what color you're thinking of for the rest of the room. Red walls? Beige walls? Turquoise color pops? If you can even get it down to warm or cool colors, that's a help, because as you noticed, White Dove is a cool white and others are warm.

  • enright5
    11 years ago

    Sorry I don't know how to upload more than one pic at a time so Im going to post two separate pics of my paint color.

  • enright5
    11 years ago

    one more shot

  • Laberglund
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Enright, that's a gorgeous color.
    We're in Eau Claire, by the way, where are you?

  • enright5
    11 years ago

    We are in Madison:)

  • finestra
    11 years ago

    I have Dove White walls and Simply white trim in my hallway (Don't Ask!). The Dove white is definitely creamier than the simply white. Simply White comes across to my eye as a brighter and purer white where the dove tends more towards an ivory. They are very close.
    I tend to view Simply white as a more current color whereas the Dove comes across as a more traditional color. Simply white seems cleaner and would do well with transitional decor.

  • aokat15
    11 years ago

    Not to throw out another white... but I did the cabinets in my kitchen and the trim in my house all BM China White. Love it!!

  • Laberglund
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I'd describe my style as pottery barn-esque. :) I like the comfy, cozy, a little bit cottagey feel, while still being clean and updated. Not too rustic though.
    After looking at them again, I think I'm leaning towards Cloud...it seems a little more warm and creamy than the other two without leaning too much towards ivory. Wondering about color casts though?

  • willtv
    11 years ago

    I know it's difficult to tell from pictures on your computer but, just to confuse you a little more, here's a shot of our kitchen.


    The cab color is BM Gardenia. A very warm, not at all ivory looking, white.
    Choosing the "Right White" is a bit of a challenge.
    We must have gone through 10 or 12 before deciding on Gardenia.
    Most paint manufacturers sell 3 oz. sample bottles, which we found to be a big help.
    Good luck with your new build and post some pics when available.
    We love that here.

  • mydreamhome
    11 years ago

    Laberglund--the best advice I can give you is to take those paint chips back to the house, tape them to the kitchen wall, stand back and take a look. Lighting in the paint store is VERY different from the lighting in your home--you have ratio of natural vs. artificial light, type of artificial light, directional aspects of natural light infiltration, the exact combination of light in your kitchen, overhang/porch shadows, etc. If you find the paint chip isn't big enough, tape a few of them together to make a bigger sample. Do this even if the house is under construction and the lights haven't been installed yet--at least you will get a good idea of the end result with the natural light aspects in your space.

    When it comes time to select countertops, pull those paint samples back out and tape them to the wall again, then lay the countertop samples underneath them in position as if they were the actual counter. Then stand back and take a look to see what works best for your kitchen.

    Hope this helps!

  • tetrazzini
    11 years ago

    I've realized that you can't use a color you loved somewhere else and expect it to look the same in your house. The individual lighting in your room makes a big difference. We had a decorator come a few years ago to give us color advice and we've been very happy with her suggestions. (We chose one from three she gave us.) It's another BM off white called Mountain Peak White. It's an off white, a warm, creamy natural color that doesn't read as bright white at all, but definitely not ivory either. I'm very color sensitive, and have been very happy with it. We have cherry LR floors, a huge grey Tulikivi separating the kitchen and LR, both maple and white, not creamy, marble counters in the kitchen, an almost black slate fireplace, and oat colored fabric on the LR furniture. In other words, a mishmosh of natural colors. It goes with them all! Flat on the walls, semi-gloss on the kitchen cabinets and other wood cabinetry.

    Wow, I just found out how to post photos!! Well, this picture is of my kitchen when it's not finished yet. It still isn't!

    Enright, I lived in Madison too, for 7 years in the 80s, East side, near Lake Mendota. It's grown a LOT since then!

    Here is a link that might be useful: Tulikivi, to give you an idea of its color

  • mjtx2
    11 years ago

    I think there's a lot to consider before picking your cabinet color. We were all set on BM China White, one of the best whites ever imho ;), but when I took my painted boards up to the granite shop China White didn't match my granite well at all! Who would have thought it mattered! We ended up with BM Classic Gray which might become a new favorite of mine.

    Also, your BM store now has small cans they mix in any color for about $4 each. I have 11, yes 11, of those cans in my garage. I bought large thin-wood balsa boards and throwaway foam brushes and made nice sized samples, which I strongly suggest. Paint in a chip looks different than larger samples. Also, you can hold larger sizes up to your counter and back away, getting a much better idea of what color works best.

    One more thought. I thought I didn't want a "darker" white, afraid it would look beige or gray and not like a white kitchen. But when I held paint samples up to doors at HD or Lowes that I liked the color of, I found they WERE actually a darker shade of white, and that up on the walls they appeared much brighter than the paint chip would lead one to believe. Heck, Martha Stewart's white looks so dark to me but in photos of whole kitchens it's really pretty darn bright. So you might explore more shades of white, depending on the look you're going for.

    Best of luck!

  • ellendi
    11 years ago

    I can only tell you what happened to me. I chose White Dove after seeing it in the showroom. In my kitchen with lots of natural light, it looks very, very white!
    To make matters worse, I did not realize this and we chose a granite with lots of brown. This is the point I found GW. Very difficult to find a backsplash to transition between the white and brown.
    So, if you chose a white that is cool, it will look best with a cool counter. Creamy white go well with granites in the brown family.

  • breezygirl
    11 years ago

    I just posted on BlackChamois's thread about BM whites, so, if you don't mind, I'll just paste my reply here.

    I went through more than 15 sample cans of BM whites, a few SW, a Kelly-Moore, and a couple of other oddballs while looking for the right white for me. (This doesn't include the hundreds of white chips I collected also...) My Carrara slabs were very gray, causing me to be cognizant that my white needed to be more white than cream. I found out during my search that in order to "warm up" white to cream, yellow is added to the formula. So a creamier white tended much too yellow for my gray counters.

    The common BM whites people choose here often were wrong in my space. White Dove has a sickly green-gray undertone in my light. China White and Cloud White were too yellow, as was Mascarpone, Mayonnaise, Mountain Peak White, and Cotton Balls. Gardenia was lovely, but with a touch of pink. Not kidding. There's red in the formula. Chantilly Lace was too starkly white as was Super White.

    I ended up with Simply White and am very happy. It's cool enough not to appear yellow next to my Carrara, but warm enough not too look startling. Here are a few pics. (Wall painting has now been finished, and I have counter stools. Still no bs.)

    Picking the right white for you with your counters and your light can be frustrating in the short-run, but so satisfying in the long-run. I liken it to child birth, although not quite as physically painful: short-term pain for long-term gain. Good luck!

    Oh...and my cabs are painted with BM Satin Impervo Waterborne.

  • Northern_GSDs
    11 years ago

    Simply White (colored matched) is what we went with as well. After painting about 5 different samples in my kitchen, I found that it was the most "neutral" warm white with our lighting. It doesn't read yellow at all, yet it is not a stark bright white either. I love the color on my new cabinets.

    As to the new cabinets themselves...well, that is an entirely different discussion in another thread!

    Choosing the color was not an easy task but I am super pleased with it - it is indeed white but with just the right hint of warmness to it. It was incredibly helpful (thanks to so many members here who have suggested it) to have painted the narrowed-down samples in my kitchen so I could get a much larger visual representation of how the color would actually look. As soon as I did this, I knew which one I wanted, whereas with the small paint sample cards I was having a very difficult time trying to decide.

  • Northern_GSDs
    11 years ago

    oops..Forgot to mention that my window and patio doors are also north facing, although we also have an additional east facing window.

  • gabbygannon
    11 years ago

    enright5! Those photos are amazing! That is the white I have been looking for! Do you have photos yet of your finished kitchen? I would LOVE to see it! Also, can you post the formula for this paint? I would love to try a sample and see if it works with our kitchen. In your photos, the color has dimension--creamy but NOT yellow, which I really, really like. It is not stark--which is what I am afraid of with some of the other whites. PLEASE do post the formula if you have it...
    THANK YOU!

  • Bunny
    11 years ago

    White Dove, Cloud White and Simply White were my finalists also. I decided WD was a little too gray, compared to the others. My painter gave me two sample doors in SW and CW and I went back and forth between the two of them. I decided I could be happy with either. I chose Cloud White because it was a teensy bit softer and I was afraid of having a blast of white I would regret. I love Cloud White and I know I would also love Simply White.

    Good luck, they're all nice whites.

  • enright5
    11 years ago

    LiliaRothchild- I just posted my almost finished kitchen under the post: "90% done! Can finally post pics of our Kitchen facelift".

    You can see the photos of the painted cabinets there. If you can't find it let me know and I'll repost.

  • enright5
    11 years ago

    LiliaRothchild- I just posted my almost finished kitchen under the post: "90% done! Can finally post pics of our Kitchen facelift".

    You can see the photos of the painted cabinets there. If you can't find it let me know and I'll repost.

  • jamrock
    11 years ago

    Laberglund, BM Atrium White is a warm white.

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