Flash back 20 years, and imagine yourself in the kitchen of any new home that was part of Atlanta’s building boom. Chances are good that the startlingly white colors of cabinets, counters and appliances are still shining in your mind’s eye.
“White kitchens were very hot in the 1990s when white cabinets and white Corian counters were all builders sold,” said Caren Danneman, a certified kitchen and bath designer who works with builders and clients across the metro area. “They even added shiny, white backsplashes and white appliances so the whole place looked like an operating room.”
Yet white lost its prominence, replaced by pale woods, natural stones and stainless steel appliances. More shifts introduced dark cabinetry, mosaic tiles and gray paint colors. But stroll through new homes today and the likelihood of wandering into a white kitchen is high.
“Every new client I get asks, ‘So, is white in or out?’ ” said Danneman. Her short answer to the white revival is: “Yes, but you have to do it right.”
Today’s white isn’t about high-gloss shine or blindingly bright tiles, but more about starting with a white backdrop and adding subtle shadings.
“Pure, hard white is not in,” said Danneman. “It’s a softer white that works with stainless steel. I think it starts with good quality cabinets with plain paint.”
The contemporary white kitchen often incorporates white counter tops, but in materials such as Carrara marble that shows veins of gray or silver to break up the starkness. Granite is still the frontrunner, largely due to its impervious nature, but there are other options in between.
“Many engineered stones are making a comeback as manufacturers try to duplicate the patterns to look like marble,” said Danneman. “Another step between marble and granite could be quartzite that has soft veins running through it.”
Like the counters, backsplashes needn’t be a solid block of white, either. Danneman suggests treating them like a backdrop for eye-catching lines of color or decorative tiles. Walls are getting the same softening attention, with homeowners opting for variations such as off-white, dove gray or taupe.
But when it comes to cabinets, buyers at Traton Homes don’t stray too far from the base white.
“White and off-white glazed cabinets are the two most popular kitchen cabinet colors selected by Traton’s customers,” said Angi Sago, who directs the company’s homes design center. “They love the clean, bright look of the white kitchen. Plus, white looks fantastic with today’s very popular gray color palette.”
Danneman agrees that most homeowners do favor a bright, light kitchen, and white is the color that best reflects that.
“You need a kitchen to be bright so you can see what you’re doing in there,” she said. “But there are a million colors of white that will take the stark edge off.”
For the moment, designers see white as a trend that’s not going away any time soon.
“The bottom line is to create a cheerful room that people want to go into,” said Danneman. “And the kitchen is the one place where people do like to hang out.”
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