This Week's Questions
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We have bought a lot of "Mid-Century Modern" furniture for our new house. Even the kitchen has a kind of contemporary-slash-1960s feeling. Now we're planning to redo the master bath and would like to keep up the theme. Here's our question: can we use the same cabinets we have in the kitchen? We love the look, but they are painted wood (white). Will they be okay for a bath? - Katrina
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Slick and modern? Or modishly vintage? Any way you look at them, hardwood cabinets make the stylish most of space in a smallish bath. |
| PHOTO Courtesy Wood-Mode Cabinetry |
Answer 1:
As long as you don't plan on submerging them for days on end, dear Katrina!
True, wood and water don't mix, but the amount of moisture you can expect in the average bath poses no threats to today's well-made and finished hardwood cabinets, especially when the wood is painted. Learn more by clicking on "Styles & Trends" on this Website and looking under Cabinets. The feature on "Hardwoods At Home in Luxury Baths" should quiet your fears and rev up enthusiasm for living with the luxury of hardwood cabinets.
In the bath we show here, painted hardwood cabinets (from Wood-Mode, www.wood-mode.com) sort of blur the boundaries between traditional and contemporary styling. The look is familiar, almost traditional, but the effect is clean, crisp, and, well, contemporary.
Certainly the attitude is very modern: wrapping the walls at different heights, the flight of cabinets offers acres of storage space in just a few square feet of floor space. It's a smart way - in both senses of the word - to fit out a bath of any size.
Question 2:
For the kitchen, what color paint goes with cherry wood cabinets and dark granite counters? - Joenell
Almost any color your heart desires, dear Joenell. Whatever hue you love can be adjusted a thousand ways in intensity and value until you arrive at the perfect color for your particular kitchen.
Okay, I realize that this is not the answer you really want. But believe me, you'll be happier in the long run than if I just advised, say, sage green or taupe, either of which would work but why settle when you have a vast spectrum of colors to choose among?
The search is overwhelming, you say?
It's easier than you think to narrow your choices to a cope-withable few. Start with a stack of decorating magazines. Clip out any rooms with colors that strike your fancy - they don't have to be kitchens.
Next, take your stack of clips to a good paint store and see if you can match the colors in your favorite photos to actual paint chips.
Now, ask if your top color choices are available in try-on sizes - many paint manufacturers offer small samples you can take home and try on in situ, important because colors look different under different lighting conditions. If you're not brave enough to actually paint your wall, brush the color sample on a large piece of white cardboard and view it up against the cabinets and countertops.
Don't make hasty decisions - live with the color sample for a few days before you vote. However, chances are, when you see the right color in place, you'll know it at a glance! After all, the beauty of color is not just surface-deep; it's also about the individual beholder's emotional response to it.
