What is this cabinet color? (2nd updates in thread)

[ohgillian]

Update: Thank you guys for all the helpful replies. Googling whitewashed and "pickled" definitely pulled up lots of pics that looked like mine. Since you guys have ideas about what I can do, here's a little more info. This is our 2nd house, and it's a mountain house/cabin -- and you can see that it doesn't look cabin-y at all. We want it to fit in with its surroundings and the rest of the homes in the area (b/c we do plan to rent it some), so we want to give it a more cabin vibe. I know that will be an uphill battle given the starting point. The kitchen flows into the main living area, and we plan to paint the entire great room (kitchen/den) in some earthy green, maybe October Mist or Evergreen Fog. We will be painting immediately, and I'm worried that I will accidentally pick a paint with pink undertones that emphasizes the pink of the wood, because the cabinet project is not imminent. 





OP:

Hi. My house is from the early 2000s. I want to do some sort of DIY cabinet change/overhaul down the road, but everything I find online is about updating honey oak cabinets. I don't know what I have but it's not honey oak. Here is a picture. What terms should I be googling for ideas? Pale cabinets? Light wood cabinets? I can't seem to find any inspiration online. 

(Sorry for the poor photo quality. I can't figure out how to download images from zillow for some reason)

[dr.girlfriend]

That looks like a whitewash to me? This is described as whitewashed oak:


I'm not sure if it matters much though if you're planning on painting and not restaining which sounds like more trouble than it's worth. If you're happy with the layout and the cabinets are in good shape I would just paint and then add some modern hardware to update. I don't love that arched detail but I think it could "disappear" with the right finishes. I've also seen a few kitchens lately where people do something relatively high-impact on that wall under the breakfast bar too.

I just googled "cabinet before and after" and found this -- they look very similar to yours, and painting them white, adding the molding, and new hardware seemed to make a big difference!

[dr.girlfriend]

Here's another one:

[boiler717]

I agree with whitewashed oak!
Your cabinets almost look like a beige / off-white and that is becoming a very popular finish right now. I would look for taupe or beige cabinet inspo pics.

[boiler717]

I agree with whitewashed oak!
Your cabinets almost look like a beige / off-white and that is becoming a very popular finish right now. I would look for taupe or beige cabinet inspo pics.

[sandandsea]

It could be white oak, white washed oak or pickled oak.

We put white oak floors in and love them. They actually made the original white oak cabinets in the hallway livable and we decided against redoing them.

[freshsqueezed]

I would describe that as almond.

[Roc A Bee]

That color cabinet is actually coming back in style. I think I would paint the walls white first. I think the same tone on the cabinets and walls is too much, but with the walls a new color, the cabinets would actually look good.

[lessel]

I’d say whitewash or almond. Leaning toward almond. Pickled was my first guess but I feel like that almost had more pinkish/purple hues than the picture.

[stemmie]

Those were popular in the late 80s/early 90s.

They were mostly called "washed" and usually maple or oak. Sometimes they were called "pickled" or "limed" even though they aren't really.

[mrsukyankee]

I'd keep them, put on some new hardware (perhaps black?) and paint the kitchen walls a colour.

[ohgillian]

Update in OP; you guys know so much and have great ideas. Thank you for all the ideas so far!

[sassystace]

You will need to prime first when painting cabinets and the primer is white so you should not have to worry about color showing through.

We painted our cabinets 5 years ago - lots of steps and sanding but it was worth it.

[krystee]

What if you keep the cabinets but choose a butcher block counter to add in some wood and paint the walls a more cabin-y color? You could also replace the items on top with more cabin-y finds, and you could do some kind of big cabin-y art on that one wall. My parents have a pair of snowshoes hung on the wall in a space like that at their cabin.

[lust2hart]

I think Evergreen Fog will work great with the current cabinet color!

[ellipses84]

I like the evergreen fog but if you are worried about the space seeming dark, you could cut it with 20-50% white. I think it has a better tone and neither options seem to have a pink undertone (as viewed on my phone).

The cabinets look whitewashed. You need to confirm that they are solid wood with a stained /whitewashed finish, and not a wood veneer, for refinishing them. Another option that will hold up better over time, be less time consuming and maybe be a reasonable cost is to paint the cabinet boxes and replace the doors. I’m personally a fan of the modern cabin look and some more modern cabinet doors and hardware, and a new countertop will make it look great even if you have other more rustic features in the house. The whitewashed cabinets definitely have a beachy more traditional vibe.

[ellipses84]

Here’s a couple examples where the only thing that changed was the door and hardware, but it’s a drastic difference compared to painting what you have. The only disadvantage is you need to get a door color that is more of a solid look so you can get a matching paint color for the visible part of the box. New cabinets often don’t show a gap between doors so you don’t see the box at all but that’s difficult to do with an existing box (you need different hardware and sometimes the dimensions at edge conditions aren’t quite right).

Another option is to go traditional rustic and sand/ stain wood cabinets with the grain showing through.

[ohgillian]

Update:

We went with Valspar Blanched Thyme and are really pleased with how it turned out. Ultimately I realized that a cabinet overhaul, even DIY, was not in the cards at least for now.







I do still plan to put black hardware on the cabinets like mrsukyankee suggested. 

Also, FYI, we didn't do anything to the floors. They look really different in the before and after and I think that's just lighting. The new floor photos are more accurate. 

[mrsukyankee]

ohgillian, very pretty paint colour and I think the black hardware will now pop even more!

[lessel]

Love it. Our kitchen walls are a similar color.

[mrsd2006]

That looks fantastic. Great job!

[Velar Fricative]

I love the wall paint color, it all looks great!

I didn’t see this thread before the update today but I cannot believe this cabinet color is coming back in style. When we bought our house in 2014 that’s exactly what color our kitchen cabinets were and I always just called it “90s oak” lol (house was built in 1992). I painted them darker when we moved in but maybe I should have just saved myself the trouble since 8 years later the paint has not lasted well at all, though we were replacing the cabinet soon anyway.

[ohgillian]

Sept 6, 2022 10:15:25 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I love the wall paint color, it all looks great!

I didn’t see this thread before the update today but I cannot believe this cabinet color is coming back in style. When we bought our house in 2014 that’s exactly what color our kitchen cabinets were and I always just called it “90s oak” lol (house was built in 1992). I painted them darker when we moved in but maybe I should have just saved myself the trouble since 8 years later the paint has not lasted well at all, though we were replacing the cabinet soon anyway.

Thank you!

I’m not sure I would say they are coming back in style! Although I’m really not a person who knows what’s in style, lol. This house was built in 2000 though.

[nicolewi]

Looks great!