North facing kitchen

[Planttheseedsss]

Can anyone advise the best colour to paint a north facing kitchen please, that isn’t white?
We have recently moved in and can’t afford to replace the kitchen for at least 2 years. It currently has oak wood cupboards, cream and brown speckled worktops, dark grey wood floors and lime green walls. I hate it.
I want to paint the cupboards white/cream/very pale grey and fablon the worktops a marble pattern or similar. I can’t think of a wall colour that I like that will open it up as it’s so dark and dingy.
the lounge and hallway will be beige/cream, utility room is white and the dining room will be sage green.
Any suggestions will be appreciated!

I did my due north facing kitchen in Farrow & Ball Strong white and it works well. Navy units and a wood laminate floor.

Navy units sound lovely, do you find it dulls on dark or rainy days?

I wouldn't paint the cupboards just yet or fablon the worktops (not a fan). Try painting walls warm white instead of lime green, or in F &B terms strong white wimborne white, school house white or Dulux jasmine white, gardenia. Put some colour in room via toaster pot plant kettle, mat on floor, wall tiles.
Dark wood cupboards are actually back in fashion and they can look good if rest of kitchen is right.
Blue and white Delft tiles would be my favourite with dark oak.
And then a russet/terracotta floor colour (ie mat or actual tiles, or even lino)

There's a bit of life in a wooden cupboard that warms up a dark room, better then plain white cupboards.

Ooh, love the idea of blue and white delft tiles.
I'd look at a lovely light warm blue. So blue with a hint of red. It should go nicely with oak and grey flooring. Just avoid cold blues.

Our walls are very pale pink. I think one of the versions of China Clay from Little Greene (pale or light, not sure). I think they look good. We have a mix of white cabinets and dark green. The dark green is not to everyone's taste I'm sure but I like it.

Right, people get this very wrong wrt North facing rooms. They will advise you to go towards warm colours, but this is a mistake. North ( and east) light is cold and blueish. So, you embrace that. You absolutely cannot fight it and using warmer whites/ yellows and pinks will look dingy, trust me. I did a North East facing kitchen in a strong green/ blue and it worked really well. Cupboards were painted in a light cool pale green blue, but equally a pale grey or cool white would work equally.
Also, don’t go too light. The strong deep colours that have been in fashion ( like navy/ teal) work well, but if you feel that they are on the way out a bit I would aim for a brighter blue or green ( eg Little Greene Hopper or Air Force Blue) which a North facing room can take really well. Paint will never lighten a room, you can only brighten iyswim.

It's worth looking for new under cupboard lights - with a warm bulb they can make a room feel much lighter and warmer and if LED they'll cost nothing to leave on all day. There are all kinds of top of cupboard and kick board strip lights too.

I would second the brighten it all up with a warm white and some blue and white tiles. You could strip the oak back if dark stained and wax or finish with a clear seal so you have a lighter finish too. As someone said up thread, it's back in fashion so you could be bleeding edge. :)

Photo please. Not sure painting the cupboards is the answer. As a pp mentioned, oak is back on trend.

Wrapping the worktop, changing the door handles and possibly swapping
some upper cabinets for open shelving would all be where I’d start.

You haven’t mentioned wall tiles/backsplash?

The wall colour won’t make much difference to the overall aesthetic. Obviously the green has to go, but I’d go for off white or a griege (dulux Egyptian cotton) to act as a clean neutral.

Dulux Polished Pebble could work well. It is a soft very light grey. Would tie in tonally with your flooring. I have used it in a couple of North facing rooms, one of which has wood accents like your cupboards, and it is great. Lightens but doesn’t compete or distract. Good luck!

@Planttheseedsss
I don't find it dull. My worktop is almost white Quartz so it reflects back in to the room.
I also don't have any overhead units as I found those made the room feel dark when I had them - my head was always either under the cooker hood or under units at the sink so
I don't have a cooker hood now and just a small ledge above the sink.
You could perhaps keep the wood on your lower units and lighten the upper ones in a similar colour to the wall? PP are right - wood is back!
Depending on your budget, I've also seen some lovely vinyl marble look countertops and splash backs. Nearly like sticky back plastic / wallpaper to apply.

Thanks everyone
the tiles are plain boring white square
the fablon and cupboard paint would be a temp improvement until we can afford a whole new kitchen
the cabinets are more orange than dark wood unfortunately, think cheap basic council kitchen
thanks Pontiac, useful info to consider, I like the idea of a blue
Also the under cabinet lights are good idea

Gosh sorry I totally disagree with PP. Air Force blue is wonderful in a south facing room (used it in the south facing study and it’s fabulous) but despite our earlier intentions we ended up using LG Heat (crazy strong orangey red, mental) in the north facing kitchen. It looks fantastic. We’ve ended up using LG Bath Stone, Light Gold and Madeleine in the other north facing rooms in the house to counteract the grey blue north light.

Anything cooler looked dreadful. hideous and depressing.

moral - paint sample boards (A3 bits of MDF - get b&q to cut them to size) do not Paint THE WALL - and you can then move the boards around the house.

The perfect colour for the hall ended up wrong for hall but was great for Bed2, but putting a stupid blob on the hall wall, ie in the wrong room wouldn’t tell us that.

if your house is north south orientated, you need to choose colours with immense care and ignore anyone who lives in an easy west orientated house - they might as well live in California for all the relevance their opinion has, frankly.

A friend with a north facing dark kitchen recently chose good old Dulux Natural Hessian for the walls. It’s a really lovely warm feeling pale biscuit colour. I’m planning to repaint my internal bathroom in it now.

We have a NE facing kitchen . Setting plaster ( pale pink walls) grey and white kitchen with under unit lighting. A teal/ green feature wall brings the garden in . Ceilings are schoolhouse white ( creamier white)
it feels much warmer than the previous white walls .