If you have black kitchen cabinets...

[RowenaVerbena]

...do you love them or hate them? How have you stopped your kitchen looking gloomy? Or have you embraced the moody look? What sort of worktop / flooring do you have?

DH is slowly working me round to his way of thinking that black cabinets are the way to go, but I do still have some misgivings. Can anyone convince me / further entrench my doubts??

Not black @RowenaVerbena but a deep rich brown. Walls are painted Dulux Egyptian Cotton, deep cream roman blind, lighter brown worktops. Tiles are a mix of blue/cream/sand, cream fridge, blue aga and black sink and boiling tap. I put long spotlights from amazon underneath the units for at night. My light is wood with black metal.

Probably not a great description but I love my kitchen. It always looks clean and tidy.

Probably not much use as I am a lover of black decor anyway. Our kitchen is charcoal so depending on the light looks black or a very dark grey. The worktops and splashbacks are also dark as is the wallpaper. We have two fairly big windows though and we also have under cupboard lighting and two triple light fittings (the lighting is used only when required). The flooring is slate effect click vinyl. The ceiling is white though. Not to everyone's taste but we have had lots of compliments. I am not a fan of neutral, light and bright homes and I certainly would not describe our home as gloomy. Could you get a kitchen designed and see how you feel about the black and compare it with something less dark to see how you feel then?

We have dark grey cabinets but bases only. Have wooden shelves on the walls, a really nice thick iroko worktop, white tiles the full height of the wall with grey grout, light grey floor tiles, and an apple green leather sofa, and brass pendant lights. Walls are painted lamp black and rolling fog (little green). Probably doesn’t sound great but it works, and doesn’t feel cold at all.

I hate them because you only have to look funny at them and there’s a finger mark. You will always be cleaning, whether gloss or matte.

Can anyone convince me

No

further entrench my doubts??

Yes.

Black absorbs light. If you want a dark and gloomy kitchen go for it. If you want to see what you are doing go for something lighter.

My units are a pale sage green BTW.

I have black kitchen cabinets and I absolutely LOVE them.

The walls and ceilings are a soft white and the wall behind the worktop has highly textured white tiles. Otherwise it would be flat black walls of cupboards and flat white walls and there isn’t anywhere for the eye to rest.

The floor is 1960’s teak 5 finger parquet in Windsor pattern (not herringbone which I know everyone loves). What pulls it all together is the worktop which is super distinctive.

The empty cupboard at the back holds the coffee machine and toaster and has a tambour door.

Just make sure they don't leave streaks when cleaning, much more visible.
Cousin has black cabinets, stunning kitchen I love it and wanted the same until in certain angles I saw streaks 😱 idk if its the way she's cleaning idk I'd have to give it way more thought

Am obsessed with them

I am very short sighted and don't see well in low light. I would struggle to cook in your dark kitchen @SukeyBenedict

The window is 5 feet across and then there are 2patio doors and 12 overhead spotlights, under cabinet lighting at the floor - and the oven, microwave, fridge and every drawer and cupboard light up when you open them.

You’d be okay.

Black gloss lower cabinets and upper cabinets are a mix of gloss black and frosted glass. Galaxy black granite worktop (sparkly bits reflect the light), stainless steel splashbacks, white walls, pale grey gloss granite floor. Loads of under cabinet lighting, overhead lights, plinth lights and huge kitchen window (south facing). All appliances stainless steel.

That worktop is beautiful 😍 I've got very dark green cupboards that look black in dimmer lighting. As long as your walls are a lighter colour it shouldn't look gloomy at all

I have black gloss units and love them. They've been in 15 years and are as good as new.

2 things are key, which influenced the decision to get them...

1. We have no wall units, so the black is mainly in the bottom half of the room (apart from a full height larder and integrated FF). It means it's not too imposing.
2. We have a long window (over 2.5m) running the length of the kitchen, but they're north facing. So we get lots of light, but no direct sunlight (apart from 4 weeks a year when the sun comes far enough round).

To your other questions. We have bamboo worktops, which are also totally fine after 15yrs (haven't oiled them for at least 7yrs), but I'd go for a composite if I was starting from scratch.

Floor is also bamboo (fairly dark) and I LOVE it. Wouldn't hesitate to put it down again.

I don't know if this is the same across all finishes but we have black gloss (came with house, not ready to replace as it would be wasteful and painting/ covering is hit and miss). The fuckers are IMPOSSIBLE to keep clean and not smudged to kingdom come. Marks from cleaning catch the light. Floor is black slate.

It's a dark, N facing kitchen so we went for warm colours, intricate dark metalwork and reclaimed dark wood with vintage accessories. I wanted to lean into the darkness in a cosy, slightly spooky way rather than trying and counter it

I'll be honest, Im as pleased as can be with it, we've made it quite unusual and very 'us' but really wouldn't choose them again. Consider carefully the natural light and size of the room and the look you want. It was minimalist black and white to start and looked very gloomy and dated (albeit not executed with great style)

Would not recommend. At least read this 2019 article to do it well. (Black kitchens are a waning trend that are starting to look dated.)

https://mariakillam.com/what-ikea-knows-about-black-kitchens-that-you-dont/

Not because I have a black kitchen but… that’s a patronising article isn’t it? Like, of course a kitchen in your home won’t look like a show kitchen in a store. Why would it?!

I’ve only purchased 3 new kitchens in my life and all of them were just in my head. I didn’t find them in a store or online. I just knew exactly what I wanted and hunted until I found it. I was lucky when I wanted a black kitchen that there was 1 on the market. It really was the only one. Even Wren didn’t do one.

I think we should feel free to be brave in our homes - with what we like and what we love. When we ordered new carpets recently the man in the store said ‘no one orders this, everyone orders neutral’ and that’s cool but it’s not my thing.

When I ordered the kitchen worktop the factory said it was the second time they had sold that pattern. Ever.

I don’t think we should worry about trends or the next person who owns our home etc. It’s important how we live now.

I have had so many regrets from having black glossy table tops which no matter how I clean them always look streaky and look as if they still need cleaning. I would never have anything glossy black again.

Glossy units are hard to keep looking nice. This is why I chose matt rather than glossy ones.

@SukeyBenedict thanks for sharing a pic, yours looks lovely. Out of interest was the 60s floor originally in situ or did you Install it? I'm interested in an old parquet floor for our hallway

We have a black kitchen. It’s Matt black so no fingerprint issues.

It’s only lower cabinets. So room feels bright. Wooden oak worktop, wooden oak flooring. The room it’s a larger open plan so not tiny space, and it’s opposite a 5m span of sliding glass doors, so lots of light. Above the kitchen counter is just a large arty light that hangs down, we don’t have any high shelves or cabinets in this space.

I love black but all the kitchens I’ve seen with black look streaky in real life (if glossy cabinets) or already slightly dated. If this is your forever home go with whatever color you love - if not then think of something less divisive. People think black is a neutral but based on the posts above you can see it’s really not: everyone has very strong opinions!

I would probably incorporate some black elements but not paint it all black if you already feel you wouldn’t like it. We’re currently renting and have a predominantly black kitchen which I hate - it makes the room gloomy, look smaller and feels oppressive despite the big windows and extra lighting. It also looks a bit like it’s trying too hard to be edgy (I don’t know if that makes sense!). The glossy bits are much harder to keep clean and many cleaning products leave a white residue which looks awful. We are buying our next home and it will need a total kitchen renovation. I am avoiding black like the plague.

I like a bright kitchen but I absolutely love your kitchen @SukeyBenedict

Thank you.

It came from a golf club in Essex. The back of every single Kit Kat sized finger had bitumen and concrete on the back.

We built a jig to help us clean the back and it took us 4yrs on and off to clean 10sqm this did most of the downstairs of our house as I refused to do it for under our VERY large rugs. We used old carpet under those. The task was just too great. You can’t clean them in the winter as the tar gets brittle but won’t come off the teak. Nightmare. I laid every piece myself. The. Paid a professional to sand and seal it. It is the natural colour of the wood. The pics above are the unfinished colour. I can take a pic of the current colour if you want.

Teak is hardy so perfect for a kitchen. I have no regrets and wouldn’t do anything differently.

However, I would absolutely not use any other solid wood except teak unless it was engineered. This teak was cut about 100yrs ago and had been in use since about 1950 so it’s done all its moving thank god. I did buy some newer solid oak parquet fingers to feather in and stain in the hall and utility and we are lifting it right now. The grain is very wide. It’s been grown too fast and dried too fast. Loads of movement despite generous explanation gaps.

aggggghhhhhh

Do you live in a hard water area? I think that would make a difference to keeping them clean.

I think you’d need totally flat fronted cabinets as Shaker style or any other style with raised/recessed bits would catch the dust and on black it would show up badly.

Personally I’d only consider it if the room was very light and for lower cabinets only with most of the rest of the room being white or light colours.