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??

This is all so helpful! Thank you!
All of our appliances (relatively new, so we're not replacing them) are currently black and look really out of place in our current kitchen (dated 70s orangey pine with grey, white and peach geometric patterned tiles 😵‍💫). Our thinking was that black matt, flat fronted cabinets would make everything look a bit more seamless. We would put them on the bottom only, so it's helpful to have confirmed that that's the way forward! A lighter colour / glass fronts and/or open shelving on the top. Swap the tiles out for something lighter and less... exciting 😬
The floor is currently beautiful oak, which we'll keep, and we'll get oak worktops.
Thank you to all who suggested lighting tips. We currently have one reasonably big window, but rubbish artificial lighting so we need to reconfigure the lights indoors. Will probably add under cupboard lights and swap out our ceiling lights for something better.
I'm not too fussed about trends - we worried about that in our last house and it just meant we spent 3 years living somewhere that felt a bit soulless and not like "us" at all. So I'm happy to make a divisive design choice but do need it to work in practical terms.
We are in a hard water area - that was/is one of my major misgivings...

Most people don’t have the money to redo kitchens and bathrooms frequently, so it’s not a good place to take a risk or be brave. Also, most people’s homes are their biggest assets, so they don’t want to do idiosyncratic things that could turn off a large portion of potential buyers, should they need to sell in the next ten years.

A black kitchen is trendy (trend waning in North America now), and getting it right is tricky. The article may sound “patronising” but that’s often how experts sound when they are trying to explain things to novices.

You clearly aren’t the audience for this women’s advice. You have a well developed sense of your own style which differs from this particular designer who is very mainstream. You sharing a post of your kitchen is really helpful, the OP will either be inspired and reassured that black is the way to go, or she’ll think it’s a bit too bold for her house.

There is no such thing as correct taste. It’s so subjective. The OP isn’t in love with the idea of a black kitchen, and this woman’s blog may help the OP articulate to her husband why she doesn’t want to go with all black units. (There are other posts considering kitchens, and people looking for advice after they’ve gone too far with black.)

We have black kitchen units, the walls are a wallpaper of grey pink white and black pattern of triangles ,(sounds better that I have typed) and grey doors with light colored flooring. All my accessories are pink.

I have found keeping it clean easy.

We've got very dark brown in a dark kitchen with dark green walls. It was a choice, I love it.
Itdoes require wiping then drying with a teatowel as they do mark. As does our white worktop. I tend to give the cupboards a proper clean once a week to keep on top of fingerprints.

I'd say, go for it. If you like the idea, it's your kitchen, your house, your style. I know ours won't be to everyone's taste, but we love it.

Here’s mine. You can’t see the iroko worktops very well (it’s our estate agents photos) but despite it being north facing and built into a hill, it’s nice and bright even with dark cupboards. It’s been in ten years now and still looks in great condition despite heavy use by clumsy me. I oil the worktops every year or so.

Goodness what a labour of love @SukeyBenedict but so worth it and so nice to see beautiful hardwood being given a new lease of life!

We have spotlights on a wire in our kitchen, you can add pretty much as many as you need. They swivel 360 so they can be directed exactly where you want them.

The electrician suggested them when we explained our problems with lights that cast a shadow on worktops ( virtually every kitchen I have used). He was right, you could probably do brain surgery in our kitchen now.

Not going to comment on the black kitchen ( though had one in 1980😎I thought, it was okay) we did have black very shiny worktops once they were excellent as reflected light from the windows back up.

This is lovely!!!

Love this! I like how you haven’t tried to hide the duct work. It looks great.

Can we see the tiles?? They sound like they might be quite cool and possibly something could be done to incorporate them. Fair enough if you're sick of the sight of them of course!

If you want a black kitchen, and it’s a long term home, go for it. As most buyers will change the kitchen. We viewed a property with a fairly black glossy kitchen, black glossy tiles,it was high quality, but no way could I have lived with that kitchen. So dark and I don’t like cleaning that much 😂

@SukeyBenedict thank you. Good old ikea.

@EmpressoftheMundane
Thank you! I didn't find the article patronising because I do tend to look at showroom kitchens/Pinterest and fall in love with a space that's completely different, structurally, to mine 🙈 So the reminder is actually quite helpful!

@SukeyBenedict Your kitchen is beautiful. I think we probably do have a similar amount of natural light to you, so it's helpful to see that I don't find your kitchen gloomy at all! ☺️

Gorgeous! And doesn't look dark to my eye, though I suppose a photo might look different to real life. But the colour scheme is lovely.

😍 I love the hood and exposed ductwork! Do you recall where you got it from? Ten years is pretty good innings. We probably won't be in this house longer than that.

@Waterboatlass I'll try and remember to get a photo of the tiles when I go downstairs tomorrow morning. But I would take a HUGE amount of persuading to keep them 😅

@Allthegoodnamesarechosen Do you mean that your spotlights are suspended from a wire? Or that the wire is a sort of track that they're on? Do you happen to have a photo?

Snap!!

That’s a gorgeous kitchen @Seaside3

The peach, green and warm cabinets look 👌 The white countertops keep it fresh. Looks like a magazine.

I have charcoal units (Matt) but have mixed in white units (island and utility room). I absolutely love it.

I don’t think trends means anything for kitchens as for most people they are a long term project.

Lovely! And another that's not gloomy at all.
Ours isn't big enough for an island but how do you like having the hob in the middle of the room like that? I'd never really understood the point of islands until I started seeing island hobs, and now I want one! If ever we move to a house with a big kitchen...

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.

I agree with this ^^
Our last kitchen had Shaker style doors and the grease and dust trapped on the ledges required regular cleaning. We now have matt flat fronted doors and they are so easy to keep clean.

@RowenaVerbena

i was similar re: islands - thought they just took up space - but our island hob is brilliant and great space for dishing out dinner.

I’ve got really dark navy cabinets that look almost black at night, but not during the day. Would he consider that?

@EmpressoftheMundane thank you. I do love a bold colour choice, I've no room for grey or wishy washy in my life.

The hood was an elica I think, I just ordered it online somewhere, and the ducting I think I just got on some random ducting website, I think it's a standard size. I mapped it out and then ran it past the joiner who was doing the kitchen build. The attachment to the ceiling was a bit of an old kitchen table.