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Thursday, January 10, 2013

A Rainbow of Kitchen Islands

A few days ago I wrote a post about what different countertop colours work best in white kitchens (you can read about it here).  Since I adore white kitchens, one post just didn't seem to be enough and seriously it was so much fun to spend hours and hours pouring over beautiful white kitchens that I had to write another post. The more I Googled and ogled over all the lovely white kitchens, the more I became interested in the kitchen islands - more particularly the colours they were painted. 

I took my job seriously and did some old-fashioned counting to see how many kitchen islands were white versus a contrasting colour.  I found that 75% of white kitchens also had white islands to match the cabinets, like in the photo below.


And any colour in the kitchen was added through accessories rather than the colour of the island.

Midwest Living

The white-on-white unified look is beautiful without a doubt.  However about 25% of the kitchens were willing to change things up a bit and paint the island a contrasting colour.  Neutrals were by far the most popular choice, but some bold souls went all out and chose pretty much any colour you could imagine.  I loved the wild abandon of colour in some of the kitchens and hope I might be that brave if I ever have a kitchen island.  

I set myself a challenge to try and find kitchen islands in every colour of the rainbow and I think I passed the challenge.  Have a look and see what you think.  Let's start with the neutrals (from light to dark) and then work our way through the rainbow of colours, shall we?

NEUTRALS

BHG

Houzz

Margot Austin

Paper blog

A RAINBOW OF COLOURS

Harvey Jones
House to Home

Colorado Homes


Houzz

Kitchen Designs


Appliance in Home

BHG


BHG


Country Living

House Beautiful

BHG

BHG

House to Home

Houzz

We've come to the end of the rainbow - unless we include all the colours that is.  

Digsdigs
What did you think?  Are you an all-white sort or would you go with the minority and paint your kitchen island a colour?  Would it be a wild colour or a neutral?  

10 comments:

  1. I love all the colors! I wish I could pull off something like that.

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  2. Hi Grace-We painted our cabinets white last year and then added a black island (with butcher block countertop) to the kitchen. I like the contrast and I think it looks great. Our appliances are also black. Great post!

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  3. All I can say is I'm speechless! My mouth is drooling.

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  4. Though I chose a white island for my all white kitchen, I think the next time around I will go for color on my island! Great photos!

    Kat

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  5. I think I love the BHG the best, however I do love me Blues and Yellows so this could be the reasoning behind my choices *smile*

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  6. The English do a lot of colorful kitchens and my Aunt even did a pink one like the one you showed. It made it into a magazine in the UK. I think though you need good architectural bones to do a bright kitchen. Picture one in a typical suburban 80's build...not so much. Great kitchens. I have a dark kitchen in Florida which is the norm there, something I find odd given the warm climate but everyone seems to have a dark wood kitchen.

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  7. I find that it often depends on the size of the kitchen. If your kitchen is small it seems to make it feel bigger when the island is painted the same as the cupboards. I don't mind the effect given by a colourful island but it has to be in a larger room for me. BTW, loving this little series of yours.

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  8. I really want to paint my cabinets white and paint my island another color. I can't stand the dreary builder-oak color they are now. I love a good kitchen ... thanks for the great photos.

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  9. We painted our island a gray green...and the rest is white...pretty safe. I would like to change the slipcovers on my barstools...I could go with something bright.
    Lovely post!

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  10. This post is great (actually it's helpful) because I'm definitely in the minority, but if I use distressed walnut on our breakfast bar, then I'l need to repaint it. Wow, that aqua blue one looks so pretty with the wood bar. :D I think I might have my accent color. (It's the one form BH&G)....

    xo,
    RJ

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