Do Your Cabinets Have to Match?

Homeowners are experimenting with a range of new trends for their cabinets to make them pop and look more interesting. Some of these trends are also designed to save money or evoke rustic, cabin looks. The mismatched cabinet trend is one of them. The trend at its simplest involves using cabinets of different styles, colors, or materials side by side throughout your kitchen. There are several different ways this can be done. 

Mismatching Woods

If you choose hardwood cabinets, you could choose several different types of wood for your cabinets but ones that are all in the same style. So, each cabinet will be constructed the same but they’ll be made out of different woods. You could do this to capture the light in your kitchen different. For example, if you have a window that allows more light to hit one side of the kitchen than the other, you could put brighter cabinets on that side. Darker cabinets would go on the other side. That would create a dividing line in your kitchen to create a subtle contrast. 

You could also choose to do the opposite to sort of balance out the light in your kitchen. Darker cabinets on the sunny side will brighten up. If they’re only a little bit darker than the other side, it might actually match better than all-matching cabinets. 

Mismatching woods can give your home a look that evokes cabins and other rustic settings. If you were building a cabin or an outbuilding, you might opt for whichever cabinets you could get your hands on, regardless of their make. With some planning, you can recreate that look. 

Mismatching Styles

Typically, cabinets are all about the same height and width. Smaller cabinet doors are typically just smaller copies of the same style of cabinet. However, there’s no reason why cabinets of different sizes need to be the same styles. If cabinets of different sizes were all in the same style, you could actually achieve a harmonious look. All of your small cabinets could be one style, and your large cabinets could be another. 

Mismatching Colors

Lastly, you can mismatch the colors on your cabinets. This can be done with paint on any type of cabinet or with stain on wooden cabinets. The choices could be the same as the mismatched styles; larger cabinets could be one color, and smaller cabinets could be another. Alternately, you could mismatch cabinet doors to create a kind of checkerboard effect.