Beautiful Beadboard Kitchen Cabinets (Design Ideas)

Beadboard kitchen cabinets are easily identified by their appearance: vertical slats of wood pieced together on their long side, resulting in a bead-like connection. These are made from long wood slats with a tongue and groove joinery. This was originally used for wainscoting on traditional houses but has also made its way into cabinetry & other aspects of the interiors.

You can usually find beadboard cabinetry on French style homes, country-style homes, and beach-inspired interiors. Although beadboard was originally made from vertical wood planks, nowadays, you can get faux beadboard panels the size of a whole plyboard with beadboard-like vertical slat pattern. This is perfect for those on a tighter budget and shorter timeline and want to achieve the rustic appeal it gives.

One of the most common applications for beadboards is on kitchen cabinets. Country and Cottage-style homes have recently regained popularity, so beadboard cabinets are also coming back. The subtle addition of pattern and texture can instantly transform the look of any space, giving it an old-world rustic vibe. For more kitchen cabinets styles visit our gallery page.

Beadboard Cabinet Doors

Depending on pre-existing conditions, beadboards are mainly applied to cabinet doors. The drawer faces, and main carcass are usually plain or uses another paneling style. In this kitchen design, the cabinet doors are beadboards, but the drawers and main carcass are plain/flat.

Because of the dark charcoal paint used on the cabinetry, this design has a totally different vibe compared to white beadboard cabinets – it has a more masculine, rustic-contemporary feel.

If you have existing beadboard cabinets and drawers, you can always freshen them up by re-sanding the wood and refinishing it with either stain/varnish or even paint.

In this example, a light wash of mint green color in an antiqued finish was applied all over the cabinets to give the layout a rustic look. See more examples of kitchens with distressed cabinets here.

Modern beadboard-textured panels can now be bought in hardware stores. Some of them ship raw or primed beforehand, but some also ship already finished in a particular color.

This example has a very unique combination of white cabinet carcass and gray beadboard accent center, helping add depth and body to the design.

The architectural detail of the ceiling is given the center stage for this design, so the general look and finishes used were kept simple/neutral. Cabinets are plain white beadboard panels combined with an antique-finished island counter base cabinet and white granite counters.

This simple combination helps keep the design elegant yet low-key to help emphasize the solid wood beams on the ceiling.

White Beadboard

White beadboard cabinets are the easiest to use and style, because the white finish enables it to be more versatile – easily matching with both contemporary and classic interiors.

Additionally, the white finish helps make it look lighter/less heavy, making it easier to apply in small floor plans.

A transitional/contemporary kitchen with an all-white color scheme uses white beadboards for cabinet doors to add texture and help keep the design from being bland and too modern.

Combined with the white carrara marble countertop and backsplash tiles, the result is a fresh-looking take on classic country-style kitchens.

This l-shaped white kitchen with dark floors uses a very light finish on the cabinets, carcass & counters to make the design appear lighter, allowing you to combine it with more modern pieces of furniture and accessories.

If clean/plain white finishes are not your cup of tea, you can also use a more rustic white color to give it a more aged appeal.

In this example, the beadboard cabinets were given a grayish undertone to match the wooden panels used on the ceiling of the kitchen. The storage island has shelving for the organization of cookbooks and cooking items & accessories.

Vintage kitchen appliances already have busy detailing and attention-grabbing colors, so the beadboard cabinets were kept subtle and low-key by using a plain white paint finish.

Sometimes, even subtle contrasts are enough to create a design that has more depth and texture. Because the walls of the space/interiors already use a white finish, the beadboard cabinetry use a different white undertone to give it a little more contrast against the flat white walls.

Dark granite countertops are really popular for kitchens, both contemporary and classic. They are adored as stains, and minor damages are not as visible on their dark surface compared to lighter-colored countertops. In this example, black granite was used on all countertop surfaces.

Because the wooden floors were also tinted in ebony, the antique white kitchen with beadboard cabinets helps balance out the dark colors and gives the room a brighter glow.

Beadboard Kitchen Island

If replacing your current cabinets would require too much work or cost, you can also consider applying beadboard cabinets on the kitchen island. That way, it will serve as an accent piece for added detail and personality.

Placed in an open plan space, the beadboard kitchen island not only serves as an additional worktop and small dining space, but also as a “divider” between spaces.

The use of slatted panels on the counter face gives the kitchen island an added texture and pattern, emphasizing the separation of the areas without having to use partitions.

The cool white palette used on the cabinets and counter helps make this kitchen more flexible & easier to match with more modern furniture pieces.

Subtlety is definitely not the goal for the paneling application in this kitchen design. For one, the island has a natural Mahogany finish with a wood top and wood legs and only a little space for beadboard cabinetry, which was mostly placed to hide the sink’s plumbing.

The open design of the island makes it feel less bulky, while its wooden finish stands out among the white cabinetry on the walls.

The use of black-painted beadboard cabinets on this massive kitchen island gives it a very retro industrial vibe that would go well with any current design style.

The dark finish of the cabinets makes the stainless steel appliances and pulls stand out, and also gives it a more sophisticated look.

Beadboard cabinet doors and carcass were used for the worktop kitchen island of this classic country style kitchen. The vertical grooves add a subtle texture detail to the surface, making it stand out without taking too much of your attention.