Styling Small Kitchens And White Cabinets: What Paint To Use & 27 Creative Designs

Small kitchens with white cabinets can help your space look bigger and brighter, enhancing the entire atmosphere of your room. For any interior style and kitchen size, white cabinets will provide a clean, fresh, and aesthetically appealing look that would suit most people’s tastes and style preferences. Why choose a white color palette for the kitchen? Some might say it is too plain, too ordinary, or too common a color for kitchen design, but there are many valid reasons behind its popularity.

For one, it’s a “foolproof” color, meaning it will look good on any interior style, with any other colors and textures, and will never go out of style. Aside from its universal appeal, white tends to help give a light, airy feel and create an illusion of a bigger space. For smaller kitchens, white paint on your cabinets is ideal as it visually expands the size of any room.

Best Small Kitchen White Cabinet Paint Colors

Some might find it easy to decide to go for all-white kitchen cabinets until they realize that white paint has many varieties and undertones. Just like any other color, white paint can come in cool tones or warm tones, and depending on the look you want, you must choose the appropriate shade of white. With the improvement of color-mixing technology and the variety of brands and finishes available on the market, it is not surprising to be a bit overwhelmed.

Here, we have listed some of the most common white paint shades under two of the most popular paint brands. Hopefully, this list can help you narrow down your decision and select the perfect color for your dream white kitchen cabinets.

• Benjamin Moore
  1. Designer’s White – this bright white has a subtle cool tone, which will definitely give that modern and refreshing feel to any surface.
  2. China White – as the name suggests, this color was inspired by China-wares. It has a warm/taupe undertone, giving it a clean yet subtle vintage look.
  3. Simply White – this white has a very subtle warm yellow undertone, giving you both the clean, modern look as well a slightly homey vintage feel. This will work on both modern and classic kitchen designs.
  4. Super White – a flat white color with a neutral undertone that delivers a crisp and clean white color.
  5. Mascarpone – this white has a light yellow undertone, making it look slightly tinted rather than being a flat white color. The bright yellow undertone gives it a youthful appeal, yet it is still able to match more classic looks.
  6. Chantilly Lace – a cool-toned white with a minty undertone, which gives a refreshing feel on any surface. It gives a light, airy feel, as well as a youthful vibe without being too overwhelming.
  7. White Dove – a favorite choice of white wall paint color. This color is neutral-toned but has a beige & gray undertone, making it look like a very, very light gray color that can match any style or go well on any surface.

• Sherwin Williams
  1. Pure White – similar to Benjamin Moor’s Super White, this is a neutral white color perfect for any style of interiors.
  2. Big Chill – a creamy white color with a yellow/taupe undertone to give your cabinets or walls a warm look
  3. Pearly White – this color has a very, very subtle yellow undertone, which you won’t notice until you place it beside a more neutral or cooler white. This is perfect if you want a clean color but find pure white too flat for your taste.
  4. Antique White – another yellow-toned white with a slightly stronger yellow undertone. This is great for vintage looks.
  5. Paper White – a cool-toned color which, as the name suggests, is similar to the color of white paper.

These colors work well in small kitchens with cabinets, as well as the walls or ceiling, and the perfect white will depend on the look you’re trying to achieve. Do not be afraid to pair your whites with other, bolder colors, as whites will always look good with anything. With a large surface such as kitchen cabinetry, you can freely experiment with different colors, textures, and patterns to achieve your dream kitchen design. For more ideas, check out our article about all-white color scheme country-style kitchens.

White Cabinet Paint Colors Comparison

Paint Color	LRV	Undertone	Best Room Light	Watch Out For
Chantilly Lace Benjamin Moore OC-65	92	Clean, barely cool	South and west facing	Can feel stark in a north room
Simply White Benjamin Moore OC-117	91.7	Soft yellow	North facing and low light	Goes creamy under warm bulbs
White Dove Benjamin Moore OC-17	85	Warm gray and beige	Almost any exposure	Reads gray next to bright white trim
Pure White Sherwin Williams 7005	84	Faint creamy yellow	Mixed and average light	Softer than the name suggests
Snowbound Sherwin Williams 7004	83	Cool gray, slight pink	Bright south facing	Pink shows up beside warm wood
Alabaster Sherwin Williams 7008	82	Warm beige	North facing and basements	Too warm beside cool gray quartz

LRV is just how much light a color bounces back, and anything above 80 will brighten a small kitchen. Go below 80 and you’re into off white territory, which is fine, but the room stops giving you the free daylight benefit.

What To Pair With Warm White vs Cool White

Pick a lane and stay with it, for instance, mixing a warm white cabinet with a cool gray counter is the most common reason a small kitchen looks slightly off.

Element	Warm White Cabinets	Cool White Cabinets
Countertop	Butcher block, beige granite, cream quartz with warm veining	Carrara marble, gray quartz, black soapstone
Backsplash	Handmade look subway, cream zellige, soft sage green	Bright white subway, gray glass, pale blue tile
Wall Color	Greige, warm putty, or the same white two shades lighter	Cool light gray, pale blue gray, crisp white
Flooring	Oak, hickory, pine, terracotta, warm wood look tile	Gray washed oak, slate, porcelain in cool tones
Hardware	Brass, bronze, brushed nickel with a warm cast	Matte black, chrome, stainless, polished nickel

Which Sheen To Use Where

Sheen matters more in a small kitchen than in a larger one. Shiny surfaces bounce light around, which helps, until it starts showing too many smudges, fingerprints or other blemishes.

Surface	Sheen	Why It Works
Cabinet doors	Satin or semi gloss	Wipes clean and reflects light without looking plastic
Walls	Eggshell	Handles grease splatter, hides bumpy drywall
Ceiling	Flat	Kills glare so a low ceiling reads higher
Trim and baseboards	Semi gloss	Slight contrast gives the white cabinets an edge to read against

Small White Cabinet Kitchen Designs

The picture above shows an inviting country-style kitchen with a great layout for socializing with friends and family while preparing food. The kitchen offers a rough wood counter surrounding a double basin farmhouse sink with painted white cabinetry. The sink setup provides an easy pass-through from the main dining area of the cottage. White subway tile backsplash brightens the space and helps keep things light.

This is another small gallery kitchen with a more vintage feel to it. The cabinets have a simple paneled design, and vintage-style drawer pulls in stainless steel. The countertop uses a straight-profiled marble for a modern touch on the classic material, while the backsplash uses mint green glass subway tiles.

This small gallery kitchen is the perfect addition to this rustic home. The modern interiors use a couple of rustic materials and details to give it a subtle rustic feel, yet still keep the clean look of modern interiors as it uses plain finishes and colors on the other parts of the house. The kitchen uses simple paneled cabinets in pure white, with an overhead cabinet featuring glass cabinet doors. To add more texture and appeal, subway tiles made from gray glass were used for the kitchen backsplash, while gray & black soapstone was used for the countertop.

The picture above shows an open-type kitchen floor plan using ivory-colored cabinets. Using white is often one of the best choices as the color easily blends into whatever finishes and colors you use in other rooms of the house. The classic style cabinets maximize the high ceiling space and add a cornice to emphasize its classic appeal. The walls were painted in dove color to give it a subtle hint of gray, enough to make a difference between the cabinets and the walls.

A very simple all-white color scheme country-style kitchen was used to create a clean, classic feel to this area. It uses pine wood floors that give warmth to the space, while the walls and its panelings are all painted in alabaster to match the color of the kitchen cabinets. White marble counters were used, combined with brushed stainless steel pulls, to give the cabinets a modern touch.

White is universally appealing, and therefore, even for more modern and minimalist interiors, white kitchen cabinets would surely look good. This small kitchen, placed on an open floor plan, uses all-white laminated cabinets with built-in appliances for a cleaner look. It uses push-to-open door and drawer mechanisms for a cleaner look.

Combining different textures and colors is easy to do, especially when you combine it with a large area of neutral colors, such as this kitchen, which uses ivory paint on its wooden cabinetry. Oatmeal walls and gray tiles, combined with light gray quartz countertop and mosaic-style backsplash tiles, are neutralized by the large area the plain kitchen cabinets occupy, making the overall look cohesive despite the variety.

Classic-inspired paneled cabinets were combined with a more modern style of dark gray solid surface countertop and glass backsplash tiles to achieve this look. The kitchen cabinets look gorgeous against the dove-gray walls and the deep cheery wood flooring.

Another example of a classic-inspired kitchen applied to a modern space is the overhead cabinets, which use a notable classic style of wine holder, typically seen on French and country-style interiors. The mascarpone paint used on the cabinets blends well with the dark wengue wooden floors, black countertops, and black and gray backsplash tiles, helping balance the colors so that it does not appear too dark.

This small l-shape kitchen has a small kitchen island in the middle for additional workspace. The use of simple paneled cabinets is the perfect match for the natural pine wood flooring. The walls were painted in gray, so the kitchen cabinets naturally stand out but do not look out-of-place, as the baseboards and windows are all in white as well.

For tiny spaces such as this, contemporary-style kitchens enable you to maximize the available space to give you a good balance of workspace and storage space. This example uses e-laminated modular cabinets, which maximizes the ceiling height for storage. White is the color of choice (except for the backsplash, which uses dark gray paint) which helps give the illusion of a bigger space. The clean, off-white laminates make the kitchen look clean, crisp, and modern.

With the limited space available, this modern U-shaped kitchen combines Designer’s White paint on the kitchen cabinets and a unique matte black solid surface countertop with a straight-cut edge to create a masculine, modern feel. The backsplash uses subway tiles with very thin and narrow grouting for a clean look. The drawer and cabinet pulls also use matte black to match the look of the countertop.

For a simple yet refreshing feel, this modern kitchen uses China white paint on its simple paneled kitchen cabinets and tops it with light gray polished solid surface counters to give it a minimalist look. Paired with the rustic mocha brown faux wood floor tiles, the small kitchen definitely gives the right blend of simple and rustic finishes.

Country-style interiors look best with country-style cabinets, but if you worry about your kitchen going out of style, using alabaster-painted kitchen cabinets is the best option, just like in this example. The classic kitchen uses all-ivory kitchen cabinets topped with marble and alabaster subway tiles for the backsplash for a more timeless look that will match the interiors, be it modern, country, French, etc.

For this modern kitchen, dove gray paint was used on the kitchen cabinets to give a little contrast to the pure whitish walls and windows. The dove gray paint gives a subtle yet modern update to the classic paneled cabinets and a light and refreshing look. It definitely goes well with the gray slate tiles on the flooring as well as the metal & wood dining chairs and table on the side.

This modern kitchen utilizes two different types of cabinetry for its storage needs. While the kitchen would normally appear quite small on its own the addition of a small breakfast bar island really enhances the appearance of the layout. The island features a two-tiered design with a small meal prep area and a lower level for eat-in dining.

Another modern/contemporary culinary space design combines gray polished surface countertops with laminated cabinets for a clean and sleek look. The ivory cabinets stand out well against the dark wengue flooring material used and also have a subtle contrast against the creamy-hued walls.

This gorgeous galley culinary space combines simple paneled cabinetry with a variety of patterns and textures to achieve this contemporary look. It uses marble for its countertop and unique matte black mosaic tiles for its backsplash, adding a modern texture and pattern to the surface. It also makes use of a cantilever display shelf and under-cabinet lighting for an efficient worktop. The floors use wood finish ceramic tiles in light pine wood and are laid out in a chevron pattern, adding more texture to the area.

Another example of a retro-inspired contemporary culinary space is that it uses classic modular cabinetry combined with clean, modern finishes such as the gray quartz countertop and the beveled subway tiles on the backsplash. It uses vintage black hardware to match the cabinets, as well as vintage fixtures like the apron ceramic sink and the faucet.

A very compact L-shaped culinary space that uses modular cabinets in pure alabaster, which helps it stand out against the walls of the same shade. The cabinets use a plain, polished, solid surface countertop in black for a clean, seamless look, combined with subway tiles for a modern vintage look. Overhead cabinets have glass doors to display their contents, as well as an open wine rack.

This vintage-style cooking area would look good in any style of interior. It has ivory-painted cabinets, which gives it a more timeless appeal, combined with vintage details such as the beige granite counters, the apron ceramic sink, and other vintage accessories.

This gorgeous culinary space provides a modern rustic vibe with its all-snow-hued cabinets and vintage-style details. The countertop uses solid mahogany butcher’s block, adding warmth and texture, while the walls are finished with ivory subway tiles. Metal hanging rods and shelves were placed on the walls, and copper pots and pans were displayed to emphasize the rustic look it was going for.

This gallery culinary space is a great example of upgrading a classic cooking space style to match the more modern interiors. The classic paneled cabinets were all painted in pearly hue to make way for the other colors in the room, like the gray walls, the teak wood flooring, and the aquamarine glass subway tiles on the backsplash. The all-ivory cabinets help balance out the color so the whole look would still be cohesive and modern-looking.

This modern galley culinary space may normally appear dark if not for the reflective quality of the polished cabinets. The room’s natural light is limited to one frosted glass doorway at the end of the galley design. Otherwise, recessed and under-cabinet lighting is utilized to keep the room well-lit. Little touches, such as a raised tray ceiling and frosted glass cabinet doors, can help to make the space look larger.

Mascarpone-painted walls are paired with bone china-painted paneled cabinets to create a classic, vintage feel to this small culinary space. Other warm colors were mixed in, such as the teak wood flooring, the mocha brown quartz countertop, and the cream slate mosaic tiles used on the backsplash.

This contemporary design uses modular cabinets laminated in glossy bone, combined with some red accents. This design definitely gives that clean, minimalist vibe, as even its drawers and awning cabinets use white pulls for a cleaner look. The glossy finish of the laminates also adds to their modern minimalist appeal, while the red helps add a bold accent to make the interiors look more lively.

Related Small Kitchen Island Design Galleries You May Like:

Small Kitchen Ideas –  Small Galley Kitchens  – Small Kitchens with Dark Cabinets –  Small Modern Kitchens

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To showcase highly specific designs, some images on this website use advanced AI-generation software to illustrate ideas and room inspiration. See our editorial policy to learn more.