Give your cooking space some serious star power with this flattering hue.
If your drab kitchen sparks about as much joy as a bag of frozen pizza rolls, it might be time to change things up. And fortunately, you don’t have to break the bank on a gut reno, new kitchen floors, or fresh appliances to spruce up your space. In fact, simply giving your cabinets a fresh coat of paint can completely overhaul the look of your cooking space. Selecting just the right hue, however, can be daunting. Classic white risks creating a culinary snoozefest, while a trendy color like black might feel dated in a few years’ time. One tried-and-true kitchen paint color that ELLE DECOR A-List designers return to again and again? Blue. galley kitchen ideas
Unlike other It colors, blue has long been viewed as a classic, and with a veritable rainbow of tints and shades out there, it’s a hue that can be dialed up or down to suit your style (for all of you midnight snackers out there, blue also has the benefit of being an appetite suppressant). But as trend-proof as blue kitchen cabinets may be, there’s no doubt that the color is experiencing a moment: In fact, at least six paint companies—including coatings juggernauts Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore—have named varying shades of blue as their 2024 Color of the Year. “The cooler undertones of a blue palette are the perfect foil for the variety of metals used in cooking equipment, from pots and pans to appliances,” says Toronto designer Sam Sacks. “Blue and brass; blue and copper; and, of course, blue and stainless steel all pair beautifully.”
“Blue can really be a neutral,” adds Jessica Davis, founder of the Atlanta- and South Orange, New Jersey–based firm Atelier Davis. “Think of it like a pair of jeans.” In one of Davis’s recent projects—the restoration of a classic Joseph Eichler house in California with architect Gustave Carlson—the design team and client were drawn to Farrow & Ball’s steely Hague Blue in the kitchen. Before you rush to the hardware store though, consider the unique lighting conditions of your space. You might want to go for a barely there periwinkle (see Sherwin Williams’s Upward) or an electric Yves Klein–inspired blue, like Sacks deployed in a Toronto Victorian. “When considering which blue hue to select, think carefully about your home’s architecture, and the style of your kitchen,” Sacks advises. “A seaside traditional home is the perfect place for a shaker-style kitchen in robin’s egg blue. Conversely, electric blue flat front cabinetry makes a striking statement in a modern envelope.”
Budget permitting, you can complete your kitchen with materials that nod to the blue theme. Davis recommends tying blue kitchen cabinets into a broader scheme with the surfaces you pick, whether it’s flecks in terrazzo flooring or veins in a marble countertop. From there, she will contrast “the coolness of blue with warmer colors like a yellow oven or the warmth of walnut.” Read on for 30 bold blue kitchen ideas—inspiration is bound to strike like a bolt from the blue.
ELLE DECOR readers are smitten with this high-gloss galley kitchen in the California home of design insiders Joe Lucas and David Heikka—and it’s easy to see why with its cheerful blue paint job. “Before, the cabinets were all white, and I follow a golden rule—no white kitchens—so we immediately painted them,” explains Lucas.
This Toronto home features tall ceilings and elegant historic details such as ornate moldings, but designer Sam Sacks’s goal was to create a dwelling that was “loose and cool and livable” for the young homeowner. Key to her strategy was contrasting all that period fanciness with electrifying hits of blue—Sacks’s favorite color. In the kitchen, Yves Klein Blue upper and lower kitchen cabinets stand out against a white exposed-brick wall. Black countertops and a few bare plywood cabinet doors give the look a hit of De Stijl flair.
Jean-Louis Deniot incorporated the whimsy of Tintin into his vacation home off the coast of France. No space is as charming as his kitchen, with its custom blue cabinets—accented in neat, cream trim to play up the windows—and old-timey checkerboard floor.
Landscape designer Jenny Graham cites orange as her favorite color, but here in her minimal Argentinian kitchen, she contrasted her beloved tangerine with a bold, custom cobalt on the kitchen cabinets.
As this kitchen designed by all-star decorator Thom Filicia proves, a gray-tinged blue can behave as a lovely neutral in a more traditional decor scheme. Here, the kitchens are painted in Benjamin Moore’s Brewster Grey. Nickel hardware accentuates the cool palette.
Emily Todhunter designed this Manhattan home to be “nearer to the sky” so a pale blue, of course, was the color of choice throughout the home—and particularly in the kitchen, where she doused the entire room in Benjamin Moore’s Van Courtland Blue.
Designer Jessica Davis and architect Gustave Carlson breathed new life into a classic California home first designed by Joseph Eichler in the 1970s. Their intervention included fun jolts of color, including the bright blue island and cabinets in the kitchen.
If you’re on the fence about painting your cabinets blue or green, why not combine them? Budding design firm Perifio painted their own kitchen cabinets a deep teal from C2 Paint, a shade that helps draw in the green of the surrounding countryside.
The beauty of blue cabinets is that the hue also complements a surprising spectrum of materials, from timber to terrazzo, the material of choice here in a sleek vacation home designed by architect Blaze Makoid and interior designer Joe Nahem.
Duck-egg blue is a total classic when it comes to kitchen cabinetry, and this is one of the most elegant examples out there. Here, in a Washington, D.C., residence, designer Zoe Feldman opted for Farrow & Ball’s Card Room Green, a shade inspired by Victorian homes.
Not ready to embrace an all-blue kitchen? Try it in smaller doses, like in this happy Portuguese cooking space designed by Jacques Grange. In lieu of entirely blue cabinets, Grange deployed it just on the outer edges.
It’s only fitting that a home in the clouds would have equally vertiginous cabinetry. This Richard Mishaan–designed apartment, in Herzog & de Meuron’s Jenga-like 56 Leonard skyscraper in New York City, includes floor-to-ceiling blue cabinetry in a shade that matches the blue of the sky and the Hudson River far below.
If you have stainless steel appliances, a pale blue with gray undertones is the route for you. Here, designer Alison Palevsky picked a barely there blue shade (one that makes appearances throughout this sprawling California home) to contrast with the Viking stove and hanging pot rack.
OK, this technically isn’t a kitchen—it’s actually a bar area in a Hamptons home—but there are plenty of lessons to be learned here, courtesy of designer Poonam Khanna. She incorporated floor-to-ceiling vibrant blue cabinets (in Philipsburg Blue by Benjamin Moore) and leaned into their Crayola brightness with a set of sunny yellow chairs.
You don’t necessarily have to have all-white-everything in a kitchen to create a space that feels fresh and airy. Case in point: For this kitchen in a Hamptons home, designer Daun Curry chose the faintest of sky blues for the cabinets and a soft, pale gray marble for the island and backsplashes. It’s a bright idea to us!
Conversely, if you are intrigued by black kitchen cabinets but aren’t quite ready to move to the dark side, navy can be a chic intermediary. In this David Netto–designed kitchen, high-gloss cabinets and a poppy orange tile exude plenty of drama.
In a Canadian lake house, the kitchen is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Van Deusen Blue, the pendant lights are by Urban Electric Co., the backsplash is in Saltillo Tile, and the counters are Caesarstone in London Grey.
In Designer Brian J. McCarthy’s New York City apartment, an all-white kitchen makes use of a few blue elements: A stove and hood by La Cornue, and the wide swaths of pale blue stripes on the floor.
The homeowners kept the original tile backsplash and flooring in the kitchen of this Loire Valley home. English mahogany chairs and a stylish chandelier, which was found at a flea market, give the space a lived-in feel.
The kitchen in fabric expert John Robshaw’s Connecticut country house is a study in fearless color choices. The walls are painted in Rose Quartz and the cabinetry in Starry Night, both by Benjamin Moore, creating a bold but impressive palette.
Anna Fixsen, Deputy Digital Editor at ELLE DECOR, focuses on how to share the best of the design world through in-depth reportage and online storytelling. Prior to joining the staff, she has held positions at Architectural Digest, Metropolis, and Architectural Record magazines. elledecor.com
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