This two-tone kitchen renovation was recently completed by our team. Two-tone refers to when the upper cabinets and lower cabinets are different colours. There are many variations on this trend. If you’re lucky enough to have a large kitchen with an island, the island cabinetry could be a different colour to the main cabinets.

In this case the lower cabinets are in a dark charcoal with a stained texture. The uppers are Cloud White. For a two-tone design, it’s always best to use the darker colour on the lower cabinets. This design technique grounds the space and makes it feel balanced. If the upper cabinets are too dark it can feel heavy and unbalanced.

The cabinet colours come together with a beautiful blue Walker Zanger Cafe ceramic backsplash tile. Then finished off with a textured grey tiled porcelain floor.

In this home, there is plenty of natural light, so using a very dark lower cabinet works well for the space. If your kitchen doesn’t have a lot of windows or the space isn’t very open or large, we recommend going with lighter cabinets. Similar to this previous kitchen we renovated it has a more subtle two-tone design.
Another detail that works well with dark lower cabinets is incorporating the use of dark cabinet hardware. Dark hardware blends nicely into the cabinets. The handles are a brushed dark grey metallic finish from our Canadian supplier Marathon Hardware. They are not quite matte black so they don’t feel too slick or modern. The subtle texture adds character to this kitchen.

