When it comes to kitchen doors the usual advice is to never mix and match and to keep everything in one colour and in one material – however there is one very big exception to that rule and that is mixing cream doors with woodgrain units. In fact you can update your kitchen easily by adding new cream kitchen doors to your existing woodgrain cabinets, giving your kitchen an immediate lift in no time and for a very reasonable price.

Woodgrain kitchen doors, whether they are oak, beech or walnut can start to look a little dated as they age. This is especially true it they are matched with traditional style tiling and worktops. The room can often feel dark and boring due to the way that woodgrain can absorb the light. However all is not lost.

You may love your woodgrain, but feel that your kitchen needs to be brightened up. You can achieve this by simply adding cream kitchen doors to your existing units by replacing some of the woodgrain doors.

Why cream?

Cream is the one colour which will match well with nearly all woods and has the effect of brightening the room and casting light while blending in. Cream has a traditional feel to it, as does woodgrain and it is a clean colour making your kitchen look new again.

Which style to choose?

One of the ways to make a mistake when mixing and matching is to mix and match styles and colours. You cannot have flat doors with country style doors – it simply doesn’t work. You need to choose cream doors which match your existing style doors. Most replacement kitchen door companies will have a huge range of doors for you to choose from so it shouldn’t be a problem finding the right one.

Which doors to replace?

Working out where to put your new doors can be a huge dilemma. You want to break up the expanse of woodgrain, but you don’t want your kitchen to look like a huge checker board.

The best ideas when it comes to positioning different coloured cabinets in a kitchen is to choose certain areas to highlight. So it might be one bank or wall of cupboard which are set apart from the rest. You may also choose to install cream cupboards entirely on the lower units or the wall cabinets – but not both.

You could also highlight the cooking area with cream cupboards on the surrounding cabinets or you could keep cream to the island cabinets. You may need to think about this for some time before you decide as the options are endless. But you need to blend the cream in with the woodgrain.

Plinths and pelmets

If you add cream plinths and pelmets to your woodgrain cupboard doors as well as a few cupboard doors you will find that the effect is much more coherent. This will bring the cream into the scheme, relating it to the entire kitchen design, rather than it looking like the doors have been added as an afterthought.

What if the woodgrain needs replacing too?

This makes things even easier. If you are replacing all of your kitchen cupboard doors and want to mix and match woodgrain with cream you will easily be able to get the same style so they match each other perfectly. They will also both look brand new and will last as long as the other.

If your kitchen needs a lift and you are on a tight budget, replacing just some of the doors, rather an all of them can be a great idea. This is even  easier if you have traditional woodgrain doors. Add some cream doors to break up the darkness and see how your kitchen can look with just a small amount of effort and outlay.

A north facing kitchen can present as many problems as a dark and dreary one. Despite the copious amounts of natural light, the sun streaming in and the warmth, you also need to know how to take advantage of it and how to avoid some of the pitfalls associated with a sunny kitchen.

When you are deciding to buy replacement kitchen doors you will always need to take into account the amount of sunlight which is entering the room. This will influence the colours you choose, the materials your kitchen cupboards are made of and how you will position your kitchen units, sink and table. You will also want to think about the lighting and the general painting and decoration.

Replacement kitchen doors

It is true that your kitchen is already bright and light (depending on the size of the window) so you can get away with choosing a darker colour kitchen door if you wish. However, don’t think that just because you have plenty of sunlight, that the room can be all dark in hue. You should break up the darker colours with lighter walls or a set of kitchen cupboards in white or cream as a contrast.

Doors which reflect the light in your kitchen may be somewhat dazzling in a north facing room, but it doesn’t mean you can’t have gloss doors. You just need to think about where they are placed in relation to the window and whether you will have a blind in place. Gloss doors will bounce the light around the room, which might be perfect for a larger room which only has a window at one end.

You can get away with wood-grain effect doors and solid wood in a brighter kitchen. Usually they will absorb the light, but in this case there is plenty to spare. Glass doors will also add sparkle to the room.

The only thing you will need to bear in mind is that if light is shining directly on to your kitchen doors, any marks, wear and tear or defects will be very obvious. If you do not want to be constantly cleaning, you should consider matt doors which hide the problems associated with daily usage.

Lighting

Your kitchen may not need artificial lighting during the day or at least – less of it. You should make sure you have under counter lights and maybe plinth lights to highlight your flooring. These can be used at times when the main lights are not required. You may also want to have directional lights which can highlight just the area you are working in (the hob, the sink or the worktop) rather than turning on all the lights.

Of course in the evenings your kitchen will need the same amount of lighting as any other room. Having a flexible arrangement as mentioned above gives to the opportunity of turning on all the lights or just a selection.

The design

If you are redesigning your kitchen at the same time as replacing your kitchen doors, you should always try to make the most of the natural light. You could have your sink under the window and the table or breakfast bar nearby so you will be able to sit in the sun, at least for part of the day. You may want to avoid having your food cupboards or your fridge in the path of direct and hot sunlight as this can increase the risk of food spoiling or the fridge having to work overtime.

A north facing kitchen will become the hub of the home and should be a friendly and bright place for all of the family to visit. Take advantage of the light by bringing in a family atmosphere and having chairs, tables, breakfast bars and entertainment all in one space if possible. It seems a shame to waste all of that natural light. It the next best thing to being outside.

Interior design books and kitchen showrooms will often use the idea of combining two or more different coloured kitchen cabinet doors to create a bold effect. The bolder colour may be used to give the room a focal point and to create an interesting look. However, many of us who are trying to update our kitchens may feel a little overwhelmed about how to achieve this look.

You will have many questions – like where do I put the bolder colour kitchen doors, what colours should I combine, what style or material of door works best and can I use more than two colours? Read on for answers to these questions and more.

Create a focal point

When you walk into a room your eye is often drawn to part of the room – this is known as the focal point and is can be highlighted with a different colour, a mirror or wallpaper. In the living room it may be the chimney breast and in the bedroom it might be the wall directly behind the bed-head. This wall becomes the highlight of the room – needing little more than the colour or the wallpaper to do all the talking (pictures, paintings and other accessories are not needed).

You can create the same feeling in a kitchen. However you will need to work out where your focal point will be.

• Choose kitchen cupboards which can be seen upon entering the room. Generally they will be opposite the entrance door or which can be seen from another room – for example in an open plan kitchen dining room.
• Choose kitchen doors which are set apart or run in a line together
• Choose all upper cabinets or lower cabinets – don’t mix and match unless it is a full length floor to ceiling larder cabinet or a set of cupboards which are separated from the rest.
• Pick a set of cupboards where the lighting in the room will easily highlight them.

Think colours

If your kitchen is already a bold colour, it may be a pointless exercise to pick out a focal point as the whole kitchen will be catching attention. It is best to choose a plainer colour and then use a brighter and bolder colour to act as the focal point. Good combinations might be white kitchen cupboard doors with black or purple highlights. Cream with blues or greens and even dramatic black with red.

Go modern

A kitchen with a set of focal point kitchen cupboard doors has to be modern. It is not a look which works with the muted tones of a wooden or traditional kitchen. It is best to approach this look with flat fronted kitchen doors in a high gloss or matt colours.

Don’t mix and match

Always make sure that your kitchen cupboards all match in terms of the style and material. This is easy to do if you are buying replacement kitchen doors as you can choose from styles of doors which come in several colours. It should be very clear that the introduction of an extra colour is intentional and not just the result of adding extra cupboards without replacing what already existed. The focal point should fit in perfectly and it needs to be the same type and material of door for this to work.

More than one colour?

Absolutely – if your kitchen is big enough. A small kitchen could easily become overwhelmed if there are too many colours going on. However a larger kitchen could be separated into zones using different colour schemes. The central island could be one colour while the cooking area could highlighted with a bolder colour. You could even try having all wall cupboards in a one colour, lower cabinets in an other matching colour, while the focal point is picked out in the contrasting and bolder hue.

You will need to accept that adding a focal point to your kitchen will attract attention. It is not for the faint of heart, but who said that kitchens had to be boring?

For those of you who are hoping to remodel or change your kitchen, you may be encountering the age old dilemma of the choice between a kitchen table or a breakfast bar. They both have their good and bad points and both can easily be accommodated into most kitchens even if you are simply replacing your kitchen doors and worktops. So what are the things you will need to think about before you make your choice?

Space

This is pretty clear cut. If you don’t have the room for a kitchen table, you simply cannot include one into your kitchen design. You might be able to squeeze a small table and two chairs into your new kitchen, but it may be at the expense of worktop or kitchen cupboard space. It all depends on what you are willing to give up.

Most kitchens however can accommodate a breakfast bar. You can still have a cupboard or two above and simply leave a space below for stools. The worktop can be carried over from the rest of the kitchen, giving the room a seamless look which is still very functional. You have no loss of work surface and the convenience of being able to sit down.

Kitchen alterations

If you are simply replacing your kitchen cabinets doors and doing very little else to your kitchen, you may prefer to get a kitchen table. This can be in any material and will fit in perfectly with your new kitchen.

A breakfast bar may be harder to fit in unless you are willing to add new cupboard space, remove lower cupboards or extend your worktops. Of course all of these things are easy to do but will require extra work and more money. For example, if you remove a lower cupboard to give you leg room you will need to replace your flooring so the space matches the rest of the room. You may also have trouble finding matching worktops, so you will need to replace your worktop as well as your doors.

Flexibility

Both the kitchen breakfast bar and kitchen table can be flexible. A table can be moved from the middle of the room to the side when not in use. It can be used as an extra work surface and for easy family meals or homework areas. Having a table in the kitchen  turns the room into the heart of the home.

However a breakfast bar has its own flexibility. You can use it as a worktop, because that is essentially what it is. It can be used as a place to work, to rest or to sit with friends. It may not be suitable for eating meals however for a larger family, unless it is designed with a seating area on both sides – such as a central island.

Storage space

A breakfast bar has the unique ability to provide you with extra storage space. While a kitchen table will take up space in the kitchen and the chairs will fill the void underneath, a breakfast bar can house cupboards above and below. A central island in particular will allow cupboard space with a protruding piece of worktop above with enough leg room for sitting.

You may need to extend your worktop with a breakfast bar, but this is easily achieved with a replacement worktop and then cupboards can be added using replacement kitchen doors and cabinets if required. You can create substantial extra cupboard space by adding a few feet of worktop.

Generally a breakfast bar improves your kitchen as long as you have an eating area elsewhere in the house. If you don’t have a dining area, a kitchen table is a great idea, but a breakfast bar cannot be beaten for flexibility, storage space and ease of design.