Modern Gray Kitchen Cabinets Redefine Brutalist Cool

Modern gray kitchen cabinets will surprise you ways you never thought possible. The cabinet color will take your kitchen decor to the next level.  Gray is for minimalist interiors.

Gray is the flagship color of brutalism. Some feel the color is monotonous, and let’s face it, it is.

As a neutral color characterized by emotional absence and a lack of energy, gray is an ideal background color for every space and style. 

What Does Gray Mean In Interior Design?

Gray is one of the hottest colors trending in interior design in the 21st century. This color goes well with both industrial and rustic interiors.

• Achromatic: Achromatic gray is a gray where there are amounts of red, green, and blue in the color. Silver, a shade of gray, is an example of an achromatic gray shade. 
• Neutral: Gray is a neutral color that can easily be paired with other neutrals such as natural materials or colors like black, white, and earth tones.
• Peace and balance: Gray is symbolically associated with many different concepts such as peace, balance, and truth. Gray is also associated with refinement and can make an interior look more elegant.

Best Gray Kitchen Paint Color

• Willow Creek
• Powell Gray
• Repose Gray
• Agreeable Gray 
• Fleur de sel
• Sea Salt
• Silver Plate
• Charcoal Gray

50 Gray Kitchen Cabinets to Refine Your Kitchen Style

Gray With Neutrals

Combine gray with other neutrals to maintain a sense of simplicity and linearity

One of the easiest ways to incorporate gray kitchen cabinets into a kitchen design is to use them together with other neutrals. Neutral colors include earth tones such as beige and brown as well as natural materials like wood and stone.

Dark Gray Tones

Darker tones of gray look more mysterious and intriguing.

When it comes to decorating with gray, tone means everything. Darker gray tones will read like a black in the room. The quality makes spacious rooms feel cozier while adding a touch of drama.

Gray Cabinets With Wood Counter

Complement your gray kitchen cabinets with a wooden table or island.

Gray kitchen cabinets are a suitable option for modern, contemporary, traditional, and even rustic homes. They can look futuristic, simple, or full of charm, depending on the design direction you choose.

Gray And White Combination

You can also combine gray and white for a fresh and simple look.

Gray and white is a classic combination that can make a kitchen look ultra sleek and put together.

In this example, gold storage cabinets help to break up the look of the gray in the room, but the fact that gold is a neutral helps keep this accent from clashing with the rest of the kitchen’s design.

Gray Cabinets In Yellow Gold Kitchen

Other colors pair well with gray. This includes all shades of yellow.

Just because you’re going with a neutral gray cabinet in your kitchen doesn’t mean that your kitchen has to be a full-on neutral palette.

Versatile Gray Look

Gray is a very versatile color. It can look futuristic but it can also look rustic or vintage.

One of the biggest advantages of gray in interior design is that it can be applied in so many different ways. In the kitchen above, gray is used with simple rustic cabinetry in a monochromatic look that is only broken up by the bright white countertop and the off-white plate ware.

Warm And Cool Gray Tones

Some tones of gray have a warm look while others are cool.

Because of its quiet and detached nature, gray can help you create a pleasant and relaxing ambiance in the kitchen, the bedroom, and every other room of the house.

Gray Kitchen Cabinets

Consider placing gray kitchen cabinets against a matching gray wall for cohesion.

The key to placing gray cabinets against a gray wall is to slightly change the tone of the cabinets to the wall. This helps to break up the space visually and set the gray cabinetry apart from the wall color.

Gray With Eclectic Materials

The choice of materials matters just as much as the color, if not even more.

The type of materials you use for gray cabinetry can impact the way the cabinets look in the room. A reflective surface such as metal is going to give a very different feel to the kitchen than if you did the same gray cabinets in stained wood.

Mix And Match Shades Of Gray

Mix and match different shades of gray to create a diverse decor that’s also monochromatic.

To keep gray from looking boring, one tactic used in contemporary interior design is to mix and match different shades of gray together in the same space. Layering these shades of gray on top of other neutrals lends visual interest to the room without any one single element in it clashing with the rest of them.

Combine Finishes And Textures

Mix and match finishes and textures to make the decor less monotonous.

Another strategy you can use to help break up the monochromatic look of all-gray cabinetry in the kitchen is to mix and match different finishes and textures.

Modern-Industrial 

Use gray in the kitchen if you want to create a modern-industrial interior design.

Cabinets made with natural materials, like wood, gray will highlight materials associated with industrial decor. 

Pale Gray 

Consider a very faint shade of gray, almost white if you want the kitchen to look open and spacious.

Dark charcoal and ash gray might be too harsh. Tone down the whiteness of your kitchen by adding pale gray cabinets. An oyster color is always a soothing.

Warm Gray Kitchen Tones

Although gray is usually a cold color, sometimes it can actually make a space look warm and inviting.

You can use your gray kitchen cabinets as a neutral canvas which you can then complement with all sorts of colorful and contrasting features.

Gray Kitchen Island

The gray kitchen cabinets can match the island for a smooth transition between spaces in an open plan.

Gray isn’t only meant for kitchen cabinets. By incorporating the same gray shades into your island, you can help carry your chosen gray color around the room.

Gray Wood Cabinets

I like it how the wood accents are nicely spread across the room, complementing all the gray.

If you’re doing a heavy gray look with the color on many different surfaces, it helps to break up the monochromatic look of the space with some wood accents.

Monochromatic Kitchen Design

In a modern setting, gray can be the main color in order to create a futuristic decor.

If you use gray as your main color in the kitchen as well as on the kitchen cabinets, this will help you achieve a monochromatic look.

Forms And Angles

To make a gray decor seem less monotonous, play with unusual forms, angles, and finishes.

Gray cabinets can feel sort of bland if all the lines in the cabinet are symmetrical and repetitive. In industrial designs, adding some asymmetrical angles and forms can help keep things from looking bland.

Unified Gray Cabinets 

Even though everything in this kitchen is gray, the decor has an interesting dynamic.

Kitchens can look more unified when you incorporate gray throughout the space, not just in the cabinets. To keep this from looking monotonous, however, it’s a good idea to bring in touches of different textures so that the room doesn’t start to look flat.

Gray Cabinets With White Door Fronts

A nice idea is to have kitchen cabinets with gray tops and sides but with white door fronts.

Medium to dark gray lightens the look by using white cabinet fronts. As an added feature, the gray around the room on the countertops and cabinet sides pulls the room together.

Gray Palette

If you’re trying to get the most out of a kitchen that is decked out mostly in gray, a smart tactic is to incorporate small colorful accents.

Diverse Cabinet Tones

You’re using an achromatic color palette in your kitchen doesn’t mean it has to be boring. Using a diverse set of gray tones can add the visual illusion of texture and depth to your design.

Contrasting Materials

Mixing and matching different gray tones with other neutrals such as cream and wood works well.

Light Natural Wood Accents

Black furniture is a popular pairing with gray kitchen cabinets. Darker furniture can make your kitchen feel small without an open floor plan.

Gray Earth Tones

Although not very common, the combination of gray and earthy colors is quite chic

Just because your kitchen cabinets are gray doesn’t mean you have to have a gray kitchen. In this design, gray cabinets are counter-balanced with copper fixtures and medium brown wood accents.

Gray And Yellow Combo

Here’s another kitchen that pairs yellow and gray as a color combination. In the other yellow kitchen we’ve featured, yellow was the primary color with gray as a secondary color.

Futuristic Gray Look

Gray has an industrial and gothic allure. It looks cool and futuristic – think dystopian brutalism. If you want sophistication, gray provides plenty of it.

Stylish Marble Accents

Because grey is a very neutral color, using it exclusively in the design of a kitchen can make this space look and feel boring. This is especially true when the design of the kitchen is simple, with flat-panel cabinets, minimalist details, and so on.

Introducing an accent color or materials prevents that from happening. Here’s a beautiful use of white marble in a design by studio OOOOX.

Diverse Finishes

Another good way of making sure your kitchen doesn’t look bland even if you’re using neutral colors in its design is by opting for a variety of different finishes and textures as opposed to just one.

Accent Pieces 

Although simple and subtle in nature, light grey can be a nice accent color. Pair it with white in a kitchen to create a stylish, airy, and modern design.

Wooden Accents

Wood is common for making furniture. However, it’s also good for accent material. Take advantage of its aesthetic to add warmth and contrast in your design.

Multiple Furniture Shades

Another interesting and subtle way in which you can make your grey kitchen cabinets look more natural is by pairing them with other furniture pieces and surfaces that have similar colors.

This apartment interior by QUADRUM STUDIO is a nice example in this sense.

Smooth Transitions

You can use contrasting materials, colors, and finishes in your kitchen’s design without making these elements clash with one another.

Creating a smooth transition between them helps the space look harmonious and to feel inviting and comfortable. The grey cabinets match the walls well as well as part of the floor which transitions into a wooden floor.

Light Nuances

The contrast between the light gray and the white surfaces is subtle but enough to diversify the design. Combined with the Shaker-style cabinets, the gray is soothing. The white backsplash tiles and countertops give the kitchen a modern vibe. This example is from Newmark Homes

Dark Gray Accents

Dark grey kitchen cabinets can look wonderful too and here they’re paired with black countertops and wooden accents which creates a super welcoming and cozy ambiance.

It’s a look that suits this narrow kitchen designed by Tom Bassett-Dilley. The white subway tiles have a classic aesthetic and unify the room.

Reflective Finishes

What stands out when looking at this contemporary kitchen is how airy and open it feels. There’s a combination of factors at work here such as the high ceiling, the large windows. This is a project by architecture studio California at Home.

Gray Cabinet Pendant Lighting

Another way to keep gray kitchen cabinets from looking too severe is to introduce lighter-looking materials. A good choice is glass, like the glass island pendants from Lily Ann Cabinets.

Cabinet Open Storage

Go with an open storage design like these lattice-style cabinet doors from Elizabeth Taich Design .Bright gold pulls and fixtures are an unexpected and beautiful choice since many gray kitchen cabinets come with stainless steel or silver-colored fixtures instead.

Recessed Lighting

To get the most out of your gray kitchen cabinets, they’ll need to be lit well. Recessed lighting is one way to add lighting to your warm gray modern kitchen design without washing it out with a bunch of fluorescent lighting. Recessed lighting from Remodelholic gives the kitchen a clean look. 

Glass Shelving 

Using gray kitchen cabinets at the floor level and above the countertops can sometimes be a little bit of overkill with the color, especially in small kitchen spaces. See an example of how to pull this look off at Centered By Design.

Copper Accents

Metallics are always a good match with matte gray shades in the kitchen since the gray color acts like a neutral backdrop to help copper accents pop. You can either use copper fixtures or go with even larger accents like these copper-colored bar stools at MassaRossa.

Green Accents

Gray kitchen cabinets can feel gloomy when darker. Dark gray is associated with rain clouds. In this example from IKEA dark gray feels warm.

Light Gray Kitchen Cabinets

Sometimes just the slightest tint of gray is enough to liven up a kitchen space. The gray cabinets are such a light shade that they almost appear off-white rather than gray.

Warm Lighting

Along with including warmer-toned neutral accents with your gray cabinets, another way to keep things warm is to use warm lighting. Warm lighting casts a light with a yellowish or orange cast.

See how warm lighting and a warm-toned backsplash are used to keep things comfortable in this kitchen design at Backsplash.com.

Warm Metallic Accents

Dark gray cabinets aren’t the only style of gray kitchen cabinet that looks great with metallic accents. Here’s another kitchen with gray cabinets from Wolf Home Products sporting warm metallic accents.

Black Backsplash

White backsplashes are a popular choice to pair with gray cabinets, but they aren’t the only option at your disposal. You could go a little darker and more dramatic with a black backsplash like this backsplash at Simply Kitchen USA.

Gray Stained Wooden Cabinetry

You might associate gray kitchen cabinets with metal and plastic, but a softer look for gray cabinets that can go as well in farmhouse and rustic designs as it can in contemporary ones is a gray wood stain.

Check out these gray-stained wooden kitchen cabinets from The RTA Store.

Gray Kitchen Island

Ade a gray kitchen island complete with cabinets and do the rest of your cabinets in a neutral material, such as the light wood in these cabinets at Schrock.

Gold Interior Accents

Another way to brighten up dark gray cabinets is to try painting the interior of the cabinets a different color.

These dark gray cabinets with gold interiors from Christopher Peacock add an unexpected twist to the design and help repeat the pattern of the natural wood drawer accent directly beneath them.

Black Countertops

White or marble countertops are popular choices to match with gray cabinets, but take a look at these black swirled countertops at Cabinet Corp.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)FAQ

What Is The Best Cabinet Finish?

The best cabinet finish for kitchen cabinets is a semi-gloss finish. Semi-gloss is durable, which makes it a smart option for the kitchen where a lot of water, oil, and other substances will need to be scrubbed from the finish.

Is Satin Or Semi-Gloss Better For Modern Gray Kitchen Cabinets?

Satin finishes are popular as semi-gloss finishes in kitchen cabinets. However, satin finishes tend to not be as durable as semi-gloss finishes, which makes them a little less practical in working kitchens.

What Are The Different Types Of Kitchen Cabinet Doors?

There are different types of kitchen cabinet doors that can be used in conjunction with a gray color palette.

Modern Gray Kitchen Cabinets Conclusion

Gray cabinets aren’t just for contemporary designs. This color works well even in more casual kitchens. The key to installing modern gray kitchen cabinets without giving your kitchen a monotonous look is to break up the space.

This can be done with other materials such as wood, metal, or stone countertops. Bringing in other neutral shades and using multiple shades of gray will make your kitchen cabinets anything but boring.

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