Kitchen in Gray Tones

With the right approach to decorating, gray color in kitchen interior allows you to achieve not only a cozy but also a practical room.

Gray-White Design and Its Features

Many designers are drawn to these neutral shades primarily due to their versatility. Using white and gray tones, you can create virtually any stylistic direction. Whether it's Provence, classic style, minimalism or other decoration methods – in any case, the described shades will fit. However, it's not all that simple: what should you know when using these colors?

Gray and White in Kitchen Decoration: Pros and Cons

Design: Anna Navey and Louise Stibbe, Balthaz interior

Before deciding to decorate your kitchen in these colors, you should have an understanding of the psychological and practical characteristics of white and gray tones. Their advantages:

• Combining gray and white in kitchen interior creates a neutral tone that does not irritate the eyes for a long time;
  
• Reminiscent of silver: gray color in kitchen interior shows some nobility and even glamour;
  
• Gray-white kitchen allows you to make a bold accent against any person – it's not necessary to be a professional designer for that;
  
• These tones visually expand the room, which is especially relevant for small kitchens;
  
• The shades are practical – cleaning is easier;
  
• Gray color is popular and modern today.
  

There are not many drawbacks, and all of them can be fixed if desired. For example, in case of lack of bright accents and other colors, the gray palette may seem dull in the room. Poor lighting (including natural) can create a feeling of 'coldness' and discomfort in the interior. To warm up the kitchen atmosphere, add natural wood colors.

Decoration of Gray Kitchen Interior

Design: architect Jean Prévost

The materials used should have high strength and good water resistance. Regarding surfaces, you can recommend:

• For walls, vinyl wallpapers or paintable ones and decorative plaster are suitable, and sometimes MDF panels are used. A small pattern is acceptable, preferably abstract. It's worth mentioning the kitchen apron: it can be made from gray ceramic tiles. If the rest of the background is white, a good accent on the tiles will be created;
  
• The floor is better to decorate in a dark color, and as a covering material, ceramic tiles or water-resistant laminate can be used. Here you can play: make the floor dark gray, and walls – milky white. The main thing is to choose a darker floor covering color, otherwise water droplets will be clearly visible and cleaning will have to be done more often.
  
• The ceiling (it should be the lightest of all surfaces – white, light pearl or pastel blue). The most popular option here is a glossy surface on a suspended or stretched structure. But traditional plaster is also acceptable.
  

How to Choose Furniture and Appliances for a Kitchen in Gray Tones

Design: Anna Elenina

The choice of furniture and its color depends on the shades of the room itself – its walls, ceiling, and floor. When buying household appliances – refrigerator, microwave, cooktop or stove – preference should be given to dark gray metal. This color will stand out well against a matte white wall.

The cabinet should be chosen with bright-colored doors – this will create an accent on the furniture and help avoid a 'gray' atmosphere. For example, cabinets can be orange, matching natural wood or green. It's important to remember one thing: it's preferable that the working surfaces of the cabinet harmonize with the color of the walls (or ceiling). For example, a cabinet with light brown (pine-like) doors and milky marble or artificial stone surfaces located on light gray tiles under a white ceiling. In this case, soft furniture can be bought in a color matching the doors: a soft brown shade. The dining table can have a glass surface and a frame of the same color as the cabinet doors.

When choosing shades, also keep in mind the type of surface, which can be glossy or matte. The first option is suitable for small (6-9 sq. m) kitchens. If the room is sufficiently large, depending on design requirements or personal preferences, you can buy finishing materials and furniture with a matte surface.

Best Combinations of Gray Color with Other Tones

Design: Nadezhda Zотовa

The classic option is 'alliance' with white tones, providing full harmony of the color scheme. But there are also other combinations that also allow achieving a completed design appearance in the kitchen. Gray color harmonizes well with:

• red: considered a symbol of love and charm, it is not recommended to use for wall decoration – better if this color appears on cabinet doors or chairs, sofa. Also, it is not recommended to overdo red – otherwise, it will look too aggressive.
  
• green: a color of good mood and spring weather, recommended for decorating rooms in modern or eco styles. If there's too much green, use more gray. A good addition to such a tone will be metallic shiny cabinet doors of household appliances. Or this option: light green walls, gray cabinets with bright green doors and white working surfaces;
  
• yellow: corresponds to a cheerful mood and warmth, adding comfort and reminding of summer to the color palette of the kitchen interior. Yellow color is usually given to cabinet doors;
  
• beige and pale pink: inspire creativity and create a romantic atmosphere. If you want to make the interior feminine, the main background should be light gray, and if a masculine style is needed, don't forget about chrome handles and glossy surfaces;
  
• blue and navy: although considered cold, they give lightness to the room. These tones can dominate when decorating walls or floors. They will also look good on cabinet doors or the apron, but in this case, it is recommended to use not vivid, calm shades;
  
• brown (and also beige): slightly softens the strictness of gray color and adds warmth. In this case, brown furniture made from natural wood looks good in a gray kitchen.
  
• black: a rather complex color due to its 'weight'. Care should be taken here – this tone can be diluted in furniture or partially used in flooring (laid tiles of gray and black colors, alternating in a checkerboard pattern). Overindulgence in black color will seriously darken the atmosphere.
  

There is a common belief that gray color is monotonous and boring, but if you look at the possible shades of gray listed below (most of which occur in nature), then any skeptic's opinion will change dramatically:

• lead and graphite;
  
• dusty and smoky;
  
• silver;
  
• steel and tin;
  
• merengue;
  
• wet asphalt;
  
• anthracite.
  

Kitchen Style in Gray Color

Design: Anna Navey and Louise Stibbe, Balthaz interior

Among the variety of design styles, there are styles where the prevalence of white and gray tones is very appropriate. Namely:

• Loft. Kitchen decoration in this style is particularly popular among young people: accordingly, the room looks free and informal. Attention is focused on rough wall finishing (decorative plaster), floor (tile mimicking natural stone) and ceiling, imitating natural materials or red brick;
  
• Hi-Tech. Here the dominance is of chrome-plated metal and nickel. These are glossy cabinet handles, appliance surfaces, transparent dining table countertops harmonizing with ashen shades. There is no place for decorative elements in the room, and one of the important points is the play of straight clear lines and light.
  
• Safari. Here rusted and marshy tones divide the space with gray color. This allows making the room more serious, strict, and highlighting such style accessories as bamboo items, coarse stone and tropical houseplants;
  
• Minimalism. Here the dominant is a laconic decoration, which gray-white tones only enhance. Special attention is paid to the functionality of each object located on the kitchen. The welcome include a spacious sink, convenient shelves, additional accessories such as hooks, hangers, etc. It is inappropriate to overcrowd the furniture, any decorative details, curtains, patterns on cabinet doors and walls.
  
• Modern (Art Nouveau). Its characteristic 'features': soft curved lines, oval niches, furniture with rounded edges. It is preferable to choose a cabinet of radius type (including corner): convex or concave. Instead of the dining table, it is suitable to use a bar counter. All surfaces are glossy, and cabinet doors are additionally decorated with bronze or plastic elements. The only drawback of modern is that it requires a fairly spacious room.
  

Features of Interior in a Gray Kitchen Combined with Living Room

Photo: El Born Studio bureau

Merging the living room with the kitchen is not only characteristic for owners of tight 'Khrushchev' and 'Brezhnev' apartments. Such reconfiguration can also be found in modern houses with spacious rooms. It should be noted immediately that the apartment renovation is possible only after approval from the relevant institutions. After obtaining documents and removing the wall, the question arises about zoning. This can be done in several ways, taking into account the gray-white kitchen interior:

• With the help of a bar counter. It can be an independent structure or part of a wall partition. The counter body should harmonize in color with the cabinet doors: this will visually connect two rooms;
  
• Through a platform. You can elevate either the living room or the kitchen: most people stop on the latter option, as it is much easier and cheaper (less material needed). Here at the boundary of zones, you can organize LED backlighting: first, it will be clear where the transition from the living room to the kitchen is, and secondly, there is no risk of tripping over a platform step in the evening;
  
• Using different shades of wall, floor or ceiling surfaces. This means that the main color should be the same: gray, white or its variations (for floor – beige, light brown). Only shades that will distinguish zones and at the same time unite the rooms should be used;
  
• Arch (or irregular opening). The inner side should be decorated in the same color as the ceiling on the kitchen, and the outer side facing the living room should have an LED strip: in the evening, if the main light is dimmed, it will look beautiful and mysterious.
  
• Sliding partition. It can be made in the form of a transparent or matte accordion. In this case, choose the color of the partition as gray-white. In the living room ceiling or walls should be maintained in the same tone as on the kitchen: then there will be a feeling of unity in space.
  

If you have an apartment with a bay window, you can very successfully place the dining area there, using a semicircular kitchen corner that will fit perfectly in the wall under the window.

Nuances That Are Often Forgotten When Decorating an Interior in a Gray Kitchen

Design: Irina Lavrentieva and Anastasia Kamen-skikh

There should be no more than two main tones in the cabinet. The second point: upper cabinets should be lighter than lower ones. When decorating small rooms, avoid bright colors – this applies to accent elements as well: they can be made not eye-catching red but burgundy.

When decorating a kitchen in gray-white tones, it's important to remember that maximum success can only be achieved in the union of 'boring' coloration with other shades. Only in this case will you get not a place for cooking food, but a cozy kitchen with a calming atmosphere.

Examples of Interior Decoration in Gray-White Kitchens

Design: BeInDesign bureau

Video

On the cover design project of Olga Kulikovskaya-Eshbi, Interior Box