Colour is the part of a kitchen people remember, and the hardest part to choose from a screen. Rather than predict trends, this guide works from kitchens we have actually made: the colours our customers chose, the finishes they paired them with, and what that tells you about putting a combination together.
Start with the 12 standard colours
Our painted (2Pac) doors come in 12 standard colours: Cool White, Warm White, Greige, Nude, Light Grey, Pale Blue, Teal Green, Light Green, Pale Sage, Dark Green, Navy Blue and Black. Several of them are Dulux colours under a simpler name, which helps when you want to match a wall or a trim:
- Cool White is Dulux Vivid White.
- Warm White is Dulux Natural White.
- Nude is Dulux Light Rice.
- Pale Blue is Dulux Calandre.
- Dark Green is Dulux Strong Olive.
Beyond those 12, you can give us the name and code of any Dulux, Taubmans or Porters colour, at the same price as a standard colour. Browse them on our painted doors for IKEA METOD.
Painted colour with a timber look
A pairing that comes up again and again in our gallery is a painted colour with a woodgrain:
- White Coastal doors with Autumn Oak. A Sans Souci kitchen and laundry used Coastal doors in Cool White (Dulux Vivid White) with Autumn Oak woodgrain laminate.
- Warm White Slim Shaker with American Oak. Our showroom kitchen pairs painted Slim Shaker doors and panels in Warm White (Dulux Natural White) with American Oak NAVURBANâ„¢.
- A custom colour with Autumn Oak. Another kitchen put Slim Shaker doors in Dulux Lexicon Quarter beside Autumn Oak woodgrain laminate.
The painted doors carry the colour and the woodgrain warms it up. Our guide to timber-look kitchen doors covers the woodgrain options.
One strong colour, used across the kitchen
Several kitchens in our gallery use a single strong colour:
- Dark Green Shaker (Dulux Strong Olive) with brushed gold handles.
- Finger Pull fronts in Pale Sage, with no handles at all.
- Slim Shaker in Dulux Piglet, a soft pink, on IKEA METOD cabinets.
- Coastal and Slim Shaker in Dulux Algae, a deep green, in a full kitchen renovation.
When one colour covers every front, the handles and the benchtop become the contrast, so choose them together.
Two colours in one kitchen
Two painted colours work best when each has a clear job:
- Uppers and lowers. A display kitchen of ours uses yellow Round Shaker wall cabinets over pale blue Round Shaker base cabinets.
- Customea uppers with IKEA lowers. One kitchen put our Coastal doors in Dulux Domino on the wall cabinets and kept IKEA's own VOXTORP doors in white below. You don't have to replace every front at once.
- A contrasting island or feature. Black with white is the simplest version: one of our Arch projects uses Dulux Vivid White and Black.
Beyond the kitchen
The same thinking carries into the living room and the wardrobe. A BESTÃ… unit of ours has Coastal doors and sides in Pale Blue (Dulux Calandre), a plain top in Dulux Lexicon Quarter and oak handles. A PAX storage wall uses Arch doors in Porters Dark Newport Blue.
How to test a combination before you order
- See it on your own layout. Paste your saved IKEA kitchen plan into the 3D Kitchen Planner, apply one colour to the whole kitchen, then click the island, the tall cabinets or any single front and give it a second colour or a woodgrain.
- Hold the real thing. An 80 × 160 mm painted finish sample is $10, and its value comes back as a discount code on a joinery order of $1,000 or more. A full-size 400 × 200 mm drawer front in your colour is $55 to $100, made to order in about four weeks. Order them from our samples page.
- Look at it in your light. Put the samples next to your floor, your benchtop and your wall paint, morning and evening. Screens shift colour; your room won't.
Every project mentioned here is in our project gallery, with the colour named in the caption.