Despite its modest size and lack of insulation, our 1925 beach cottage has its charms, and we spend nearly every weekend of summer there. Cabins of the era, even when not a primary residence, can be a source of endless projects. Every year it seems something needs repair or sprucing up. We renovated the kitchen 11 years ago using IKEA cabinets that we painted ourselves, and it's held up fairly well. I only just refinished the wood countertops last summer. This year I'm planning a cabinet-color refresh to something a bit more "beach-y." After considering dozens of possibilities, I've arrived at the perfect paint color. Let's take a look.
The color on the walls is Benjamin Moore Man on the Moon—a soft, buttery yellow that brings out the best in the red oak trim around the windows.
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| Benjamin Moore Man in the Moon |
The kitchen is the only room where we left the trim unpainted. I'm not generally a fan of unfinished wood trim, however, I think this subtle yellow wall color makes it work here. When yard-saleing and antiquing, we're always on the lookout for artwork with red oak frames to complement it. I'm going to keep this yellow wall color and give it a refresh, so whatever color I choose for the cabinets has to work with it—in a way that the current cabinet color really doesn't.
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| Aura Antique White |
When I was refinishing the countertops last summer, it struck me that the current cabinet color pretty much clashes with the wall color. Aura Antique White, it is a pink-y cream. I recall that when we first renovated this kitchen Aura had been new on the market and boasted a persuasive selling point: You don't need to use primer. We were on a tight deadline and chose the color without posting up samples against the wall color. Always a mistake. So this year I'm looking to correct that by choosing a more compatible cabinet color. I'm looking for something in the gray-green family, a color that reflects all of nature that you can see teeming outside the panoramic windows or a color that recalls the gray-green sea. I've settled on Farrow and Ball Pigeon.
This paint color was brought to my attention in a rather dramatic way in 2015, when Sarah Sherman Samuel revealed her IKEA + Semihandmade kitchen—and blew the lid off kitchen design forever. One of the first I recall to pair IKEA boxes with custom doors, she also mixed metals in her kitchen and suddenly gold fixtures were fashionable again. I believe it was her choice of this subtle gray-green paint color providing the backdrop that let those gold pulls and faucet shine in a new way.
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| Via Sarah Sherman Samuel |
Since then every time I see a kitchen in F&B Pigeon, I take note. As with many F&B colors, it looks very different depending on the lighting conditions and can go from green to gray to a light seafoam.
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| Via Remodelista |
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| Via Beaten Green UK |
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| Via House of Jade Interiors |
Pigeon when used in kitchens is almost always pictured on shaker cabinetry and paired with a farmhouse sink like ours. It's one of those paint colors that can look vintage even when freshly painted. I think it's going to look great in our cottage.
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