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Are Gray Kitchen Cabinets Out of Style? · USA Cabinet Store Remodeling Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to the USA Cabinet Store podcast. I am
• 0:07
  Chris. And today we are answering the question
• 0:10
  we get asked more than almost any other in the
• 0:12
  showroom. Are gray kitchen cabinets out of style?
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  Jessica, people are genuinely anxious about this
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  one. They really are. And it is usually one of
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  two people asking. Either they already have gray
• 0:24
  and somebody made a comment about it, or they
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  are about to spend $15 ,000 and they want to
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  know they are not making a mistake. Both deserve
• 0:32
  a straight answer rather than a designer opinion.
• 0:35
  So give me the straight answer. Gray is not out
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  of style. Cool blue undertone gray is. And the
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  thing that actually dates a kitchen is almost
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  never the cabinets on their own. It is the whole
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  2010s package arriving together. Blue gray cabinets,
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  gray wood look floors, a gray backsplash, bright
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  white quartz and chrome hardware with nothing
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  warm anywhere in the room. All right, but I want
• 0:59
  the numbers, because everyone in this industry
• 1:01
  has an opinion. Fair. The 2026 Howe's Kitchen
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  Trends study surveyed 1 ,780 homeowners who were
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  renovating. Wood came top at 29%, up six points
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  in a single year. White was second at 28%, down
• 1:18
  five. Off white, 15. And then gray came in at
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  5%, with green just ahead of it at six. Gray
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  is behind green. That sounds a lot like dead.
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  It sounds that way until you look at the longer
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  picture. We pulled United States search interest
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  for gray kitchen cabinets going back five years.
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  It peaked in January 2022. If you call that peak
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  100, the reading at the end of August this year
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  was 33. So yes, roughly a two -thirds decline.
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  Still sounds like dead. Except it stopped falling.
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  It has settled into a band rather than continuing
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  towards zero, and it has been sitting in that
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  band for a while now. And separately, the NKBA
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  surveyed 634 kitchen and bath professionals,
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  and 96 % of them still name neutrals as the most
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  popular color family. Neutral did not die. Neutral
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  got warmer. So what specifically makes a gray
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  kitchen look dated? Blue undertone is the biggest
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  one, especially under cool lighting. A gray with
• 2:20
  a blue base looks crisp on a paint chip and cold
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  on a wall. Then the gray -on -gray stack. where
• 2:26
  the cabinets, the floor, and the backsplash are
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  all gray. So nothing in the room advances or
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  recedes. Wood tones are now close to half of
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  all flooring choices. So a gray floor under gray
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  cabinets is working against the room. And high
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  gloss, which shows every fingerprint and reads
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  commercial. You keep coming back to undertone.
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  How does somebody actually check that at home?
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  This is the most useful thing in the whole article,
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  and it takes two minutes. Do not judge the gray
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  on the chip. Hold the door sample vertically,
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  flat against your own countertop edge, and look
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  at it three times. Morning daylight, late afternoon,
• 3:02
  and after dark under the bulbs you are actually
• 3:04
  keeping. And what am I looking for? If it turns
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  blue next to your counter, it is too cool for
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  your room, whatever the paint is called. If it
• 3:12
  goes lavender or pink, it has a violet undertone
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  your stone is pulling out. And if your fixed
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  surfaces have cream, tan, gold, or warm oak in
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  them, you want to go warmer. Grays, mushroom,
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  taupe gray, or a brown -based charcoal. So which
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  grays are actually still working? Warm gray first,
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  anything carrying beige or brown underneath.
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  Light gray is holding up better than people expect.
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  In the related search data, light gray kitchen
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  cabinet scores 97 out of 100, and there is no
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  dark gray equivalent anywhere close to it. Then
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  charcoal, which behaves more like a soft black
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  than a pale gray, so it gives a room weight instead
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  of trying to blend in. and two -tone, which I
• 3:53
  keep seeing everywhere. Two -tone is where the
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  demand actually went, and the data is unusually
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  clear about it. White and gray kitchen cabinets
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  is the single top -related search on this whole
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  topic, scoring 100. And Howes found 24 % of renovating
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  homeowners now choose different colors on their
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  upper and lower cabinets. Gray on the island
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  or gray on the lowers with white above is a completely
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  different proposition from gray everywhere. What
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  about the specific paint names? People search
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  those constantly. They do. and there is a signal
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  hiding in which one survived. The named gray
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  that still shows up as a search in its own right
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  is agreeable gray, which happens to be one of
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  the warmer beige -leaning ones. The warm one
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  is the one that lasted. But I want to be careful
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  here. We deliberately did not publish a warm
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  or cool verdict on each paint name in the article,
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  because undertone is not a fixed property of
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  a paint. It is what that paint does next to your
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  counter, under your light. So what is replacing
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  gray? Not white, which is what most people assume.
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  White fell five points in the same year gray
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  slipped behind green. The real answer is wood
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  at 29%, then off -white, then green. On the painted
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  side, it is warm neutrals. Taupe, mushroom, cream.
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  And on wall colors, warm white and off -white
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  are the safe pairing for almost any gray. The
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  rule that keeps coming up is to put the warmth
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  on the walls and let the cabinet stay the cooler
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  element. Not the other way around. Last one.
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  Somebody is listening to this. They own a cool
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  gray kitchen and they are now unhappy. What do
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  they do? Change the bulbs before you change anything
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  else. Moving from 4 ,000 Kelvin or higher down
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  to 2 ,700 warms every gray surface in the room
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  at once and it costs almost nothing. Then repaint
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  stark white walls a warmer off -white. Then add
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  wood somewhere. Stools, a shelf, a board. Most
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  people who think they hate their cabinets actually
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  hate their lighting, and that is a $50 problem
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  rather than a $15 ,000 one. Give me the takeaways.
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  Three. Gray is not out of style. Cool blue undertone
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  gray is. Test the undertone against your own
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  counter under your own light, because the paint
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  name will not tell you. And if you already own
• 6:11
  gray and something feels off, change the bulbs
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  in the wall color before you touch the cabinets.
• 6:16
  The full guide is on our site written by Helen
• 6:18
  Yassar out of our Fairfax showroom and reviewed
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  by Emin Halak. It has the house numbers, a wall
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  color table by shade, and a 12 question FAQ.
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  Thanks for listening. Bring a sample home before
• 6:30
  you decide. Screens lie about gray more than
• 6:33
  any other color. See you next time.