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Whether you love a classic kitchen or want go more transitional/modern with your door style, it's good to know what is happening with color trend directions for designer kitchens.
Today’s kitchen designs are all about the intelligent use of color and the welcoming feeling of openness. It’s the colors and visual textures that really make top kitchens stand out.
White is still hot, and infusions of color can be a kitchen's best friend. Combining cabinet colors is a trendy look that's holding strong, with color blocking cleverly highlighting architectural details such as an island or a hutch. Bright colors are back on the crest of the color trend wave.
Grey is the New White
While the kitchen industry's leading manufacturers say that white cabinets continue to be tops, gray has taken on a big part of the market share. Who knows if it will break white's top spot? We love using pops of gray in a white kitchen: the combination of a gray island and white painted Shaker style perimeter cabinets is stunning. 
Many of the lighter grays are used for whole kitchens, and seem delightfully refreshing. Here's a beautiful kitchen from our fellow Wellborn dealer, Lovette Construction. We love how the Dove gray plays off the colors in the Fantasy Brown island counter.
Interesting grey stains like Wellborn's silvery greys, such as Tungsten over Oak and Hickory are hot. Light silvery gray stains give cabinets character.
When used on an island, they give it an unexpected pop of color that's not over the top, allowing you to retain a soft, light, neutral look that easily works with many design styles, finishes, materials and colors.
The Gold Standard - White
White kitchens are timeless, and endlessly popular in our market area. Ellen O’Neill, Benjamin Moore Creative Director, has said that “White is not just a design trend, it is a design essential." We would agree with that; we have been using a variety of whites in our kitchen designs.
One of things that makes this easy to do is that cabinet companies have developed additional "standard color" whites to coordinate with the quartz based white marble look-alikes, like LG Rococco and LG Minuet that are all the rage.
A Touch of Darkness
Mixing and matching colors helps create some high energy and complexity in a the space. We often include darker hues on islands and hutches. It can be a navy or a charcoal grey. 
Dark stains over cherry are a standby, colors that remind you of the depth of a cup of Espresso. Interesting woods like walnut and mahogany are beautiful, with or without stain.
Sometimes adding just a few notes of a darker shade helps to ground a kitchen color scheme and add gravitas to the room. While these are not color/wood combinations that you might opt to use for all your cabinets, kitchens can handle infusions of bold color, when used judiciously.
Typically our clients opt for rich wood floors in medium and darker stains that make light colored cabinets stand out and add the perfect dose of warmth and character. Here, a charcoal grey island gives a burst of color that really works for this room.
We take pleasure in being able to order not only high end custom cabinets, but semi-custom cabinets as well, in just about any color. It opens up the possibilities immeasurably!
Off Whites
This year's color palette from Benjamin Moore includes White Heron. 
It's a subtly grayer white, which goes nicely with some of the new LG quartz counters than a"white-white". Simply White, Dove White, and Chantilly Lace are three other BM off-whites we love. Calming hues such as these can be a real mood-enhancers. 
The appeal of a black-and-white kitchen never dies. Absolute Black granite and soapstone countertops are classic looks. It's often the case that an all-white kitchen makes sense, allowing the counters to contrast and be the star of the show.
The darks and near blacks
We have done a few very dark kitchens with brightly colored walls. They are striking. Keeping the cabinets such a dark finish in a small space worries most homeowners because they think it will make the kitchen look smaller.
But it actually creates drama when light and dark are balanced in a space.
The key is to keep the countertops and backsplashes light or white, so that you can do something interesting with the walls.
Neon Bright Surprises
You probably remember these brilliant tones from the 1980s. Neon brights are making their way back into home interiors.
The key is that you don't want to use too much, but to use enough to make an impact, but not so much that they overwhelm your space.
Intriguing Woods, Stains and Bamboo
And now for something completely different (not painted!). There are many wood-stain-glaze combinations that are hot. Josef Carlock at Grabill Cabinets reports that they have been doing a lot of trendy and exotic looks on transitional and contemporary door styles. Cherry, maple, white oak rift-cut and walnut are very popular species that lend themselves to intriguing stains. “The smooth, simplicity of maple and the straight linear grain of white oak rift-cut reflect the character of today’s modern interiors.”
Bamboo is also growing in popularity. It is as a renewable resource — a “green” material well suited for a generation concerned about sustainability.
Bamboo’s uniquely figured grain and lighter color tones brighten and define open spaces with clean lines, giving a room distinctive character that sparks conversation among friends.
Conclusion
Whatever your tastes colorwise, keep these trends in mind as you noodle through the color choices for your kitchen, to help ensure that your kitchen is somewhere that you and your family will love to be, now and for years to come.
