How to keep the all-white look from becoming boring vanilla

White kitchens seem to be everywhere these days. White cabinets and white counters continue to be the top choice of many homeowners, whether going for a classic, country or industrial look. But yours doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s.

Designer Erin Paige Pitts was careful to give a light and bright custom look to the Todorov family’s kitchen in Bishopville, Md.

“It’s very easy to order a kitchen full of white cabinets, but that isn’t what makes it special,” says Pitts. “I look for opportunities to add a lot of visual interest, whether it be interesting tile for the backsplash, beautiful cabinet hardware or unique glass.” Particularly when using white, “it’s the layering of all these interesting elements that makes a kitchen special and visually appealing.” Here’s here advice:

CONSIDER TILE STYLE

If you go with white tile, make it special. The Todorov kitchen has lustrous white tiles that shimmer in the sunlight. Pitts used handcrafted iridescent tiles (the specific colour is Chalk) from the Winchester Tile Co.’s Metropolitan collection. The company, based in England, is a favourite of Pitts’s. “I love to use them in waterfront homes where we want to have light reflecting through the space,” Pitts says. She says the glossy finish of the tiles “reflects on water and brings it into the home.” She also used Winchester light blue (Lupin) tile as an accent to add another dimension.

MAKE YOUR RANGE HOOD A FOCAL POINT

Seek out a beautifully designed hood or customize one so you make

it a design feature instead of just a functional appliance. Pitts worked with RangeCraft to style a striking polished stainless-steel and pewter range hood embellished with a riveted trim. She added a Newport Brass wall-mounted pot filler in polished nickel, which is useful and adds another design element.

RESEARCH YOUR MARBLES

The marble countertop that Pitts and the Todorovs selected is Calacatta gold. Pitts says she is fond of it in white kitchens because of the pureness of the white and the veining. The white sections of Calacatta gold are very white, so the contrast of these against the grey and golden-beige veins adds warmth to a white kitchen. She is also fond of statuary marble, which has slight grey veining. That’s what she used in her own kitchen.

DON’T GO WITH PLAIN GLASS

In keeping with her water theme, Pitts installed “water glass” in some of the cabinets with glass doors. This type of glass is wavy and looks like ripples in the water. It adds another layer of shimmer to the space, especially when the sun hits it.

CHOOSE A CLEAN, CRISP WHITE PAINT

There’s a whole spectrum of white paint out there, some with a little yellow, some with a little grey. In this project, Pitts used Super White by Benjamin Moore, which she calls “the best pure white.”

USE A DARKER FLOOR

Any time you’re doing a very white kitchen, the floor needs to balance the white and ground it.