Forget White Kitchen Cabinets: This Chic Color Trend Is Set To Take Over In 2026

The stark white kitchen was once considered to be a premium choice of color scheme, particularly around the 2010's — a reasonable follow up to the overstimulating textured trends of earlier years. But that blank slate has begun to be replaced by colors, styles, and patterns once again, even if it's as gradual as a move towards more neutral paint colors. You certainly don't have to taste the rainbow to bring some color back to your kitchen: One of the best ways to add some life back in is by painting your cabinets, and, while you can go for something bold and vibrant, one of the biggest new trends for the coming year is a muted "gray-green." 

A serene, earthy tone, gray-green brings notes of nature into your kitchen without demanding a specific color palette. Even though green is not always considered a neutral color, this kind is not too far off a standard gray or taupe. And since it's more of a color category than a specific shade, you also have quite a bit of range to play with, allowing you to lean more or less saturated based on your preference. 

Since gray-green is an earth tone, it will obviously do well with other earth tones – meaning browns, blues and greens. But it also looks particularly great with natural materials like marble, wood, and other stones. Being a more understated color in general, it also allows you to pair richer, moodier, and darker tones in a way that compliments the color without providing as much contrast as a white would. If you like the clean feeling of white cabinets, you can still opt for a mismatching two-toned kitchen cabinet look, keeping the bottom green and the top white. 

When choosing your shade of gray-green, you'll want to take a couple things into consideration. First of all, there's the issue of deciding how saturated you want your color to be — meaning how much you want to lean towards green or gray. To this end, sage green might be a solid place to start. This is one of the most well-known colors in the category, and if you mention it at your local paint store, they will be able to point you in the right direction. In order to choose the right paint color for you, it's best to gather a couple samples to swatch on your cabinets so you can see how they look alongside your current kitchen colors. This will also help you determine how it will appear in the light of different times of day.