How-To Guide: Quick Updates for a Honey Oak Kitchen

As a companion guide to 10 quick updates for a honey oak kitchen, I wanted to share what I would do if I was working on a quick update!

These are the best kind of updates - they will completely change the feel of your kitchen, no major renovation required. Without changing out the honey oak, these details will work hard to brighten, refresh and bring your kitchen up to date and back to life.

If I was wanting a refresh in my oak kitchen, this is exactly what I would do!

I hope this board sparks some creative inspiration and that the shopping links help to get you started. (Everything is available online!)

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Head to the resource library to download this clickable, shoppable PDF design board to start refreshing your oak kitchen!

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10 Quick Updates for a Honey Oak Kitchen

Looking for the best simple changes to make when you don’t have the time, money, energy or desire to launch a complete renovation in your outdated kitchen? Here’s my go-to list for 10 quick updates for a honey oak kitchen!

Each of these details alone will work hard to brighten, refresh and bring your oak kitchen up to date and back to life, but in combination? They are a powerhouse of quick, easy and low(er) cost style.

These are my 10 go-to touch points when re-designing a tired oak kitchen without a full renovation.

Each item is quicker, easier, cheaper and more DIY-friendly than any major renovation task, too!

I hope this list is just what you need to start breathing some life back into your oak kitchen!

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1. Hardware

Try replacing all cabinet pulls & knobs with something more updated. Black or silver in simple lines always look great but don’t overlook the lux look of old gold, either! Choose something you love in a style that goes with your decor.

Tip: adding words to describe your style like ‘ultra-modern’, ‘farmhouse’, ‘boho’, or ‘Scandinavian’ to your search will help narrow it down. For example, ‘boho cabinet pulls’.

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2. Backsplash

Backsplash tile is one of the most impactful elements in a kitchen, so if yours is ugly, outdated or worn out, this is a great area to look at changing.

Tiling is fairly DIY-friendly, especially with the new adhesive setting mats, but even hiring out the work is normally pretty reasonable. In a full kitchen reno, backsplash tile is one of the best ‘bang-for-your-buck’ areas.

If this wasn’t a historic house and if I had plans to fully renovate or replace the tile in the next few years, I would absolutely look at adhesive tile, too. These have come a long way and look really good for a ‘quick & dirty’ transformation. You can lay them right over existing tile if you want!

To tone down the orange oak coloring while also creating a bit of a visual distraction, I would look at a neutral color (gray or white) in an interesting shape, layout pattern, or with a contrasting grout. This way the color isn’t clashing with the oak but the pattern of the tile itself creates some interest & distraction.

Tip: Tile the full area from countertop to the underside of the cabinets for the most impact. If there are no upper cabinets, consider going all the way to the ceiling - this doesn’t work everywhere but when it does, it can create a great feature area!

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3. Lighting

If you have outdated pendant lights (above an island or eating bar), wall lights (above the sink or open shelving), or a chandelier (above the table) you can create some great style with updated lighting. Changing these out is normally simple and easy (make sure you do your how-to safety research first if you aren’t experienced).

Don’t be afraid to add something with some personality!

Tip: it’s okay to mix metals in a room but it’s best to have a foundation metal (most things in the room will be this one) and an accent metal (just one or two special areas will showcase this one). Lighting is a great place to bridge the two together as there are lots of lights that have more than one metal color.

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4. Pick a neutral

Since the oak is already fairly ‘loud’ in the room, one of the easiest ways to tone it down is to pick one neutral and repeat it throughout the space. You can use varying shades in different places but the repetition of one general color will look great and read as less competing colors when you look at the room.

White, black and gray (either warm or cool) all work. I would avoid beige or browns with oak.

You can still have accent colors throughout (a palette of 2 or 3 tends to work well, rather than a single color) but the majority of extra color should be your neutral.

Tip: Use this neutral to choose things like furniture, textiles, accessories and even the main wall paint.

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5. Simple styling

Use simple, cohesive styling to create a mood, feel or vibe for your kitchen. Pull things together with a color palette or other similar detail repeated in a few different ways. Don’t distract with too many small items - simple, larger decor items tend to have more impact. Less is more!

Tip: don’t feel like you need to have a categorized ‘style’… often what we love is eclectic and doesn’t all fit into an exact group - perfect! This means you are on your way to creating a curated style that evolves and grows over your lifetime. This is so much better than having everything in a room bought from one store on one day - that kind of styling tends to get stale over time and lacks personality and uniqueness.

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6. Distract with a focal point

Using a feature piece of larger decor or furniture items as the focal point of your room will give a foundation to the style of the entire room as well as provide a powerful visual distraction. Things like a bold area rug, an interesting runner, a large colorful piece of art or a unique piece of furniture (a bench, side table or buffet are common in the kitchen) work perfectly to create big impact.

Tip: These big, interesting, colorful pieces can be a great place to pull the colors of the room from. Look closely at the colors in art or a rug, especially, and see if there are 2 or 3 that you would like to pull out and repeat in things like linens, accessories, smaller art, even an accent wall color.

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7. Paint the walls

Nothing has bigger impact in any room than the wall color. Simple, neutral & clean tend to go best with lots of oak in the space. A cool color will neutralize the yellow-orange of the oak better than a warm brown or yellow.

Tip: if you have oak cabinets or oak floors, remember that any light that reflects onto your walls will have a yellow-orange tint. This orange cast will change the way your paint color looks. It makes big difference! Because of this, it’s really important to test your potential paint colors in the room (either on the walls or on a board of some kind), in all lights, for a few days, before committing to one.

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8. Remove some upper cabinets

If you have head-to-toe oak (floors, baseboards, AND all of your cabinets) consider removing a few upper cabinets. This can give some breathing room for the walls and just take down the overwhelming look of the oak.

If you need the storage space, you could replace the cabinets with open shelving which gives you back usable space. Open shelves are also amazing for styling with accessories, baskets and plants.

To the wall itself you could add a fun wall color, add some feature art or even tile all the way to the ceiling. There are lots of ideas out there!

Tip: I know not everyone is a fan of dust, etc on open dishes, but maybe they would work for things you have stored cabinets right now (less-used serving dishes, vases, tea sets, things in boxes or baskets) or even just for styling alone. Often if you rearrange things you will find you end up with just the same amount of storage space in the end!

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9. Add some architectural dimension & detail

One of the bigger problems with oak kitchens is often not the wood itself but the dated style of kitchen design. Kitchens of this era tend to have lower wall cabinets (they do not always go right to the ceiling), no crown molding or detail at the top, and a flat facade.

If you are able to add some ‘architectural’ interest to the layout of your upper cabinets, this can go a long way to updating the room.

Things to look at:

• moving the cabinet above the stove up a few inches (this is called ‘castling’). You might need to finish or cover the sides of the cabinet box.

• replacing the cabinet above the stove entirely with a more modern architectural hood surround or even a new industrial-look hood

• removing the doors of a cabinet to create open shelving

• replacing the insert of a few doors with glass

• adding crown molding

• adding some open shelving

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10. Faucet swap

Replacing the faucet is a great upgrade and is pretty simple to DIY. There are so many great faucets out there in every metal finish and they are easy to install without changing anything on your counters. (Just look at the number of holes on your current faucet before buying.)

The faucet is a great visual update because it’s tall and can be seen from across the room. Details like this are perfect quick updates - big impact without a major hassle!

Tip: In the world of ‘quick and easy updates’ I wouldn’t suggest swapping out the sink at this time, especially if you are not replacing your counters or if you have a drop-in style sink. A new sink will require a new cut-out and it’s often not worth the hassle of doing that on older counters where it might not fit or the counter might get damaged in the process.

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That’s it! I hope that my short list of the 10 best quick updates for a honey oak kitchen helps you to get started and that the transformation allows you to fall in love with your own kitchen, oak and all!

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New Flooring & Honey Oak

Picking out a new flooring that updates your house, creates a space you love AND that pairs well with golden honey oak can be pretty overwhelming - I hear it often. You are not alone!

This post is full of tips and practical advice to help you choose a new flooring to coordinate with the honey oak in your house. I’ve boiled all my best floor-choosing advice down to 3 simple, example-filled infographics meant to teach and inspire you.

‘What’s the best flooring to go with honey oak’ is likely one of the most common questions I’m asked when it comes to updating homes with oak, but one I haven’t tackled yet. I’m hoping that these graphics simplify the process and help you to strategically consider all of the main areas to look at when choosing a floor that compliments the honey oak in your home.

It’s always hard to boil down what can be a complex decision into a simple work flow, but I hope this post will at least help you get you started with some confidence.

These 3 infographics will help guide you along and teach you some of the process I use when helping my clients choose new flooring, especially when it comes to pairing it with existing oak.

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1. New Flooring & Honey Oak:

   11 tips to help you decide
   

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2.

Tile & Honey Oak:

15 neutral tiles that work

A few things to notice in these tile examples:

• the tiles are all fairly simple in design or pattern (nothing with multiple colors or small mosaics)

• each one is neutral in color

• lots of them have some subtle golden veining to tie in the oak

• I kept the counter and backsplash tile really neutral in these examples, just to give a nice clean slate to showcase the differences in each floor tile, but this type of simplicity does work well with oak cabinetry in real homes :)

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Vinyl Plank & Honey Oak:

10 examples that pair well with oak

In all of these wood-look examples, take a close look for a few details:

• each example is either much lighter or much darker than the honey oak

• none of them are the same golden color as oak

• despite having a brand new main color (gray, dark brown, bleached brown), each of them has a touch of golden honey oak color running through the grain

• each of the samples has graining that is very different from the graining in oak (either much more (tends to be a rustic look) or much less (tends to be a softer or more contemporary look).

You can download these 3 infographics all together in a single PDF in the resource library!

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Off-White Paint & Honey Oak

White paint is rarely just pure white – and that’s how it’s meant to be!

A white with no undertone at all would be stark, flat and harsh. White paints come in every undertone in the rainbow, which makes choosing just one a complex task but gives you plenty of room to find the perfect shade.

Homes with honey oak often face some additional challenges in finding a perfect white that goes well with its golden wood but the work is so worth the reward - white and oak are a beautiful, natural pairing. The trick is finding an off-white with just the right undertones to compliment the oak while giving an updated look to the space.

To help you narrow it down a bit, I’m sharing eight of my favorite off-white paint colors that look amazing with honey oak.

‘I’m just going to paint it a simple white’ is one of the biggest lies in interior design.

Oak tends to be a ‘loud’ presence in the room, with it’s heavy yellow-orange color and bold grain. This is exactly why white walls are such a natural match for oak-filled homes. The honey wood tone is softened when surrounded by crisp, clean white. It’s a classic, timeless look that simplifies the aesthetic in the room, rather than layering on anything else.

Using a near-white can be the perfect solution: it creates a neutral backdrop that does not interfere with the colors already in the space. Off-whites give a clean slate that can be bent to any style with accessories, art, textures, and furniture.

A beautiful, rich off-white can be a perfect pairing with almost anything but when the more permanent features of a home have their own color tone, it can be a challenge to find the right color. You need a paint that not only pairs well with those items but brings a feeling you like to the space as well.

If you’re looking for a bright, neutral off-white to pair with the oak in your home, take a look at my favorites below.

You can download the cheat sheet, complete with the paint codes, for free in the resource library!

This graphic is perfect for saving as a photo on your phone and looking at in the paint store.

Gather some paper samples using the codes shown and take them home. 

Remember that the most critical part of choosing a paint is looking at the samples in your own home, with your own lighting, furniture and décor. Look at the samples at every possible time of day (morning, noon, afternoon, evening and night). 

Once you’ve narrowed it down to just a few, grab some sample pots of paint and paint some foam core sheets or plywood scraps (bigger is better!) and move them all around for a few days before deciding.  Consider the time and money spent in this phase a built-in part of the painting process.  You will be so glad you did!

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The Best Neutral Paints with Honey Oak

This curated collection of 14 perfect neutrals to try with your honey oak might be just what you need to get started.

Neutrals are the timeless foundation of most good home color palettes.

They allow you to create a feeling in the space, give some character, compliment the other features of the rooms (flooring, trim, cabinets, furniture & art), all while still allowing you a blank canvas to bring in more bold accent colors that can be changed out over time.

A good neutral paint can be used throughout your home, especially if the flooring and trim are consistent, making it much easier to just add varying accent colors in each room.

If you are getting ready to sell your home and need to repaint, neutrals are universally appealing and will lighten and freshen up your home immensely.

There’s something simple, clean and earthy about a nice neutral paint.

They tend to be calm & peaceful colors and come in every tone from pale to deep, warm to cool.

What’s not to love, really?

Well, if you have honey oak in your home you might have paused a bit in your search for a lovely neutral, unsure of what will work in a real home where real families live with real orange-toned wood.

To help my friends living with oak (it’s kind of my thing!) I’ve put together a curated collection of 14 beautiful neutrals that each pair well with our favorite honey wood.

Straight to the point, this PDF is available for free, immediate download in my resource library (linked at the bottom) , complete with color names & codes. Save it to your phone and take it with you to the paint store for some narrowed down jumping-off points.

As always, use & enjoy… and remember to get real samples to try in your own home before deciding on the one.

Lighting is the number one factor in whether or not a paint works in each individual room and that can only be seen with real paint in your real house over a few days time.

Here’s my best, most practical paint sampling advice: narrow it down to a few colors, paint some big samples on white boards, put them in the room & move them around a lot over a few days, look at them at all hours of the day & evening, marinate your life in those colors… when you know, you know!

Happy painting!

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