34 Timeless Kitchen Paint Colors That Never Go Out Of Style

Timeless kitchen paint colors have a rare ability to make your kitchen feel warm, elegant, and completely put-together without ever looking outdated. The right color does more than cover your walls — it sets the mood for every meal, every morning coffee, and every family gathering that happens in that space. Homeowners who choose wisely find themselves falling in love with their kitchens all over again, years after the paint has dried.

There is something deeply satisfying about walking into a kitchen that feels both fresh and familiar at the same time. The colors featured in this guide have earned their place in homes across generations, design movements, and shifting style trends. Whether your kitchen is large and open or small and cozy, these ideas will spark the inspiration you need to make a color decision you will genuinely feel proud of for years to come.

Best Timeless Kitchen Paint Colors Ideas to Try

The world of classic kitchen colors is far richer and more varied than most homeowners realize when they first walk into a paint store. From pure crisp whites to sophisticated deep navies, the range of genuinely timeless options gives every homeowner something beautiful to work with regardless of their style or budget. These are not colors chosen by following a seasonal trend report — they are shades that professional designers return to repeatedly because they simply work across every kitchen type.

What makes these ideas especially exciting is how differently each color behaves depending on your cabinets, countertops, lighting, and hardware. A warm white kitchen looks completely different from a cool gray one, yet both can feel equally timeless Kitchen Paint Colors and equally stunning in the right setting. The ideas below cover that full spectrum, giving you a genuinely comprehensive picture of what is possible when you commit to a color that stands the test of time.

Soft White Kitchen Wall Ideas

Soft white is the single most reliable choice for kitchen walls across every design style and home type. It reflects natural light generously, making even smaller kitchens feel open, airy, and welcoming from the moment you walk in. Benjamin Moore White Dove is perhaps the most celebrated soft white in interior design, loved by designers for its gentle warmth that never tips into harsh or cold territory. Pair it with warm wood cabinets or classic white shaker cabinets and the result is a kitchen that always feels fresh.

Warm Greige Kitchen Color Ideas

Greige sits beautifully between gray and beige, offering the sophistication of gray with the coziness that beige naturally brings to any room. Sherwin-Williams Accessible Beige is the most searched greige tone in North America, and its popularity is completely deserved given how well it adapts to different cabinet colors and countertop materials. It glows under warm LED lighting and reads comfortably neutral under cool daylight, making it one of the most flexible kitchen paint ideas available. Homeowners who choose greige rarely regret it — it ages gracefully and works with nearly every renovation update.

Classic Navy Kitchen Cabinet Ideas

Navy is the bold color that has proven itself timeless Kitchen Paint Colors over decades of interior design history without ever feeling overdone or trendy. Benjamin Moore Hale Navy on kitchen cabinets paired with brass or gold hardware creates a kitchen that feels simultaneously classic and current. It works beautifully as a full cabinet color or as an accent on a kitchen island surrounded by lighter perimeter walls and countertops. Deep navy brings a sense of confidence and refinement that few other bold colors can match in a kitchen setting.

Creamy Off-White Kitchen Ideas

Creamy off-white sits warmer than pure white and softer than yellow, hitting a sweet spot that flatters almost every kitchen layout and cabinet style. Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee is a designer staple that pairs naturally with oak kitchen cabinets, warm granite countertops, and aged brass hardware without any effort. It creates that effortlessly beautiful kitchen aesthetic that looks curated without feeling overdone or forced in any way. Homes with creamy off-white kitchens photograph beautifully, which also makes them highly attractive to potential buyers during resale.

Timeless Kitchen Paint Colors Gray Ideas

Gray became the dominant neutral in kitchen design and has held that position because the right gray tones genuinely work across every style and era. Sherwin-Williams Agreeable Gray is the best-selling paint color in American history, and kitchens are a huge reason for that remarkable achievement. It reads warm in afternoon sunlight and slightly cooler under morning light, giving your kitchen beautiful character throughout the changing hours of the day. Paired with white cabinets, marble countertops, or quartz with soft veining, agreeable gray always delivers a kitchen that feels polished and complete.

Elegant Sage Green Kitchen Ideas

Sage green has moved from a passing trend into the category of genuinely timeless kitchen paint colors because of how naturally it connects to organic materials and warm wood tones. It works especially well in farmhouse kitchen styles and cottage kitchen designs where natural textures and handmade details are already part of the aesthetic. A soft, muted sage on kitchen walls alongside open wood shelving and linen curtains creates a kitchen that feels effortlessly beautiful and deeply personal. Farrow & Ball offers several sage tones that designers consistently recommend for achieving that elevated, editorial kitchen look.

Neutral Kitchen Color Scheme Ideas

Building a kitchen around a cohesive neutral color scheme gives you incredible flexibility when updating hardware, textiles, and decor over the years. The most successful neutral kitchens combine two or three tones from the same color family — a creamy white wall, warm beige cabinets, and a greige island, for example. This layered approach adds visual depth without introducing competing colors that might date the space as design preferences shift over time. Houzz data consistently shows that neutral kitchen color schemes attract more saves and more buyer interest than bold or highly specific palettes.

Black and White Kitchen Paint Ideas

The combination of black and white in a kitchen is one of the most enduring design decisions a homeowner can make, full stop. Crisp white walls alongside black cabinet hardware, black window frames, or a black kitchen island create a graphic, high-contrast look that never goes out of style. This palette photographs beautifully and translates well across traditional kitchen design, modern farmhouse styles, and contemporary layouts without missing a beat. Adding natural wood or warm brass accents softens the contrast just enough to make the kitchen feel livable rather than stark or cold.

Warm Beige Kitchen Wall Ideas

Warm beige has experienced a genuine design renaissance after years of being dismissed as boring or outdated by the gray-obsessed design world. The new generation of warm beige tones is far more refined than the flat builder-grade beiges of decades past, with complex undertones that shift beautifully under different lighting conditions throughout the day. Behr and Sherwin-Williams both offer excellent warm beige options that pair naturally with wood cabinets, stone countertops, and vintage-inspired hardware. Kitchens painted in warm beige feel inherently welcoming — the kind of space where people naturally want to pull up a chair and stay awhile.

Classic Farmhouse Kitchen Color Ideas

Farmhouse kitchens have proven that their appeal goes far beyond a passing trend — the style has settled firmly into the category of genuinely Kitchen Paint Colors design. Soft whites, creamy off-whites, and warm sage greens are the colors most associated with classic farmhouse kitchen aesthetics that feel authentic rather than costume-like. Joanna Gaines built an entire design movement around these colors, and the enduring popularity of that aesthetic proves that warmth and simplicity never lose their appeal. A farmhouse kitchen painted in Benjamin Moore White Dove with open wood shelving and shiplap details is a combination that will look beautiful for decades.

Benjamin Moore White Dove Kitchen Ideas

White Dove deserves its own dedicated section because no other white paint color has earned the same level of universal praise from professional interior designers. It has just enough warmth to prevent that harsh, clinical feeling that pure whites can sometimes create under cool or fluorescent kitchen lighting. White Dove works equally well on walls, cabinets, and trim, making it one of the most versatile single paint colors available for a complete kitchen transformation. Architectural Digest features it repeatedly in kitchen renovations across every style category, from traditional to transitional to modern farmhouse.

Sherwin Williams Alabaster Kitchen Ideas

Alabaster is the warm white that homeowners reach for when they want something softer and more inviting than a stark brilliant white but cleaner than a creamy yellow. It pairs beautifully with quartz countertops, subway tile backsplashes, and both light and dark cabinet colors without creating any visual tension. Houzz ranks Alabaster consistently among the most saved kitchen paint colors, reflecting just how broadly it appeals to homeowners across different regions, styles, and budgets. On kitchen cabinets specifically, Alabaster creates a finish that reads as classic and refined rather than trendy or temporary.

Agreeable Gray Open Concept Kitchen Ideas

Open concept kitchens present a unique color challenge — the paint must work across the kitchen, dining area, and living space simultaneously without feeling monotonous or disconnected. Agreeable Gray handles this challenge better than almost any other paint color because its warm undertones prevent it from feeling cold across large open spaces flooded with different light sources. It creates a sense of cohesion across open floor plans that makes the entire living area feel intentionally designed rather than accidentally connected. Real estate professionals specifically recommend Agreeable Gray for open concept homes because it consistently photographs well and appeals to the widest range of potential buyers.

Accessible Beige Kitchen Decor Ideas

Accessible Beige by Sherwin-Williams is the greige tone that works in virtually every kitchen regardless of cabinet color, countertop material, or lighting situation. Its warm gray-beige balance makes it more interesting than a flat beige but softer and more approachable than a cool gray that can sometimes feel sterile in kitchen spaces. It pairs naturally with both white and wood-toned cabinets, making it one of the most requested colors by homeowners who want a neutral that genuinely adapts rather than just coordinates. Decorating around Accessible Beige walls is also remarkably easy — almost every textile, hardware finish, and decor style works comfortably within its warm neutral embrace.

Hale Navy Kitchen Island Ideas

Painting a kitchen island in Hale Navy while keeping perimeter walls and upper cabinets in a soft white is one of the most popular and genuinely timeless two-tone kitchen ideas in contemporary design. The deep navy grounds the kitchen visually, creating a natural focal point that draws the eye and adds a layer of sophistication to the overall space. Paired with marble or quartz countertops and brass hardware, a Hale Navy island creates a kitchen that feels curated, confident, and completely timeless Kitchen Paint Colors regardless of what style category your home falls into. Benjamin Moore developed Hale Navy to have rich, complex undertones that prevent it from reading flat or one-dimensional on large surfaces like cabinet doors.

Timeless Kitchen Paint Colors Cabinet Ideas

Cabinet color is arguably more important than wall color in most kitchens because cabinets cover far more surface area and define the overall character of the space more decisively. White, off-white, navy, sage green, and soft gray are the five cabinet colors that designers consistently identify as genuinely timeless Kitchen Paint Colors across decades of kitchen design evolution. Choosing a cabinet color from this family means your kitchen will look current and beautiful whether you renovate in five years or twenty years from now. The key is selecting a color with enough complexity in its undertones that it reads rich and dimensional rather than flat and cheap under different lighting conditions.

Light Gray Kitchen Paint Ideas

Light gray walls create a kitchen backdrop that feels both modern and classic simultaneously — a rare combination that explains why this color category remains perpetually popular. The trick with light gray is avoiding tones with strong blue or purple undertones, which can make a kitchen feel cold and unwelcoming rather than calm and sophisticated. Repose Gray and Agreeable Gray from Sherwin-Williams are both excellent starting points because their warm undertones keep the kitchen feeling livable rather than corporate or clinical. Light gray also works beautifully as a backdrop for both colorful accessories and strictly neutral decor, giving homeowners maximum flexibility as their style evolves.

Warm White Kitchen With Wood Cabinet Ideas

The combination of warm white walls and natural wood cabinets is one of the most organically beautiful kitchen pairings in all of interior design history. The warmth in the white paint echoes the warmth in the wood grain, creating a cohesive palette that feels intentional and deeply satisfying without requiring any decorating expertise to pull off. Benjamin Moore White Dove and Swiss Coffee are both excellent warm white choices for this particular combination, offering enough warmth to complement wood without competing with its natural color and texture. This pairing works beautifully in farmhouse kitchen styles, Scandinavian-inspired designs, and classic transitional kitchens across every home size.

Swiss Coffee Kitchen Wall Ideas

Swiss Coffee on kitchen walls creates an atmosphere that feels simultaneously clean and cozy — a balance that many homeowners spend years searching for before discovering this particular shade. It has warm cream undertones that make it distinctly different from cold whites while remaining light enough to reflect generous amounts of natural and artificial light throughout the day. Swiss Coffee pairs especially well with oak kitchen cabinets and warm-toned granite or butcher block countertops, creating a kitchen palette that feels collected and natural rather than overly designed. Behr and Benjamin Moore both offer excellent versions of this beloved off-white family that homeowners consistently rate among their most satisfying paint decisions.

Crisp White Shaker Kitchen Ideas

Crisp white on classic shaker cabinets is perhaps the single most enduring kitchen aesthetic in American interior design — and for very good reason. The clean lines of shaker cabinetry combined with a pure, bright white paint create a kitchen that reads as simultaneously traditional and contemporary depending on the hardware and countertop choices surrounding it. Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace is the gold standard for this look, offering a white so clean and pure that it makes shaker cabinet profiles look sharp and architectural rather than soft and blurry. This combination works in homes from New England farmhouses to California contemporary builds without ever feeling out of place or mismatched.

Repose Gray Kitchen Accent Ideas

Repose Gray works beautifully as an accent color in kitchens where the primary palette is built around whites and warm neutrals that need a grounding element to feel complete. Using Repose Gray on a kitchen island, a single accent wall behind open shelving, or on lower cabinets while keeping uppers white creates a sophisticated two-tone effect that feels custom and intentional. Its slightly cool undertone provides a pleasing contrast against warm white walls without creating visual tension or making the kitchen feel disjointed or disconnected as a whole. Sherwin-Williams Repose Gray is also one of the most photogenic paint colors available, consistently performing well in real estate listing photography and interior design editorial shoots.

Soft Green Kitchen Paint Ideas

Soft green has quietly earned its place among the truly timeless kitchen paint colors because of how naturally it connects to plants, herbs, and the organic beauty of a well-loved kitchen. Muted, gray-green tones work particularly well in kitchens with stone countertops, aged brass hardware, and natural wood accents that share the same earthy, grounded quality. Farrow & Ball’s green tones have become especially sought-after in design-conscious kitchens for their complex, paint-quality pigmentation that creates a depth and richness difficult to achieve with standard paint. A soft green kitchen feels simultaneously current and deeply classic — a combination that defines what timeless Kitchen Paint Colors really means in interior design terms.

Classic Cream Kitchen Color Ideas

Cream kitchens have a long and distinguished design history that stretches back through decades of beautiful homes across Europe and North America. The best cream kitchen paints sit firmly between white and yellow without tipping too far in either direction, creating a warm, honeyed backdrop that flatters natural light beautifully. This color works particularly well in traditional kitchen designs with decorative cabinet details, crown molding, and period-appropriate hardware that benefit from a warmer backdrop than pure white provides. Cream kitchens also photograph with a warmth and richness that makes them consistently popular among home staging professionals preparing properties for sale.

Timeless Kitchen paint colors With Marble Countertop Ideas

Marble countertops are one of the most luxurious and timeless kitchen paint colors features available, and choosing the right paint color to complement them is a genuinely important design decision. Soft whites and warm off-whites almost always work beautifully with white Carrara or Calacatta marble because they echo the white base of the stone without competing with its gray or gold veining. Warm greige tones work equally well with marble that has beige or brown veining, creating a sophisticated monochromatic effect that feels refined and completely pulled together. Avoid cool grays with warm-veined marble — the undertone clash creates a visual tension that undermines the natural beauty of the stone.

Dark Kitchen Paint Color Ideas

Dark kitchen paint colors — used correctly — create some of the most dramatic and genuinely timeless kitchen paint colors spaces in contemporary interior design. Deep charcoal, rich forest green, and sophisticated navy all fall into this category of bold colors that reward the homeowners confident enough to commit to them fully. The key to making dark kitchen paint feel timeless rather than trendy is pairing it with natural materials — marble, wood, stone, or brass — that have their own inherent warmth and depth. Architectural Digest features dark kitchen designs repeatedly because they photograph with a richness and drama that lighter palettes simply cannot match at the same level.

Transitional Kitchen Paint Color Ideas

Transitional kitchen design sits beautifully between traditional and contemporary styles, and its paint color needs reflect that balanced, neither-too-formal-nor-too-casual aesthetic perfectly. Warm grays, soft whites, and greige tones are the most natural fit for transitional kitchens because they bridge the gap between old-world warmth and modern simplicity without belonging exclusively to either category. Sherwin-Williams Agreeable Gray and Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter are both frequently cited as ideal transitional kitchen paint colors by designers who specialize in this particular style. The goal in a transitional kitchen is a paint color that feels timeless from every angle — neither dated by traditional associations nor cold from overly modern minimalism.

Chantilly Lace Kitchen Design Ideas

Chantilly Lace by Benjamin Moore is widely considered the most perfect crisp white paint color available for kitchen applications across every design style and home type. It has virtually no visible undertone, which means it reads as a clean, pure white under nearly every lighting condition without shifting toward pink, yellow, or blue as many other whites do. On kitchen cabinets it creates a finish that looks professionally painted and permanently fresh — the kind of white that makes everything around it look cleaner and more refined by comparison. Designers who work on high-end kitchen renovations reach for Chantilly Lace repeatedly because it delivers a consistent, reliable result that photographs beautifully and satisfies clients long after the project is complete.

Warm Neutral Kitchen With Oak Cabinet Ideas

Oak cabinets experienced a major design renaissance as the design world rediscovered the beauty of natural wood grain and warm, organic kitchen aesthetics. Pairing oak cabinets with warm white or creamy off-white walls creates a kitchen that feels simultaneously nostalgic and completely current in today’s design landscape. Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee and Sherwin-Williams Creamy are both excellent choices for this pairing, offering enough warmth to complement oak’s honey tones without creating a palette that feels overly yellow or dated. Adding matte black hardware to this warm neutral combination creates a beautiful modern contrast that keeps the overall look feeling fresh and intentional.

Bright White Kitchen With Subway Tile Ideas

Bright white walls behind classic white subway tile create a kitchen that feels endlessly clean, open, and timelessly beautiful regardless of the decade or design trend surrounding it. The key to preventing this combination from feeling cold or sterile is introducing warmth through wood accents, woven textiles, plants, and hardware in aged brass or warm matte black finishes. Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace on walls behind white subway tile backsplash creates a seamless, cohesive look that feels custom-designed rather than default or builder-grade. This combination works equally well in small galley kitchens and large open-concept spaces, adapting gracefully to whatever scale it occupies.

Cozy Cottage Kitchen Paint Ideas

Cottage kitchens thrive on warmth, character, and a sense of lived-in beauty that feels collected over time rather than purchased all at once from a single showroom. Creamy whites, soft sage greens, warm beiges, and muted blues are the colors that most authentically capture the cottage kitchen aesthetic without crossing into themed or kitschy territory. Farrow & Ball’s color palette offers several tones that work beautifully in cottage kitchen settings, particularly their muted greens and complex off-whites that have a depth and richness rare in standard paint lines. A cottage kitchen painted in the right warm neutral feels like a place where real cooking, real conversations, and real life actually happen every single day.

Timeless Kitchen paint colors for Small Kitchen Ideas

Small kitchens benefit enormously from careful paint color selection because the wrong shade can make an already compact space feel dark, claustrophobic, and visually overwhelming very quickly. Soft whites, light grays, and warm off-whites with high light reflectance values are the most reliable choices for small kitchens that need every visual advantage available. Benjamin Moore White Dove and Sherwin-Williams Alabaster both have excellent light reflectance values that bounce natural and artificial light around small spaces far more effectively than darker or more saturated colors. Keeping walls, cabinets, and trim in the same color family — a technique called tone-on-tone painting — also makes small kitchens feel significantly larger and more cohesive than contrasting colors would.

Classic Black Kitchen Cabinet Paint Ideas

Black kitchen cabinets are a genuinely bold choice that has moved firmly into timeless territory after years of consistent presence in high-end kitchen design editorial coverage. The right black for kitchen cabinets is not a flat, lifeless black but rather a complex, slightly warm or slightly cool deep tone that shows depth and dimension across cabinet door profiles and drawer fronts. Paired with white marble countertops, brass hardware, and soft white walls, black cabinets create a kitchen that feels simultaneously dramatic and completely classic — a combination that has appeared in beautiful homes for well over a century. Benjamin Moore Onyx and Sherwin-Williams Tricorn Black are both excellent starting points for homeowners ready to commit to this bold but genuinely timeless cabinet color.

Greige Kitchen Wall With Quartz Countertop Ideas

Greige walls and quartz countertops are perhaps the most practical pairing in contemporary kitchen design because both materials are simultaneously beautiful and extraordinarily durable in daily use. The warm neutrality of greige walls complements the clean, consistent appearance of quartz without creating any visual tension between the two surfaces sharing the same space. Sherwin-Williams Accessible Beige alongside a white or soft gray quartz creates a kitchen that feels luxurious and effortlessly maintained — exactly the combination that appeals to busy homeowners who want beauty without constant upkeep. This pairing also appeals strongly to home buyers during resale, making it one of the most financially sound kitchen paint decisions available.

Timeless Kitchen Paint Colors for Resale Value Ideas

Choosing kitchen paint colors with resale value in mind is one of the smartest financial decisions a homeowner can make before listing a property on the market. Real estate professionals consistently report that soft whites, warm grays, and greige tones reduce time on market and attract more competitive offers than bold or highly personalized kitchen colors. Neutral, buyer-friendly kitchen colors allow potential buyers to imagine their own belongings and personal style in the space — a psychological advantage that directly impacts their willingness to make strong offers. HGTV renovation data supports this consistently, showing that neutral kitchen paint updates deliver some of the highest returns on investment of any cosmetic improvement available to homeowners preparing to sell.

FAQs About Timeless Kitchen Paint Colors Ideas

What are the most timeless kitchen paint colors?

Soft whites, warm grays, creamy off-whites, and greige tones are universally recognized as the most timeless kitchen paint colors across generations of interior design. Benjamin Moore White Dove, Sherwin-Williams Agreeable Gray, and Accessible Beige consistently top designer recommendation lists year after year. These colors work because they adapt gracefully to changing cabinet styles, hardware trends, and countertop materials without ever feeling locked into a specific era. Choosing from this family of neutrals gives your kitchen the best possible foundation for lasting beauty and broad appeal.

Which paint finish works best on kitchen walls?

Eggshell finish is the most widely recommended option for kitchen walls because it strikes the perfect balance between cleanability and visual warmth in daily use. It resists moisture and grease far better than flat or matte finishes while avoiding the reflective shine that makes satin or semi-gloss feel overly commercial on large wall surfaces. Satin finish is the right step up for high-traffic family kitchens where walls need more frequent and more vigorous cleaning than eggshell can comfortably handle. Semi-gloss is best reserved for kitchen trim, cabinet doors, and drawer fronts where maximum durability and easy cleaning matter most.

Do timeless kitchen paint colors work in small kitchens?

Timeless kitchen paint colors work beautifully in small kitchens — in fact, the right classic neutral can make a compact kitchen feel significantly larger and more open than its actual square footage suggests. Soft whites and light grays with high light reflectance values are particularly effective in small kitchens because they bounce both natural and artificial light around the space rather than absorbing it. Keeping walls and cabinets in the same color family — a tone-on-tone approach — further reduces visual clutter and creates a sense of seamless spaciousness that darker or more contrasting palettes cannot achieve. Small kitchens painted in timeless neutrals also photograph better, which matters enormously during home sales and rental listings.

What timeless kitchen paint colors increase home resale value?

Soft whites, warm grays, and greige tones consistently deliver the strongest resale value improvements among all kitchen paint color categories according to real estate professionals across North America. These colors appeal to the broadest possible range of buyers because they feel move-in ready, clean, and adaptable to different personal styles and furniture choices. Sherwin-Williams Agreeable Gray and Benjamin Moore White Dove are two specific colors that real estate staging professionals reach for repeatedly when preparing kitchens for competitive markets. Avoiding bold, trendy, or highly personal color choices in kitchens before selling is one of the most straightforward pieces of advice that agents give to sellers preparing for listing.

How do I test kitchen paint colors before making a final decision?

Purchase small sample pots of your top two or three color choices and paint generous swatches — at least twelve inches square — directly on your kitchen walls rather than evaluating tiny chips under store lighting. Live with those swatches for a minimum of three full days, observing how morning sunlight, afternoon light, and evening artificial lighting change each color’s appearance across different times of day. Pay particular attention to undertones — pinks, greens, and yellows often only reveal themselves under specific lighting conditions that a small chip in a paint store cannot accurately replicate. Taking photos of the swatches at different times of day also helps you compare colors more objectively than relying solely on your in-person perception of each tone.

Conclusion of timeless kitchen paint colors

Timeless kitchen paint colors are ultimately about choosing something that makes you genuinely happy every single time you walk into the room — not something that simply follows the current season’s trend report. The ideas covered in this guide represent decades of collective design wisdom, real-world homeowner experience, and consistent professional endorsement from some of the most respected voices in interior design. Whether you gravitate toward a crisp white, a warm greige, a sophisticated navy, or a soft sage green, the right timeless color is out there waiting to transform your kitchen into something truly beautiful.

Take your time, test your favorites on real walls in real light, and trust your instincts about what genuinely moves you when you see it. The most beautiful kitchens are always the ones where the homeowner made a confident, personal color decision rather than defaulting to whatever felt safest or most generic in the moment. Your kitchen deserves a color with soul — and every idea in this guide gives you a genuine starting point for finding exactly that.