How To Use Your Kitchen Samples

The Smile Experience

How To Use Your Kitchen Samples

Follow our step-by-step guide to get the best out of your free samples before returning them.

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10-19 April 2026, Olympia, London

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Step inside a real Smile Kitchen and explore the space

See working features and interact with the kitchen

Touch, feel and compare materials and finishes

View samples and colours with your designer

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So You’ve Received Your Samples.

Now The Fun Starts.

Colours can be sneaky little things. The shade you love online might look completely different in your kitchen at 7pm on a rainy Tuesday.

So before you make anything official, put your samples through their paces. Here’s how to find the combination that makes you think: “Yep. That’s our kitchen.”

1. See Them In Every Light

Because great colours can change their mind after sunset.

Look at your samples in morning daylight, afternoon sun and evening lighting.

Move them around the room and maybe take a few photos as you go.

You might be surprised how much a colour changes throughout the day.

2. Give Them The Room Test

Your sample isn’t choosing the kitchen. You are.

Take your samples into the actual space and see how they feel.

Try them in different spots, against different walls and from different angles.

Not sure whether something’s working?

Have a chat with your Smile designer. They’ve got a very good eye for this stuff.

3. Introduce Them To Their Neighbours

Floors, walls, furniture… everybody needs to get along.

Place your samples next to your flooring, wall colours, tiles, furniture and any other finishes that are staying put.

You’re looking for a combination that feels intentional, rather than one finish shouting for attention while everything else quietly wonders what happened.

4. Stand Them Up

Doors look different when they’re pretending to be doors.

Hold your door samples vertically, then step back around 2–3 metres.

This gives you a much better sense of how the colour and finish will actually look across your kitchen than studying a sample flat on the table from six inches away.

5. Check Your Tones And Contrasts

This is where “almost right” becomes “ohhh, that’s nice.”

Look at how the undertones work together across your doors, worktops, walls, flooring and handles.

Does anything suddenly feel too warm? Too cool? Too dark? Too samey?

And remember, you don’t have to figure it all out alone

Your next meeting is the perfect time to chat through your samples with your Smile kitchen designer.

6. Put Your Worktop Sample to Work

It needs to look good. But it has a job to do, too.

Think about the overall colour, pattern and practicality of your worktop sample alongside your doors and other finishes.

And if you’ve fallen for a veined or patterned worktop, remember that every section can vary.

Your sample gives you the flavour, but the full worktop brings the feast.

7. Live With Them For a Bit

No need for a kitchen-based love-at-first-sight moment.

Leave your samples out for 2–3 days. Walk past them. Look at them over breakfast. See them at night. Change your mind. Change it back again.

The right combination often becomes much more obvious once you’ve lived with it for a little while.

8. Pick Your Favourites

Time to assemble your kitchen dream team.

Choose your door, worktop and key finishes.

Before making the final call, give everything one last look together.

If anything feels too warm, cool, dark, busy or just a bit meh, make a note of it.

That little niggle is worth listening to.

Kitchen Features That Add Value

9. Tell Us What You’ve Chosen

Happy? Great Stuff. Let Us Know.

Share your final choices with us, along with any photos, questions or last-minute “are we definitely sure about this?” thoughts.

We’ll take it from there and keep your kitchen moving nicely towards the final design.

One Last Thing: Send Your Samples Home

They’ve done their job. Now let them do some good.

Once you’ve made your choices, return your samples to us.

And as a little thank you for sending them back, we’ll plant a tree in Partnership with Just One Tree.

Great kitchen choices, less waste and another tree in the ground.

Not bad for a box of samples.