White kitchens are crisp, clean and always in style. But maybe you’re craving a change. If so, an injection of color may be just what you’re looking for, letting you brighten up the room without going to the extreme of remodelling.
Color Psychology 101
There are no ‘wrong’ colors for kitchens. With a little creativity and nerve, anything from black walls to neon countertops can be made to work. However, color psychology offers us a few cues that can make color selection easy. Warm colors have positive emotional connotations that suit kitchens especially well (they’re also favored by designers of food packaging). Red is believed to stimulate the appetite, making it a good color for dining rooms or for open-plan kitchens where meals are served as well as prepared. Spending a little time with sunny, energetic yellow can kickstart your morning, helping you shake the cobwebs and face the day. Orange is optimistic, joyful, and stimulating, all of which make it a great choice for spaces dedicated to food and sociability. It doesn’t take a lot of orange to make a kitchen pop, so consider it as an accent color, paired with either a neutral to calm it down or with blue for maximum impact.
Kitchen Color Schemes
As far as color schemes go, you have a lot of options. You might stick with a single featured color, with or without a neutral to offset it; you can use your trusty color wheel to identify its contrasting or complementary opposite to build a high-contrast scheme; or you could apply two hues of the same color. Mid-blue cabinets against a lighter blue wall, for example, can produce a sense of depth and richness, as can a black island against a grey backdrop.
Colorful Kitchen Furnishings
Introducing colorful furnishings into your kitchen gives you an instant brightness boost and is relatively reversible if your tastes change in the future. Consider using a group of colorful hanging lights, like Kartell’s Fly Ceiling Pendants, over your counter or island to brighten the room in more ways than one. Refresh your kitchen and dining area with new chairs or stools in rich, bold colors; our picks include the Diva Dining Chair, the Blossom Stool and the Nuvola Chair.
