Kitchen color design is creative and imaginative fun - once you figure out where to begin!
Only YOU have the right answers for your own kitchen. And on this page you'll discover lots of ways to find them and create the perfect color scheme for your kitchen.
Deciding on your new kitchen color scheme depends on how total a transformation you plan to do...will everything be new?
Are you keeping some of your current kitchen the same? Or are you just giving the walls a fresh new paint color?
Main colors are usually the cabinets, flooring, or walls - whatever
takes up the most visual space. Accents are pretty much everything else.
The colors that have to work together in kitchen color design include color in your...
The style of your kitchen may inspire a kitchen color design scheme. Here are some typical kitchen colors for different kitchen styles:
Modern - neutrals like tan, cream, or gray
Country and farmhouse-style - yellow, red, blue, green or cream on cabinets or walls
Cottage - white cabinets with pale blue or seafoam green walls
Tuscan - deep golden yellows
Traditional - neutrals
French and English country - cream or white cabinets with yellow and blue, or pink and green
Retro or vintage - black and white, red or yellow accents
When in doubt, go with the tried and true! The most popular kitchen colors are:
According to feng shui, yellow is a perfect kitchen color, good for digestion.
Strong yellows can be overwhelming - stick to softer hues.
Start with one thing you'd like in your all-new kitchen and "build" a color scheme from there.
Or if you're changing only some of your kitchen, use the "KNOWNS" to add building blocks of "UNKNOWNS", step-by-step, one block at a time.
In
an all-new kitchen, you can start your kitchen color design at either
end, big things or small. For instance...
A hint of green in the new granite countertop you have your eye on might inspire you to choose warm reddish cherry cabinets and green walls (or beige walls with green accents).
Then build
upon that basis to find the rest of your color scheme.
Start with the main color or colors of what's staying. Then choose colors of items you want to add to "go with" and what colors you like.
The colors in your existing kitchen - the hue of the cabinet wood, the appliance colors, flooring - are clues as to what colors will work successfully.
If you're keeping your cabinets, this is the best place to begin your kitchen color design. Cabinets and flooring are usually the two largest design elements in a kitchen. so their colors will dominate your kitchen color design.
This situation - where some things are a given - can be very confusing. I think this is much harder than coming up with an all-new kitchen color scheme.
If you find your color scheme ideas are too limited by what must stay in your kitchen, consider changing the color of the "stayables." What exactly seems to be the biggest stumbling block? Can you do anything about it? Could you, for instance, refinish your cabinets? For how-to, see How to Refinish Kitchen Cabinets.
This subject requires a whole new page! Follow me to the magical land of Kitchen Wall Colors.
For some creative kitchen color design ideas, see how my friend Donna used Color Building Blocks to guide her in remodeling her kitchen in The Color Story of a Kitchen.
You know it well, as do we all - that insidious little voice that makes us doubt ourselves at every turn, scared of what "other people" will think, paralyzed by fear of making a wrong decision.
Don't give in to the critic...I have complete faith in you. You CAN do this - and do it beautifully!
NOTE: The photos on this page were generously provided by talented designer Laura Wallace of Kitchen Designs by Laura.
Thinking of remodeling?
Keep a notebook or scrapbook of notes, clippings and ideas.
Kitchen magazines are expensive - look through them in the grocery checkout line. If you see pix of a kitchen you really like, buy that magazine.
Stop in at home centers and pick up any free cabinet manufacturers' catalogs.