Picking the right color Palette for your kitchen: Your kitchen is the heart of your home, and it should go without saying, but ensuring your color palette is an extension of the kitchen design you’ve picked. Your home’s overall strategy is vital.
Why?
You don’t want to create disjoints or factions in your design throughout the house. Unless you’re going for that eclectic and disjointed look, you’ll want to ensure that each room (however unique their respective designs might be) ties into the grander scheme of your décor style.
So, let’s start with selecting your color palette according to the design you’ve opted for in your kitchen.
Picking the right color Palette for your kitchen: What’s in a Cabinet Color?
Your kitchen cabinets need to reflect the style of your home, and the color that you choose to paint these cabinets and the surrounding walls will play a significant role in the atmosphere you create in that space. Understanding the type of look and feel you’re going for will give you greater insight into how to approach the matter.
So, for a warm, cozy feel, these are the colors you’ll want to consider:
- Red
- Orange
- Brown
- Caramel
- Charcoal
- Navy Blue
For a bright, clean, and airy atmosphere, these are the colors to work with:
- Azure
- Emerald
- White
- Eggshell
- Gray
- Tan
- Beige
Now, let’s assess how these would work with various cabinet designs.
Picking the right color Palette for your kitchen: What’s in a Cabinet Design?
There isn’t a rule of thumb regarding what colors match various cabinet designs. However, understanding the atmosphere and tone that you would like to impart in your home is, as mentioned, what you’ll need to consider. If, for example, you’re going for a vintage look with a modern twist, arched cabinets in bright emerald would be a perfect marriage of old school and new school décor.
However, if you were going for a more subtle look that pays homage to designs of a bygone era, you might consider a recessed cathedral arch in neutral tones such as eggshell, brown, or gray. Think about the style of your cabinet handles a bar pulls. Are they cylindrical, brushed bronze handles? These might do well with that nouveau vintage look that we discussed earlier. On the other hand, if they are rounded silver handles, they might work better with the latter example.
We could provide countless combinations and examples for you, but the options are limitless. Because decorating and painting your home is a creative and deeply personal process, it would be hard to nail down the more appropriate examples.
Consulting with a contractor is often your first call on these projects. We can help you determine which styles match your favorite colors and explain why. With that in mind, here are a few winning color combinations that you can use per your cabinet designs:
- Raised arch cabinets – pastels, white, cream, eggshell, and beige.
- Recessed shakers – Ebony, barley, mercury, and olive.
- Open cathedral arches – Brown, eggshell, scarlet red, and ash.
- Solid slabs – Gray, azure, carrot orange, and emerald.
- Raised shakers – Charcoal, black, navy blue, and deep green.
- Raised cathedral arches – Natural wood hues and browns.
Painting vs. Tiling Your Kitchen Walls
In your kitchen, you’re going to have several cabinets and fittings. These may include:
- Base cabinets.
- Walls cabinets.
- Pantries.
- Toe Kicks and Moldings.
Generally speaking, if you’ve opted for elegant moldings and toe kicks, tiling your walls might be overkill. You can tile your backsplash but try to keep this as neutral in design (not color) as possible. A great option would be to use a more forgiving satin paint finish in your kitchen and to contrast your walls with your cabinets. If you’ve opted for bold designs and cabinet colors that catch your eye, contrast this with neutral, lighter colors on your walls. Similarly, consider intense charcoal or deep blue wall color if you’ve opted for cream or white cabinets.
Just keep the size of your kitchen in mind because dark walls can make a room feel small if your lighting is insufficient. On the other side of that coin, an overly-neutral color scheme can make a kitchen feel cold and lifeless.
Picking the right color Palette for your kitchen: Summary
Ultimately, the size of your kitchen, the overall interior design in your home, the choices you’ve made regarding cabinets, and the number of embellishments you’ve added to these cabinets will determine the painting methods and color schemes you incorporate this part of your home. Playing with design elements and contrasting colors will ensure you’re on to a winning paint combination.
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