Choosing the Right Colors for Your Kitchen Decor
One of the headaches of decorating your kitchen is selecting just the right color scheme. You want it to go with the overall decor, but finding just the right colors isn’t always easy. However, the color scheme you choose can have a huge impact on how the rest of the decor looks, so it is extremely important.
Before I give you color ideas for some of the more popular kitchen styles, I’m going to help you understand how to figure out what colors will look good.
If you’ve done much painting at all in your home, you know that sometimes the paint just doesn’t much resemble what the paint chip looked like in the store. Maybe there’s a hint of a color you just didn’t notice that completely ruins the effect. Maybe you chose more than one color and they just aren’t working out together.
With a little extra time and effort spent at the start you can limit these problems. You can’t get the full effect until the room is completely painted, but you can get a better feel for the colors by hanging the paint chips on the wall next to each other for at least a full day. You want to see how they look throughout the day and at night. Colors can look very different in natural daylight versus artificial light, and these are some of the changes you want to be aware of.
Now if you’re feeling extremely confident, go buy the paint and get started. If you still aren’t sure or if you just want to proceed very carefully, get a quart made up of each color you think you want to use. Paint some of the wall area using these, putting them where they would actually be going. Make sure that any colors that are going to be next to each other are next to each other when you do this, so you get the best possible feel for how they will look.
Look good? Now get more paint made according to the colors listed on the quart cans. This is very important. Sometimes rounding off can cause the proportions of the paint to be slightly different in a quart versus a gallon. If you’re going to paint over your sample areas you can get away with just having the regular paint made, but you don’t have to waste that effort if you don’t want to.
Now what colors to choose? Here are some color schemes that go with popular kitchen styles:
French country: Pale blue or yellow. Alternatively go for an old plaster look, which is a faux painting technique the store can probably explain to you.
Tuscan: Another one that looks great with the aged plaster effect. Earth tones work very well. If you want to really get fancy, a mural can be quite effective in a Tuscan kitchen.
Japanese: Think neutrals and naturals. Japanese style tends to be very geometric and clean. If you want a stronger color, try using it on a single wall for emphasis, rather than throughout the kitchen.
Shaker: Natural colors such as sky blue, ocher yellows, grass green or barn red for some surfaces. Walls may be off white. Keep things very simple. Furnishings should show a great deal of craftmanship.
Southwestern: Think about the desert. The look of natural stone is good. For color, think about the sunset or a prairie. Once again, very natural. Native American accents.
Traditional: Somewhat dependent on your interpretation. You may consider traditional decor to include softer colors, or you may feel that jewel tones accented by silver or gold is more appropriate. You’re looking for elegance.
Whatever you do, don’t be afraid to use a color other than white! So many people stick with that color when there are so many more interesting and appropriate choices available. Have a little fun with color and express yourself in your decor.