How To Design a Color Scheme for Your Kitchen

Choosing color for your home seems fairly simple right? You find a color, make sure it looks good in your room, brush out  a sample to be sure then paint. But what about your kitchen color? It's more than just choosing a wall color. You have to choose a countertop that matches your cabinets, cabinets that look good with your flooring, flooring that matches your backsplash - it's like “Pandora's Box” - if one element is not considered, you're entire kitchen design will be off.

FLOORING:

I'm a huge fan of both bamboo and cork flooring, BR111. I've done several posts on them and really love the look in the kitchen. 

If I had the pleasure to re-design my kitchen, the tile flooring would be out. Why don't I like tile? It's cold, hard and a pain to keep the grout clean. So in this “just for fun” design board, you see a medium tone bamboo for the floor. It's a “green” product (bamboo is actually a grass that grows EXTRTEMELY fast - like 24" in day fast). You really need to go to to local showroom and look at the grain and just walk on it. It's very cool.

CABINETS:

The panel shown here is actually an oak wood, Cathedral raised panel in a honey stain. It has a greenish tint which I thought was really unique. It also picks up the colors in the granite. So much you can do with this color.

HARDWARE:

Since the refrigerator is stainless, I felt that was enough “silver” in this kitchen - I really dislike the “matchy-matchy” look. So I tossed in a heavier look of Mediterranean Bronze to pick up the dark specks in the granite. The bronze with copper highlights finish on the pulls adds warmth to the room and compliments the granite. Switch plates are a small accent to tie in with the refrigerator. 

DESIGN TIP: Please do NOT keep the stock, cream, plastic switch plates that come with the house. I litterly cringe when I see them, very much like plastic covering on a sofa. There are so many beautiful choices for switch plates and sometimes the little details in design make a huge impact.

LIGHTING:

Just for a little mood lighting, I thought it'd be nice to have some track accent lighting. The tea stained  shades coordinate with the green undertone in both the granite and the cabinets. Of course you'll have the main lighting in your kitchen, I just highlighted this for fun.

PAINT COLOR: 

Definitely go with the green that can be seen throughout this kitchen. Sage/muted green is very appealing to most decors. Try Benjamin Moore “ Shakespeare Tan” and “Da Vinci's Canvas” and an accent. These are two awesome colors to start your day with. 

ACCESSORIES:

Run right to Crate & Barrel. They have the colors that will make this kitchen shine! The rich golds, warm greens and spicy oranges to jazz it up a bit will be perfect for this kitchen.

photo by Donna Frasca

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RIGHT colors in your home.