What is quiet color? Choosing color for your kitchen.

I refer to “quiet color” often during my color consultations. What is quite color? In my terms, it's colors that are more than neutrals, not the main focus in a room yet colors that just somehow blend in with decor - subtly, quietly.

Which room needs quiet color?

I usually use QC in kitchens because there really is not that much wall space. Most kitchen walls, at least in the homes I'm in, are covered up by cabinets, appliance or just open up into other rooms. In this case, I like to use a color that will be part of the kitchen without standing out to much.

In this Marvin Creek kitchen, I chose Alpaca which gives it a nice monochromatic feel. Why did I do this? The client loved her white cabinets and wanted them to stand out a bit. Keep in mind that this is an open kitchen. You can see the living room, dining room and sun room all from one point. As I took this picture, all I had to do was turn around and I'd see the living room, which was more important to notice than the kitchen wall color. See why this kitchen color has to be quiet?

Another reason I chose a quite color for this kitchen is to avoid the “maze look”. If I were to choose a darker color, it would look like this:

This is a nice look to - more dramatic - but again, keep in mind this is an OPEN kitchen. On the right of this kitchen is a large sun room and I actually chose this color for the sun room. See how it all makes sense?

When you're choosing color for a kitchen, there's more to it then just saying “Oh this color looks pretty in here!” Look around. What do you want to have stand out in the room? The walls? The cabinets? The surrounding rooms? Once you decide on the main feature in your home, you'll know what color to choose for it.