Expert Panel: Kitchen Color
When you walk into your kitchen in the morning, do you want to be greeted by a big, bold splash of color? Or maybe you'd prefer to start your day in a more muted black and white world and then slowly have it transform itself into Technicolor glory? Either way, I'm sure that somewhere over this kitchen rainbow, there's a color that's just right for you.
Mellow yellow. If you're looking for a take on a French Normandy country home, yellow might be your color. "This room was designed to emulate what a kitchen might look like in the countryside of France," says Jo Ann Alston, principal at J. Stephens Interiors. "The mustard yellow is very indicative of a French color palette, and the hand-done plaster technique on the walls, with the overglaze of a faux-finish technique, makes the walls look aged."
"Using just one color in the room allows for other features to shine such as the wonderful wrought iron light fixtures, the copper hood, and the slate floor," she says. "The oak board and Chinese slate floor is a take off on the beautiful herringbone wood floors that you sometimes see in French homes."
White on white. This kitchen is in sync with the overall design of the house. "It's part of a new French-inspired home on South River in Annapolis, Maryland," says Brad Creer of Bradford Design. "The wife wanted an all-white house both inside and outside, including the furniture. The only other colors are the limited use in some of the accents. And the only nonwhite space in the home is the husband’s large barroom, which has a dark wood finish."
Brown is not boring. Kitchen and bath specialist Robin Rigby Fisher explains that "thiskitchen sits between an original 1918 Craftsman formal dining room and a contemporary family room. The only constant was the dark woodwork throughout both spaces. We also had the challenge of designing around a ceiling height that has a 9-inch difference from one side of the beam to the other, so we chose to incorporate the dark wood accent as a crown molding. The intention was to draw your eye around the room, with the goal of minimizing the height discrepancy.
"Using just one color in the room allows for other features to shine such as the wonderful wrought iron light fixtures, the copper hood, and the slate floor," she says. "The oak board and Chinese slate floor is a take off on the beautiful herringbone wood floors that you sometimes see in French homes."
Dutch blue. Occasionally, one element drives the color scheme. "The owner chose the color to match the delft tiles," says James Crisp of Crisp Architects. "It's actually a faux finish with an overcoat of a black texture."
White on white. This kitchen is in sync with the overall design of the house. "It's part of a new French-inspired home on South River in Annapolis, Maryland," says Brad Creer of Bradford Design. "The wife wanted an all-white house both inside and outside, including the furniture. The only other colors are the limited use in some of the accents. And the only nonwhite space in the home is the husband’s large barroom, which has a dark wood finish."
Brown is not boring. Kitchen and bath specialist Robin Rigby Fisher explains that "thiskitchen sits between an original 1918 Craftsman formal dining room and a contemporary family room. The only constant was the dark woodwork throughout both spaces. We also had the challenge of designing around a ceiling height that has a 9-inch difference from one side of the beam to the other, so we chose to incorporate the dark wood accent as a crown molding. The intention was to draw your eye around the room, with the goal of minimizing the height discrepancy.
