Selecting the right kitchen color scheme for your property

The kitchen is statistically the most used room in the house, which is why it can often seem so daunting when redesigning or renovating the kitchen. Sometimes it can feel like there are endless considerations; design, style, type of cabinets to name just a few. However, one of the seemingly minor considerations that can have a big impact on the overall look of the kitchen is the color scheme of the cabinets and walls. Here we outline some of the key factors to consider when selecting color schemes.

Painted kitchen cabinets have become increasingly popular in recent years as homeowners are often looking to put an individual stamp on their kitchen. When it comes to selecting colors, as tempting as it may be to splash out with bold or extravagant hues, there are a few factors that should be carefully considered beforehand.

The color of the kitchen or cabinets will be greatly affected by the light in the room, the way it falls and reflects off the cabinets and walls. This means that it is important to determine the orientation of the room, as this influences when the room will be exposed to sunlight.

Generally speaking, south-facing kitchens can often be more flexible with kitchen colors since they receive the most sunlight. As a result, these kitchens can often take on darker tones without making the overall room feel too heavy. It may sound obvious, but kitchens that don’t draw much natural light can benefit from warmer pastel tones.

It is also important to consider the purpose of the room and its size. If the homeowner is lucky enough to benefit from a large open plan kitchen and living space, a different approach to selecting colors is often required. This is because the owner of the home is likely to spend more time in this room and since it serves multiple purposes such as entertaining guests and being the main focus of the home, the color scheme should also be appropriate. for each and every one of these activities. . Pastel shades of gray, green, blue, and cream are particularly popular for cabinetry, as anything too bright could overpower this type of room.

However, many homeowners choose to keep wood kitchen cabinets in their natural form with exposed woodwork.

Darker woods, such as hickory, are still popular, as the wood grain tends to be quite prominent depending on whether the wood grain was cut horizontally or vertically. Other popular woods include oak, which can be used throughout the kitchen or in specific cabinets to create a unique design feature.

In both of the above cases, it can be beneficial to keep the wall colors neutral to accentuate the cabinets.

Finally, many homeowners now choose to combine two different finishes, especially when they have an open plan kitchen design. Many kitchen designers will create custom furniture for the living areas of the room that complements the more functional kitchen area. In fact, a clever use of juxtaposing painted cabinets with exposed wood can help delineate different areas within a room.

In addition to the color and style of the kitchen cabinets, it’s also important to consider the craftsmanship of the cabinets themselves. The overall finish is greatly affected by the way it was manufactured. Cheaper, mass-manufactured cabinets are unlikely to offer the same amount of precision millwork as their custom counterpart, although the initial cost of custom cabinets can be daunting at first, it’s the long-term investment potential that that can be guaranteed to offer lifetime value. .