Country Kitchen Color: Beyond All White

  |  April 9, 2015
Brett Micklan Interiors

There is no doubt that the all-white kitchen is the standard in home design today. Whether housed in a country home or part of a sleek urban apartment, the all-white kitchen is endlessly versatile and seemingly universally appealing. It works with every color palette, is always bright and projects its clean persona.

While the ultra modern, minimalist version sometimes runs the risk of chilliness with its surfeit of reflective surfaces, the all-white country kitchen is more often very warm in temperament. Bright white walls and cabinets, Cararra marble or similar stone and the use of white subway tile is everywhere, albeit with variations.

But why not buck this trend and add color and personality to your kitchen? Color will add instant ambience and express uniqueness. Well-chosen color affects our emotions positively, contributing to a feeling of well-being and helping to add functionality to a room. Although floors, countertops and backsplashes contribute a lot to the coloration of a kitchen, I’m going to focus here on paintable surfaces – walls, cabinets and furniture.

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Multi-tone and Pale Yellow

There are a few different approaches one can take when adding color to a kitchen. The “safest” place to add color is on the walls as it’s easy and inexpensive to change. You can do this while keeping the cabinets white, black or wood. To pump it up another notch, one can paint walls and cabinets each a different color. A nice touch is to have the cabinets and trim match while using a different color on the walls. Keeping the walls white but adding color to the cabinets or the island is another route, a variation on the all white look that gives the kitchen a very different feel.

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Gray and Multi-hued

Blues, greens and greys are the most popular colors in kitchens today. The blues range from teals to navy, robins egg to aqua. The greens run the gamut from refreshing blue-greens, olive and hunter to acid yellow-greens and everything in between. Warm colors like orange and red are said to entice the appetite. They have energy and warmth that the cooler colors lack. Yellow, with its cheeriness befitting the kitchen’s role as heart of the home, wore the crown for most popular many times in the past. Last but not least, while beige and off-white are often maligned, adding a touch of undertone to a clean white instantly changes the ambience of the scene and creates serene and inviting spaces for any color-phobic home owner tired of the all-white kitchen. Take a look!

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Beige

About Amy Krane

Amy Krane is an Architectural Color Consultant and founder of Amy Krane Color where she creates customized color plans, advising residential and commercial property owners on paint colors. She is also a Realtor at Anderson Agency Real Estate in Kinderhook, NY. Transplanted from New York City to Columbia County, Amy is trained by the International Association of Color Consultant/Designers. Her expertise goes well beyond design aesthetics to integrate the science and art of applying color to space. Amy Krane Color services clients nationally with virtual consultations and locally in NYC, Dutchess, Ulster, Greene, Columbia, Litchfield, Berkshire, Rensselaer and Albany Counties.

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