THE COLOUR SERIES
WHY DOESN’T MY KITCHEN LOOK RIGHT?
PART TWO
By Anne McCarthy of Advantage Property Styling
Have you wondered why your brand new kitchen just doesn’t look quite right?
Even after all the time and effort working out the right design for the space, colour matching it to blend and work with the rest of the interior colours, you are disappointed, but not quite sure why.
It often has nothing to do with the design but rather is all about the colour.
The colour selection for your kitchen is not just about co-ordinating the colours back to the rest of the interior of your home. There is one very important rule of thumb – the bench top colour must be a good background for raw and cooked food.
It must not be the same colour as raw meat, cooked shellfish or rotting flesh (I feel sick already, sorry about that). These colours include shades of red, pink, peach and yellow. If your bench top is in this range, any food you put on it will look less appetising and less appealing. This actually makes perfect sense when you stop to think about it.
Some years back there was a trend towards bench tops in very dominating colours which didn’t work particularly well. An interior designer friend of mine and I got together to work out exactly what made a good kitchen and why. This was the formula or rule of thumb we arrived at with regard to bench tops (after pouring through all our laminate sample books and putting every conceivable scheme you can think of together) and one I have found absolutely works and takes a lot of the guess work out of decision making. As designers we always want to push that little bit further but in a case like this it is a restraint worth remembering however tempting to stray.
Look to the neutrals in nature for clues in selecting the right colour for your bench top. The colours need to be taken from the foundation of the landscape i.e. trees, stone, rocks, earth and beach sand.
These wonderfully solid forms are the basis for all our building needs and the perfect backdrop for food. This is why stone, reconstituted stone products and timber work so well.
See how well food will look on tones of grey, beige, white, off white and shades of green and brown. Which colour you choose will depend on the rest of your interior and whether you want to achieve a more traditional or modern style for your kitchen.
There are so many exciting products available now to create just the look you want. The timber look laminates have improved enormously and can now be convincingly used with confidence to add warmth and style. If you do use one of these laminates, make sure the colour and figuring relate to the existing interior e.g. a light Beech is not going to work well with a rich dynamic décor. You would need something darker and more heavily figured. Remember what I talked about in my previous article on Colour and Style in Harmony, this is the same application of this balance.
We can spend a lot of money on a kitchen so it needs to be good money not bad money.
Good money is a stone or reconstituted stone bench top – it wears and performs well and is an excellent selling point when you move on.
Bad money is using the colours mentioned before as permanent fixtures – they won’t give you the best result, will be expensive to change and certainly not a draw card for a home buyer down the track.
Enjoy the accent colours in your decorative display pieces on your bench top or shelves. With the delightful variety in homewares available, you will always find just the piece to add the drama or elegance that peronalises your kitchen.
Part Three – White is just White!
For a FREE Property Styling consultation please contact Advantage Property Styling on 02 9667 1344 or email us on info@advantagestyling.com.au
