Colorful Ideas for Kitchen Designs
August 1, 2008
Color touches us on a very deep intuitive level. Whether you realize it or not, colors speak very loud to our subconscious and have a positive or negative reaction within 90 seconds.
The colors you select for a room will impact you on a very deep level every time you spend time in that room so consciously choosing the colors for a room with this in mind is very important.
When it comes to selecting the color scheme for your kitchen designs whatever color palette you decide to go with a good guideline for using color is to have a 60-30-10 split between three different colors. 60% representing the main or dominant color, probably on the walls or kitchen cabinets, 30% of a secondary color used in the flooring or rugs, as well as window treatments and 10% for accents such as, dishes, artwork, pillows, curtains and such.
A monochromatic color scheme is when you use various shades and tones of the same color. You can still use the 60-30-10 rule here.
Complimentary color schemes are when you use two different colors that are opposite to each other on the color wheel such as red and green, blue and orange and yellow and purple, etc.
An analogous color scheme is when you use three colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel in either the cool or warm colors. Some examples would be color combinations such as green, blue and purple or yellow, orange and red.
The neutral tones include browns, beiges, taupes, black, whites and grays. These tones provide a flexible neutral background for furnishings and can be paired with almost any color as an accent.
The color scheme is not just what colors you paint on the walls but also include your kitchen cabinets, your kitchen countertops, your kitchen appliances, the flooring material and your kitchen backsplash. It also includes your rugs and curtains and hand towels, plants and artwork. The kitchen cabinets will probably be your biggest span of color throughout your kitchen designs and would probably represent the main dominant color in your 60-10-30 color split.
Kitchen cabinets are usually, but not always, a neutral color, so you have more freedom in choosing the color palette because neutrals go with most anything. The brightest or most dramatic color in the color scheme is where the eye will go first so you’ll want to make sure it is worthy of being the focal point and where you want to draw attention to.
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