Choosing Colors For Your Kitchen

Are you ready to paint your kitchen a new color? The kitchen is a friendly room where many activities take place such as cooking, gathering, tasting and talking. The color you paint it can enhance the overall mood that the room sets.

Warm colors are colors in the red area of the color spectrum that consists of colors orange, red, and yellow. Warm colors in general evoke emotions from comfort and warmth to anger and hostility.

• Orange is the color that is most associated with food and is a warm, comforting color that stimulates the appetite.
• Red is another warm color that can stimulate the appetite like orange; however, red is also considered a color of passion in Western culture and effects people in extreme ways. Since red is such an intense color, you may want to avoid red as the main color of your kitchen due to the capability of making a hot room a lot hotter.
• Yellow is a cheerful color that catches the eye quickly. Bright yellow accents can brighten a room and attract attention. Yellow can also be over stimulating if it is used in large amounts.

Cool colors are colors in the blue area of the color spectrum and consist of colors blue, purple and green. Cool colors are often described as calming colors; however, these colors are also known to evoke feelings of indifference and sadness.

• Blue is a color that evokes feelings of freshness, relaxation and coolness as well as evoking feelings of reassurance in some people. Light blue give a room an airy and open feel while dark blue is the color that often represents strength, wealth and respect. While blue may be a good color for other rooms, it is not advisable to use it in your kitchen. Very little blue food is found in nature and the tendency to avoid associating blue things while eating, blue will cause people to feel less hungry. Therefore it is not a good idea to use blue as a main color in a kitchen.
• Purple will have a great effect as an accent color, however, it is rarely used as a main color in a room. It is a noble color in it's deepest hues while it's lighter hues are often refreshing and floral.
• Green is a pacifying color that often represents status and wealth in it's deeper hues while it's lighter hues represent growth. Often associated with nature, this color often evokes feelings of reassurance.

Earth tones are colors that consist of mostly tans and browns. They are considered the best colors for a kitchen since they create a sense of closeness and grounding. These colors also evoke feelings of belonging and ease as well as having the ability to hide food stains because they match the color of most foods.

Depending on what colors it is combined with, white is often refreshing, airy and sterile. It also makes smaller rooms feel larger and more spacious. White is also very difficult to clean and food stains are very difficult if not impossible to hide.

Black is generally not a good color for a kitchen because the color absorbs and radiates heat and it also makes spaces appear smaller. Black accents work very well with large amounts of a brighter color in a kitchen.

While cultures vary on their perception of different colors, individuals also perceive colors differently as well. Some colors promote warm and happy memories to some while promoting bad memories or a genuine dislike of the color with other people. It is important that you make your own color choices when painting your kitchen.