Designing Today's Kitchens with Color

I went to the largest party thrown by the City of San Antonio last night - Night in Old San Antonio (NIOSA) - during Fiesta Week.   I mention this because I was still in my "work uniform" of black and gray with a string of pearls as I went straight from work to the celebrated event.  I felt so out of sync with all the fun, colorful fiesta clothing everyone was wearing...once again realizing how important color can affect our moods.  Color can make us feel many emotions from somber to party mode!

Since I'm in the world of designing and coordinating kitchens, I am always looking for inspiration of color parings and trends.   Many clients want to bring color into their design but end up assuming the "deer in the headlights" mode in their decision making.

Color can be brought in through the appliances, counter tops, flooring and paint.  Even the selection of light to dark wood brings color to the design.  Material selections are endless from quartz countertops to wood veneers with just as many colors and textures to choose. 

Making a choice can be overwhelming!  What gives clients the most angst?  Whether or not they will be able to live with the color for the life of the kitchen and the lack of confidence in their color selection...often just settling for stainless.  While stainless is very popular, color could make their kitchen design sing!
Even a safe choice of a black range over stainless can make the "old world" look the client is trying to achieve come alive.  Or, the choice of  a white range in a very contemporary kitchen can make more of a "Zen" statement.

While I love to offer my 2 cents to the conversation, my best advice is to choose colors that you have always seem to be drawn to and look at colors that can be found in nature for your color palette.  Choosing natural materials like stone or wood is usually a safe bet...look at how older homes with wood and stone floors have held the test of time.   A great source - and probably worth more than my 2 cents is HGTV's  decorating and advice site for designing with color: 




Ok, so you just can't make that color selection?  Paint a wall...all white cabinets in a cocoon of color such as a fun tangerine or a sophisticated taupe would be stunning.   And, we all know how easy it is to change paint color...almost as easy as it is to change our mind!