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Design Dilemma: Boosting Kitchen Color with Accessories

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For those of us craving an easy way to dress up a kitchen, nothing beats the power of colorful kitchen accessories. Underestimated perhaps, kitchen accessories — including trash cans, stools, small appliances like mixers, and cookware like kettles, bowls and colanders — can actually dramatically impact the look of any kitchen. Suddenly, a bland white kitchen can pop with doses of red, blue or green. A standard builder’s kitchen of granite and stainless steel can feel personal and quirky. Color sets a mood and lends polish. Color can also distract when you’re stuck with a less-than-stellar kitchen design or outdated appliances and finishes. Don’t believe us? Take a look:

Above, a standard white modern kitchen would seem clinical, if it were not for the pastel colored bowls placed in the kitchen island, along with the colored blue container for holding kitchen implements. Instantly, clinical becomes soft and beach-y. Below, an aqua kitchen is pretty but would be far less interesting  (and feel decidedly less hip) without the bright orange tin placed high on a shelf.

In another example of how just a few pops of color can work wonders, see a standard granite and stainless steel kitchen that would seem dark and a little drab — except for a few bits of warm color in the tea kettle, soap dispenser, kitchen towels and vases.

And here we have a colorful kitchen of happy pastels that continues the theme by the artful use of carefully chosen colorful accessories:

Again, a mostly white kitchen with a salmon-colored wall really comes to life once red bowls, a red platter and red bottles are added to dress things up.

Here are some things to bear in mind when accessorizing with color:

• Choose a palette, and stick with it. We don’t mean to say that every accessory in your kitchen must be red. That might feel a little forced, and provide little visual interest. But if you choose too wide of a range of colors the result may be the opposite of the cohesive polish you’re after.

• Eliminate sources of color that don’t contribute to your look. You want your kitchen to feel colorful, not cluttered. So eliminate the dozens of refrigerator magnets and photos on the fridge. Or if you want to keep some of these, try to edit your collection in a way that favors cohesion. For instance, consider framing your photos in one consistent frame.
• Don’t go too “matchy-matchy.” It can be fun to go on the hunt for violet kitchen accessories. But when everything matches too much, you kitchen loses that relaxed, “collected over time” feel. It’s all a matter of balance.
• Choose complementary colors. A bright red or orange is going to look fantastic in a kitchen with blue elements. (See the photo above). A blue or green tea kettle is going to really stand out in a red kitchen. These colors naturally work well together, but so do colors that are near to each other on the color wheel — for example, the red paired with the salmon in the kitchen above.
• Know when to stop. There comes a time when color loses it’s impact. That happens when everything in your kitchen has a color. So allow the eye to rest by mixing neutral elements in with all the color. That could be stainless steel or white, for example.

Need some concrete suggestions? Check these babies out: Blue wall mounted bottle opener, $34; Green Tea Kettle, $70; Purple Colander set, $40;   Orange Bubble and Brown baker set. $40; Red toaster, $80

Images: via decor8; coastalliving.com; leslieolsoninteriors.com; shinyinterior.com; zimbio.com; via TheNest.com