THE KITCHEN GUIDE BOOK

Kitchen paint color ideas, and general color palette set the general feel of a kitchen. A warm kitchen with lots of complementary earthy, or light wood tones sets an inviting feel to a kitchen. A cool colored kitchen with greens and lots of stainless steel can give a clean soothing touch to a kitchen.

The Remodel-ee must decide on the feel that they are going for and the colors will follow. Look at lots of pictures for ideas, and visit some well designed kitchens also to get some good ideas.

Color palette sections are analogous, triadic, and complimentary.  Analogous colors are colors close to each other on the color wheel like brown, yellow, and red. Triadic colors are triangular to each other on the color wheel like brown, Purple, and green. Yellow and blue are opposite on the color wheel so are complimentary colors. You can also mix and mash the different sections.

There are some great online paint and color palette choosing tools out there like The Sherwin Williams paint picker, , The Color Wizard,  The Color Explorer, Copaso, The Color Scheme Designer, and the Colorotate.

This picture below is an example of a warm kitchen.

This kitchen picture is more on the cool side.

This kitchen with the light yellowish green cabinets, white backsplash, and dark green accents falls in the monocromatic, or analogous category. This kitchen could be a complimentary palett if it had some light purpleish blue accents. This kitchen could fall into the triadic palette with some pink ,and aqua blue thrown in, sounds horrible.

This next picture is a very earthy monocromatic kitchen with the slate back splash/floor, and the dark brown shaker cabinets with the earth colored granit countertop.

White cabinets work well with darker colored floors, countertops and a non white color on the walls.

Even an island that has no sink or cook top is a very useful work surface, storage place, and sitting area.

Islands with cook tops offer a work triangle that is better suited for a kitchen with multiple cooks. The separate oven and cook top locations provide two cooking spots for two cooks at the same time.

Islands with prep sinks also provide a separate work place for a multiple cook kitchen, and offer a shorter path to a sink from the cook top.

Split level islands are classified as a bar, but are good sitting, talking, eating, or working spots. Typical height for an island is 36" up from finish floor, and 42" up for a bar level section.

Breakfast table over hangs are a common feature on islands, and are good for breakfast or an informal dinner. A breakfast style island is all the same height.

Here is a picture of a 3 level island if you think the normal 36' counter top height is too high for a table.

Completely open furniture style island

Skinny Island Picture

Triangle shaped Island

Large kitchen island and breakfast table. This island weighs as much as a small car, so beef up those floor joist.

The kitchen island started as a common feature when kitchens and living rooms opened up into the great room. An island design helps to define the kitchen space from another rooms space, and ads a very functional aspect to the modern kitchen. Islands also add an extra flare to the design.

Backsplash Ideas are mostly tile designs, but solid surface materials can be used like granite, and stainless steel. Back splashes are self explanatory so I think I'll do this page in a picture gallery slide show style. Visit your local tile showrooms and layout some designs with the different tiles, and take a sample of your countertop, and cabinets.

Kitchen design style can get complex with mixes and mishmashes like retro eclectic, or country modern. Often a style is in the eye of the beholder, but I will go over some of the classic kitchen design styles. It is often best to start with a theme and then let it drift into your own mixture, or direction. Good Books, and web sites are the best place to get lots of style pictures, and design directions.

Most kitchens can fit into 3 major categories of Classic, Transitional, and Modern.  The subcategories can sometimes fit into more than one major category: Country, Rustic, Regional, Urban, Contemporary, Antique or Retro, and Architectural/Craftsman.

Country Kitchen Styles

Country kitchen styles can sometimes be broken down by region. Italian Villa, English Cottage, Mediterranean, French Country, and American Country are what I would call country type styles. I hope I didn't offend anybody by putting their style in the county classification. Of course there can be mixes like Mediterranean modern.

The country kitchen style often has painted cabinets in a non flashy color like light green or yellow. The base cabinets usually have legs, or at least have lots of decorative legs, especially the islands (see picture below). The upper cabinets have at least some open shelving type cabinets. Country kitchen styles also often have unique tile back splashes, floors, or counter tops from a specific region. To escape the modern looking stainless steel vent hood the country kitchens sometimes have the sleeve type inside cabinet hood.

 

Modern Style Kitchens

Modern kitchen styles have names like, Commercial, Euro, Modern, Industrial, Urban, Minimalist. Modern kitchen styles almost always use frame-less cabinets with full overlay doors for that seamless look. Regular wood type cabinet doors like oak are not a common site. Stainless steel is definitely no stranger to the modern kitchen. If you want to use the not so typical counter tops, like clear plastic, or all stainless steel, or crazy shapes made out of concrete, then the modern type kitchen style is the place.
 

Classic Style Kitchen

Classic kitchen style is the most common north American style. Classic kitchens can range from gaudy five layer crown to the simple trims of the craftsman design. Some names that would lump into classic are Traditional, Mountain, American, Estate, and arts and Crafts. Classic styles are usually framed cabinets with real wood finishes. At the moment Granite, or Quartz are the counter tops of choice, but tile in the older classic kitchens is most common.
 

Transitional

Transitional is a mix of Classic and Modern. I call it homey feeling modern, or contemporary classic. Transitional is definitely gaining in popularity

I guess this is upscale French country

Eclectic and Retro Style Kitchens are basically a mishmash of collect-ables that meet the owners fancy. Really anything goes with an eclectic kitchen. retro style kitchens are dedicated to a certain era like the 50's.