A Generous Helping of Color
If you like color but feel timid about using it in your home, try it out in the kitchen. It’s the most action-filled space in most homes, so gracing it with bright hues make sense, like the “Pow!” power of a comic book. Or look in your closet for inspiration, pulling from items that drew you in because of their hues. No matter what your color style, you can take inspiration from our favorites, gathered here.
Shown: Caribbean-cool blues and greens play nicely against a tomato red island and striped drapes.
Learn more about this colorful family gathering space.
Flavorful Hues
When balancing bold citrus tones, interior designer Walder notes that it pays to be deliberate: “It took a lot of time to think about ways to use color and create a balanced look.” Warm neutral backdrops—such as grass-cloth wall covering—can help ground vivid yellows and greens, while red accents provide punch without competing.
Twists of citrus—here, lemon and lime—bolster the mood of this space. A smattering of red—on the sofa and on pots and pans—heightens the effect.
Check out more on the thinking behind this bright kitchen makeover.
Punched-Up Green
Deep and lustrous, the beadboard’s color repeats in the multicolored wallpaper above.
Color Party
Love Fiestaware? Paint your kitchen in its hues.
Learn a thing or two from this colorist-designed kitchen redo.
Intense Brights
Make your kitchen juicy with fresh-squeezed shades of lemon and lime, with accents in Granny Smith apple.
Get tips on using saturated color combos.
To pull off a lemon-and-lime palette, take a cue from homeowner Nancy Traversy’s kitchen, where bold green perimeter cabinets and a sunny yellow island are united by a multicolor tile backsplash. Dark granite and light wood counters focus all the attention on the cheery palette, proving that neutral surfaces can let saturated cabinetry take center stage without overwhelming the room.
In one TOH-featured kitchen outside Chicago, homeowner Bonnie Connors went all in on citrusy shades of yellow, green, and orange—not only to enliven the cooking space but also to give different areas of the addition distinct identities. She made copies of the architectural elevations and used crayons to color them in a half-dozen different combinations before settling on the final palette. The result? “The kitchen is really happy,” says Bonnie.
Cheery and Classic
Cabinetry detailing and flooring in red fire up this vintage-style kitchen.
Learn how to create an acquired-over-time feel.
When interior designer Candra Scott set out to revive the blandly “updated” cook space in her 1904 San Francisco home, she combined Victorian-era accents with hard-working details from the 1920s and ’30s. Butter-yellow walls highlight glass-front cabinets with red trim of her own design, while a cheerful checkerboard floor and vintage linoleum rug mix with character-filled flea-market finds.
Pro Tip: Dana Jones, a kitchen designer in Long Beach, Calif., advises: “Ask the countertop fabricator to make a matching windowsill to go over the sink. It’ll be splash-proof and one of those accents people notice.”
Get the Look: To replicate the checkerboard floor, follow the designer’s lead and cut cherry-red and yellow 12-inch vinyl tiles into quarters, then lay them in an alternating pattern. Adding chinoiserie-style trim to cabinet doors using ½-inch hardwood strips is another detail that elevates a standard kitchen to vintage showpiece.
Lots of Butter
Painting the island and lower cabinets butter yellow—plus coordinating hand-blown glass lamp shades—gives a subdued sage space—a sunny cast.
Read more on this kitchen renovation as a labor of love for both color and cooking.
Contrasting Colors
Olive green walls and maraschino cherry red cabinetry (that’s equally shiny) play off each other. Green-and-white diamonds painted on the floor and a pale-colored highboy keep the space open and bright.
Blue Standouts
Drawer and cabinet fronts in sky blue pop on a cream-colored background.
Get more ideas for low-cost kitchen upgrades.
In a large open kitchen featured in TOH Magazine, architect Stuart Disston used a two-tone blue approach to stunning effect: a deep-blue island takes center stage, while sky-hued cabinets define the perimeter. Interior designer Sherrill Canet chose the custom shades to ground the high-ceilinged space and harmonize with stainless-steel appliances and the island’s bands of dark wood.
Pro Tip: Brian Yahn of Plain & Fancy Custom Cabinetry in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, notes that clients often request a custom hue—or two: “Paint allows you to put your personal stamp on cabinetry.” With uppers in one shade and lowers in another, blue-and-cream combos can feel fresh without a full renovation.
As Good as Carrot Cake
A coat of carrot-colored paint enrobes heirloom cabinetry and stainless-steel countertops.
Tranquil Green and Blue
Soft blues and greens from the waist down save this kitchen from a drab beige-and-white fate.
See additional tranquil colors used throughout the TOH TV Austin house project.
Sunny Backdrop
Unexpected palettes—here, prussian blue, weathered yellow, and dove gray—make a space unique. Notice how the sunny wall color is carried into the back of the cabinetry, keeping contents easy to see.
Learn more on the remodel of this circa 1840s whaling cottage.
Daring Blue
A hefty butcher block-topped island dons a coat of equally bold cobalt, toned down a notch with an antiqued finish.
Find out more on kitchen islands.
Brighter Skies
These walls—with cloud-white cabinetry and trim—reflect the optimism of boundless bright sunny skies.
Pro Tip: Interior designer Kelly LaPlante warns that too much white can actually blur a room’s details. To highlight the architecture of a sky-bright space, she used a mid-tone blue to ground the floor and define the ceiling trusswork—the same color on cabinet doors and built-ins’ exposed edges brought those charming features to the fore.
Bring Out the Warmth
A strip of turquoise, well lit by task lighting, emphasizes the warmth of the heavily grained wood cabinets.
Learn more on this reader green kitchen remodel.
Color on Center Stage
A minimalist white countertop and backsplash makes a great backdrop for bright, tangy cabinetry and kitchen tools in turquoise.
Get some inspiration from these thrifty kitchen customization tricks.
Subdued Drama
Hues of marine blue—on both wall and floor—celadon, and lipstick red create a dramatic yet mellow palette.
Get more details on this retro kitchen.
Royal Match
A backsplash of patterned tiles picks up the walls’ royal-blue treatment.
Check out the break-down on this blue budget kitchen redo.
Retro Rainbow
A grape-green laminate countertop backed by sun-bleached blue add to the vintage vibe.
Check out additional tips for customizing your kitchen.
Red Hot Oven
A tulip red stove grabs attention in an all-white kitchen.
Explore more stylish touches in this old-world kitchen.
Vibrant Laminate
A modern mix of blues and greens grace laminate-fronted cabinets visually enhances the red and orange ones of the woodwork in this Mid-Century style kitchen.
Get more ideas on how to use laminate in the kitchen and beyond.
Beam-ing Blue
Powder-blue brings beams into focus in a barn red kitchen.
Read other tips on kitchen lighting techniques.
Bright Backsplash
Boisterous tile medallions form the backsplash of an otherwise spare countertop.
See additional high-style kitchen upgrades for less.
It’s Elementary Art Class
Color theory in action: yellow and violet—opposite each other on the color wheel—grace this kitchen.
Let the color wheel be your guide when choosing paint colors.
