Kitchen Design and Decorating

Adding Personality to Your Kitchen

Giving your kitchen its own personality requires careful consideration focused on decorating, and adding the right finishes and details. The kitchen has to have as much thought and effort put into it as any other room in your home. Many don’t think about this, but most families spend a lot of time together in the kitchen - it s is usually the gathering place and all the meals that they would all eat together. A lot of the kitchen items make the room look very high-tech, but this may take away from the cozy feeling of the space.

If you have some sort of an idea of how you would like the kitchen space to look, then you may already have the skeleton for your design. If you see yourself stuck between the slick and chic contemporary kitchen, inviting and expansive traditional kitchen style and the warm lived-in feeling of the country style kitchen, look at the core of each particular design. Look around you for kitchen improvements ideas - books, magazines, television shows. That way you may piece together some sort of a backbone for the kitchen design, as well as finding possible ideas for color palettes and details.

Defining Your Kitchen Style

There are a lot of different kitchen styles, and choosing one that suits you best can seem like a difficult task. You have to think about the fact that you will be the one who has to live with the design so you must think of it as something that makes you happy and comfortable to live in. While you might like to bring the style that you see in a magazine, do not let it lead your design more than your own desires. Let your tastes, desires, favorite textures, and favorite colors direct your kitchen design.


Don’t rely on trends or gimmicks when considering your kitchen design because it is easy to fall out of love with something like that. You should consider what you are attracted to and what you would find a comforting space to cook in, to eat it, and to live in. How would you like to feel when you walk into the kitchen?

Look at the architectural details in your house and see what direction in which they are heading. Looking at it, you might be able to decide the style you would be able to concentrate on. Would you classify it as something Victorian? Contemporary? Colonial? If the architecture doesn’t seem to tell you much, then you will have to think of how to incorporate one of the styles to make it look great with. You may also think of a different place of inspiration. One of them could be thinking of an art piece that really inspires you and going along with the particular style of the painting. If your house has a kitchen that is designed to be adjacent with another room, you must think of how the kitchen will transition into the other room. You could consider combining the two rooms style-wise, but of course if you do not want it to be too similar, then you could use common objects or certain similar colors to tie the two rooms together.

After you have finally settled down with a style in mind, you are ready to begin creating your new room. Here are a few easy steps you should take for a stress-free design experience:


I: The Map-out of the Kitchen Design

Take all of the possible color samples, fabric swatches, any wallpaper, or samples of hard surfaces like wood or granite you are considering using in your kitchen and put them up on a board. Trying things blindly is not the most efficient way to go about designing your new space. You can even use a large cork board and make samples that are about two square inches, tack them up in different combinations to see what the best possible combination. If something doesn’t work out, take it off the sample board and change it out for something else, do so until you have found your perfect combination.

Add photographs of all the possible details that will go into your kitchen. Look at the board in all light level and see if it actually works the way you would want it to.

When you are making the sample board, don’t forget to write down where you found this item, write down the names of the stores, the prices, and the SKUs of the items. It will be useful while you shop and after you are done if you need any sort of touch-ups. Also if you would like to carry that design into any other rooms, you will not have to start from square one.

Create some sort of a “mini board” that you would be able to carry with you are you shop. Carry smaller versions of the color samples because buying just by using your memory will just end in colors that do not match—or just do not look the way you would want them to in your ideal design.

II: Kitchen - The First Impression

You have to think about the line that your eye travels as you walk into the room. The first thing that you would notice upon coming into the kitchen, the first thing that you would notice is whatever is across from the door. Usually, as the kitchens are arranged, the view is a window. Make sure it is a good view - style the windows with wood trim or window treatments that will definitely be eye-catching.

You may want to add a few potted plants on the window sill. If you do not have a window, you may even want to add a splash of color with art - add a very simple canvas that has a few splashes of colors that will go well with your design.

The worst thing that could happen to the first impression of the kitchen is running into a boring cabinets or even a outdated dishwasher. Hopefully that is not something you have to deal with. You should have already moved the appliances around if that is a problem.

Walk around the kitchen and see where your eye tends to linger - and consider that you might be looking at it because something is missing. If you see yourself in that position, do not hesitate to add some sort of a detail - splash of color or a shelf with a few tasteful accessories. If you happen to entertain in your kitchen, think about the atmosphere you would like to create for those occasions.

Make sure that when you place the items in a way that attracts the eye, that it helps move the eve around in a flowing motion, not have the eye jump from one item to another. Don’t forget about symmetry and that no wall gets left out - as in that all walls should be looked at as the eye moves around.

III: The Finishing Touches for Kitchen

Be aware that when you are adding the finishing touches and the accents to the room that you are adding the necessary kitchen details. Also, it is important that your kitchen's finishing touches are polished classy, not tacky or gimmicky. You can have kitchen details that are bold, yet subtle blending into the room while still standing out. You should keep in mind hardware with original details, a great molding, a tiled mural, stenciled details, or a hand-painted mural. You can also buy uniquely designed kitchen accessories such as salt and pepper shakers, a wine opener, or others.

You can create a beautiful impression by creating a still-life composition with arrangement of objects, you should keep in mind how it will look - that means you should think about the sizes of the objects as well as the color. If you would like to make an arrangement of two to three objects, make sure that they vary in size with one of them being larger. That way they will look as if they belong together and are there for purpose, not ended up there by some chance. Think of where you hang it as well - if it would be above where one would normally sit, make sure that it is high enough so that no one would hit their head on it. You can also use clear containers of pickled vegetables and spices.

Keep a stack of cotton hand towels and change them at whim. One week they can be mint-green and white, and the next they may be pink-and-white check. Or you can put towels of different plaids or checks in a pile. For everyday use, the cotton kitchen hand towels from house-wares and kitchen supply stores are ideal. They're inexpensive, absorbent, colorful, and don't need to be ironed. If you enjoy a pastel color palette in the summer, in the winter you may choose sunrise-yellow and grass-green. If all the colors you pick have the same chroma intensity, they will work well together. Just as the rainbow harmonizes different colors, so can you. The key is always in the clarity of hue. Never mix toned-down, neutral colors with clear colors. The eye will reject the dull color in favor of the clear one.

IV: The Kitchen Color

Color is not only the most dramatic decorating tool, it is also the easiest element to change. You can change the color of everything in the kitchen: kitchen cabinets as well as appliances by using automotive paint (see updates for kitchen cabinets).

If you are up for it, you can use a bold color on the countertop or the floor. If you would like to opt for one of those choices, you should think about the fact that it is not as easy or inexpensive to replace as a coat of paint would be. If you decide to make that one of your projects, do stay away from something that could be considered as a “fad color”.

The way you can see if you really like the color or it is just a spur of the moment attraction is by painting a large sample and hanging it on the wall. Then, you should live with the new color for a few days and maybe even a week. After looking at it for that time in different lights, decide if you actually love the color and you see it having a desired effect on the kitchen, then you are ready to use it.

Color has abilities to create and change moods (see color - mood associations), it also can make a space seem bigger or even smaller, it can make you remember of something pleasant in the past. Light colors are the ones that will “push the walls out” and the darker colors will “draw them in”. with understanding of psychological and physiological effects of color you may also try these optical illusions on the kitchen ceiling - you can give an illusion of a tall ceiling when you do not have one.

Usually, it is not recommended to use more than three colors in one kitchen. Use different shades and tints. Try to not make a monochromatic scheme in your kitchen because that gets very tricky and unless you are able to do so well it can become boring very easily. The right use of color and patterns in your kitchen will make the place come alive.