Beware of Using Pinterest to Choose Your Kitchen Color — It Might Be Your Project’s Biggest Mistake, Say Kitchen Designers

I made a strange discovery recently. I'd have thought the social media app I spent the most time using on my phone would be Instagram, surely, or TikTok, perhaps. But upon checking my phone's app usage, it turns out it's actually Pinterest.

Pinterest doesn't lead to endless doomscrolling as much as the previously mentioned apps, and it feels a little more additive to life. It's about inspiration more than comparison, and I often use it to moodboard my own home projects.

However, it's not without its own problems, especially when it comes to designing a space like a kitchen. Yes, we're all, often, served a lot of the same images algorithmically speaking (and if we're all taking the same inspiration, that specially curated kitchen color moodboard is going to look awfully similar to a lot of other people also in the process of planning a kitchen), but Pinterest only gives you the inspiration, not the 'context', kitchen designers warn.

"Relying too heavily on Pinterest or Instagram rather than letting the house speak for itself is a risk," says Matthew Andrews, head of design at kitchen design studio Cor Domi. "There's a real tendency to try to recreate something you've seen online because you can see it works — but it works for that space, which might face a completely different direction, in a different part of the world, with completely different lighting."

So, how do you choose a scheme that will really work for your space, while feeling personal, original, and right for the context of your home. Let's figure it out.

What Does the 'Context' of Your Home Mean?

Ignoring the context of your wider home is one of those kitchen color mistakes you'll come to regret. " Not considering the flooring, worktop, and tiles alongside the color is one example," says Allison Lynch, senior designer at kitchen design brand Roundhouse, of the biggest mistakes she sees. "Not considering daylight, evening light; north vs. south facing. Not considering the rest of the home; the colors do not have to match other rooms, but they should speak the same language."

It's not quite as simple as just whether you have a north-facing kitchen or south-facing space — it comes down to details including how the light enters at different times of day, how it reflects off of other materials and colors, and how the colors that sit near it change your perception of it.

Ignoring the 'context' when choosing a color is one of those things that sometimes works out; sometimes it doesn't. "Going into a project with your heart set on one specific color or aesthetic before it's even begun can go either way," Matthew Andrews of Cor Domi explains. "You're either thrilled because you got exactly what you pictured, or disappointed because the reality doesn't quite live up to the image in your head, and that's heartbreaking after everything a renovation can take to get over the line. You can be standing in a beautiful, brand-new kitchen and still feel deflated."

As Chosen By

As Chosen By

Matthew Andrews

Matthew is head of design at luxury kitchen and joinery company, Cor Domi. He has a wealth of experience in kitchen design helping to create dream spaces for the home.

As Chosen By

As Chosen By

Allison Lynch

Eager to apply her skills, Allison approached Roundhouse Design when they opened their Richmond showroom. Drawn to their distinctive approach to kitchen design, she embraced the opportunity when the showroom manager took a chance on her. Nearly 22 years later, she now leads the Cambridge showroom, playing a key role in shaping its success. She remains passionate about the company’s vision, working alongside a team of talented designers who continually push the boundaries of kitchen design.

How to Choose a Color With Context in Mind

Figuring out what a color will look like in your kitchen isn't really something you can do with imagination alone, unless you've got a lot of experience. "My advice is always the same: trust the professionals you appoint to assess the site properly and advise on a scheme that actually works with the house," Matthew suggests.

If you're not working with a designer, or a studio that offers home visits for the design consultation, then you can often borrow sample packs to assess the colors at home yourself, though you're still at the mercy of fluctuations of light at different times of day and year, and what you already have in your kitchen. However, you will get a better read on how a color will feel, and which undertones are most prominent in your space.

You might think that the answer lies in AI mock-ups, as many people turn to generating images of what their kitchens might look like in different colors; however, the issue remains the same. "AI can be helpful too, up to a point, but its idea of 'photorealistic' is fairly loose," Matthew says. It will faithfully recreate whichever color you feed it, but again it can't recreate the lighting context of your home. Well, yet, anyway.

But most of all, you need to keep an open mind. "Some of the most successful kitchens I've designed ended up completely different from what the client walked in wanting," Matthew says. "We found what actually worked for the space as we went through the process together. That's the fun part."

How to Detach Your Moodboard From the Algorithm

Relying on Pinterest isn't just an issue of context though; it's about separating your own taste from what the algorithm is feeding you. "The current bold kitchen color trends are here today and gone tomorrow," says Jayne Everett, founder of Naked Kitchens. "Yellow reared its head recently; this can look fresh and vibrant, but I'm not sure you'll feel the same about it in a few years. It's not easy to change the color of a kitchen, and it can be quite a costly exercise, so you need to be confident with your choice."

My advice? Try to figure out if you really love the color and it appeals to your personality, or it just feels right for now. If you find a color that has meaning to you, or is ingrained in a memory, then you'll be able to make choices that skirt the Pinterest machine.

And look for that inspiration away from your phone screen. "At art exhibitions, I’m drawn to color combinations that shouldn’t work on paper but do in real life," suggests Design Lab by Livingetc stylist Iokasti Sotirakopoulou. "Deep, saturated tones next to something faded, how a single color is given space to breathe."

"When I travel, I focus on light and material, how the sun warms up surfaces, how shadows move across a room, how stone, wood, or plaster picks up tone throughout the day. That's where depth comes from, not from adding more, but from how everything interacts," she adds. It's those real world interactions that give you more of a sense of how it feels to live with a kitchen color palette, not just how it looks.

Timeless kitchen colors are, perhaps, what you want to look for, but only if they're timeless for you. Often, those colors referred to as timeless are the least adventurous, too, which might not suit your own decorating spirit.

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