Hot hues: experimenting with colour in the kitchen

The kitchen is one of the most important rooms of your home and somewhere that you can really experiment with colour and individuality to create something spectacular.

As the place where your family comes together to prepare nourishing meals, it’s important to create a space that you love and works for your lifestyle. Colour is an amazing way to achieve this. With so many beautiful and creative combinations to experiment with - depending on everything from your sense of style to the light in the room - the kitchen is a great place to explore a more adventurous approach to colour.

Throughout the process of writing our new book, we’ve spent hours researching and discussing colour and have had the luxury of immersing ourselves in some spectacular houses across the globe that are bursting with colour and creativity.

Whether you’re feeling fearless with bold kitchen paint colour or are looking to introduce colour in a more subtle way through your choice of furniture, artwork and accessories, there’s a wealth of inspiration out there for creating your very own colourful kitchen. Here are a few of our favourite kitchen colour schemes from the book (and beyond) to enchant and inspire your own journey into the wonderful world of colour…

GROWN-UP PINK

Capturing the world by storm, millennial pink has mellowed over time to introduce earthy, plaster shades of pink that have become a new neutral in decorating our homes. Our own love of pink takes its inspiration from travel and the rose-tinted city of Marrakesh that is a constant source of inspiration for us when sourcing new products for Rockett St George.

Great for adding a touch of playfulness and calm in your home, pale pinks and lilacs with warm undertones make you feel nurtured and safe and are a great choice for the walls or cabinets of your kitchen.

The home of Einar & Siv Rønning provides the ultimate kitchen inspiration with the walls, ceiling and cascading wall cabinets all painted in different shades of dusky pink.

“When you paint a whole room in the same shade, something calming happens. The atmosphere changes and the room becomes uplifting but also relaxing,” Extraordinary Interiors in Colour.

Find the best pink paints here.

go green

Green is one of those colours that will always surpass any interior design trend. Whether you prefer soft sage, bright leafy greens or deep forest hues, green is amazing in the kitchen and promises to promote feelings of calm and balance. Revealing an undeniable connection to nature, green painted kitchens bring harmony between the inside and out.

Synonymous with the eco movement, nature and sustainability in the kitchen are more important than ever as we enter a new decade and commit to reducing our impact on the environment, starting at home.

With all the benefits that green has to offer, we recommend introducing beautiful shades of green to your kitchen in any way you can, from your kitchen cupboard door paint, to all four walls or even just a few pieces of statement tableware.

Find the best olive green paint.

mellow yellow

Bright, creative and guaranteed to lift your spirits like a sudden ray of sunshine, yellow is the ultimate expression of optimism and positivity, so why not embrace it in the kitchen? As a more informal space that is the centre of daily life at home, yellow is perfect for creating small colourful kitchens or bright open spaces that lift your spirits.

As a bold colour that tends to be approached with caution, we love the two-tone grey and mustard cabinets of Synne & Vermund’s stunning kitchen in our latest book for inspiration.

Alternatively, turn your attention to accessories when exploring colour in the kitchen. A yellow bar stool or piece of art has the ability to bring energy to a room without overwhelming it and even a small splash of yellow will catch the eye, set the heart racing and make you smile.

See how to decorate with Ochre.

THE DARK SIDE

When exploring kitchen colour ideas, we couldn’t possibly miss out the darker shades of the spectrum. The trick with black is to find a warming hue with undertones of brown to promote a feeling of cosiness and unity.

If painting your kitchen black is too bold, look to inky midnight blue as a softer shade that still embraces all the glamour and mystery of a dark and moody colour palette.

My own kitchen (Lucy) has plenty of natural light, which allowed me to go with my heart and embrace soft shades of black across the walls and cabinets, with a little extra drama added from black zellige tiles that reflect light beautifully throughout the day. I was inspired by effortlessly chic restaurants and eateries of New York, with the aim to create a kitchen that was sociable, glamorous and dramatic - the perfect place to entertain and host a party!

The main thing to remember when designing and planning a colourful kitchen is to be fearless and not worry too much about making mistakes.

For more of the incredible homes that have inspired our colour revolution here at Rockett St George, take a look at our latest book Extraordinary Interiors In Colour, published by Ryland Peters & Small.

See these colour ideas for the dining room and living room.