Have you ever walked into a kitchen and its color scheme just didn’t feel right? You didn’t like the design even though you really didn’t know what it was that you found so distasteful? It wasn’t that the paint was old or anything like that; in fact, the paint on the kitchen walls was very well done. Yet for some strange reason, the kitchen felt ugly in an undefinable way.
If you ever had that experience, what may have happened is you walked into a kitchen with a kitschy color scheme. Although the homeowner made a valiant attempt to spice up their kitchen, the effort somehow failed because the style feels completely clichéd. The kitchen design didn’t speak to you in the way you wanted it to. This scenario, unfortunately, happens a lot.
What makes the colors in a kitchen kitschy and how can you avoid it happening to your kitchen?
How your kitchen’s color scheme can become kitschy
As Keyrenter Premier explains, there are two things with the potential to make a kitchen feel kitschy: following the trends and painting the kitchen in your favorite colors. As much as you should try to personalize the kitchen and make it unique to yourself, remember that not everyone will like your style. Painting your kitchen without giving thought to what colors are universally appealing will make it kitschy.
The second thing that can make a kitchen feel kitschy is following the prevailing color trends. The issue with trends is they fade and since you cannot keep changing your kitchen’s colors to reflect the new trends, at some point your kitchen will start to feel old. The colors potential buyers rave about today will become the colors those same buyers reject tomorrow.
How can you avoid kitschy kitchen colors?
People change but people are still people. This means that even if the things we like vary from time to time, the things that make us happy as humans are relatively fixed and predictable. How should this understanding influence the kind of colors you choose for your kitchen? Below, we explain the steps you can take to avoid making your kitchen feel banal.
Create timeless appeal for your kitchen
The simple way to inject timelessness into your kitchen’s color scheme is to choose ageless colors. This basically means selecting a range of neutral colors for the kitchen. With neutral colors, your kitchen will not ever be in danger of having a dated look. Neutral colors are versatile. Since nearly everyone will find a reason to like them, neutral colors are practically timeless.
What are neutral colors so appealing?
· Neutral colors have a positive vibe
Neutral colors have a mild effect on people that do not force them to either love or hate the colors. Painting a kitchen in daring colors will compel visitors and potential buyers to reject or embrace the color scheme. But with neutral colors, most people will find a way to accommodate the colors and this ensures that your kitchen will have greater mass appeal.
· Neutral colors will activate your kitchen
Secondly, neutral colors will make your kitchen feel bigger, brighter, and cheerful. Bold colors may be eye-catching, but they can also feel overbearing. The effect of a bold color soon wanes and people in the room start wanting to get rid of the color. But neutral colors have a soothing effect on the human mind. People who enter a room painted in neutral colors will a greater sense of well-being.
Aren’t neutral colors boring?
How do you cope with the supposed monotony of neutral colors?
· Accessorize
There are many ways to add dimension to neutral colors without giving up the benefits of painting a kitchen in neutral colors. Neutral colors present a perfect canvass for personalizing your kitchen because they blend with a wide variety of colors and hues. Accessories like colorful rugs, dinnerware, or flowers are temporary and affordable ways to alter the appearance of a neutral color scheme.
· Use a variety of materials
Another way to add interest and personality to your kitchen is to have materials and surfaces with different textures. For instance, combining high gloss and a matte finish will alter the visual impact that the different surfaces have.
You can juxtapose wood cabinetry with glass, concrete with stone, and drywall with rusty wood walls. The neutral background of the kitchen lets you introduce a range of elements into the design without disrupting its balance.
· Add non-permanent pops of color
One of the reasons to use neutral colors is it offers you the option of experimenting with other colors without being forced to commit. Some of the non-permanent ways to add pops of color to your kitchen’s neutral color scheme include coordinating window treatments and colorful cushions. You may even go as far as painting a single wall in a bold shade.