Decorating advice
When planning the décor and colour scheme for your new or revitalised kitchen, consider how your property sits in and interacts with the landscape. What sort of outlook do you have from your kitchen; over green fields, out onto a concrete yard, or the view from a high-rise apartment. Do you want your décor to harmonise or to contrast with your view? It’s a cliché, but if you can “bring the outside in” if your space opens out onto a garden, then the kitchen can become a wonderful gateway to the greenery and colours beyond. If, however, you don’t have access to any outside space, or your kitchen looks out over a grey courtyard, you may want to make use of stronger hues to provide a lively contrast to your outlook.
When choosing paint for cabinetry, choose as high quality as you can afford, because kitchen cabinets receive constant use and are profoundly subject to wear and tear. Eggshell finishes are highly recommended because they are hard-wearing, and many kitchen companies will provide units painted in popular heritage brands such as Farrow and Ball.
Tips for working with a kitchen you already have.
Are you living with a very difficult kitchen which you don’t currently have the budget to change? Ask yourself whether it is in your interest to make small changes now to make your kitchen easier to live with for the short-to-medium-term, then list what you could change to make your space work more efficiently and be more inspiring.
- Evaluate the lighting situation and determine whether adding better lighting will contribute to improving your preparation and cooking, as in the list above.
- Are you short of storage space? Consider purchasing an inexpensive freestanding dresser or cabinet, which are very easy to come by on auction sites and local trading pages. They can easily be painted to suit your taste, and can provide a huge amount of extra storage capacity. Some older kitchens don’t make use of corner cupboards, and have huge, unused under-counter spaces. Could you incorporate those unused, and currently inaccessible, corners into the usable space?
- Is it more the aesthetics of your kitchen which don’t work for you? There are infinite ways of improving the look of your space whilst making of use of what you already have. Here are some ideas:
Replace dated cupboard doors through a company specialising in replacing kitchen doors and worktops. The idea is to give a facelift, whilst working with the kitchen layout you currently have. Get appliances professionally cleaned so they are as good as new.
Replace or install a tiled splashback or splashback panels. Alternatively, wallpaper your splashback area and protect the area with Perspex panelling.
Paint tired cupboard doors with eggshell paint, and replace door furniture such as knobs and handles.
Redecorate the whole kitchen using a well-considered colour scheme which works with the space and inspires you to cook. This could involve the use of colour psychology to determine what shades and tones uplift and adversely affect you. For more information on colour psychology, read the fantastic The Little Book of Colour by Karen Haller, or The Beginner’s Guide to Colour Psychology by Angela Wright.
Display items in your kitchen which inspire you. Art, sculpture, things which evoke a memory and a smile.
