Do you ever wonder why so many kitchen accessories and appliances are red? It is no accident. Red is a colour known to stimulate. Stimulating your appetite or your interest in food, from preparation to enjoying the finished product, is a great reason for manufacturers to make certain of red colour choices in their product lines. Red is also a pop colour, one we use to add some warmth or life to a quiet colour scheme. Reds come in lots of tones, from rich warm burgundy to tomato bright almost-orange, and lovely blue reds are somewhere in the middle.
Over the past few years, we have seen a lot of teal or turquoise show up in our kitchen accessories. Teal and turquoise are mixes of blues and greens. Blues, from deep dark navy to the light happy duck egg blue, are colours that calm and sooth. We naturally feel more peaceful when blue is part of the colour scheme. Greens represent nature, creating spaces that encourage growth and balance. There is an element of safety when green is used as part of our colour scheme.
Orange comes and goes in kitchen decor. It’s a blend of the energy of red and the happiness of yellow, and works really well against greys and blues to brighten the space. I love yellow for the sunshine mood it creates on the dullest winter day. However, it isn’t a colour that looks good on me so I tend to use it in rooms with no mirrors. When doing the research for this article, I realized that’s how my subconscious dealt with a colour I love, that doesn’t love me back. Interesting how our subconscious is drawn or repelled by certain colours schemes, a lot of it relating to what we learned or were exposed to when we were young or how the colours make us feel now.
White is always a great kitchen choice as it is fresh and clean, a blank canvas for your personal colour picks as you make a kitchen yours. Black is another very basic element in décor as it represents solidness and sophistication, particularly when accented with metallics such as silver (polished stainless) or copper.
Many kitchens have lots of wood in the décor, especially the cabinets. Adding some elements of colour in your choice of accessories can help tone down the wood while pulling out hues such as black or grey. Too much wood can feel overwhelming, as there is no place for your eyes to rest or land. That’s a topic for another article, how to deal with too much wood grain in the kitchen.
As we unpack the new fall and winter kitchen things, one of our new favorites is the colour Le Mer from Staub. It’s a beautiful rich blue/green and makes you want to leave your Staub dutch oven on the stove all the time so you can admire it. This is the best time of the year to add some colour to your kitchen as the colours outside fade away. Let kitchen accessories help create the mood you need to make your time cooking, cleaning and eating absolutely fabulous.
Did you know? Sir Isaac Newton invented the first colour wheel after observing light as it passed through a prism. He was under quarantine to avoid the Black Plague at the time.
Absolutely Fabulous at Home in New Minas is where you go to find the things you didn’t know you needed. The Valley’s own kitchen, bath, bed, decor and DIY store is Absolutely Fabulous. Cathy Reid owns it, lives it, loves it.
