BY SHANNON MONEO
There’s a chance that sprinkling colour in a kitchen can be overdone or even underdone. Balance, as well as cohesion with the rest of the house, should be on the menu. A great interior designer will employ different methods to get a feel for the homeowner and their taste, which goes a long way to making a kitchen, or any other colour revival, a success.
When Ann Squires Ferguson makes her first visit to a home, she asks dozens of questions. The senior interior designer and CEO at Western Design + Build wants to understand the homeowner. “To create homes that really sing, we take the saturation of their identity and broadly brush stroke it, as a palette,” says Squires Ferguson. “Then we really have fun.”
She also asks the resident if she may look in their clothes closet, where design clues can thrive. After discovering the householder’s three favourite items, she gets to work, considering colour, fabric, texture and even the memories tied to the beloved pieces. She will then transfer that knowledge to how she injects colour into a kitchen.
Vintage vibes of a colourful kitchen
Going back in time, Squires Ferguson notes that up until the 1950s, houses were usually built by the people who would live in them. “The earlier we get, the more interesting the kitchens were,” she says. The 1960’s were the orange years; the 1970’s were heavy on avocado green.
Fast forward to 2022 and Squires Ferguson says there’s not a lot of character in today’s homes or kitchens. “One thing that’s really missing is a sense of whimsy, where you open a door and go, wow!”
Adding that Wow! factor
To add some wow, now, don’t use too many good ideas in the kitchen. “You want somewhere where they eye can rest,” she says. If the kitchen has red lacquer cabinets, the backsplash or counter do not need to be over the top. When there’s “too much,” each one loses its power.
She recalls a kitchen countertop that was deep blue with gold sparkles. It was beautiful and powerful and did not require decoy decorating.
Also effective is painting the ceiling. In older homes, the ceiling colour can be wrapped around a cove.
Colourful accessories are an easy addition
Usual ways to add kitchen colour include accent doors, wallpaper, wall paint, counter stools, cushions, pendant lights, open shelving, window treatments, rugs, colour-changing LED lights, glass objects like vases and even kitchen linens. And today’s appliances can be added to the list, where those who are willing to pay the price can have a brilliant orange or powder blue fridge.
When Squires Ferguson readies her palette, she likes to come up with three designs that give a client choices. Flooring can be understated, while the backsplash or countertop can be zesty or vice versa, for example.
She adds that the whole home is often considered, meaning that a concept or palette is created. “You have a cohesive plan you can draw from. You want a home to flow,” she says. The living room’s teal couch, morphs into subtle dining room wall treatments, which evolve into a kitchen’s turquoise-coloured light fixtures.
What about resale?
And what about purposely adding colour to the kitchen with an eye to resale? In reality, a substantial number of home buyers expect to upgrade a home in some way after the purchase, Squires Ferguson notes. So, if one is ready to scatter eye candy in the kitchen, do it. It’s about enjoying your surroundings.
And remember, that when a sale is planned, there are realtors and/or stagers whose goal is to sell a vision. “No one lives in that vision,” she says. It’s a selling tool that by its very nature makes a home homogenous, waiting for the new buyer to pull out their palette.
Regarding popular kitchen palettes, as it has for the last few years, the shades associated with farmhouse modern rules the roost. “It’s white and bright,” Squires Ferguson says. “It’s such a popular look.” The colour scheme of black, white and grey also imparts a hygienic, fresh feel, particularly apt in a kitchen. Contrast also remains a factor.
Tone-on-tone colours, usually warm neutrals are popular cuisine ingredients as well as dark grey and dark blue. Muted teal, a 2021 colour of the year, is still en vogue, while bold and rich saturated colours remain MIA … for now. In what usually starts in fashion and trickles down to the built environment, change inevitably comes. “People are ready for a different story,” Squires Ferguson predicts.
