It’s a blank slate, literally. The cabinets are white, the counter tops are white, the appliances are white. The walls are painted white, and the trim work is white. It’s beginning to remind me of an early mental health facility.
When we moved into this house, I was excited to get started on the redecoration. Usually, I’m quickly moved by inspiration from the room layout and other architectural points, and the overall picture of how I want the room to look forms. The kitchen, though, has defied my imagination. I’m at a loss. I’ve sat in there and tried to picture color, texture, pattern…nothing. It’s like the overwhelming whiteness of it blanks my entire mind.
So, I turn to the dopers for suggestions. Key items of note: It’s a circa-1920’s Craftsman style bungalow. I despise “country” decorating themes, so no geese with aprons. I tend generally toward traditional with some bohemian & eclectic items in my overall decor scheme. The dining room, adjacent, is done predominantly in navy, white, and gold with dark oak wood furniture
What are the cabinets made of? Sometimes it’s good wood there underneath the paint. It may be worth investigating. If there’s good stuff under there, you can always strip and stain, and maybe add some new fixtures. This place is spendy but will have nice fixtures that would be suitable for your home’s period. They have nice period lighting as well. I haven’t ordered from them but get their catalogs to drool over.
Not sure what to do with the whiteness, but how about a colored tile backsplash? You could use colors from your dining room to bring the two rooms together, or different colors to separate them more.
IMHO, tile backsplashes are great at bringing color and texture into kitchens, even if they are half covered up by the appliances on the countertop.
We just redid our kitchen in white and cobalt blue. We like it a lot. One of the nice things about stark contrast in color is that you can put it in surprising places --the inside of the cabinets, for instance.
The only downside is that we are currently without curtains because we can’t find just the right shade yet. But looking keeps us busy and we have got sheers.
If you like warm over cool, just the right red can be very nice in a white kitchen.
Our house in Seattle was a 1920’s bungalow. We didn’t have any money to makeover the kitchen, so we left the red vinyl tile on the floor (it was in good shape), painted the cabinets and walls white, and did the countertops in a dark gray/black marble. Red, white, and black – pretty stark, but it was a small kitchen with three doors and not much wall space, so the white wasn’t overpowering.
I softened it up with some small area rugs in bright colors.
I’m sure the buyer thought the kitchen was hopelessly dated, and he was probably right, but we liked it.
Yeah…I’ll post some pics once my husband gets home and reminds me where we stored the upload cable for the digital camera.
Queen Bruin, the cabinets are not of the best quality, and I believe they were installed white, since there are no tell-tale brush marks from painting. On the wall where the range is located, the cabinets are all glass-front, with the interior of the cabinets painted (you guessed it) white.
Tile is a fabulous idea, and I would love that…now about pattern and color, and that’s what it mainly boils down to…I can’t get excited about any particular color or scheme. I’m hoping people will pummel me with ideas, and something will stick.
I’d just pick a color and try it, but the ceiling are so damn high, and it’d take quite a bit of effort just to put something on the wall to try. I’ve actually thought of orange…and blue. Does that make me weird?
I’ve thought about texturing the walls…rag rolling, combing, etc.
ETA: The floors are wood, stained dark brown.
Do you like folk art? You could get a couple of pieces and take your color scheme from them. Of course that only applies if you don’t want the kitchen to at least semi-coordinate with the dining room.
If you have glass cabinet doors, I would paint the inside of the cabinets (the back parts, not the shelves) a fun color (I’d go with the orange). Tile backsplashes are easy to do, especially if you use small tiles 1.5" and smaller so you don’t have to do a lot of cutting.
For inspiration, here are some before and after photos of kitchens my husband and I re-did. Most of them have white cabinets. You might also want to pick up a copy of Home magazine or Metropolitan Home magazine.
That’s my kitchen, I live in a 30s-era apartment. I have a retro yellow step stool and a pale blue collander that I use as a fruit bowl that I shaped my design around. I found some vintage French posters in neutral beige shades that I hung up, and bought classic dish towels (some checkered, some striped) in yellow and blue. I really don’t know what a 1930s French bistro looked like, but that’s what I call it. I have white appliances and beige counters and accent pieces (like potholders).
I love color, and orange and blue don’t make you weird. They’re complimentary colors, so they make the other pop.
My old kitchen I painted the cabinets really interesting colors-it took forever to get right, because color schemes that looked good on paper made it look like a grocery store circa 1970. I wish I had access to the pictures, it was a cool color scheme. That apartment had all its original 1950 fixtures, so I had a yellow counter and yellow oven and yellow sink. I painted the cabinet doors themselves baby blue, the edges of the cabinets pale chartreuse, and the face of the cabinets behind the doors orange. It rocked, even if that sounds horrible on paper.
Another possible color alternative- like Marienee suggested- white and cobalt. It’s a color scheme I considered before, very Mediterranean. Bright white, a strong blue maybe a shade darker than royal, with a lighter shade of blue or a yellow or orange as an accent.
The first thing that popped into my mind was yellow (a nice rich buttery yellow) for the walls, and a black-and-white floor.
My house is also '20s era, and I’ve got dark gray counters, medium gray cabinets, light gray walls, white trim. I’ve still got the (original to when I bought the house) avocado stove and very very very light green floors though – both too expensive for a cheapskate like me to replace. When I have to replace them, I’ll do a white stove and a black-and-white floor – when I had to buy a new fridge I got it in white.
AAAAAAAGH! I just moved out of a furnished rented apartment because the white was driving me nuts (ok, there were other reasons, but the white… oh God the white… twitches). The only bits of color were my bedspread and a couple decorative items I had.
The new unfurnished apartment still has white walls but at least, since I’m furnishing it, I’ve been able to get stuff in red and black, plus lamps in purple and green and I also have a HUGE fan with some sort of indonesian scene and a big scarf I got in Costa Rica, either of which makes a rainbow feel washed-out.
The wall is painted, so you can change that color easily. Do you live in a dark area? For the last decade or so, in Spain and mostly in places where winter is dark and gloomy people have been painting the walls all kinds of strong colors. My flat came with the bathroom tiled in pale green, the kitchen tiled in off-white, the hallway cream, one bedroom several shades of copper/rust (one wall is darker than the others, the ceiling is lightest), another orange/orange (sponge treatment) and the living room strawberry. All floors are wood except kitchen and bathroom, which are tiled.
Another flat I saw had a dark-electric-blue master bedroom, fuchsia kitchen with sun-yellow appliances (original from the 70s) and white cupboards, eggyolk living room, the kid’s bedroom had two orange walls one red wall and a blackboard-wall, the bathroom was (original 70s) baby blue and the office was done in glass-and-chrome… with each wall painted a totally different color.
Perhaps you could paint the wall some crazy color (red!) and panel the cupboards in a contrasting one (a blue somewhat lighter than the navy from the next room? a light-but-not-pale yellow?)