The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Kitchens & Kitchen Remodeling
Kitchen Color Schemes
A FEW years ago when the radicals among decorators and far-sighted home makers talked of color in the kitchen, the results were intended to increase the esthetic appeal of this important room. But no sooner had fresh, gay, and lovely colors appeared on walls and woodwork than another fact became evident: the colorful kitchen, because of its cheer, light, and general attractiveness, was also a more efficient kitchen. The use of color in the kitchen for beauty and efficiency has developed rapidly since these vague beginnings, until today color pervades this room from the walls to the smallest pieces of equipment. Washable wall papers and wall fabrics developed in solid colors and patterns (discussed with floorings in a later chapter) vie with paint and tiles in popularity for the kitchen background. But upon the color of the walls, obviously the largest color area of the room, the development and completion of the color scheme of the room depends; woodwork, floors, furniture, built-in equipment, utensils and small devices are chosen in relation to the wall color, to carry out the chosen scheme. Two or three colors combine to make a more effective room than is possible with the use of only one tone throughout; but two or three shades and tints of the same color may be used with good effect. Built-in furniture sold in units, as well as the large, important pieces of kitchen equipment, are available in color. The sink and its combined dish washer, kitchen cabinets, the range, refrigerator, kitchen table, stools, hampers, and supply cup-boards, are in colors and are obtainable with colored trimming. Obviously manufacturers cannot make every tint of the rainbow in kitchen furniture, so before a scheme is planned in too much detail it is better to find out just what is available at your shopping sources. The same is true of cutlery and utensils, although there are a few more tints from which to choose in these smaller pieces.
The following schemes have been worked out around the standard high-grade equipment available in every section of the country. The combinations are adaptable to almost any kitchen, if the fundamentals of color uses are remembered. Cool colors (blues, greens, grays), as a rule, are more effective in rooms with south and west windows, while the warm tones (yellows, reds, browns, tans, orange, brick) bring cheer and warmth to the rooms with northern and eastern exposures. One scheme developed for a kitchen which was lighted by two wide casement windows facing north, began with:
Walls painted yellow.
Woodwork the same color.
Floors covered with terra cotta, brown, and yellow inlaid linoleum.
Built in breakfast nook of pine, unstained, but waxed and rubbed.
Cabinet, range, sink, refrigerator of yellow to match the walls.
Small furniture, such as stool, enamel work-table, waste can, hamper, broom-closet unit, open shelves above the range, shelves near the sink, in orange color.
