The kitchen island is a snack centre, breakfast bar, work station and storage unit smack in the center of the chef’s real estate. It commands high visibility only by location, so getting the decor details right is essential to integrating the island with the cabinets — the other major presence in the room. Decorating style, island materials and kitchen colours are all factors to consider when choosing the paint or finish to the closets and island.
Safe and Solid
A monochrome or limited colour scheme in the kitchen is the trick to simple balance. In a small room, matching the cupboard and island colours allows the eye to roam over an unbroken expanse of color — it may earn a cramped kitchen look bigger. All-white kitchens appear to have no boundaries, and the exact same paint or laminate on cabinets and island disguises differences in style, design period or even the relative newness of a single fixture or the other. All-black or a very dark shade enhances the perception of depth, pushing rear walls. A traditional kitchen with forest-green cabinets and island, granite countertops and rubbed bronze hardware unifies the various kitchen components in a larger, well-lit room.
Primary Colors
A colorful kitchen can be as classic as biscuits and milk when you select marquee bits in the basic shades of the crayon box. A red tooth vintage-style stove will hog all the attention with no equilibrium, but you may use the cupboards and island as upbeat counterpoints. Leave windows found, if at all possible, for maximum sunlight. Polish the warm hardwood floors. Paint cabinets a whipped-butter yellow or yellowish heavy-cream paint and white the island foundation a distressed Confederate blue, or even medium blue with a hint of teal in it. Walls at a clear light yellow mimic more sunlight and you may add a butcher block or copper work surface into the island. Now you have a red, yellow and blue kitchen that’s welcoming and easily incorporates decor gaps among the main players. Make these biscuits oatmeal-raisin or walnut chocolate chip.
Bath Contrasts
When the island is an add-on in a classic white kitchen with white cabinets, ceiling, appliances and marble counters, give it some theatrical flair and make it a centerpiece. Chalk paint will chip and faux-age a re-purposed or just-built cabinet that forms the island foundation. Barn red, burnt pumpkin, olive or sesame paint and a little extra distressing give you a vintage island. The countertop gleams in brushed stainless or shiny copper. Change the hardware on those discreet white cabinets along with the island to coordinate with the island countertop material.
The Grays Have It
Various tones of gray are soothing and sophisticated at a kitchen that needs to pull open closed and open cabinets, a cooker, fridge and a massive hood in another color from the cupboards along with a linoleum or tile flooring. Paint the staircase a shade of gray only a bit deeper than the cupboards — choose from subtle gray-greens, warm and cool grays, but maintain the grays close in intensity. Replace all counters — above cupboards and on the staircase with dark soapstone or granite and, over the backsplash behind the stove, add a few quirky personality with charcoal chalkboard paint along with a few scribbled recipe notes along with a handy steel spice rack.