The art of color manipulation
We’ve all been there, you are standing in the room trying to imagine which color to choose. You know what you want, but how do you achieve it?
More often than not, we want to make a room appear larger and brighter and a common misconception is that white walls will make any room appear larger. The truth is, white walls will make the room, well, white. And white is not even a color.
While it is possible to visually alter the room dimensions with color, it requires contrast, as opposed to single color across the entire room.
First, let’s think about a color. A color is perceived by an eye as a result of light reflection or light emission. Lightest colors reflect the most light, while dark colors absorb light. Hence, white paint will add light through reflection, and might make the room appear lighter, but not larger.
Working with contrast colors allows one to manipulate light reflection to give out the desired optical illusion.
On the image to the left, the colors are the same, but they appear different, one being light than the other
Dark colors surrounded by light visually bring the surface closer, while light colors surrounded by dark visually move surfaces further away. In order for this rule to work, there needs to be color contrast. The best way to demonstrate how that works would be on one of the toughest to decorate parts of any house: the hallway. You know, the 3 feet wide and 55000 miles long with a room at the end.
A darker color at the end of the hallway visually makes it shorter and more balanced. Additionally, perpendicular floor planks further add to the illusion of a shorter hallway.
Dark grey walls here work similarly, visually widening the hallway, and, note, perpendicular floor planks. Additionally, only the grey walls are decorated, providing accent on 2 of 3 walls.
Things you can do with color are truly amazing.
Now, moving to the subject of kitchens… White kitchens have been dominating sales for decades. And most of my clients are sure that all-white kitchen will look bigger, and I have to warn each and everyone that an all white kitchen may blind you on a bright summer morning! The danger is real. But if you’ve dreamt of a beautiful white kitchen you entire life, at least consider adding some color to it, to give your eye something to cling on.
If you want the cabinets to kind of blend in and be a supporting feature in your kitchen, you need to shift the accent away from the cabinets with use of color and other architectural features.
If you want to bring the windows out, make the trim wide and bright with a darker wall color. If space permits, it is best to keep the wall with more than one window free of wall cabinets, they have a tendency to box the windows out and block natural light. Floating shelves are a wonderful alternative.
And then there is, of course, the floor. Dark floors give a deeper sense to the entire space, accentuating the white of the cabinets. Most of the time, the darker floors are enough if the contrast by itself, a lighter shade of the color can be implemented into the backsplash to give some balance and tie the room together or, as above, be a stand alone feature. One thing to note though. If that’s the look you are going for, make sure that the cabinet style you choose has enough details not to look plain. Raised panel and furniture like island will not look overwhelming or outdated provided monochromatic kitchen pallet.
All said, it you have enough space to accommodate a rather large kitchen and you are not intimidated by constant cleaning that white kitchen cabinets will require, go for it! But weight your options well or contact me if you need help! White is one of the hardest colors to work with, so getting a specialist help might be a very good idea, especially given the number of shades of white there are out there. Give me a call or email me, I’m always happy to help!