One of the most popular questions of the moment is “What colour can we use with our grey kitchen?” Now whether this be with tile, accessories or even wall colours, that answer can vary widely depending on several factors.
Firstly, this will depend on the style of your kitchen. If you have a contemporary kitchen with clean lines and minimal detail, your colour palette can often be much wider then if you have a very detailed traditional kitchen design. The reason for this is because the flat panels of a modern kitchen probably benefit from having strong colour highlights.
With a traditional kitchen that contains more mouldings and texture the fussiness of too much colour added to this design may make the room feel busy and overbearing. Secondly this will also depend on the grey tones used within your kitchen units, if they are light you would probably want to keep to either pop and accents of colour to bring out your personal colour preferences whereas if the greys are darker you may want to add bold statements to balance the depth of colour within the room. People often see grey as a safe choice a neutral palette; however, it can bring about challenges to stop the space looking dull and clinical without a touch of colour accent added.
Here are our top tips on how to work with colour within your grey kitchen.
- Try before you buy!! When planning how to remodel your kitchen and thinking of your grey units as the backdrop request a sample colour of the door and take it shopping with you whether it’s for tiles, paint or flooring make sure the colour your units look in the brochure work with the other colour elements you are adding to the room.
- Work with concept images! When designing your kitchen in the showroom it can be hard to say how you want the whole room to look including your accessories and personal items. Use apps like Pinterest or make your own mood bored using photos of different items you will be using in the room to visualise how this will look with your grey kitchen.
- We don’t need to recreate 50 Shades of grey!! Just because your kitchen units are grey doesn’t mean you need to just pick lots of other different grey tones for it to all work together. This can mean that an island for example can be in a completely different unique colour to your grey wall units. If you’re not feeling that brave you can have accents in your splashbacks or wall colours that can be changed after a period of time if you want to create a slightly different look and feel to the space that’s not a permanent feature.
- Use shape as well as colour! We have access to ranges of different wall tiles, floor tiles, handles and even lighting that come in all shapes and sizes. Why not try hexagons on the floor or a elongated curves on the wall or maybe even some funky pendant lights in bold colours that will stand out against your grey units.
- Be a little bit brave! It’s not all about colour, but patterns with colour can work well against a grey backdrop. Using pattern tiles, or plain tiles in a mixture of colours can stop one colour dominating and feeling too much. Using 3 to 5 carefully selected colours within the same tonal range well add vibrancy and fun to what would otherwise potentially be quite a dull and boring space. This will also allow you to add those colours in accessories further around the room. This works well for kitchen / diner and kitchen family room spaces.
Alternatives to Colour Blocks
Colour doesn’t just have to be limited to our usual interpretations. Nature naturally provides a range of vibrant colours which we often forget about. Using natural products is it really simple way to add a variety of colour to a grey kitchen without having to make bright or bold statements. Mixing some of your units into wooden finishes, having natural worktops such as marble or wood will create texture tonal and colour variations to your grey palette. Even having plant life such as a herb garden real or faux and real flowers and plants add an element of colour without having to use permanent colour choices. These small details can be swapped and changed seasonally to work with the outside environment, as well add in elements of colour to work with throughout the year.
In short, there is no limit to the colours that you can use that will work with a grey kitchen, it will all depend on the look and style you want to create for your home and space and what colours are your personal preference… one person’s kitsch pastel palette delights might be the equivalent to someone else’s dark and moody minimalist monochrome designer dream… just make sure its personal and have fun with it.
