Ask Jennifer Adams: How to add color to your kitchen with new appliances
Interested in new kitchen appliances or a range or refrigerator in a color other than white, black or stainless? Is that a good idea?
Q: My partner and I recently bought a house. The kitchen has been updated with white cabinets, a gray quartz counter and white subway tiles as the backsplash. We need new appliances because I cook a lot and very much prefer cooking with gas. I saw a beautiful, dark-blue range and refrigerator I absolutely adore, but my partner thinks blue will go out of style soon and wants white or stainless steel appliances to go with the cabinets. What should we do?
A: It’s important to express your personal style. And with a kitchen set up to your taste and your cooking needs, you’ll love your home even more. A range is the perfect focal feature for any kitchen, so why not make it as big and bold as you can!
Breaking away from plain white and boring kitchens, appliances with color are becoming more popular. You can find entire appliance suites in colors from bright blues to reds, yellows and even turquoise, sea-foam greens and pink. Your choice of dark blue is a classic color for anything and will hold up over time better than many other colors.
I’ll take your side and say that a big, beautiful blue range would look great with the whites and grays. However, consider sticking to color on just one appliance. While a lot of color can look great in some kitchens, with your classic whites and grays, bold colors might be overwhelming -- especially when your partner isn’t on board with color at all.
Also, black or white appliances are making a comeback but with modern twists The new matte whites and black stainless steel finishes are unbelievably luxurious-looking and a little mysterious, which invites you to touch them. Don’t worry, the matte finishes also help hide fingerprints. With all these options out now, stainless steel has become less popular. Still, it’s a safe, crowd-pleasing and timeless choice.
For your dream kitchen (and your partner’s), compromise with just the blue range as the focus, and choose stunning matte-white appliances for the rest. Then find accessories, treasures, and art to tie in the blue color and to help move your eye around the room.
Have a design dilemma? Jennifer Adams is an award-winning designer, TV personality and author of the book “Love Coming Home: Transform Your Environment. Transform Your Life.” Send your questions to AskJennifer@JenniferAdams.com or for more design ideas, visit Jennifer’s blog on her website at www.jenniferadams.com.