How to Decorate with Color

Breaking up the monochromatic color scheme in the kitchen, I specified a deep eggplant purple laminate to cover the existing laminate. An inexpensive fix vs replacing cabinets.

There is an old WWII era song lyric, “You’ve got to accent the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, don’t mess with mister-in-between.”

Aside from life advice, this lyric is easy to remember home design advice. Learning to accent positive focal points in your home is the number one way to maximize the effect of your home decor dollars.

What is an Interior Design Focal Point?

A focal point is the first thing you see when you walk into a room. Here’s an easy way to find the focal points in a room — enter the room and pay attention to the first thing your eye sees. You probably will experience your eye traveling to two or three places in the room. These places are the focal points.

Most large rooms will have three or more strong focal points along with a few lesser focal points. Small rooms may have one to three focal points. Often, focal points are places with strong simple shapes (like the refrigerator) and places with complex interesting shapes (like a glass cupboard filled with tableware, a gleaming cook top, or the sink). A focal point can also be something awkward or ugly like the small space between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling or worn out plumbing and lighting fixtures. A surprising focal point can be the demarcation of color between a white ceiling and colored walls.

You aren’t stuck with ugly or awkward focal points. Eliminate them by replacing them and/or emphasizing the best focal points. Though the ugly areas won’t actually disappear unless you replace them, they will tend to disappear as focal points when other areas are strengthened.

Like most anything, getting the most out of your interior design budget is key. Look for inexpensive fixes. For example; two of the most inexpensive additions to a kitchen can be color and fixtures. There is nothing like color to change the personality of a room.

Old or dreary kitchens often have outdated kitchen faucets, light fixtures and cabinet pulls. Old cabinets may be rejuvenated with a coat of paint or new cabinet doors (called “faces” in the industry).

Visit a few home centers to get a feel for the prices and styles available. Budget yourself carefully and you’ll be able to replace the existing fixtures with something that looks great (Even if it’s not your first – usually more expensive choice!). If you or a family member can do any of the labor installing the fixtures, you’ll be able to stretch your budget to include a few more changes.

Two ways I’ve found to add color creatively is paint and laminate. While looking for a way to update my kitchen color scheme with a budget of $1,000.00 to spend on the cabinetry I discovered that any of the laminate I had in my kitchen could be re-laminated in a new color. I called a few cabinet shops that specialized in laminate and asked them for a bid. The price to re-laminate a few existing cabinets and the outside of my kitchen island was very reasonable and the color options were extensive. By focusing on re-doing parts of my kitchen and not the entire thing I had enough money to make a difference.

I focused on three focal points; my kitchen barstool area, the refrigerator and the dishwasher. I ordered a color that coordinates with the existing gray laminate and countertop. The lush dark eggplant purple color enhances the focal points and broke up the overwhelming single color.

Don’t be afraid to mix up the colors and finishes of your cabinetry. The solid lush purple areas of color create a simple visual counterpoint to the more complex visual area that includes the gray cabinets with the multi-colored trim and drawer pulls.

By strengthening the focal areas with color the stronger focal points do what they are supposed to do — focus the eye on something beautiful and interesting.

Cristina’s art: www.CristinaAcosta.com

Cristina color consultant, interior design and garden design: www.CristinaAcostaDesign