FINDING A KITCHEN STYLE I LIKE

The one thing that I find difficult in any room is determining style. I'm not a make-up or fashion girl, I leave the majority of my walls blank, When buying a piece of furniture, I'm all about functionality before matching it to decor. I oddly enought, I don't like to go shopping and last maybe 30 minutes before I want to leave to a place with more solitude.

But I am not completely devoid of preferences in styles. I'm just the kind of person who needs to see a style to know it will work. I watch in amazement as many of my friends can sift through the local thrift store and find a piece that they know will be a nice fit for their home. I just can't see it until they place it down where they imagined it to be. And I will be like "Wow! That really does work."


CATEGORIES OF STYLE
So the four Kitchen/Bathroom magazines that I bought, together with various pictures from the internet, are my survey of different kitchen styles.

I notice that there are generally three general categories of kitchen styles:

CLASSIC / TRADITIONAL

 

  

VINTAGE / OLD WORLD

  

 

CONTEMPORARY / COSMOPOLITAN

 



When I glance at the various kitchen photos, my taste seems to be drawn to a combination of classic and vintage (or old world). For therapeutic reasons, I want my kitchen to have a warm feeling to it, where food is both comforting and nourishing.

COLOR
In terms of color, I would choose a warmer color like the soft browns and yellows, or a warm orange or red. I've a lot to learn about colors. I went to a painting session at the local community centre, and realize I can't mix colors if my life depended on it. And my paintings all came out dark and overloaded. I simply can't figure out if a brown has more red or yellow in it, nor amd i able to select two colors that are similar in tone where one is a richer version of the other.

The only experience I have with colors is being able to identify how the color makes me "feel." And when the color is right for me, it is a color that makes me feel calming and soothing. In terms of finding that color, I'm lucky that the rest of my family are artists, and I have a host of artistic friends to give me some direction.

One thing I do notice is that contrast of two colors gives the room much more life. A monochromatic scheme feels dull and stifling to me. I saw a variety of cabinetry and counters and like the dark bottom with a lighter counter top. Further, I found a picture where the lower cabinets were darker and the upper cabinets were lighter. Because the kitchen placement in my house is downstairs and can get quite dark because of the surrounding trees, having a lighter color at the upper part of the kitchen will hopefully relfect more natural light. Having a darker color on the bottom gives the contrast that keeps the kitchen looking alive.

In my next post, I will show my selection of kitchens that I am drawn towards. It will just be a picture posting and nothing more.

To see the selection of kitchens so far, see my Pinterest page at pinterest.com/gomer999/pin