Using Combinations with Confidence
Current trends in bathroom and kitchen cabinetry are leading homeowners to the use of multiple textures and colors, or "combinations." Homeowners are becoming bolder about creating kitchen cabinet designs that reflect their personal style. Kitchen design "rules" are now less rigid, and designs are more personal. While kitchens are still best created with the assistance of professional designers, understanding how to use combinations can help you define your preferences. Informed, you and your designer together can create your personal kitchen.Color and texture are two design elements that reflect a homeowner's personality in a kitchen or bathroom. While either element can be used effectively independently, many appealing designs include both. Color can be obtained through the elements of the cabinetry itself, through species, finishes and glazes. These colors can then be echoed or contrasted during a bathroom or kitchen remodeling project with additional elements such as hardware, counter tops, fabrics in window coverings and furniture, and through accessories. Texture is not merely a tactile element but is also visual. Texture can be added through wood grain, finishes that include glazes, varying heights or depths of cabinetry, combining two or more colors, combining multiple door styles or by any combination of these things. Texture adds interest, creating a place for the eye to rest in an otherwise uniform space. Texture can highlight features, or it can incorporate diverse features into a unified plan.To use color and texture effectively, plan a focal point for the primary area of interest. Your focal point might be a particular run of cabinetry, a hearth hood, an island, or another feature of your choosing. Then select unifying details to carry the contrast throughout the kitchen. In this way, your color or texture contrast has a planned and interesting look.For example, an island in a black tone contrasts lighter wood tones of the wall cabinetry. The black can be incorporated in details such as onlays, mouldings, hardware, legs, and appliances. Countertops with natural color variations, including the wood tone and black, and can be a unifying feature. Accessories and framed art reflect the colors of the cabinetry. Framing individual cabinets in contrasting moulding can create the look of separate pieces of furniture as it adds emphasis, defines texture and creates color contrast. A hearth hood could be a focal point adding texture through dimension. Coupled with various heights and depth of cabinetry, the overall effect suggests individual pieces of furniture rather than cabinetry. The varying heights add texture and break up an otherwise long run of cabinetry.
Sometimes the focal point will be the choice of colors themselves. To incorporate sharp color contrasts, as with a cobalt blue and a honey wood tone, use bits of the contrasting color here and there throughout the bathroom or kitchen cabinet design. The colors contrast sharply, but their application incorporates them completely. Similar lines in both colors of cabinetry tie the theme together. In contrast, a run of black cabinets joins with white cabinetry. Hardware and counter tops tie the two colors together into a pleasing visual design.
A focal point doesn't need to be a dramatic contrast from the rest of the room. It can be a simply stated feature that is echoed or contrasted to set it apart. The use of several door styles can all add texture to a room. Similar elements in the door styles allow them to work together. For example, simple framing around a flat panel door ties neatly to a door with simple framing around beading. Metal or glass inserts can become focal pieces that coordinate with simpler door styles throughout the rest of the kitchen. Areas with more detailing - or less detailing - create interest and emphasize textures.
Similar wood tones create striking contrast as well. Select a common color to unite contrasting species or colors. A Bordeaux finish on Maple with its underlying burgundy tone can complement Brittany finish on cherry. An underlying honey tone may unite two different colors of wood, such as Amaretto used with Toffee and a Chocolate glaze. Reversing the colors for mouldings and onlays creates unifying details to further tie colors together. Glaze color alone can unify different species or colors and unify two distinct color choices.
In designing your bathroom or kitchen remodeling project, there are a few common sense rules that still apply, but generally it is up to the homeowner to determine the "rules." If it appeals to you, it expresses your personality, and therefore is in compliance to the rules. Explore many options and decide what's right for you. Your kitchen designer can work through your ideas with you and offer guidance to create your personal kitchen.
