Developing a Color Scheme for a Bathroom or Kitchen Area

Creating a good color palette for your kitchen or bathroom can be a challenge, but there's nothing forbidding or mysterious about it. The following general guidelines will help:

• For the sake of continuity, carry your home's overall personality into the bathroom.
• Link the bath or kitchen with adjoining rooms by matching color values as well as actual hues. For example, if the trim in the hall outside the bath is painting a high-gloss creamy white, consider using that color somewhere in the bath.
• Most successful color schemes us a minimum of three and a maximum of six colors. Three-color schemes consist of a main color, a secondary color, and an accent color. The accent is often the brightest of darkest color in a scheme; use it in at least three places to establish a definite presence.
• Give thought to the color of every component: walls, ceiling, windows and door trim, wainscoating or chair rail, floor, furniture, counters, cabinets and accessories. 
• When determining your color placements, decide what you want the main focus of the room to be. Consider  that the eye is attracted first to the lightest color. If the walls aren't the main focus, they should not be painted the lightest color.
• White fixtures are not only less expensive, but they also are easier to clean.
• White comes in many tones, and choosing from among them can be tough. Decide if you want a cool white or a warm white, then choose one specific hue.
• Countertop colors that keep their good looks are lighter mid-tones, grays, and beiges. Dark colors have pool reflective qualities, solids tend to show marks, and white shows stains.
• White cabinets can make a small bath seem larger. Dark cabinets have the opposite effect. Use dark cabinets only in a well-lit room.

Contributors to this post included local BKR Pro contractors across the US including Miami | Knoxville | Charlotte | San Diego | Buffalo NY |