Colour in the kitchen

Press, 8 November 1984, Page 22

Colour in the kitchen

DAVID A. BASS

To me the developments in colour trends are almost as mysterious as tracking down the illusory authority who dictates the length of the ladies’ skirts. Suffice to say we are entering (or being sucked into — depending on your point of view) the age of the mellow browns and greys. Are you old enough to remember the orange era when every self-respecting saucepan looked like a marigold? Then, you remember, we had the big flower age when kitchen walls were so smothered with huge peonies and interlacing greenery that you nervously glanced around for a hidden tiger. More recently, in our wallpapers, we saw daringly disrobed young maidens and had a rush of nymphs and shepherdesses and ladies from off Grecian urns patrolling around our kitchens and bathrooms in endlessly repetitive scenarios of casual undress. Well, no more, all this frivolity is passe, and muted grey is with us. And with the grey, the curves, baubles and stiff geometry of the art-deco of the 1930 s has risen again. By which you will guess that I do not like art-deco, but neither do most of you, either. It seems to me we have two options open to us. One is to form an anti-art-deco league and storm the barricades of fashion, the other is to steal the best of current

trends for .ourselves and leave the rest to “them what likes it,” as Sam Weller would have said. So, I am delighted with the trend. We can leave the jungle to the tigers, the maidens to the shepherds and the Grecian urns, and settle down to some quiet and peaceful colour schemes which will soothe our jagged nerve ends and relax our ulcers. So, let’s look at what current fashion has allowed us. The 1984 “Official Kitchen and Bath Colour and Design Guide” talks about “warm browns,” “mellow golds” and “subdued greys." Basically, grey is the key, as the hotter, brighter colours of the last few years are greyed. The strong complementary colours are muted, bright reds are now softened to burgundy and cranberry. The beginning of these trends was with the introduction of almond instead of white as the preferred appliance colour. Almond is softer and warmer than white and is well on the way to the warm soft beige, browns, fawns and brick reds that are such a welcome change. By the way, if you can only buy a white dishwasher or refrigerator, it is possible to have a good car painter paint them almond. You will already have noticed in the latest wallpaper books that the colours are quieter and patterns more subdued.

If you intend wallpapering your kitchen, I always consider it wise to start off the colour scheme with the wallpaper, as it represents the biggest surface area in the room.

From your chosen wallpaper you can extract which colours you wish to emphasise on your benches and cupboards. You will find this a whole lot easier than choosing a bench colour and spending many hours trying to find a paper to go with it. The kitchen, like most other rooms in your home,

will benefit from not too many abrupt changes of colour and textures. If you introduce a feature like a copper hood, try and work some copper ornaments or utensils into the scheme.

If you have some tiles on the bench near your stove, why not place the same tile as upstand round all the benches, or on the wall between the stove top and the hood.

If you have a favourite feature in your home, repeat it rather than introduce something different. For example a favourite lead light in the dining room could be repeated in the door of a kitchen cupboard. Some kitchens are a bewildering area of conflicting textures and finish up looking more like a church bazaar than a' kitchen.

I think we should be glad of the change of tempo in colour. What will emerge will be a more restful and more easily lived-with environment.

Pay more attention to textures and be consistent. If you have something worth while to say, you do not have to shout. Often times, the quiet voice in this strident and contentious age is heard more clearly.