Tying Together Rooms With Color

Boxy little rooms, all decorated separately, is dated design. Today's savvy homeowner wants sight lines to and continuous flow between rooms. Such a flow creates harmony, but carving out a connection between rooms in the open floor plans favored these days can be a challenge. The key is vision and to see “The Big Picture” and for this you may need the help of a professional kitchen designer, like Jason Landau of Amazing Spaces, LLC. One of the ways Landau creates a harmonious flow between rooms is by the clever use of color.

Landau's training in architecture prepared him to see how seemingly disparate elements can come together to create a seamless whole. Landau keeps in mind that light, texture, shape, scale, pattern, and color are all elements of successful design, but balance must be heeded above all. A kitchen design should have energy, but not be too kinetic or disruptive. The design should flow as naturally as a creek over pebbles.

First the designer will help you consider the space. What rooms will you be able to see from the kitchen? What portions of other rooms? Then try to see, with the help of your designer, all these spaces as connected, not separate entities. It's like looking at a whole mountain range instead of only one dramatic peak.

Then choose five paint colors you like without considering which paint would go where in your final design. A color palette may suggest itself by your choices or you might want to discard two of the colors that don't seem to work with the others. If you find the colors all in the same family of hues, say blues/greys/silvers, start to envision how they might work in the various spaces:

• Make use of a color wheel where shades are grouped into schemes and color combinations are suggested.
• Colors can carry through to more than one room or act as background colors or accents.
• Molding, baseboards, wainscots and window frames may be the only use of one color or perhaps the ceilings may share this color.
• Try blending color or using a lightly colored glaze to complement a darker wall color in the connecting room.
• Blending glazes can “suggest” a color in a hallway, blossoming into a brighter shade of that same color in the room the hallway opens into—creating a flow from one space to another.
• Varying the intensity of the paint application or adding texture suggests movement while maintaining a harmonious whole.
• Take artwork and furnishings into consideration. Focal points for each can be create by contrasting colors or brightness around the piece and then used in nearby rooms in larger areas as a tie-in.
• Tiles may be used—both as a backsplash in the kitchen and with a center decorative band that carries throughout the adjoining rooms.
• Trying a sample of various colors painted on small sections of your walls may help you visualize how the scheme will come together.

It is said that the eye “carries the color” from room to room as you walk through the house. Make sure that the colors your family and guests carry are soothing, inviting, or invigorating, creating a positive subliminal message: Your environment is a warm and welcoming one.

For harmonious kitchen design and space planning, call Jason Landau at Amazing Spaces, LLC at 

914-239-3725 or visit www.amazingspacesllc.com.