Archify's Quick Guide to Kitchen Styles and Colour Schemes

When it comes to style and aesthetics, a kitchen’s colour scheme is just as important as any other element. To achieve a truly stunning design, not only do you need to keep a consistent style, but kitchen colours need to be carefully chosen to complement your overall design. In this article, we’ll break down a few examples of kitchen colour schemes by design style to help inspire your next project.

Modern

Modern design refers to the specific time period from the early to mid twentieth century. It is characterised by simple form and function and a rejection of ornamentation that epitomised earlier styles. If cooking is a hassle for you, a modern colour scheme is calm and clean, creating a less stressful cooking environment. Consider natural materials and neutral palettes with accents of earthy or muted tones. 

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Traditional

Wood grain finish is almost essential for a traditional kitchen. Countertops, flooring, cabinets, stools; it doesn’t have to be everywhere but it has to be somewhere. Cool greys and blues are also commonly used in traditional kitchens where contrasting materials are used. A consistent cool colour scheme can make complicated textures easier on the eye. 

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Minimalist

Minimalism encourages you to take in a space as it exists, and doesn’t attempt to imitate other aesthetics. This results in a stripped back appearance, using only simple geometric shapes and raw materials. The beauty of a minimalist kitchen is in its simplicity; in theory enabling the occupant to give full creative attention to cooking. Muted colours like sage and sand are often seen in minimalist kitchens, as well as natural materials like pine. 

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Industrial

Industrial style kitchens are flexible, practical and stylish, and are an ideal choice if you like cooking up a storm. Unlike minimalism that strips back elements to their simplest forms, the form of an industrial space is the function. Think of a professional kitchen as the ultimate industrial style cooking space: open plan, functional materials and no ornamentation. The colour scheme of industrial settings usually comes from the colour of the materials themselves, although nothing is stopping you from painting it a different colour, as long as the materials still look “raw” it’ll fit in with an industrial setting.

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Contemporary

Contemporary design is not tied to a set period of time. Its is always evolving and reflective of its time. A great aspect of contemporary design is that there’s almost no limit to styles and aesthetic influences. Do you want a colourful tiled backsplash? Great. Stainless steel appliances with concrete benchtops? No problem. Let your imagination run wild, try combining two different styles to create a stimulating kitchen experience.

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