Using Color To Accentuate the Architecture
 Cabinets Finished with Oyster Milk-Paint |
| You don’t think color when you look at this kitchen from this view – the cabinets are an oyster milk paint finish. In this view, only the island cabinet is a cobalt blue milk paint. |
 Cabinets Finished with Cobalt Milk-Paint |
| But look from this angle and cobalt blue is a dominant color. The impact of the cobalt is heightened by its limited and dramatic use. We use it on the island cabinet, the hutch seen in the foreground, and the angled wall that designates the basement stairway. Often basement doors are an uninteresting or even ugly note in older homes. In this home, we moved the door to the basement to the basement level which allowed us to open up the stairwell with a see-through glass cabinet. New wood paneling in the stairwell is painted the off-white used on the trimwork throughout the house. The white of the stairwell plus the deep cobalt of the angled wall, adds interest and a sense of space to this remodeled kitchen. |
 Tumbled Cararra Tiles w/ Cobalt Accent  Mosaic w/ Marbles
|
| The grays and off-whites of the Cararra backsplash and concrete countertop compliment the oyster and cobalt tones in the rest of the kitchen. To further blend the composition, we included 3 colors of cobalt in the custom diamond tiles inserted into the tumbled Cararra backsplash. Overall, the palette is quite cool including a light grayed-mauve on the walls. The other dominant color in the palette comes from the natural oak flooring. The golden oak adds a warm compliment to the otherwise cool palette. A playful mosaic composed of marbles and round ceramic coasters on the stairway wall adds additional definition to the cobalt color with small, bright touches of red, blue, green and yellow. Cobalt blue grout blends the mosaic into the wall. |
| If we had used the deep cobalt more extensively, the overall feeling would have been much darker and more formal. However, by using a palette of cools off-whites and golden oak as the dominant tones, the deep cobalt is becomes a sophisticated accent. The predominantly neutral palette also allows us to use bright colors in other parts of the house as additional accents. |
| We will be writing a series of articles on this kitchen in the next few days. |
| All images courtesy of Braitman Design/Build |
[...] complexity was added in the home, below through the use of paint to emphasize the architecture (see related article). Paint is one of the least expensive ways to add detail and complexity to a [...]