7 Questions to Help You Pick the Perfect Kitchen Color

Designing (or re-designing) a kitchen can be overwhelming. From plumbing to storage to cabinets, the moving parts involved can make it difficult to find a design focus. Katrina Hernandez of Hernandez Greene interiors provides her input on how to navigate kitchen color schemes and other design elements when redesigning a kitchen.

What's Hot?

According to Hernandez, today's kitchens aren't the rustic, wood-filled rooms of the past. "The current trend we've been spotting has been fully painted kitchens with matching upper and lower cabinets in glossier, unexpected colors such as emerald green and marine blue," says Hernandez. It's called nautical monochrome and it definitely has a vintage vibe.

A design element Hernandez says has already fallen out of favor? "White subway tile with dark grout and polished brass fittings," she says. Subway tile, the long, horizontal rectangles, lend an industrial look to the kitchen. As kitchens move toward the current, glossier style, industrial design elements have fallen by the wayside.

Despite the glossy finishes of trendy kitchens, Hernandez stresses the fact that the natural color combinations could be a safer bet. Her favorite pairing is a natural tone paired with black. For example, Hernandez says, "I love a patterned cement tile floor and an antiqued black granite counter, contrasted by natural colored oak cabinetry." While you might want a super fun kitchen with splashes of color, your house might be more suited to a more neutral kitchen.

Most appliances these days are stainless steel -- as the focus shifts to modern, functional kitchens, appliances are no longer just utilitarian eyesores that you have to deal with. "Integrating your appliances into the cabinetry makes a bigger design statement because your focus is now on a material instead of an appliance," says Hernandez. In that sense, everything should blend in seamlessly. Whether you have been eyeing stainless steel or all-white appliances can greatly influence your color choice.