4 Design Tips for Two-Tone Kitchens
June 6, 2019The kitchen is generally one of the most-used and busiest rooms of your home. As such, it should be designed to suit your lifestyle and flow. It also helps if it’s nice to look at. Oftentimes, new ideas are implemented in the quest for a unique or interesting look. The outcome can be fabulous or horrendous depending on how well decor items and colors are matched. The two-tone kitchen design trend adds extra elements and can be hard to get right. But, when it’s done well, it can result in a beautiful kitchen. Here are some design tips for two-tone kitchens to help you end up with a look you’ll love:
1. Stick With One Focal Point
It can be tempting to go crazy with colors and other decor elements, but this can quickly become overwhelming with a two-tone kitchen. Having too many focal points is one of the common mistakes to avoid with two-tone kitchens. Instead of trying to make everything stand out, stick with one focal point and make that one of your two colors. One of the most common ways to do this is with two-color kitchen cabinets.
Oftentimes, one set of cabinets is chosen as the focal point and those are the cabinets that are painted with the contrasting or accent color. The kitchen island tends to be a popular choice as it usually stands out structurally, which makes it a good candidate for being the focal point. Much like an accent wall, you want it to stand out without overwhelming the room.
2. Balance Your Colors
Whether you go with a more neutral palette, a contrast, or something big and bold, it’s important for you to balance your colors appropriately. Although a two-tone kitchen is a way to incorporate black into your kitchen design, it can work with bright or bold colors too. If your focal point is going to be an exceptionally bright or bold color, the other color in your two-tone kitchen should probably be more neutral or muted.
A bright white will be high-contrast and make your other color stand out. However, depending on the color you choose, making the rest of the kitchen white can easily become too much. A gray, beige, or more neutral, muted color can provide a better balance in some situations.
3. Go Low With Dark and High with Light
When you are pairing darker colors with lighter colors, it’s generally a good idea to keep the darker color on your lower cabinets and the lighter color on your upper cabinets. Having the darker color lower in your kitchen design will help ground the room. Additionally, the contrast of the lighter colors higher up in the room tends to draw the eye upward, which can also make the room appear larger, brighter, and more open.
This is a general approach and is certainly not a hard and fast rule. After all, there are plenty of kitchen designs that work well with darker upper cabinets. An experienced designer is certainly a great resource that will help you break tradition and bend design “rules” while still getting a fabulous look.
4. Add Coordinating Elements
There may be different colors in your kitchen and perhaps across your cabinets. Although there will be contrast, you still want everything to look cohesive. Adding coordinating elements that are consistent across the colors can help tie things together and ensure contrasting elements still look like they belong together.
For example, if your two-tone kitchen features drastically different cabinet colors, you can tie them together by using the same cabinet hardware across both cabinets. If your colors fit within the same color palette or are different shades of the same color, they will look like they belong together naturally.
Opting for a two-tone kitchen is one of the ideas for using bright colors in your kitchen, but two-tone kitchens can also be difficult to get right. With these design tips for two-tone kitchens, you can put yourself on the path to getting it right. Enlisting the help of a designer can ensure you get a unique and interesting look without committing major design faux pas.
This is especially helpful when it comes to designing and building a custom home. After all, there are a ton of details to consider and the kitchen is only one room. Partnering with a custom home builder, especially one that has an in-house design/build process, ensures you have everything covered. If you’re ready to get started on the path towards your own custom home, contact Custom Home Group at 717-284-4090!