Avoid One Thing That's Making Your Kitchen Feel Unwelcoming

We've all heard the saying that the kitchen is the heart of the home. It often serves as so much more than simply a place to cook food. You want to be able to welcome guests into your kitchen, enjoy pleasurable conversations with family members, and just feel like you can relax in your own home. What you don't want is for your space to feel unwelcoming. Erika Dale, House Digest's interior design expert and the founder of Erika Dale Interior Design, warned that cold finishes in your kitchen could be having this unintended effect. She told us, "When used exclusively, cold finishes can make a kitchen feel unwelcoming, lifeless, sterile, and industrial."

So, just what are cold finishes, why can they give off an unwelcoming vibe, and how can you avoid them? Dale shared, "Cold finishes in a kitchen are those with cool undertones, such as chrome and stainless steel, as well as hard surfaces like countertops or painted surfaces in cool, desaturated colors like gray or stark white." These features can make your space feel so dull and industrial. Fortunately, Dale has suggestions to avoid this and make your kitchen feel more welcoming.

To understand why cold finishes can make a kitchen feel uninviting, you must first understand the difference between warm and cool colors as they relate to design. Warm colors include gold, orange, beige, pink, and other shades that bring to mind the sun and feelings of coziness. These colors tend to spark individuals; they are commonly viewed as "happier" colors. On the other hand, cool tones, which include blue, purple, green, and magenta, have the opposite effect. Their color often brings to mind bodies of water, or even wintry weather, which doesn't elicit that same feeling of joy.

According to Erika Dale, relying too heavily on cold finishes in a kitchen will detract from its ability to give off a welcoming feel. "Because they are unbalanced on the cool side of the spectrum, the result can quickly be drab and standoffish. Anything too manmade will also give an artificial vibe, adding to the issue," she exclusively told House Digest. So, if you have a lot of stainless steel or chrome light fixtures, cabinet hardware, and faucets in your kitchen, or solid gray and white cabinets and countertops, it could explain why the room never feels as welcoming as you would like it to be.

If cold finishes are making your kitchen feel unwelcoming, all is not lost. In the exclusive House Digest interview, Erika Dale highlighted both big and small changes that can totally transform the look and feel of the space. "If you are able to remove the cold finishes, swap out your chrome or stainless lighting or plumbing fixtures with warm metallic finishes such as brass, copper, or rose gold," she recommended. If a new countertop is in the budget, Dale suggested replacing it with a natural stone material like granite or quartzite, or even a wooden butcher block, with a warmer tone. "By choosing materials with warmer undertones and natural materials, you will create the cozy, welcoming kitchen of your dreams," she said.

An expensive kitchen remodel may not be in the cards right now. But, that still doesn't mean that you're stuck with a drab and uninviting space. Dale also shared some budget-friendly kitchen upgrades that don't involve remodeling. "To balance out cold finishes that you cannot remove, tip the scales back to neutral or even more toward warm finishes where possible. This means incorporating colors and natural materials with warm undertones, such as natural wood, brass, and copper, as well as paint tones on the warm side of the color wheel," she said. Depending on your budget and willingness to take on a larger DIY project, she explained that there are different ways to maximize the use of warm colors in your interior design plans. "This could be a larger-scale change like a coat of wall or cabinet paint or a smaller update like new cabinet hardware, accessories, or artwork."