5 Colors You Should Never Paint A Kitchen

When you begin planning a facelift for your kitchen, the first thing you often think about is color. There are as many shades to choose from as there are places to draw inspiration. However, you might not be familiar with the colors that you should avoid at all costs. Many families will spend hours per day in the kitchen cooking, talking, or sitting. If this sounds like you, you certainly do not want to accidentally paint your space a color that looks nice at first but ultimately ruins your kitchen.

Homes & Gardens chatted with design and color experts who narrowed down five colors that you should never paint your kitchen. These colors are red, bright yellow, beige, dark green, and white. Each of these colors plays a specific role in killing the mood of your kitchen, making it a difficult place to concentrate, unwind, or simply whip up your favorite meal.

Before you started reading this, you may have suspected that red would be a part of this list. Red is a controversial paint color no matter which room you choose to use it in. While red can become a gorgeous accent color in the kitchen, Homes & Gardens warns that large applications of red paint in your cooking space can quickly become overwhelming or distracting.

Interestingly, according to Medium, the color red can be used to enhance a person's appetite as well as make your heart race. In psychology, red has been known to make people react quickly and even eat more if the color is used on a table cloth, for example. Fast-food chains such as KFC, McDonald's, and Tim Hortons take advantage of this science by using red throughout their stores and in their marketing. While it's good to be hungry while in your kitchen, you don't want to overdo it. If you want to avoid overeating, don't paint your kitchen red.

Another color you should keep out of your kitchen is bright yellow. While yellow may bring you feelings of energy, joy, or happiness, it can also become distracting or chaotic when it's used too much. Home & Gardens says that painting your kitchen yellow is sure to distract from all the other decor you've spent your time and money on, including your light fixtures and countertops. Your kitchen doesn't need to be painted a boring color, but fluorescent yellow is not the way to go.

You should also keep in mind that yellow is a warm color. If your kitchen receives a lot of natural light, avoiding exciting yellow paint colors is in your best interest. Warm shades of red, yellow, and orange only add to the heat you begin to feel in your kitchen in the warmer months. While you are preparing a hot meal for your family, it can begin to feel like you're baking too, as per JLR Home Renovation.

As mentioned before, you don't need to paint your kitchen a boring color, and you shouldn't. Shades of beige and tan are safe choices, but they are also lifeless. When you spend money on remodeling your kitchen, you don't want it to end up seeming unwelcoming or tired due to its paint color. Beige is an extra difficult color because it's easy to go too warm or too gold with it, explains Apartment Therapy. Warm tones such as this one can be annoying and expensive to correct when you decide you dislike them. If you want to go with a safe color, try a light neutral such as brown or gray.

In Detail Interiors adds that beige isn't really a neutral at all in their eyes. The different tones of beige can be impossible to style. Trying to pair decor, appliances, and furniture with your newly painted beige kitchen is likely to disappoint you. The muted warm tones dislike stainless steel refrigerators and cool patterned dining chairs.

Admittedly, any dark shade is unlikely to work well in a kitchen. Designers such as Home & Gardens often push away dark browns, grays, blues, and even black for use in the kitchen. Colors such as dark green are known to cast shadows that make it difficult to see what you are doing and make the kitchen appear dirtier as a whole.

We are also warned that painting your kitchen a bold, dark color can have an impact on your home's worth for resale. After putting in the effort to remodel your kitchen, the last thing you want to do is inadvertently lower its value. Apartment Therapy notes that getting carried away with unconventional colors like dark green in your kitchen will likely steer potential buyers from your home. However, don't let your green kitchen dreams be dashed. There is still some hope. Antique green and light green kitchens often look great. If you are set on an earthy color palette, explore your options and put dark green to the side.

White is an extremely popular color in the kitchen. It looks clean and it's easy to style. You really can't go wrong with white — or can you? The classic white kitchen is now being called cold and clinical by sources such as Dwell. Similar to beige, shades of white are considered boring. Using white as an accent or on your countertops may look great, but a fully white kitchen is a thing of the past.

Also, remember that white cabinets and walls are the most difficult to maintain in a kitchen. Pasta night and cooking greasy foods can wreak havoc on your paint job, causing irreversible staining. Of course, the paint color you choose won't actually save your walls from spills or splatters, but it will make a difference in how noticeable they are. Since the kitchen is typically a busy area, white paint is also more susceptible to scratches and scuffs. Repainting and repairing your white kitchen cabinets, walls, and appliances will take place more often unless you choose a different color.