Kitchen of the Week

Adding Colours

In planning a kitchen, one must understand the perception and use of color and its resulting effects on human behavior. Colors can create excitement, relaxation, calmness, or cheerfulness and can even increase productivity in working environments.

To understand the perception and use of colours, you must understand the theory of colours.

There are three areas that you should pay attention to if you want to understand the theory of colours. These are: COLOUR SYSTEM; COLOUR WHEEL; and COLOUR HARMONY. 

Before going further to look into the colour theory, it is important to know the basics, that there are three building blocks called the PRIMARY COLOURS from which every other colour is produced. They are RED, BLUE and YELLOW.

The mixture of any two primary colours produces a SECONDARY COLOUR, and these are:

RED + BLUE = PURPLE;

BLUE + YELLOW = GREEN;

RED + YELLOW = ORANGE.

Consequently, the mixture of a primary and secondary colours will produce a TERTIARY COLOUR, and these are:

RED + PURPLE = RED-PURPLE;

BLUE + GREEN = BLUE-GREEN;

YELLOW + ORANGE = YELLOW-GREEN etc.

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COLOUR SYSTEM

Colour system is the process by which colours can be reproduced. There are two colour systems; the addictive colour system and the subtractive colour system.

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The addictive colour system works with anything that radiates light. This is the mixture of different wavelengths of light to create different colours. The more light you add the brighter and lighter the colour becomes.

This system tends to consider the building block (primary) colours to be RED, GREEN, and BLUE (RGB), and this is the basis for all colours used on your television, computer monitor and phone screens. With this system, white is the combination of colours, while black is the absence of colours.

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The subtractive system on the other hand simply works by the traditional mixing of colours on papers. Subtractive in the sense refers to the facts you subtract the light from the paper by adding more colour. Just like the addictive colour system, it also considers the building block (primary) colours, but the colours in this case are CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW and BLACK (CMYB). With this system, white is the absence of colours, while black is the combination of all colours.

COLOUR WHEEL

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A color circle, based on red, yellow and blue, is traditional in the field of art. It makes it easier to see the relationship between different colours. This wheel plotted the different primary colours around a circle, mixing any two primary colours together to achieve secondary colours, and a primary and secondary colour to achieve tertiary colours. The wheel at a glance shows which colours are complementary, analogous and triadic.

COLOUR HARMONY

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In visual experiences, harmony is something that is pleasing to the eye. It engages the viewer and it creates an inner sense of order, a balance in the visual experience. When something is not harmonious, it's either boring or chaotic. At one extreme is a visual experience that is so bland that the viewer is not engaged. The human brain will reject under-stimulating information. At the other extreme is a visual experience that is so overdone, so chaotic that the viewer can't stand to look at it. The human brain rejects what it can not organize, what it can not understand. The visual task requires that we present a logical structure. Color harmony delivers visual interest and a sense of order.
Colours can also be either warm or cold. (www.colormatters.com)

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With the color theory at your finger tips, adding colours to kitchen to create the desired effect should be easy. 
You can use virtually everything in the kitchen to add colour to the kitchen. The cabinets, worktops, lights, floor, ceiling, wall tiles, wall paints, utensils, backsplash, appliances etc are all the different things you can use to add colour to your kitchen. 
So to create excitement, relaxation, calmness, or cheerfulness and can even increase productivity in your kitchen, be sure you are adding colour in a harmonious and balance way.