Designing With Color and Texture: Historical Models
One Example: Shaker-influenced Design
If you have based your kitchen design on an historical precedent or school of design, much of the basic palette for that model already exists. Research into the thought behind that school or period, the defining reasons for the choices they made and research into other kitchens using that style will give you a range of choices. For example, the Shakers were a utopian society that revered simplicity and craftsmanship while maintaining an extremely austere lifestyle that stressed work and spirituality. They were consummate designers and woodworkers who used materials available on their own land. Colors were based on those easily derived from natural sources and were typically earth tones.
Researching these cultural reasons for the beauty of the Shaker style provides you with a set of guidelines for your color and texture decisions should you choose to build a Shaker influenced kitchen. It does not mean that you must create an historical reproduction but it does mean keeping in mind the restraints and underlying culture that made that style so attractive. Simple Shaker cabinets feature plain panel doors, hand cut joinery and native northern hardwoods like cherry and maple. Building these cabinets of an exotic wood like mahogany would result in a distinctly non-Shaker esthetic as would using gold plated hardware or some other equally sumptuous material. Simplicity in this example comes from a very disciplined paring away of non-essential elements.
The Shaker palette also provides a range of color choices based on the simple milk based paints they had available and suggests materials like native soapstone or slate for sinks, counters and other work surfaces. Because this range of choice is driven by a proven historical precedent, they work well together and ideally should result in the same feeling of simple purity in look and function.
Other Historical Models
Other historical models include Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, British Manor House, Fifties or Mid-Century Modern, etc. Each of these has its own set of color and textural cues that serve as guidelines when choosing finishes, materials, and styles for your kitchen design.
