Similar to a dining room, your home’s kitchen serves a specific purpose: as the area where you prepare meals. For many families, the kitchen is the hub for the entire home. Beyond meal preparation, kitchens also function as a dining room, home office, gathering place, and so much more. This sometimes means the kitchen is a bit slapdash and lacking in any cohesive aesthetic design. Fortunately, with a few simple tips, you’ll learn how to decorate a kitchen by the end of this blog post.

The Importance of Storage

A cluttered counter limits how much space you have to make and eat food in your kitchen. If you are redecorating your kitchen, invest in space-saving solutions for your cabinets, drawers, and pantry. Once you have all of the necessities stored away properly, you can get a better idea of what spaces in your kitchen need a decorative touch.

Work Within Your Interior Design Style

To enjoy the process of decorating your kitchen, you must consider your interior design style. Your kitchen can make the decor style of the rest of your home, or you can opt to try something completely different with this room. Whatever you decide to do, have your specific aesthetic in mind to guide your decision-making process.

Experiment with Color

Think about when you cook. You need a lot of light to see what you are doing, from chopping to sautéing. Therefore, hues that might work well in a bedroom or bathroom, might not be as enticing in your kitchen. For example, a rich red kitchen might be too dark, whereas a lighter shade will brighten and open up your kitchen. That doesn’t mean you can’t use dark color but rather than painting every wall in that shade, buy kitchen accessories, appliances, and tools in these colors instead. The color palette in your kitchen sets the tone for the kind of space it is, so play around with different options until you find the one that meets your needs.

Some design experts recommend a three-color palette for a kitchen. To determine how to build this palette, use this handy guide:

• Color 1: An existing color that cannot be changed (such as your countertop or cabinets).
• Color 2: A neutral tone.
• Color 3: A color that makes your kitchen special to you. Maybe it’s the 2018 Pantone Color of the Year (UltraViolet) or something more subdued like a moss green. Whatever it is, use this hue for statement pieces in your kitchen.

Pick Your Focal Point

Every room needs a focal point. Maybe it’s a wall covered in chalkboard paint that serves as an ongoing shopping list and family calendar. It could also be a unique wallpaper or accent wall. Choose your focal point and decorate your kitchen around it.

Avoid Clutter

You’ve invested in storage for your kitchen so that all the necessary tools and equipment for cooking and eating are put away in their proper places. The challenge when decorating is to keep the decluttered look while adding enhancing the space. A lovely vase on your countertop is an elegant touch for any kitchen, but a vase on every flat surface is a bit too much. There needs to be a natural flow to your kitchen so preserve that by not going overboard with your kitchen decorating efforts. A great way to open up your kitchen space is with modern barn doors (currently on sale for 30 percent off with promo code HOLLY30).

Think Practically

Ultimately, kitchens get dirty, probably more so than any other room in your home. When decorating your kitchen, choose items that can easily be cleaned or washed if and when things get messy. For example, velvet window treatments will certainly look beautiful in your kitchen but think about how hard it will be clean them when your kids accidentally splatter the curtains with marinara sauce. You want your kitchen to be easy to clean and safe for anyone using it so think practically about your design options.

The kitchen is the heart of any home. When figuring out how to decorate a kitchen in your house, ask your family for input. You never know. You might have a budding interior designer in your family who has quite the flair for decorating kitchens gorgeously.