Choosing a color scheme for the home can be a little bit daunting, as this can make or break the design of your space. Some homeowners even ask, do two adjacent rooms like kitchens and living rooms have the same color scheme, or should they be different? We’re curious too, so we’ve researched the design options for adjoining kitchen and living rooms.
The kitchen and the living room can be painted in different colors but should have a cohesive feel throughout. When picking two different colors for these rooms, the chosen color scheme shouldn’t be too drastic that it feels like you are traveling from one place to another when entering another room. However, if you have an open space layout, it would be wise to paint the two rooms in the same color.
You might be wondering if there are other nuances that we should know about. Are there tips to make the kitchen and living room color scheme become seamless? Fortunately, we’ve looked into these questions, too, so keep reading to learn more about the answers we’ve found.
Should the Kitchen and Living Room Be The Same Color?
When choosing colors for your home, it’s a good idea to know the position of the rooms. The layout and the position of the rooms are important in helping you decide if your rooms should have the same color, or if they can be painted differently. There are two ways to help you decide:
Is your home an open space layout?
An open space layout or open floor layout is a design concept in which large, open spaces are utilized over smaller, enclosed rooms. If your kitchen and living room area is connected with the same wall and there is no physical break in between them, then it would be safe to say that your rooms naturally flow together.
With your space being this open, it would be impossible to separate your rooms’ paint colors. It would look too drastic and awkward to paint the kitchen and living room in different color schemes as the open layout might make the colors clash together.
A good example of this layout is similar to this home—wherein the living room and the kitchen can be visibly seen from all areas. Homes with this similar layout should have the same color scheme for their open spaces.
Are the kitchen and living room separated by a wall?
Typically, the kitchen and the living room are separated by walls in many homes. This gives homeowners a little bit more flexibility in choosing different colors for the rooms.
However, a cohesive color scheme that flows throughout the rooms is a good option because it prevents the rooms from looking too drastically different from each other.
Always remember to choose paint colors for your home and the rooms that you will be using them in. Know how your rooms are going to be used and consider these reasons are part of why the rooms should be painted with certain color schemes.
For example, it would be wise to consider the amount of light that your rooms get as some colors can make your space look a little cramped. Also make sure to incorporate other important items in the room such as appliances, furniture, and other small details as your wall colors will interact with them as well.
Best Colors for The Living Room and Kitchen
There are many color options that you can choose for your kitchen and living room, but here are some inspiring color schemes you may want to consider.
White
A classic color scheme, white colors for the living room and kitchen is one of the best choices out there as it makes the room look very spacious.
Brown
For homes that have a lot of wood elements, this soft neutral brown is a great color choice. It is a very warm and casual color scheme, and it looks great when entertaining guests at home.
Gray
If you are going for a more modern color scheme for your home, gray is a great color choice. Paired with classic white furniture, it screams luxury and elegance for any home.
Blue
The soft blues of this kitchen and living room demonstrate an air of intimacy and comfort that can be gained in any home using this color scheme.
Green
A bright contender, green is a great color choice to bring into your rooms for a bit of a fresh and lively vibe to your space.
Paint Color Mistakes To Avoid
When you’ve chosen the color scheme for your kitchen and living room based on the layout of your home, you might be wondering if there are other things to consider before starting the project. Most of these should be covered once you’ve decided on the color choices, but nonetheless here are some tips to help you out.
1. Don’t paint the ceiling a flat white
This is one common mistake that most people do without them even noticing. The biggest part of the room that is often left behind when it comes to color schemes is the ceiling, and more often than not it is always painted in a flat white color due to its neutrality.
While flat white is a neutral color, it is also a shade of white that has a little bit of gray undertone to it. This undertone, though not visible at first sight tends to bring the room down and makes the room a little gloomy.
In order to battle this issue, pick a different shade of white that allows light to be illuminated in your space. We talk more about that in our article “How to Choose White Paint for The Living Room.”
2. Don’t go matchy-matchy
One mistake that quite a lot of people do is using their chosen fabrics for furniture as the base for their paint colors. It’s best not to match your furniture fabric to your walls as it tends to be overwhelming, and it may look like a grayed-out version of each other.
3. Don’t go all neutral (and don’t crazy with coor either!)
It’s pretty tempting and also an easy way out to go for a neutral color scheme, but this isn’t the only color choice you have. Being too safe can make your space look a little too flat, so don’t forget to add contrast to your neutral colors to give it a little life.
Conversely, it won’t be a good idea either to go on the opposite end and choose everything big, bright and colorful. It might make designing your space a little difficult because it will be harder to coordinate the smaller details if the colors are too much for your space.
4. Don’t make drastic color choices
If the rooms of your home are separated by walls, it’s a little tempting to paint them differently from each other. While there are no rules that will keep you from doing that, doing so may make your rooms feel a little too detached from each other and it makes walking into different rooms a little too jarring.
Try to choose color schemes for different rooms that are cohesive to help the colors flow seamlessly with each other. Try incorporating one base color into another to keep the colors close to each other.
However, don’t go too overboard either! Keeping to one color scheme all throughout the house can be a little too uptight looking, so do change it up a little bit.
5. Don’t forget the finish
One of the things that you shouldn’t forget when considering color choices for your rooms is the finish of your paint. Flat finishes can make your color seem less intense than you would like it to be, and it may cause your color to look too bland and boring when it sets.
Some colors also work better with certain finishes like dark colors in a luster finish because it gives off that sheen that you are looking for.
Final Thoughts
While the kitchen and the living room are two different spaces in your home, there are instances where rooms should have a cohesive color scheme. For homes that have an open space layout, it is quite impossible to have two differently painted rooms so these rooms should share the same color scheme.
It’s a little different though for homes where rooms are significantly separated by walls. While it is an option to have a different color scheme for these types of rooms, it would still be best to keep a cohesive color scheme that will help the rooms flow together at home.
Are you looking into more color design inspiration for your kitchen and living room spaces? Look no further as we have a couple of articles that might interest you: