Contemporary kitchens are known for their sleek lines, minimalist designs, and use of natural materials. But that doesn’t mean they have to be boring! Pops of colour can add personality and interest to contemporary kitchens so you can make the space truly yours.
The good news is that a contemporary kitchen is often tonally neutral so that you can apply colour pops and still retain the stylish and functional aesthetic and be playful at the same time.
At Papilio, we have been designing contemporary kitchens for over twenty years. Our clients have played a crucial part in the decision-making for our Bristol kitchens and beyond in Frome, Bath and the surrounds. We firmly believe that the kitchen is the heart of the home; it’s where we eat and prepare food, but also where we do homework, where we entertain and space we use multiple times a day. So, a new kitchen should be personal to your tastes and needs.
Here are a few examples of contemporary kitchens that embrace pops of colour. We’re really proud of these projects because they are functional, beautifully built, and fun.
The Scandinavian Kitchen
For our Scandinavian Kitchen project, we designed a vibrant, contemporary kitchen blessed with floods of natural light and space for the family. The Bristol kitchen conveys a modern colour palette, a social space, and a bold addition of stainless steel work surfaces to provide a robust, hygienic preparation surface that looks effective and highlights the modern, industrial look of the room.
The mustard yellow colour for the handmade cabinet doors adds a striking statement to the room, and we subtly book-matched the oak veneers throughout. The added texture contrasts with the stainless steel and breaks up the clean lines of the bespoke kitchen whilst complementing the yellow colour scheme.
The Fulham Kitchen
For our Fulham Kitchen project, we were delighted to be able to use Francesca’s Paints in the stunning contemporary kitchen design. The London homeowners wanted a beautiful handmade kitchen that utilised the vast space within the grand Victorian townhouse. As with our Bristol kitchens, we designed a fun yet functional kitchen with warm and calming tones, clean lines and hand-laid oak veneers to provide sophistication. Together with the family, we selected ‘Rebecca’s Red’ colour for the central cabinets and a muted ‘Grey Blue’ for the taller cabinets. The beauty of Francesca’s Paints is that their lime wash and eco emulsion are breathable, plastic-free, and come in a stunning array of paint colours. The final result was a contemporary kitchen with warm walnut tones, textures of marble and coral/red feature colour which popped.
The Bruton Kitchen
For our Bruton Kitchen project in Somerset, we designed a kitchen in a lovingly restored family home dating back to the 1600s. Although not a contemporary kitchen, the original stone mullion windows, ancient oak beams, original flagstone flooring, elm doors and wonderfully wonky lath and plaster walls were the perfect backdrop to introduce a contemporary twist. As with many of our Bristol kitchens, the brief was to create an atmospheric space bursting with character and warmth, practical and beautiful, with a contemporary edge. Our client loved colour, so we designed a sizeable free-standing kitchen island positioned centrally and hand-painted in a wonderfully sunny yellow. The island was developed with legs, so it sits light in the space, making the most of the original stone floor. We mixed cabinet doors with open shelving and sourced a huge ancient elm timber for the worktop, which was hand-finished by our talented cabinet makers.
The semi-glazed wall cabinets were painted in Edward Bulmer’s ‘Lilac Pink’. The natural, plant-based paint was fantastic and offered a mid-century style with sliding doors to offer a retro feel to the room.
Our advice is, don’t be afraid of colour, even if you want a contemporary kitchen. Colour pops are little gifts that can turn a functional and modern space into an inviting haven for the whole family.
