The modern kitchen is as much a gathering place for friends and family as it is a place to prepare food. As such, you'll want to set the proper mood in the kitchen for your gatherings. One of the important ways to do this is through color. Whether you want your kitchen to feel bright and airy, or small, cozy, and intimate, the proper choice of color will go a long way towards setting the proper mood.

Different colors have different effects on different people. Red will affect you differently than green will. By the same token, blue may have a different effect on you than it does your neighbor. When you choose your color scheme for your kitchen, you need to make the decisions on what colors to use. It's your kitchen, and you'll be spending the most time in it, so you need to decide what colors match your wants for your kitchen. These are only guidelines in choosing colors, the final decision will be yours.

Think of whether you want a cozy, intimate kitchen, or an more open feel. The right color choices can help. Darker tones will visually shrink a room, making it feel smaller and more intimate. Whites, light yellow, and other light colors can help to visually open up the space, and make a small room feel larger, and more open.

Earth tones are good choices for kitchen decor. Tans and browns can help to ground your kitchen, and create a sense of ease, and closeness. Earth tones are generally neutral colors, and will match well with several other colors as accent colors in the cabinets, trim, and kitchen decor.

Black should be used only for accents, and not used as the main color in your kitchen. Black tends to absorb heat, which may make the kitchen unbearably hot. Black can be used for an accent, especially if it is offset by white, which will balance the black, and it will reflect, rather than absorb heat.

Orange is commonly associated with food, and therefore is a good color choice for a kitchen, either as the main color, or as an accent. Orange tends to illicit hunger, making it a good choice for a kitchen color. Blue, on the other hand, tends to repress hunger. Because of this, you may want to eliminate, or at least minimize the blue in your kitchen.

Red should be avoided in the kitchen. Red tends to evoke feelings of heat, which in an already hot room, like the kitchen, is not a good thing. Red can work well as an accent if used sparingly, and if it is offset by cooler colors elsewhere in the room.

You have several areas of the kitchen that you need to coordinate when you paint or remodel. You certainly don't have to make everything the same color, but it is best to have all of the colors complement each other, rather than clash. A color scheme of two or three colors will work well. The biggest area of color in your kitchen will be the walls and ceiling. These will be your primary color that everything else will coordinate with. If you're painting the walls a dark color, you may want to leave the ceiling white, which will help to keep the room from feeling too small. The cabinets, if you choose paint over a wood finish should contrast with the walls, but at the same time, not clash with them. Once you have your walls and cabinets painted, then you can choose another color which goes with the first two to use for trim and accents.

Repainting is one of the simplest and most inexpensive ways to give your kitchen a new look. Before you start though, take some time to plan your color scheme. A well thought out color scheme will help you to enjoy your kitchen even more.