Designing a charming and romantic country kitchen with a warm, inviting atmosphere entails more than just setting the table with some quality decorative accessories. Whether you have a tiny kitchen or a spacious one big enough for a big maple table, you can give the space a country flavor with the right color and themed accents.



Color is a key ingredient because it makes the first impression of a room on our senses, so setting the mood is your primary concern. If you can paint the walls, you may choose a very light yellow to give a sunny glow to the kitchen. A primitive design wallpaper or stencil border will further the country look. Combining yellow and a french blue, which is a blue-purple hue, is a traditional use of Country french colors. Add accessories such blue glass and amber glass, blue canister sets, potholders, oven mitts, dishtowels and blue and white check table linens and curtains. Use accents like blue tiles and framed sunflower prints or tin signs.

If your walls have to stay white and your appliances are also white, as in most apartments, you will have to rely on well-chosen splashes of color in your design accents to do the trick. You can start by finding a line of accessories featuring one bold color like red or bright blue or a theme such as roosters, berries, sunflowers or country store. Then add accents that complement the color or the theme.

Let us say, for example, that you choose a line of accessories featuring red, like apples, cherries or strawberries. A set of bold red canisters and a red cookie jar will add panache to the countertop. Your kitchen table can sport a red check or red and white stripe tablecloth and red napkins. You could use a centerpiece of fresh flowers in a red glass bowl. For a party, complete the picture with red candlesticks in white ceramic candleholders. Also consider decorative red glass bottles for a windowsill and red chair cushions. Framed prints of red fruits and vegetables dress up neutral walls.

If you choose blue for your basic color scheme, this color, particularly when combined with accents of yellow, typifies old-world charm. European kitchens feature rich, strong blues in tiles, curtains and glass dishes. At the Claude Monet country estate in Giverny (about an hour north of Paris) the huge, black stove is backed by multi-patterned blue and white tiles, a striking as well as practical design statement. In the adjacent dining room, a dining table has 12-14 yellow-painted chairs and is laid with blue and white dishes on a yellow tablecloth, set off by blue flowers in tiny vases by the place settings. Another set of everyday dishes favored by Monet was bright yellow edged in deep blue. Stunning!

You can use green as an accent in the form of lush, leafy potted plants. Plants serve several functions: they make your kitchen beautiful by bringing nature indoors, they give off oxygen and they will fit right in with your color scheme. If red is your main accent or theme, the green in plants will intensify this color because green is opposite red on the color wheel. They are complementary colors. Green is also the combination of two primary colors, yellow and blue, so it harmonizes with that color scheme also.

Match and complement the featured colors of your country kitchen when you choose your cooking/serving apron as well as potholders and oven mitts. You are the star of the room and you should dress the part!