by Janet Sandford

Created on: August 03, 2010

When using colour in your kitchen the first consideration may be that of lighting; good natural daylight can be quite a luxury in many city apartments and houses. If you are more dependent on artificial lighting, remember that many colours, especially yellows, change considerably in this type of light. Some light bulbs cast a blue hue, giving yellow a cooler, greeny appearance. Other warmer-coloured bulbs project a yellower golden light. If you are going to change the lighting in your kitchen, make sure you do so before finally deciding on a particular colour for your decorating scheme. You could end up with something completely different than you planned!

While you are actually painting your kitchen, switch the lights on and off occasionally to check the effect and always try to paint in natural daylight when you can. It is helpful to test your colour first on an odd piece of wood or hardboard, then leave it in the room for a few days. Look at it different times of the day and notice if and how it changes. It is also helpful to leave a sample of the wall colour next to it. See how these colours sit together and decide, over a few days, whether you grow to like the combination. Try to paint as large a sample board as you can. better still, try to paint large areas of the colour on the wall. If this is an emulsion paint, it can of course be painted over again quickly and easily.

When choosing colours from the colour cards you buy in DIY shops it can be daunting to see the same colour in all its glory on a whole wall. The full impact can sometimes prove too strong. The lighting in paint and DIY shops is often quite different from the lighting in your home. Take the paint cards out of the shop, and look at them in natural daylight.

Try to test a colour in as large an area as possible. Some outlets do supply small tester pots of matt emulsion - these are quite cheap and a practical way of testing colours especially those that might look very similar on a colour chart but clearly different on a wall.

If it is not possible to paint samples directly on to your wall, paint on to lining paper. Cut pieces of this to size and hold them up to the wall. Sometimes four walls painted in exactly the same colour can look quite different throughout the day, and quite different from each other.

Nowadays, many people use the kitchen as a dining room too. If the two functions of your kitchen are in one and the same area, you could paint different elements such as the table and

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