You can create a warm, inviting ambience for your kitchen whether you have a tiny apartment kitchen, a space-challenged RV or boat galley or a spacious home kitchen big enough for a big pine table. But designing a charming and romantic Country Kitchen entails more than just '??setting the table'?? with some enchanting decorative accessories. What expresses the feeling of a '??Country Kitchen'??? The first impression of a room is the dominant color. When you own your home, painting the walls a light, cheerful yellow and adding a wallpaper or stenciled border will create a look that definitely says country. Traditional French Country colors are Yellow and a French Blue that has a blue-purple cast. Sunny, yellow sunflower accessories, amber glass and blue glass accents and blue tiles would be ideal with this color scheme as well as blue and white canister sets, dishtowels, potholders and blue and white check table linens and curtains. If you choose to use blue in your color scheme, this color, particularly when used with mellow yellows, will evoke old-world charm. Rich, strong blues bring to mind the wonderful tiles so popular in European kitchens. Pictures of Claude Monet'??s country estate in Giverny (about an hour'??s train ride north of Paris) typify this. Multi-patterned blue and white tiles line the walls around the immense, black stove. Blue and white check curtains billow in breezes from the nearby window that opens to the flower gardens. (See '??Monet'??s Table, The Cooking Journals of Claude Monet'?? by Claire Joyes.) In the dining room, the long dining table, ringed by 12-14 yellow-painted chairs, is covered with a yellow tablecloth set with blue and white dishes and set off by blue flowers in tiny vases by the place settings. Another set of Monet'??s favorite dishes was bright yellow edged in deep blue. Truly country style and truly stunning! If you must leave the kitchen walls white and your appliances are white, too, the most important element is going to be the color of your accessories and coordinating everything is definitely the biggest job. Many manufacturers display a line of accessories in one theme or one set of colors. This would be a good way to begin. Then for visual variety, you can add other accents that would blend in with your basic color scheme. For instance, let'??s say you choose a line of red decorative accessories to make your kitchen cheerful, warm and inviting. A set of apple or strawberry canisters and a red cookie jar will add punch to your countertop. Framed prints of apples and other red fruits and vegetables dress up neutral walls, especially in groupings. For your table, use a solid red or a red check tablecloth with red napkins, topped by red and white fruit tablemats. Fresh flowers in a red glass bowl make a pretty table centerpiece, with red and white fruit sugar and creamer on the side. For a party, put red candlesticks in white holders. A '??Strawberry Pie'?? candle, complete with a delectable strawberry scent is fun for a countertop or bar top. Red glass bottles on a window sill, utensils or pots with red handles, red cushions on your kitchen chairs, a braided rug done in red, pink, tan, green and white would be great accents. Mix and match but stay within your color boundaries and don'??t use too many patterns. Green has many functions: lush, green plants give off oxygen, beautify your kitchen and can contribute to your color scheme. If your main accent theme is red, then green will intensify it because green is the '??complementary'?? color since it is opposite red on the color wheel. Green is a '??secondary'?? color because it is the combination of the primaries yellow and blue. Thus, it will harmonize with a yellow-blue color layout very nicely. Potholders and oven mitts should complement the featured colors in your country kitchen. And the colors of your cooking/serving apron are important. You are the star of the room so dress the part!
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