A kitchen has more fixed surfaces in one view than any other room, and most of them are ordered before you can see them together. Choose what you already have, add what you are considering, and the planner explains how the surfaces will affect each other.
A schematic. It shows which way the surfaces shift, not how your room will look. Walls are shown in the safer suggestion, cool white.
Choose whatever you already have, and the analysis starts from there.
Next decision: floor
Floors and cabinets take up most of the view, so they set the temperature of the room. The worktop then runs along the edge where the doors are compared with something else, and the splashback, metals and walls answer all of them. The wall is the only large surface that can still change cheaply afterwards.
Warm surfaces gain from warm lamps and lose under cool ones. Near-neutrals move most, as they have little colour of their own to resist the light. These swatches show the direction of the shift, not the shift your room will have.
| Surface | Bright daylight | North sky | Cool LEDs | Warm evening lamps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oak | ||||
| Cream door | ||||
| Grey door | ||||
| Deep green |
For a kitchen, plan at least two kinds of light: task lighting on the worktop and softer ambient lighting for the rest. Under-cabinet strips will be visible in a glossy splashback and a polished worktop, so check before fitting. More in lighting in a renovation.