Inside The Mustard Kitchen, New Canaan

Most kitchens we are asked to build want to be calm. This one didn't.

The Mustard Kitchen in New Canaan brings together mustard walls, a cobalt range and a red-and-white floor. The clients had a clear sense of the room they wanted, and those choices guided the work.

The decisions that set everything else

Three choices made this room, and all three were made early.

Mustard walls set the tone. The color runs through the room, warming the oak and changing how the marble reads in the light. Samples needed to be considered together, in the space.

The range and hood are cobalt. The blue provides a strong counterpoint to the yellow walls. Carrying it onto the hood gives the range wall a clear place in the room.

The floor is a red-and-white checkerboard. Its pattern adds another strong element. The oak cabinetry and pale counters give those colors room to work.

What holds it together

A room with mustard walls, a cobalt range and a checkerboard floor needs somewhere for the eye to rest, and that job goes to the cabinetry and the stone.

The warm oak cabinetry keeps the grain visible. It gives the room a quieter material alongside the painted walls, hood and floor.

Marble counters and backsplash bring a softer surface to the scheme. The veining has movement without adding another bold pattern.

The parts that took longest

The pantry doors took more iterations than anything else in the room. They sit at the junction between the kitchen and the rest of the house, which means they have to work with the mustard on one side and with whatever the adjoining space is doing on the other. A door in that position is never only a door; it is the detail that tells you whether the color scheme was thought about as a whole house or only as a room.

The dining end is simpler: a rectangular farmhouse table and bentwood chairs. It provides a comfortable place to sit without adding more pattern to the room.

What we would tell someone considering a room like this

Decide the bold thing first, not last. Saturated color cannot be added at the end to a scheme selected under fluorescent light in a showroom. It has to be the first decision, because everything else gets chosen against it.

Look at the samples in the actual room, at the actual hours you use it. Mustard at ten in the morning and mustard under pendant light at seven in the evening are two different colors. So is marble, and so is oak. We put large samples up and leave them for days, and we have talked clients out of colors on the strength of what happened to them at dusk.

Give the eye somewhere to rest. Every room with three strong moves needs a fourth element that does nothing. Here it is the oak and the stone. Without it the room would be exhausting.

Work through the bold choices together. Walls, floor, cabinetry and appliances need to be considered as a group. Full-size samples and views of the room help make those decisions before installation.

Where it sits

The Mustard Kitchen is in New Canaan. It reflects the clients' taste and the care taken with color, materials and the everyday details of the room.

If you are planning a kitchen in Fairfield County or Westchester and you have a strong idea you are worried is too strong, that is the conversation we most enjoy having.

Planning your own kitchen? Compare pantry layouts and custom and semi-custom cabinetry before finalizing the design.