The one colour you should not paint your kitchen, according to the experts

It has long been the go-to choice for designers and renovating home owners, but there’s one colour that is decidedly off the menu for kitchens even though, technically, it’s not a colour at all.

Despite its alignment with cleanliness and good housekeeping, white has officially lost its shine as designers ditch it in favour of warmer, deeper tones offering connection and a sense of security.

The Balmain East project from Studio Johnston looked to the immediate leafy environment for its mix of olive green and timber cabinetry.Credit: Anson Smart

The 2025 Dulux Colour Award finalists were released last week, unleashing a kaleidoscope of hues across residential, commercial and hospitality projects. While the hospitality industry has long been known for making bold design statements to attract diners and influencers alike, most home owners are more reticent to take a spin of the colour wheel. Not this year. This has been most evident in kitchen design, as designers match richly coloured stone with equally moody tones.

Dulux colour expert Andrea Lucena-Orr says the choice of stone for benchtops and splashbacks demands a bolder palette.

“If you put a white kitchen in, it would flatten the stone colour,” she says. “You have to add colour.”

The trend towards a biophilic palette, where the focus is on natural materials such as timber and stone and colours representing earth, sea and sky, has been on an upward trajectory for several years now as home owners seek to disconnect from the digital world and embrace the natural environment. But an uncertain geopolitical climate has only cemented the desire to create a sanctuary and a sense of security at home. At the centre of that is the kitchen.

“Everyone is feeling a bit unsafe and insecure,” says Lucena-Orr. “Adding those natural colours helps. It’s almost like cocooning.”

Colours range from soft sages and sea blues to deep mustards and rich reds and burgundies, echoing the tones of the Australian outback.

2025 Dulux Colour Awards finalist WOWOWA, based in Melbourne, leans into the rich colour of the stone benchtop and splashback.Credit: Martina Gemmola

Award-winning interior designer and Arent&Pyke director Sarah-Jane Pyke says even as the nature of open-plan living evolves, the kitchen continues to sit at the heart.

“There was an era when ‘light and bright’ was the calling card [for kitchens], but people have started to understand that using colour can create a deep anchor that grounds and earths you in the space,” she says.

Even where the rest of the space is painted in classic neutrals such as taupe and ecru, the kitchen is now firmly the jewel in the crown.

The waterside location of this property designed by Arent&Pyke provided colour cues. Timber cabinetry has been carefully treated to allow the grain to show.Credit: Anson Smart

Part of the appeal, Pyke says, is a sense of nostalgia, with palettes reminiscent of “simpler times” such as the 1970s, when brown, orange and green were popular choices for cabinetry.

“We are drawn to the familiar,” she says.

As the world becomes more uncertain, Studio Johnston project director Stefania Reynolds says families are looking to create safe, nurturing environments for themselves and their children.

“In my own home, I have used really calming colours,” she says. “The apricot walls [in the living room] are in the same colour as my bedroom growing up. I want to raise my children in a world of colour – I don’t want to bring them up in a white box. Colour brings with it a sense of playfulness into daily life as well.”

For their entry in the awards, Reynolds says she steered the client away from a white kitchen, instead directing her towards olive green for their Balmain East house.

The Balmain East project by Studio Johnston shows the versatility of olive green, pairing it with timber and mustard-coloured velvet.Credit: Anson Smart

“The owner was not sold on using colour – it was very much taking her on a journey,” Reynolds says. “The only colour she resonated with was olive green, and that was because of the surrounds.”

Reynolds says a colourful kitchen may seem an unlikely salve to the current woes of the world, but it should not be discounted in terms of its impact on the wellbeing of the people who use it.

“You don’t notice the colour when it’s there, but unconsciously, it’s doing something to you,” she says. “It’s like when someone asks you if you have taken your vitamins. You don’t consciously think about doing it, but it makes a difference to how you feel.”

Architect Matt Gibson says the brass finishes in this heritage-listed property in Fitzroy are a nod to its past. Credit:

Now that the colour genie is out of the bottle, Melbourne-based architect Matt Gibson says there’s no turning back.

“The days of minimalism where kitchens were devoid of a story are over,” he says. “In the late ’90s and early 2000s, they were zen spaces. Now it’s about having a context with the rest of the existing building. It’s all about warmth, texture and personality.”

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