Small kitchens can feel cramped and unwelcoming, with the lack of space making it a room you don’t really want to spend much time in.  Sure, we’d all love to do a full remodel, knock out a wall or two and make a vast open space, but that’s not in everyone’s budget.  There are other tricks you can do with just paint to make your space seem bigger, without having to bring in the sledgehammers.  Here are some ways a fresh coat of paint can make this busy room feel more homey.

Light Colors

Light colors make a room feel more open.  It reflects, rather than absorbs, light, and it make the walls visually recede.  This doesn’t mean you have to stick to pure white all the time; creams and taupes can be mixed and matched to add depth, and you have a wide variety of textures and finishes to choose from to add visual interest as well.  Just try to keep things light and airy.

Accent Wall

Another trick is to use light colors on most of the surfaces, but a heavy, darker color on one accent wall.  That obviously adds a ton of visual interest right of the bat, but it also will help make the lighter colored walls appear to recede even more – an optical illusion that creates the feeling of more space.

Trim

Many people use their trim as an opportunity to branch out into different colors – colors they perhaps wouldn’t want to be the dominant one in a room, but a small pop of color to offset the more placid whites and creams.  This is not a bad idea in theory, but it creates a visual interruption, which makes the room feel smaller.  If you match your trim color to your walls, you create an unbroken space which makes the ceiling appear taller.  For pops of color, look to windowsills, islands, open shelving and things of that nature; it gives you the same dramatic effect without negatively impacting the feeling of space.