en these days is more than just a place to cook and eat. It’s become the central meeting place or “hub” of the home andthe right colors can really help warm it up. Helpful Hints To help you brighten your kitchen, Jessica McConnell, Manager, Color, Finish & Material at the Whirlpool Corporation Institute of HomeScience, offers a few tips. For a simple update for your kitchen, she recommends adding pops of color with different textiles, cookware and kitchen gadgets each season: orange for Halloween, red for Christmastime as well as pearly white and frosty pine, which can be a more understated, modern and unexpected approach to holiday themes. Also, gold is a hot color trend for kitchens right now, and few things say holidays like shiny gold accents. It’s pretty amazing, McConnell says, what some new dish towels, a rug and coordinating throw pillows (if, say, you have a breakfast nook with bench seating) can do to update your kitchen. Another simple trick she offers is to add color in the form of a teapot or cookware that you can display either on your cooktop or on a shelf or rack. A nice container of kitchen tools and gadgets is a really simple and easy wayto tie it all together. The next time you’re in the market for new kitchen appliances or in the midst of remodeling your home, consider this: When it comes to kitchens, black is the new, well, black. Now you can get a new kitchen suite from KitchenAid in a black stainless finish. The key to makingblack, white or stainless appliances work with existing or new cabinetry is to understand what complements each finish for a modern look. Pair white appliances with light wood or gray or white painted cabinets; black appliances with espresso, gray washed wood, wal- A black stainless finish on kitchen appliances workswell with brightly colored accessories. nut or dark painted cabinets. If you have high contrast from appliance to cabinet color, such as white appliances and dark, cherry cabinets, bring in white accessories and countertop appliances to complement. Stainless is versatile. It’s a neutral mid-tone, premium material and goes well with virtually any tone. With a black stainless suite, small touches of red, either in small appliances, cookware or textiles, will coordinate really nicely with the red medallions on the handle end caps. Don’t Avoid Color, EmbraceIt Explains Mary Jo Peterson, CKD, CBD, CAPS, “Color is the tool most readily available to us to establish our personality in our home, to create a mood, to invite others into our space, and we can do this with the ways we use this easy tool. To add warmth to a space, we might adda soft yellow, gold or bronze or, in smaller amounts, a brighter tone of orange or red. While these are all warm colors, the more intense colors will have greater impact on thelevel of activity they suggest in the space. Particularly when used in muted hues, these colors are often great companions to the newer black stainless suites of appliances we are seeing in trends today.” Learn More For more information and for helpful tips and tricks for the home, go to www.instituteofhome science.com.