Afraid a stark white home will feel cold?
There is a constant issue with bright white rooms. The space has a risk of feeling cold. I am a fan of ‘cooler’ tones. As a photographer, the cooler colors and daylight bulbs keep images from turning extremely orange. In your home, however, the cooler colors may keep the home feeling anything but homey. If you like cooler colors like me, your space may start to feel really sterile. I just recently moved, and wanted my homes ‘theme’ to be black and white. Extremely quickly the space started looking extremely bland and cold. I went against everything I has originally planned and followed these steps to make my space feel warmer.


When remodeling a kitchen, try contrasting
If you are set on white cabinets, try contrasting with other elements. Hard wood floors will make a space feel much warmer, no matter how white your kitchen and walls are. Contrasting upper and lower cabinets (or a contrasting island) will create depth and keep the space feel warmer, without sacrificing the beautiful white cabinets. This doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your marble/white or light gray countertops either! Using wood is really all you need to keep the space feeling warm.
Accessorize with warm colors
Accessories are a huge part of keeping a space feeling ‘warm’. White cabinets in a kitchen will keep the space feeling extremely clean and open, however, without accessories, may start to feel too white. (This includes cabinet hardware) The best way to counteract this is to choose a color theme for your kitchen. I personally chose oil rubbed bronze/copper/rose gold as my base accessory color. Since these are on the ‘warm scale’ they worked quite well. Think reds, oranges, and yellows. Right now, the copper/rose gold tones are extremely ‘in’ so it will be really easy to find accessories at your favorite places to shop. Home Goods, Target, Ikea, and even Wal-Mart had exactly what I was looking for.

Furniture
It is funny to think of furniture as an accessory, but it is true! I personally chose cream furniture and white washed wood for my living room. I’m not a fan of having too many different types of woods in the same room. Not everyone agrees with this, but try to keep the wood stains a similar color when it comes to furniture, it keeps everything looking more uniform. This isn’t to say you can’t contrast with bold colored furniture however (Whether it be black, red, blue etc.). As previously stated, wood makes a great accent, because it will keep the space feeling warm.
Bold lighting
In your home and kitchen, bold lighting can really keep a space feeling warm, especially if you use ‘warm’ lights. I previously mentioned that I am not a fan of warmer lights, so I compromised with myself. I kept all my overhead lights ‘daylight’ bulbs, but all my lamps and pendent lights have LED ‘vintage’ Edison bulbs, which all give off a warm tone. This is perfect for evenings. Blue light actually makes the brain think it is still daytime, while orange/yellow light doesn’t affect the brain the same way. In the evening, keeping the warm lights on and they daylight bulbs off will let your body wind down naturally. Here is my current living room, it is still a work in progress, but all the walls are white, furniture and accents are cream and black, with a bold light fixture which is black and bronze.
