Maple has so much warmth of its own that, in a sunny room, it may be contrasted successfully with walls and woodwork painted a soft pale green. In a small, dark room, the needed color will be supplied by a soft yellow wall with woodwork of the same color and a baseboard of dark brown.
Rug and Draperies
With either wall, a large hooked rug in browns, greens, and yellow is most suitable. With the yellow background, chintz or linen draperies with a dark green background and a design in Chinese red and yellow will give an excellent contrast to the light walls and furniture. With a green wall, a dark brown chintz with reds, greens and yellow in the design is more suitable.
Red with Maple Furniture
It is well to remember that red is also an excellent color to be used with maple furniture, as it furnishes the provincial note so appropriate in a room of this type.
The Kitchen
Here is a room where the range of color scheme possibilities has increased a hundredfold during the last few years. Instead of building around furniture, as in the cases of the other rooms, we build in the kitchen around the stove and the.
Gray and White
Then the best combination for background is a washable soft gloss peach paint for the walls and fog gray for the woodwork. For accent, we run a two-inch wallpaper border in green, peach, gray and white stripes along the top of the walls and around the windows and doors.
Effect of Striping
The effect of this striping is to frame and give character to the room. In this kitchen, we prefer a deep green painted floor or possibly green-peach-and-white linoleum. The pots and pans shall be green or peach, and the curtains peach, trimmed with white ball fringe.
Breakfast Room
If there is a breakfast room, we shall be quite happy with the walls and woodwork painted in the same color as the kitchen walls, with the furniture an apple green.Cream and Green
Now let us consider a small kitchen, with a cream-and-green stove. Our decorative sense tells us that the walls and woodwork should be painted green and the linoleum should contain the cream and green, with an additional touch of rust.
Curtains
For curtains, a cream-green-and-orange plaid harmonizes nicely. And, in the breakfast nook, one can paint the furniture a light orange to add the finishing touch to a kitchen that is sunny and cheery and a pleasure to work in.
When the Stove is Blue and White
But now comes the kitchen with a blue-and-white (or blue-and-gray) stove. This time white painted walls and woodwork serve best the background purpose, accented with mandarin red on the heading around the outside of the doors and windows.
Baseboard and Linoleum
Black is the color for the baseboard. A variety of colors are suitable for the linoleum—plain blue, blue and white or black and white.
Curtains
For curtains, we favor a red-and-white voile and red ball fringe. The furniture in the breakfast room will look well if painted the same shade of blue as the stove. Kitchen utensils are also in this blue.
Flexible Suggestions
These suggestions for kitchens are naturally flexible and may be varied to one’s individual taste. And where the kitchen still contains the conventional all-black stove and soapstone sink these suggestions may still be carried out with very pleasing and cheerful results.