The color blue has a unique inheritance when being used in the kitchen. This is because you do not find this color occurring naturally in human food sources. There are almost no plants or animals that have the color blue in them, and the few exceptions are generally not edible or good as a source of nutrition.
This lack of blue pigment in food has caused people to develop an aversive appetite to the color. The presence of various blue tones in a setting can actually repress a persons hunger, and make them less likely to eat, or enjoy a full meal.
This fact has been noted by many restaurants and cafes, which often go easy on blue tones, replacing them with red or amber colors that are more likely to stimulate their customer’s appetites. There are of course always exceptions, but restaurants that name themselves “The Blue Moon” or with other similar titles do so at their own risk.
Since blue has this psychological side effect, it is kind of a difficult color to incorporate into a kitchen. On the one hand it will be an inspiration drain for the chef, who is trying to use their own love of food to help them create the most delicious dish possible; while on the other it will make people who enter the kitchen less enthusiastic about the dishes being prepared.
There are some small ways that you can use this color to good effect in a kitchen however. One way is to balance it against colors such as red, orange, yellow, and gold. These brighter colors tend to simulate peoples metabolism, and can even make them feel hungrier; another fact used by many restaurants. However, too much of these bright tones can cause a kitchen to get overheated. Soothing blue accents can help to balance out this effect to some extent.
Another context in which blue is appropriate in a kitchen is when it evokes a sense of water and liquidity. The ocean is blue, many rivers, and lakes are blue, and so this color does tend to make us thirstier. This can be applied to a beach or natural themed kitchen, or can be used to separate a bar area from the rest of the space.
The final way that blue can be used in a kitchen is if you are a chef that loves to cook, and loves to eat. If the eating is getting out of hands, decorating a blue kitchen may help you to cut down on snacking.
Blue is kind of a tricky color to use in a kitchen. On the one hand it makes people averse to food, but on the other it can make them thirstier. Knowing this, the color can be used strategically to create exactly the space that your particular needs require.
