By Katie McKenzie
If you believe kitchens should come in only three colors— black, white, or stainless steel— you haven’t met Jonathan Adler.
Mr. Adler, a current darling of the design world, joined the industry after starting as a potter as a teenager. Now he has stores on two continents in tres chic metropoli, a design collection that embraces everything from furniture to handbags, and a small army of admirers in the ranks of the famous and fashionable.
Devotees of Adler style include the actor-comedian-producer-writer, Mindy Kaling; the anchor of Good Morning America, Lara Spencer; and British style queen, India Hicks. As well as apparently every style and design blogger from Greenwich Village to Santa Monica.
Adler’s designs have also appeared in Vogue, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Independent, and Dwell. Not bad for a kid who started his career making pottery in his parents’ basement.
The talented Mr. Adler is now turning his eye to the iconic Kohler cast-iron sink, where he hopes to convince the world to bring unique, punchy colors back into the kitchen.
No surprise here. Throughout his career, vivid color and cheeky designs were always signature Adlerian moves. How could a company with the tagline, “The Bold Look of Kohler” resist?
Why Colored Sinks?
Minimalist white kitchens, like the ones in this slideshow from HGTV, are timeless. But with all those clean lines and open spaces, your eyes could probably use a break. Loyola Marymount University recently published a study on the psychological effects of different colors. It turns out white rooms feel sterile to most people.
If the kitchen is the room where you and your family probably spend the most time, and the room where you try to spice up Wednesday night dinner, then your kitchen is no place to be bored.
No one needed to tell Jonathan Adler about that. Talking broadly about his new collection, he said, “I always feel that color makes a home happy.”
Make your kitchen a happier place to be with one of these fun sinks pictured above:
- Piccadilly Yellow
If you want to make your kitchen feel more upbeat, take your cue from Mr. Adler, who gushed, “I am absolutely, madly, passionately in love with yellow.”
Yellow adds a shot of excitement to any room. Best of all, there’s an element of Swinging Sixties fashion in this shade of yellow. The designer admitted that he liked the “mod” feel of Piccadilly Yellow.
- Greenwich Green
Not that he plays favorites, but this color is near and dear to Adler’s heart; he installed this sink in his own kitchen. As he puts it, “there’s something about an apple green that feels crisp.”
The Loyola University study’s primary finding was that green boosts creativity. With this groovy sink in your kitchen, your days of making the same old ‘blah’ meals are so over.
- Palermo blue
Mmm… this smooth, dreamy blue almost brings the scent of the ocean into our homes— or at least calls to mind a fruity beachside cocktail.
If darker shades of blue, like navy, recall the waters of the deep Pacific or North Atlantic, this shade is more like the Caribbean, fresh and fun.
- Annapolis navy
In a white kitchen, this color becomes “nautical… a little French, a little American… classique,”as Mr. Adler describes this ultra-cool color combination. This dark blue will have you speaking French too.
If you have a clean, classic style, Annapolis Navy offers the best of both worlds: it adds a little color, but still fits right in.
Vive la différence! With these four eye-candy colors, home buyers of every stripe will love these sinks in their kitchens. As Mr. Adler says it himself (and we agree): “I can’t imagine a world that’s just black and white!”
Or even a kitchen.
Katie McKenzie is a writer for NewHomeSource.com.
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