Are you renovating your kitchen?

The kitchen is often regarded as the heart and soul of any home.

It's where your family and friends come together to eat, drink and be merry – so its interior design should exude happiness and warmth.

If you're thinking about doing some kitchen renovations, we encourage you to spend a fair amount of time poring over paint colours and wallpaper patterns.

It's important that you love the way your kitchen looks and feels. If you don't, it might affect your cooking!

At the moment, many people are opting to mix the old in with the new when it comes to choosing a design scheme for their kitchens.

You can really create something amazing by mixing modern, stainless-steel appliances with old-school furniture and paint colours.

Try using pastel colours – cheerful yellow, mint green, pale lavender – to give your kitchen a cozy, vintage feel.

A popular shade that screams old-fashioned and ultra-modern at the same time is orange.

Resene Clementine Orange could give your kitchen's walls or windows sills that oomph you've been searching for.

You could also investigate floral wallpaper and see if you find a pattern that will suit your kitchen and lifestyle.

It's important that you don't make your kitchen too dark. Choose light, bright colours that will welcome you at breakfast!

If you've got your heart set on a deep, rich colour, use it as a border, on a splashback or on a feature wall, so that it doesn't overwhelm your kitchen.

Finally, you can never go wrong with cream or white if you're struggling to decide on a colour for your kitchen. It comes in many shades, and will make the space look fresh, clean and inviting.

If you choose to paint the walls white, you can liven your kitchen up in other ways.

Have you thought about hanging funky, patterned curtains or creating a blackboard or whiteboard wall that you can write or draw all over?  You can write handy reminders and to do lists at the top and let your kids create a picture of the day underneath.

Or, create a magnetic wall so you can hang up reminders and notes with magnets without damaging your walls.