It's a long, fairly roomy kitchen with great honey cabinets and a horrible beige countertop. Sounds like you're on the right track already. Pages are filled with bold blue, deep red, green, brown walls and on and on. The author makes a point that you have to get the balance right among colors and surfaces that make up the room. Most of us fall flat by just painting the wall and hoping that will do the trick.
Design doesnt work that way.
Bright red walls become backdrops for a creamy kimono and a rice-paper scroll. Anyone living in this area should acquaint themselves with historic colors in the rooms of the Octagon house, where Dolley Madison moved after the 1814 fire at the White House. A combination of research and restoration there has resulted in some very bold colors in use there. A wonderful case study. Hella Jongerius is famous now in her own right, a favorite for some time of Donna Karan and Karl Lagerfeld.