[Vocabulary] Am I Using This Word Correctly In These Sentences?

[123englishme]

Am I using connote properly in these sentences?
A nicely finished kitchen connotes hard work
The all black clothing on the young boy connoted depression, anxiety and other possible mental-illnesses.

 

[Raymott]

They sound alright to me.
"Mental illness" isn't hyphenated, though you could hyphenate "nicely-finished".

 

[Tdol]

The first doesn't sound very natural to me, though.

 

[tedmc]

The first doesn't sound very natural to me, though.

Me neither.
A nicely finished kitchen is a result of hard work.

I thought the word "connote" is used with things like words, ideas, etc., things which are abstract rather than physical.
http://fraze.it/n_search.jsp?hardm=1&t=0&l=0&p=1&q=connote

 

[Matthew Wai]

How about 'A nicely finished kitchen signifies hard work'?

Not a teacher.

 

[Rover_KE]

123englishme, please note that a better title would have been Am I using 'connote' correctly in these sentences?

Extract from the Posting Guidelines:

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'

 

[mawes12]

Isn't 'connotes' almost as saying 'shows'?

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think it is not so much 'shows' as 'suggests', but I am not a teacher.

 

[mawes12]

I think it is not so much 'shows' as 'suggests', but I am not a teacher.

even though to me, it is the same, let's see what others will say.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I agree with Matthew.