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Mon, Dec 29, 08 at 16:42
| So it looks as if we are going to go ahead and paint prior to installation, which means I have to decide on a paint color much sooner than I thought. Here are my kitchen elements so far: Cabinets are dove white (sort of a neutral "off"); countertops are soapstone and calacatta marble; appliances, fixtures and hardware are various metals (stainless steel, chrome, and polished nickel); floor, hutch, chairs and table are shades of stained wood from medium to dark. Backsplash is white subway tile, sink is white fireclay.
Can anyone suggest a color for the walls? I can't decide whether it would be better to go in a cooler, gray-blue direction, or a warmer, honey tone. I'm having a really hard time visualizing it all put together and whether something is going to end up really clashing. Thanks for your input, as always! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| The first color that came to mind was gray. I like BM Sabre Gray, but any soft, medium gray that suits your taste would work, I think...Working off the marble, coordinating with the silver-tones in the hardware, and setting off your dove white cabinets. You also have the stained wood to add warmth, so the cooler walls would let those elements stand out. |
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| I like the gray-blue or gray-green colours. With your elements I'm picturing muted colours, to let the counters be the star - is that your plan as well? Are there any colours you can pull out of the marble or soapstone? |
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- Posted by petra_granite (My Page) on Mon, Dec 29, 08 at 17:09
| before what install? Countertops? My boss has been installing tile, slate, travertine, marble and granite for 20 years. She always tells customers to wait and paint after countertops. Maybe others have different opinions. From her best experience, that is her advise. She says: remodel stages: cabinets, countertops, floors & splash and then paint. If that is possible, on a complete remodel. We did a 100% kitchen remodel this summer: 20K cabinets: 8k countertops: 1k splash: 2k special paint job: 2K on flooring for kitchen. Took 3 months to complete entire job: (because the cabinet people took their sweet time; and no we didn't hire them /homeowner did): painting was their last job after we left. Hope that helps~ |
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- Posted by kitchenredo2 (My Page) on Mon, Dec 29, 08 at 17:09
| Here is a link to Benjamin Moore's Personal Color Viewer. It allows you to see how colors will work in different rooms. |
Here is a link that might be useful: BM Personal Color Viewer
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| What collection of pieces of walls do you have? A fair amount of symmetry? How about balance? A discrete block that would make a nice secondary focal point? a well-proportioned frame for a window? Lots of odd, broken-up little nothings you don't want to draw attention to? |
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| Painting is a LOT more work after new things are installed. It's easier to touch up little nicks later than it is to do all that masking and protecting. If you can pay someone to do it that may be different, but if you're DIYing and you pick a color and paint now, it's all easy...and I think the chances are good, with your straight-forward classic color scheme, that you'll decide on something that you'll like in the end. It's not like you have one of those granites that changes color at different angles and in different lighting. If you end up not liking it, you're only out the paint and an hour or two of work if you end up repainting. If you end up liking it, you are saved a whole lot of work. Not much lost in trying for it now. |
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- Posted by danielle00 (My Page) on Mon, Dec 29, 08 at 17:54
| what about a light sage color or something in the blue/grey family? i also agree about painting before. there will be some areas that might even be impossible to reach (depending on how your kitchen is) after everything is installed). |
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- Posted by victoriajane (My Page) on Mon, Dec 29, 08 at 18:11
| thanks for all the suggestions. Petra granite and others, we have a painter (through our gc) and they want to paint prior to installation (I'm guessing because it's easier and therefore cheaper than to do it when you have to tape and cover and work around everything else.) As rhome said, I have a pretty straightforward color scheme going; really no movement at all in the backsplash, and even the soapstone is the quietest variety I've ever seen. So it isn't as though I really need to see it all up in the kitchen first; it's just that I'm so darn bad at visualizing! I do love gray. There is a gray kitchen in the atticmag website called "pearl gray" that I think is just beautiful - I wish I knew how to post a link. |
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| We will have a very similar color scheme with dove white cabs/soapstone on the perimeter and a dark stained island with calacatta, polished nickel hardware and stainless appliances. It's early days for us, but I am thinking of painting the walls with Silver Sage from Restoration Hardware or a Benjamin Moore color very similar if I can find one. I'm hoping it will be fresh & crisp for the cabinets, yet cool enough to contrast the warm island. |
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- Posted by remodelfla (My Page) on Mon, Dec 29, 08 at 19:55
| I love blue/silver/gray colors and will probably be what I go with in my home. I thought though that calcutta marble had warmer ivory tones (I could easily be wrong!). Will they go with the gray tones? Do you have a pic of your slabs to post? |
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| Gray and cream/ivory is one of my very favorite combos. There are so many grays, and I think many would work, although I prefer the creamy gray tones that I would call 'dove gray,' but am not sure everyone sees dove as the same type of gray. |
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| Your description kind of reminds me of vwhippiechick's kitchen except for the wood floor and white backsplash. She used a warm color paint on the walls, so I thought this might give you an idea of how that would look. Laurie |
Here is a link that might be useful: vwhippiechick's kitchen
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- Posted by katiekitchen (My Page) on Mon, Dec 29, 08 at 21:49
| We're in the midst of a kitchen reno with white cabs, black island, cambrian black counters, stainless appliance, satin nickel pulls and red oak wood floors. We painted before the cabinet install. I had the hardest time finding a gray that wasn't too blue or too green. I ended up with BM light pewter. It's on a brown card in the fan deck, but very light. I think it's going to work out well. Gray, but not too cold. Is is a real muted color, but I wanted that. |
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- Posted by farmhousebound (My Page) on Mon, Dec 29, 08 at 22:05
| We are in the process of doing our renovation in phases and are coming to the end of phase 1--next phase priming, painting, and trim work with DH and I doing this work. My kitchen cabinets and trim will be BM Mayonaise with the wallcolor a sagey, grey-green BM Flowering Herbs. I will also have soapstone on perimeter countertops and a marble on the island. I have started on the walls and have absolutely fallen in love with this color. However, be warned, I am using this color in other parts of the house and it looks different in each room I have put it in, so make sure you sample your choice(s) prior to having it all painted! |
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| I don't know if you've seen my kitchen (white perimeter cabs, black island, Calacatta countertop / backsplash, polished nickel hardware, some stainless appliances):
but I have BM's Pearl River on the walls with a 50% formula on the ceiling. I love it. I LOVE it!
Have you seen redroze's kitchen? She has BM Natural Cream and it is really pretty with her white cabinets ... the creaminess of it would be lovely with the gold in the Calacatta. |
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With the exception of our marble being carrara, and our dining chairs being black, your kitchen finishes are all identical to ours, right down to the cab color, sink, tiles and mixture of metals. If it helps, we're leaning toward a caramel color on the walls, but if I *could*, I would definitely do something in the blue-grey family. This was my inspiration photo. Even though the color is on the cabinets rather than the walls, you can see how fabulous it looks with the white and the marble.
In our case, we feel we need to go with something warmer because our kitchen will be open to our north-facing, somewhat dark dining room. The paint color also has to look good with the original oak trim. And on top of that, our dining room is directly across from our living room, which is mostly reds, yellow/gold and cream. Because I love the blue-grey so much, I might put it in my new powder room. I have to have it *somewhere*! DH and I were just discussing whether it might work to go with the blue-grey in the kitchen, and a caramely color in the dining room, though. I really like the white, caramel and blue-grey together, and it would solve the lighting issue and coordination of adjacent rooms. My only worry is that it might be too much contrast. Anyway, this is YOUR thread, so I'll shut up! Put me down for one very convoluted vote in grey family. ;o) |
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| I was just thinking today how much I still love my paint color--I have white cabs, carrera perimeter countertops, chocolate granite island top; tumbled carrera mosaic backsplash; burnished brass hardware, brass faucet...paint is a gray green--or green gray--BM Nantucket Gray. It feels so grounded and contrasts so well with the white cabs. While there's a list of things I second guess about my kitchen, the paint color is one of things I think I got right. Of course, it all depends on the lighting in your space...but I would suggest to look in the gray/green arena. I originally thought I'd go with a stone color for the walls--a beige/tan/linen color, but I ended up loving the gray/green feel. I think its black undertones would play to your soapstone very nicely. |
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- Posted by sailormann (My Page) on Mon, Dec 29, 08 at 23:39
| I'm thinking that a grey colour with a hint of taupey-brown would look nice...it might be a bit warmer than something that is blue tone based. |
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- Posted by kateskouros (My Page) on Mon, Dec 29, 08 at 23:56
| dear GOD malhgold! WHAT COLOR GREY IS THAT??? magnificent. and thanks for posting that pic, worldmom. i've never seen that one (which is impossible for me to believe). i'm going to have to file that one! i agree something in the grey family ...with the possibility of a hint of blue. the tans work but imho, not as well as those greys ...or even a very daring creme. the same as the cabs. |
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- Posted by bluekitobsessed (My Page) on Tue, Dec 30, 08 at 0:32
| Blue votes for blue-gray, or blue-green-gray, or something like that. However, Blue (the person) notes that she is sort of a monomaniac on the subject of Blue (the color), so consider the source. Blue (the person) went through nine different samples of blue-gray (the color) on her walls, driving her general contractor crazy, before finally picking the right color. Blue also notes that, with all of the very neutral colors in your kitchen, you could go with a daring color on the walls, whether dark red, turquoise blue, sunshine yellow, or something else entirely. |
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| Oooh, I like the red idea! But after having 2 rooms in our house in intense colors (one looks like chocolate syrup, and one is a bright burgundy...One is flat and one is eggshell), I know that they are a little more difficult to keep clean. When I was working on the ceiling of the brown room (brown paint already dry), I thought I'd gotten some sheetrock dust on the brown, so tried to wipe it off...but every touch or swipe looked whitish on the dark paint. I'm not sure I'd want to deal with that in the kitchen. If you choose a stronger color, I recommend choosing one that's softened (grayed?) a little to avoid the problem. I do think a darker, rich color could look wonderful...Soft chocolatey brown, or dark olive, but also dark gray...Like Lagrant's Ralph Lauren Orion Gray. Gorgeous! |
Here is a link that might be useful: Lagrant's kitchen
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- Posted by victoriajane (My Page) on Tue, Dec 30, 08 at 14:12
| Thanks everybody - I'm really sold on the gray. As bluekitobsessed said, I could really do any color, including a bold one, but I think I'm going to be keeping the same color on throughout the mudroom and 1st floor bath, as well as up the back stairs and second floor landing, since there really isn't any natural breaking point. So I'd like to keep it pretty neutral. The hard part now is picking the gray - I was definitely thinking one with a hint of silvery blue, but after bringing home the color strips and holding them up to the dove white cab sample and calacatta marble, the warmer grays are looking better , I think. Has anyone ever used wickham gray or stonington gray? |
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- Posted by katiekitchen (My Page) on Tue, Dec 30, 08 at 14:59
| Wickham and Stonington were two colors I considered, too. Aren't they on the same chip as titanium? Someone here has titanium in her kitchen and it looks great. It looked much more green in my house. I tried moonshine, too which is more blueish. As I said before, I ended up with Light Pewter because I couldn't help but see blue and green in all of the other grays I tried. |
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- Posted by victoriajane (My Page) on Tue, Dec 30, 08 at 15:25
| katie, stonington and wickham are on the same chip as coventry. Stonington is the middle one. I don't see any green or blue (although as I said, I originally envisioned a silvery blue toned gray). These are much warmer, slightly beig-y. I thought the stonington looked just right with my cab and counter choices, although I never would have chosen it just by itself in the store. I just got back from my second trip of the day to BM - I brought in my cab and counter samples this time - and the color consultant confirmed my decision - stonington is the way to go with the dove white cabinets, which incidentally, are not like BM's dove white which is grayer. My dove white cabs have a more yellowish cast to them. She also helped me pick a matching white for the trim, which ended up being BM's cloud white (not exact of course but pretty darn close.) |
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