Any one with an eye for colour?

[Arden Sage]

I'm half way through some building projects (not me, my builders) and I need to choose some paint colours (ceilings and walls). I simply cannot think! The kitchen units are a bone white and charcoal with a pale grey stone effect flooring. What colour would be best for accessories? Naturally, other rooms come off that area and I have no clue what to choose for the walls/ceiling.

All suggestions welcome and thank you.

 

[Tetters]

I chose to do my kitchen in very pale green, because it 'goes' with any other colour and is restful, but when I became tired of that I decided pale pink would look good - and it does ! It has given the kitchen a warmer more welcome feel. Good luck Let us know what you decide won't you....

PS an afterthought, what ever you do, don't be tempted to paint it red. It would give you headaches and nightmares - I know, been there, done that

 

[Sheal]

If the room faces east or north use warm or bright colours, orange, yellow, pink. Facing south or west most colours can be used including what I call the cold colours, grey, blue, green. Bear in mind hot colours, orange, bright yellow, deep pink, will glare in a south facing room.

When I paint now I tend to have a neutral colour on three walls and something bright to contrast on the other. Don't be afraid to use 'hot' colours like the pink below. On one wall they are not overpowering.

These pics are from my last home. Each room had to be gutted and completely refurbished.

 

[Silentrunning]

@Sheal I am glad to see people using vibrant colors. Back when my wife and I were fixing up houses to sell the realtors always advised us to use “Earth tones”. Read - boring tan or beige. They also wanted no wood showing. All trim was to be painted white, not varnished wood. I think @Arden Sage you should look up some of @Colin posts. He too is a master of bringing the best out in a room with lively colors.

 

[Sean Regan]

I'm half way through some building projects (not me, my builders) and I need to choose some paint colours (ceilings and walls). I simply cannot think! The kitchen units are a bone white and charcoal with a pale grey stone effect flooring. What colour would be best for accessories? Naturally, other rooms come off that area and I have no clue what to choose for the walls/ceiling.

All suggestions welcome and thank you.

Red goes with grey.


We have a grey floor, grey matalic effect "half tiles" and red wallpaper and some red appliances.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

I'm half way through some building projects (not me, my builders) and I need to choose some paint colours (ceilings and walls). I simply cannot think! The kitchen units are a bone white and charcoal with a pale grey stone effect flooring. What colour would be best for accessories? Naturally, other rooms come off that area and I have no clue what to choose for the walls/ceiling.

All suggestions welcome and thank you.

It really all depends on the size of your area, what depth of color it can carry off. But for now my answer would be to go opposite on the color wheel to your color, this is for the walls I am referring to. For the ceiling I'd go with white or a tint blue in it. But again not knowing how close the other rooms are to the kitchen. As far as Accessories, are you talking towels, and kitchen equipment? I would poop out some red for that, nice red.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

there are a few home improvement shows I love, you can find them online. Fixer Upper is one, she does nice kitchens. Home Town is another, and Good Bones. there are also many Home Improvement magazines you can leaf through. I am just reminded of a house tour I took, where this modern kitchen was shown, it was all white, and had a vivid red sink, no where else in the whole room was any other color. to me it looked like a sore thumb, sticking out.

 

[Arden Sage]

Thank you for those inspired ideas - and for those who took the time to post photos too.

If the room faces east or north use warm or bright colours, orange, yellow, pink

Aha! That is good advice, thank you. I shall bear that in mind when choosing the colours for the dining room area. Particularly like your suggestion of one wall a strong colour and like the examples you posted.

again not knowing how close the other rooms are to the kitchen.

The dining room is off the kitchen; there is a double doorway between but no door which means half the wall area of the dining room overlooks the kitchen.

As far as Accessories, are you talking towels, and kitchen equipment?

Yes, that is what I mean by accessories. They are the cheaper way to change colours when I get fed up LOL

I think @Arden Sage you should look up some of @Colin posts. He too is a master of bringing the best out in a room with lively colors.

I shall take a look, thanks for pointing me in that direction.

Thank you all for your posts I shall be out shopping on Wednesday now with a different eye!

 

[Colin]

Hi,

@Sheal I am glad to see people using vibrant colors. Back when my wife and I were fixing up houses to sell the realtors always advised us to use “Earth tones”. Read - boring tan or beige. They also wanted no wood showing. All trim was to be painted white, not varnished wood. I think @Arden Sage you should look up some of @Colin posts. He too is a master of bringing the best out in a room with lively colors.

This is very nice of you Doug; thank you.

I'm hopelessly colour blind but this doesn't mean I'm totally blind; how bad am I with colour well; Bron and I sat at the computer and ran a well known colour blind test of 24 samples; Bron got all 24 correct I managed 3. Please don't ask how I manage at traffic lights because after 50 years driving I know the top one is red; I know this because the lights generally let a mile long queue of traffic through then immediately turn to red making me front of the next queue.

Bron and I have tried many colours over the years but a few years ago visited a friend and she had just one room wall painted in a nice red; we liked this so much we've adopted red for lots of our rooms but not just solid red from floor to ceiling; we introduced panelling up to dado level which has two distinct benefits; two colours can be used to break up large expanses of wall and also as we age we want less decorating to do so now we only have to decorate from dado to ceiling. Our wooden trim is satin white.

I wouldn't suggest colour to anyone because we are all different; I should hate to live in an ultra modern hospital ward though were everything is glaring white; yellow is nice but canary yellow is enough to knock anyone over; we aren't lovers of blue but we've over the years tried many colours; we won't be influenced by having to apply neutral colours just because these are accepted in case the house is to be sold; we live here it being our home and as such we choose the colours we want not what colours others say we should have; be adventurous after all if a colour turns into a disappointment it can easily be changed.

We like the big stately homes and look at their colours knowing these have stood the test of time and will still look good in another 100 years.

When we decorated our front room giving it a complete makeover we thought WOW that really does look good and we still love it; we don't like to use tiles because these tend to show their age after a while especially if the grouting is dirty; once tiles are on they are on.

One thing though I would highly recommend is to buy the best materials possible; these will work out cheapest long term; why put in hours of prepping only to spoil the job with a cheap finish.

We have lots of woodwork to the bungalow exterior; we've for years painted this a really nice dark brown having the colour mixed specially for us; about three years ago it was time to repaint but this time we did a comprehensive makeover involving many weeks of hard work. We sat at the computer and browsed lots of American homes these having lots of "siding" we must have viewed many hundreds of homes until we saw just the style we would like to adopt; at that time Benjamin Moore paint had just become available here in the UK it being American paint. Knowing the two colours we liked I sent an email including the website picture to Shaw's who were now BM stockists and Shaw's were brilliant colour matching for us; BM paint is expensive the paint we used now being around £82 per US gallon; we used five and a half gallons of BM paint but what a huge transformation; we even get neighbours saying they like our colour scheme but it's not ours at all it's copied from the web.

Before deciding on colour though have a good look around with your eyes wide open and let your imagination run riot; can anything be changed to make it better by adding or subtracting from it; we added a brand new fireplace and fire together with wall panelling before applying finish; never be in a hurry to get the finish on when a bit of extra work and thought can make a huge difference.

OK so I'm colour blind but I know what I like even if I can't correctly name the colour; I see the same colour as anyone else but I can't identify it.

I've posted pictures before but once again below is our choice. The red is;

https://www.dulux.co.uk/en/colour-details/raspberry-bellini

The white is Dulux diamond white.

Nice pictures Sheal and Sean thanks for sharing.

I'm not a decorator but I've had lots of practice the same goes for all aspects of woodworking; those who tell me they can't do as I've done are correct; they can't and never will do anything unless they try.

Good luck.

Kind regards, Colin.

Front room after lots of time and effort but well worth it.

Lots of work carried out and a lovely new colour scheme in Benjamin Moore exterior satin paint; it still looks the same three years on.

More stately home influence; why not design; make and install a new coffered ceiling? The blood has returned into my hands and arms. A room can be made very special indeed with thought and imagination.

Panelling up to dado levelling is very effective for breaking up an otherwise room with bland walls painted the usual neutral colours; this room is inviting. I added plenty of 13A sockets and a new ceiling light pendant.

 

[alp]

Very nice,@ Colin! Love the classical panelling. Can I come and visit? I will treat it as a National Trust gem!

To OP: you can go to a paint shop and get some colour strips and then get a room similar to yours in the room designs and paint that colour on your desired locations on YOUR COMPUTER to see if you're happy with it.

Here in this country, people like mallard green, a colour between grey and blue

Or this kind of red in the parliament

These colours are bold, but use correctly, they can be statement piece. If interested, you can google Pugin + parliament decoration. Or even William Morris wallpapers

Or you can opt for more pastely colours as can be seen in this colour wheel.

 

[Arden Sage]

AWESOME!!!
What a charming home you have @Colin It is a credit to you.
Thank you for such a detailed post and the great ideas on how to gather ideas and inspiration.

 

[Arden Sage]

To OP: you can go to a paint shop and get some colour strips and then get a room similar to yours in the room designs and paint that colour on your desired locations on YOUR COMPUTER to see if you're happy with it.

Another Top Tip - thank you.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

We did redo our kitchen about 6 years ago now. It is open to the dinning room, thus the little walls shown in the kitchen and the walls in the dinning room are the same color. cupboards in the kitchen are very clear stained maple, it changes faint colors to blond or pinkish depending on the light. the color walls I picked is a medium to light gray. the back splash is smoked gray blue glass tiles no grout. the counter top is granite with wavy splashes of grays, golds, red garnets drifts, the sink is a brick red, my stove, dishwasher, fridge are cream. floor is a bone tile. room is not that large. size is good for two folks to cook in it, but small enough for good pivoting about with dealing with a multi taxing meal. Lights are open hanging, black iron with white glass shades.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Reminds me, there is a proper measurement for length of hanging lights over the length of a counter top. as far as visual appeal.

 

[Sean Regan]

Red goes with grey.


We have a grey floor, grey metalic effect "half tiles" and red wallpaper and some red appliances.

I've just noticed scrolling back, as evidence that red is in favour in our house, in the second more recent photo, you can see a pair of my wife's red shoes near our front door, she's actually got two pairs of those, she likes the colour so much..