Decorating and Design - Conflicting paint colors--need advice

I am decorating in the tuscany colors of gold, green, terra cotta, and purple.

I painted my living room Laura Ashley #3 gold and my dining room deep purple. I love it! However, I am now ready to paint my kitchen and have a problem...the layout.

The living room and dining room are like one long room separated by an arch. The arched doorway into the kitchen is at the end of the dining room nearest the living room, therefore, when you sit in the living room you see into the breakfast area of the kitchen. (Otherwise, the floor plan is not "open")

I LOVE that orange/gold tuscany wall color that looks like it glows and want to use that on my kitchen but now that my living room is a calmer gold, I'm afraid the two will clash. Also, my family room is behind the kitchen and I plan to paint family room terra cotta so I need to use something that will go with that. (It's actually used as a home office and the office furniture is black) So, kitchen could go either pumpkin or that orange/gold I love.

Will the glowing color in the kitchen make the living room seem dull? Any suggestions how I can "marry" the two and still get the glowing color I love? Should I do a half wall of pumpkin on bottom and glow on top or vice versa, or something else all together? I think of divided walls as more traditional than tuscan.

By the way, in case it helps your input, my kitchen has golden oak cabinets, brown/rust/black granite countertops, and tan ceramic floor.

Would appreciate any input...sorry if this is confusing...I'm pretty confused myself!

Any suggestions how I can "marry" the two and still get the glowing color I love? Should I do a half wall of pumpkin on bottom and glow on top or vice versa, or something else all together? I think of divided walls as more traditional than tuscan.

Have you considered doing the breakfast area wall that can be seen from the living area in the same gold and the rest of the kitchen in the terra cotta? It sounds like the two colors will go together quite nicely. My kitchen has gold walls and saltillo tile which is a similar color scheme and it goes together wonderfully. If this is not the look you like, then even though divided wall are more traditional, sometimes you have to go with what works and if you love the colors then you really can't go wrong! You could even pull in some of the purple with painting grapes in the break area where the two colors meet. Heaven knows finding a border would be next to impossible, but if you still have purple paint left or you could get a quart mixed it would be perfect. Stencils of the grape vine motif are very easy to find. Who could go wrong with a room that makes them happy when they use it?! Good Luck!
Sandie

i don't think the gold will clash with the "glow" color, but yes, it will make the gold seem duller by comparison (but they're not exactly side by side anyway, right? they're separated by purple)......BUT........you do not want every room to have a really strong color. some rooms need to be calmer, or it's called gawdy!!! i like the idea of a living room being a calm, soothing, warm gold, and then having a kitchen (which probably has far less wall space) in a more dramatic color. as long as the glowing color is in the same family as the gold, it will be fine, especially if you've got artwork or fabric patterns that contain all these different colors tying everything together. like was previously said, introduce the purple into the adjoining rooms as accents, and also introduce the golds & pumpkins & terra cottas into the other rooms. each room can have its own primary color, but to blend all the spaces together there needs to be a common thread of some sort, such as all the woodwork being the same throughout the house, or maybe the flooring is mostly the same.

if you're really worried about the LR seeming dull, then get a big bright/bold piece of artwork for in there, or have the upholstery pieces in a bold fabric, or use a bold area rug, etc. just put the "oomph" on the furnishings in that room, instead of on the walls.

it seems like you've got a nice color scheme going - gold, orange/gold, pumpkin, terra cotta, and then a punch of purple - so where's the green???

The hallway off the living room that leads to the bedrooms is green, and all the rooms have a lot of green silk plants! :)

Above the kitchen cabinets I have lots of greenery and some purple grapes, and my canisters and other kitchen nicknacks are ivory, green and purple (grapes). (The seats of the kitchen chairs are purple fabric.)

The main hall (guest) bathroom is a British Colonial/Hawaiian sort of theme (hard to imagine, I know) and has all the colors I'm using. It was the first room we did and I absolutely LOVE it and it became the jumping off point for the rest of the colors....you see, there was this shower curtain...................

http://lib1.store.vip.sc5.yahoo.com/lib/wallpapers/marusshowcur-full.jpg

The picture doesn't do it justice...in real life the colors are very vivid and beautiful! Everybody who has seen the bathroom raves over it. It's strange how something so mundane became my inspiration piece. Thanks for asking! :D

And for the great suggestions!