Decorating and Design - Need advice for family room and kitchen (Paint color)

I'm set with the Living room decoration and now I'm moving on to redecorate the family room. The family room, the breakfast nook and the kitchen are in one big area. We want it to be fun in the family room so we decided to mix and match the furnitures. They are the same style but the sofa is in blue, the loveseat is in light yellow and the chair is in white. They're all leather since we have small children. The coffee, sofa and end tables are glasses with silver legs. The wall of the family room and the breakfast nook is in light orange (I suddenly forget the common name for it). The entrance wall is painted in Brick color for accent.The kitchen is painted in rich Green while the cabinet is in white. The colors seem to work together. But now I want to repaint the kitchen to Orange (not so bright but bright and rich). The following are my questions:

1. Will orange be too bright for kitchen? Is it a good color for kitchen?

2. The family room doesn't seem to complete. Right now, I don't have any table lamp since we have recess lights. There is no flower arrangements and decorative pillows because of the kids. We have a big green bowl at the coffee table. Please help.

Now I remember what light orange is. It is peach color. Thanks in advance!

I think it would be very tricky co-ordinating a rich orange and a peach; one would look harsh and the other washed-out.

I think you need the contrasting cool color. How about the blue of the sofa? Blue and white look fresh in a kitchen.

The family room need plants. They will soften and warm the area. Some big foliage plants in the corners. Use landscape fabric [covered with stones?] to keep the kids from getting in the dirt.

Thanks, jhomeowner. I forgot to mention I have a palm tree in the corner of the family room. The idea of painting the kitchen in blue sounds great but I wonder if blue is a good color for kitchen. I'm confused and hesitated...

wow....that sounds like one colorful house!!!

i'm not sure where you're getting the colors from though. i like the blue, yellow & white sofas, but where does the peach fit in? or the brick color?? why was the kitchen green? were you going for a triad/primary color scheme?

as i've said in my Stickie note about choosing colors (http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=186106), you need to have a color scheme. it helps to have an item or 2 that contain all the colors in your color scheme, like a prominent painting or an area rug. do you have such an item? if not, get one & focus on the blue & yellow. and maybe a color in the red family (then your brick color would make sense....but i fear the peach isn't working). you can have throw pillows & area rugs around with kids. just don't buy expensive ones.

yellow & blue is a very common & popular color scheme for all rooms, including kitchens. think French Country. but if you don't want the walls blue (and you'd have to LOVE blue to use it), use the yellow - also very sunny & cheery for a kitchen.

Thanks so much for the advice. Yes, it was our intention to make it colorful since we have small children though we leave the formal rooms in neutral. The peach in the family room is a very light peach, it looks very neutral, doesn't have a lot of color in it. Actually, the brick color is not that strong as real brick color, it's kind of muted pinky, browny brick. I saw it in an advertisement and I like it so I use it as an accent at the entrance wall. I have an area rug that has multi color in it including blue, yellow, peach and some black. Besides that, we made our painting ourself by getting shelves from Home Depot in 2 different widths. 3 are wider than the other 2. We painted each panel in different color (blue, yellow, peach with color, green and pink), they are hung alternating by the size on the wall above the yellow love seat. If I want to get rid of the brick color since it doesn't go together with other colors, what color do you think is good for accent?

About the kitchen, you seems to be surprised at the green color. What is wrong with it? What is my choice besides blue and yellow? I'm not so crazy with yellow since I have bad experience in painting it. We had to prime it and repaint in different color since it was too bright.

Thanks again,
Kim

the reason for my question about the green is because there is no green whatsoever in the adjoining room (except the painted plank of wood on the wall). usually you want the rooms to sort of coordinate & "go with" each other, or flow together, so you pull a color from one room & use it in the next, and so on.

i think i would use the yellow or blue (or both) in the kitchen.

you've got so much color going on, you don't need an accent color in the entry. accent colors are for when you've got mainly one color and you want an additional pop of color. or you want to create a focal point. with your seating group already being 3 totally different colors, i'd be simplifying your wall colors. maybe even keep the walls white, since you've got such bold furniture & artwork. but then use a wall color in the kitchen to set off the white cabinetry.

blue, yellow, peach, black, white, brick, green, PINK? :confused:

i'll admit it......i think i'm too traditional for you!

kdo, you mentioned the reason for all the colorful colors are b/c of your small children...which is not wrong at all, but you might want to consider what's ahead in the future. Your children will get older in no time so if you enjoy the colorful walls yourself, then there's no problem! It's your house.;)

If you think after a few years or so later, you're going to want to change the colors on your wall b/c...the kids are older now, I would definitely consider going with colors YOU want now. I would admit after painting my walls once, I really don't want to have to change the color again...or at least not for a long time.

Just a thought. ;)

Thanks, jhomeowner. I forgot to mention I have a palm tree in the corner of the family room. The idea of painting the kitchen in blue sounds great but I wonder if blue is a good color for kitchen. I'm confused and hesitated...

Yes, blue is great for a kitchen. Maybe not a primary blue, but definitely more gentle, not necessarily pale, blues. In fact, peach is lovely with a soft dark blue.

But if you want a light kitchen, find a travel web-site and look up B&B's in Ireland, and find photos of the breakfast/dining rooms. The sun does not shine in the morning in Ireland, so they know how to make a room look sunny.

Thanks so much for all the advices. I've learned alot from them. My husband read my post last night and he said my post wasn't accurate, it gaves reader a false impression. So I'm working on taking pictures on a digital camera and will post them.