Painting - Choosing colours for an open concept space

Here is my dilemma....

I live in a long, narrow, brand new town/row house. It is completely painted and decorated....except for the kitchen. I need a paint colour. The kitchen opens directly onto the living and dining areas, and is visible from most of the bottom floor. The decorating scheme in the house is as follows: The walls are painted Benjamin Moore Hawthorne Yellow. Trim is Martha Stewart Butter White. The draperies are Laura Asley Poppy Meadow Cowslip...pale yellow background; apple green leaves; pinky-red, periwinkle, turquoise, and butterscotch flowers. Three seater sofa is a pinky-red and yellow large check, loveseat slipcovered in a pale butter shade. Floor throughout are polished hardwood in gunstock. I have done a horizontal stripe down the narrow hallway in the butter white and hawthorne yellow paints. Throw pillows are all over the place, in the poppy meadow fabric, solid turquoise, solid yellow, and faux leopard. Two side chairs are painted cream with pale yellow damask seats. Dining room set is very plain teak in a typical 60's style with cream seats. Area rugs are of a large scale, graphic/art quality (ie//not busy patterns.)

In the kitchen, the cabinets are medium toned maple finish, with brushed nickel knobs, and stainless steel appliances. The kitchen floor is a pale yellow/grey mottled ceramic tile. There is no tile on the wall, and the counters are cream.

What colour can I paint the kitchen walls? They butt right up to the yellow of the living room walls. Am I stuck with more yellow? The yellow really doesn't do anything for the cabinets, and the room faces west, with lots of natural light. I was thinking a very pale shade of one of the blues in my curtain fabric, then delineating the kitchen space by using corner mouldings reminiscent of porch gingerbread, where the rooms meet(?)Then I would use very natural stone/grey/cream shades for a mosaic tile backsplash. OR, my other thought was to paint the kitchen a neutral shade, like a grey brown, to echo some of the wood in the rooms, or to pick out the butterscotch shade from the curtain fabric, then maybe hanging curtains from the ceiling to separate the kitchen from the living room and hide where the paint colours meet, leaving the curtains open with tiebacks. Am I on the right track??? Does anyone have some more suggestions for me?

Thanks a lot!

Kelly.

I'd stick with a shade of the colors you already have . I painted my kitchen/ family room a beautiful medium green it looks great with our medium stained maple cabinets . How about a shade of the pinkish red ?

Your new home sounds great! I just love the color scheme. the suggestion of the pinkish red would look nice with the other yellow walls coming up to it, but I am concerned about the western exposure of the kitchen. I think a cool color might help out with the intensity of that afternoon sun. maybe try the gray in the kitchen floor tile on the walls. gray and yellow obviously work already in the floor plan, since the tile was chosen. And the gray would cool down the room. My only concern is that the grey with the stainless steel appliances might be too boring. if you could get a blued grey, but something that still went with the floor tile it might work. I'm just being nosy here, but did you do the decorating and just haven't finished, or was it a model? Just wondering why the kitchen wasn't painted...

Laura

Lauraa and sew,

Thanks for the comments. I do like the idea of the pinky-red for the kitchen, in fact the main floor powder room is quite tiny so I went ahead and painted it in Martha's "Bee Balm Red" and it looks great. However I do think that the kitchen will look just too "hot" with red walls. Lauraa, I like the idea of the grey. I pulled out a few chips and my husband hates any pale grey for the walls...."it looks too hospital-y"...(men!) But one I pulled was again, a Martha shade (I'm such a sucker, but she has GREAT colours!) and it is called Morel and is a VERY deep browny-grey, almost black. I didn't mention that I have an occasional chair painted black, as well as a black wicker rocker and some black accesories scattered here and there, all of which just pop when I hold up the chip. It would definitely be dramatic, and of course the stainless and the cabinets look smashing against the deep shade, as does the creamy yellow of the walls. The question is, am I brave enough?????

Lauraa, to answer your question....the house was of course all white when we bought it (the builder gave us five paint choices and they were all some shade or other of....white)so we had a painter in, and because it's all so open, we had to do it all the one shade of yellow. But the kitchen has a teeny little wall separating it from the rest of the main floor on one side, so I decided I would do the kitchen something different, but wasn't sure just what. I'm so glad there are nice people out there to help me! Would love more feedback/suggestions. This white is driving me crazy!!!!!

Kelly.