OT: Help me choose wall paint colors!! Please!!

[eb1]

I'm stuck and I know there are a bunch of you on this board with excellent taste for colors and decorating...I can't figure out what colors to use in the main living area of our house.

We have an open floor plan so when you walk in the front door, you see our entire house except for the bedrooms and bathroom. The living room is separated from a galley-style kitchen by an island. (Basically, the living room runs along one wall and the kitchen runs along the parallel wall, with the island running parallel in between.) Our dining area extends off the kitchen in a bay-window shape room visible from everywhere else.

The living room has a beige carpet, and everywhere else the floor is a medium brown tile. The kitchen cabinets and counters are also medium brown. (Whoo-hoo, lively!) I'm attaching an image, which I hope shows up as I've never tried this before. The top samples are our kitchen counters and cabinets, and the bottom are the carpet and floor tile.

I'm stuck because of the extreme visibility of every nook and cranny of this space. The kitchen/dining and living room colors have to work together, right down to the cabinets and countertops. I'd like some color to breathe life into our otherwise neutral color scheme of the "fixed" structural details, but I think a single color on all the walls would be tiring. I've considered doing the wall along the kitchen/dining side of the house sort of a terracotta, which would go along with the browns, but then what do I paint the living room side? (And would painting the kitchen island a complementary accent color work as well or instead, to give a little "pop" or would that be too distracting and a weird focal point?)

If I put a more rich or bold color on the kitchen/dining wall, how to I add equal "weight" to the living room side if I keep that neutral? I'd like to escape beige, beige, beige (which is kind of what the walls are now), but I don't want to get into competing colors. I'd like to create an overall serene, sort of sophisticated, but welcoming tone with the colors. (Not sure that terracotta would be the right choice for all that anyway.)

Help!!

[steph2003]

I admit I didn't read your post closely - I have a hard time "visualizing" stuff which is why I'm not a great decorator or creative at all :)

but did want to say my interior designer friend said the new "neutral" are shades of yellow/gold. We choose Benjamin Moore "Adam's Gold" which looks warm & this is in our entire downstairs area (living room/kitchen/foyer which are connected) except for the office & dinining room which are seperate enclosed areas. When I say yellow I'm not talking the sunny/bright yellows or pastel. But colors with a gold undertone, if that makes sense.

[eb1]

Thanks for your input! :) I'll take a look at the color you suggested.

I probably put too much descriptive detail in my post and could have left it at, "You can see everything in my house from anywhere!" Thanks again!

[murpheyblue]

My dad's house used a lot of the colors available from Restoration Hardware. They've got great colors that work well together and are very classic but a bit beyond boring neutrals.

[amp]

I am no decorating expert, but I think terracotta, warm reds, golds or browns sound inviting and cozy and would match what you have for floors. How to put that together and make it look good, I'm not sure. I'm not very daring when it comes to painting, but wish I were. I also find that I like looking at colors together on the samples pics they have in the paint areas of stores (along with the paint chips).

I also enjoyed playing around w/ Behr's website and seeing different colors in a room together. The site was recommended to me and it's pretty fun to play around with. http://www.behr.com/behrx/workbook/index.jsp

[aliceinwonderland]

I have a chocolate (warm cocoa, Sherwin Williams) living room and Red (Foxy Red) dinning room--white trim throughout--the cocoa may be too dark for some, but I love it...

On the "golds" front, my bedroom is "Pueblo Gold" from Sears (it was on sale). I'm actually surprised how pretty that color is...
ETA: our entry-way, which is sort of attached to the living room, is a much lighter color, Champagne. So are my drapes...otherwise the cocoa would really be too dark...

[HGraceMom]

Another option you might consider is getting your "pop" of color through fabrics instead of wall colors - curtains, etc. Also, you can "assign" fabrics to specific rooms to give them each a sense of "independence."

Our main color (runs through LR, Kitchen & FR is Acorn Yellow - it's a Benjamin Moore - it looks like a lot of color on the paint chip, but really is a good neutral background.

Another way to add some interest is to use color (or non-white anything) on the ceiling.

Avoid a very heavy accent color on the kitchen / dining side unless it is straight ahead of the entry / front door (think 12:00 for the accent wall, and 6:00 for the front door on a clock.)

Good luck, and remember, you can always change paint!

[eb1]

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions! (I have checked out that Behr website with the colors--very cool.) I definitely agree about avoiding a heavy accent color on the kitchen/dining side, which I guess would be at 3:00 if the front door is 6:00. I'd love to do an accent wall, but I'm just not sure that I can figure out how to make that work with our house structure. I think I need to pick two main colors, equal tones or hues or whatever, one to define the kitchen/dining/island, and one for the living room, and that Behr site will probably help with that. I would prefer rich colors over neutrals, but I think with our layout that it would make the house too dark.

Thanks again!

[mommy_someday]

I swear that is the EXACT same countertop that I have! (Tuscan marble???) I can't tell for sure, but if it is, we "pulled" the light rosy thread for our walls - it's really pale, so it's probably more subtle than what you're looking for. I think you could totally get away with a terracotta, so long as it isn't too orange-toned. You could also pull the warm gray tones (sounds weird to call gray warm - but that's the way it looks to me). I don't think painting your island would be weird, so long as the colors complement each other and I agree with the PP's suggestion of using fabric to add color and definition to your space. Check out HGTV's website for ideas - there is tons of stuff on there. www.hgtv.com

Good luck and let us know what you choose!

[eb1]

I really like your suggestions. Do you remember what actual paint (name/brand) you used that matched up with the counters? I will definitely try to pull in some more texture and color with fabrics, but I want to get the wall colors down first...I really don't trust myself as a decorator, that's for sure. As for our countertops, they're definitely a marble pattern but not real marble. I'm not sure what the pattern is...the previous owners chose everything.