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Colorful Question

Nicole

Veteran

I hope you all don't mind if I ask a non fashion related question. I rarely have trouble picking color combos for my home. I love color and am not afraid to use it freely in my home. My dining room is a small space, and rarely used to actually eat. I wanted to convert the room to a sort of command central/storage/craft/homework space when we were redoing it. But I was vetoed by my husband. So, since I didn't get my way about reconfiguring the room, I decided to put my stamp on the walls. I painted them a sunflower yellow with a 15" wide brown stripe towards the top of the ceiling. So there's a 15" band of yellow, a 15" band of chocolate, and then yellow the rest of the way down to the floor (which is a medium oak with white trim). The furniture in that room is a dark wood round table and black leather parson chairs. I would like to eventually replace the chairs with better quality ones. Oh and the window treatements are a medium brown matchstick roman shade. OK so now for the question part:

I acquired some used kitchen cabinets from a friend who was remodelling. And i was thinking of painting a few of them, mounting them to the wall, putting some sort of counter top on top, and having a little extra storage in that room. But I don't know what color to paint them. I was thinking the same brown as the stripe, or maybe avacado green. But neither of those colors are making me excited. Then I was thinking of a high gloss asian red (which I'd probably have to find someone to do, since that type of paint is not easy to work with).

Since you all have such great color sense--and I honestly feel that interior design and personal style go hand in hand...I'd love to hear some other suggestions. If it would help, I can take a photo of the room.

Oh on last thing, the room faces south and has 2 south facing windows and a third window that does not actually get much light because it's between the mudroom and garage. But overall it's a sunny room.

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17 replies

Latest reply was from Nicole

Ana

(website)

Veteran

No non-fashion related questions for you. Back of zee line!

Hmm......It's sort of hard for me to imagine your dining room (it sounds really cool though). Would you feel comfortable posting a picture?

Nicole

Veteran

Of course! The room has two doorways...here are two photos, one taken from each doorway. I'm not sure how bright the yellow will look on everyone's computer--but it's definitely sunflower yellow--it does not confuse itself with cream. The color choices were inspired by the exact colors of a sunflower.

http://s289.photobucket.com/al.....=DR002.jpg

http://s289.photobucket.com/al.....=DR003.jpg

Ana

(website)

Veteran

I really like your dining room, the color and the stripe is very cool.

Is the space very big? If you paint the cabinets that dark brown color, you might find you feel more closed in, especially since your dining table set looks pretty dark, too. What color is the woodwork, is it just white? My first instinct is to say to paint them to match the woodwork, although that's not very interesting. I like your idea with cabinets and then putting a countertop/tabletop surface on it. Maybe you can paint the cabinets the same color as the woodwork (or, a very light light tint of the yellow wall color, which would match, but still create a bit of contrast), and then go a bit darker with the countertop, maybe granite or even a wood that matches your dining table. That way it's not such a big dark statement in a smaller room, but you can still tie it into the darker colors in the room. Does that make sense?

Nicole

Veteran

Thanks Ana...all good ideas. The room is quite small (12X12 I think) which is why it's seldom used. I'm only planning on mounting 2 or 3 wall cabinets (which are 12" deep opposed to base cabinets which are 24"). They will be mounted low on the wall, so the top of the cabinet is a useful height. The trim is white, a creamy white, but more white than cream.

I like the idea of painting it a different shade of the same yellow though...hmmmm....as you can see, I like to keep things contemporary and uncluttered--so I don't want to do anything that will make it look cluttered.

Ellen

Classy room! Your idea of the red could look really smashing... like a necklace with a shot of colour.

Dani

Veteran

Hmmm, this is my favorite kind of question. I will ponder this a little while and get back to you. I bet Julia will have some good ideas too! I love challenges like this

Anonymous

It depends on how much you want the cabinets to stand out. In a small room I'd probably paint them the same color or slightly darker than the walls or color of the woodwork. Ana has a good idea about the countertop color. Rather than granite, some black and white marble would be classy and less kitchenish.

Dani

Veteran

OK, here's my thoughts. I agree with the others that since the room is smallish, I would keep things simple with the cabinets (yellow or cream to match the woodwork). You could do an interesting cabinet top...maybe some tile with a pattern or colored granite or marble (although marble says bathroom to me sometimes). Anyway, if you went with a dark cabinet top, you could do the pop of red or burnt orange with accessories (much like you've already done with the vases in the wall display). Also, you could consider changing out the centerpiece on your dining room table with something that adds a little more color or slipcovering your dining room chairs as well. I think if you get too busy or crazy on your walls, since your space is limited, you might feel a little cramped. If you stick to basic colors, you can change the look by just changing the accessories. In a few years, if you want to add green as your accent, it won't be that hard to do. Certain shades of blue also look nice with yellows and browns. There you go...my 2 cents

EDIT: you could also use a simple valance over your windows to add a pop of color as well.

Nicole

Veteran

Thanks everyone. Great suggestions.

I'm not really looking for colorful accessories. I am trying to keep everything else in the room as simple as possible. I do have a few other centerpieces I use, but they are all simple hard pieces. (A tall tubular glass cannister with a silver rim, and a clear crystal fishbowl type bowl). I don't intend to add any more color with accessories. I'm just trying to decide if the cabinets would look better muted into the background, or a pop of color. I kind of like the suggestion of orange. As for the top of the cabinet, I would probaly do painted wood. I read an article about the toxins emitted from granite and I'm not much of a marble girl, and tile is definitly not in keeping with the "less is more" approach. Tile makes me think of country.

julijuli

I don't know Nicole, I really think painting the cabinets a right asian red would add some pop and personality. You could have the 'counter top' be a dark chocolate color to pull in the stripe and chair color. If you used Corian or some quartz you could probably find a dark browny color that fits. I guess maybe it depends on the style of cabinet as well, but if they are simple in style that could really make an impact.

Jillian

Nicole,
I see you're on an interior decorating kick-- good for you! I wanted to recommend a couple of sites that I've found helpful. The first is a forum, along the lines of this one: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/. Also, on your paint color from another thread, you can get many other manufacturers' colors made in BenMoore-- just ask. And, you can get an idea of similar colors in other lines on this site: http://www.colorcharts.org/ccorg/.

Nicole

Veteran

Oooh julijuli, you just gave me a great idea...what if I took the doors off the cabinets (or at least one of the cabinets) and filled the holes and everything. Then painted the inside of the cabinet red and the outside brown or yellow like the walls? Hmm I wonder if I could realistically paint the inside of a cabinet. It's probably not real wood on the inside. I'll have to do some research on that.

shana

Veteran

Nicole, I love this room! I've been begging my husband to let me paint a chocolate brown stripe in our bedroom which is a pale green and he has vetoed it. We also like more of a contemporary/modern style and have a very modern dining room that is grey and blue with orange accessories & abstract artwork with a lot of orange in it. Anyway, I think pop of color would work really well - I would go for the burnt orange (a personal favorite), the asian red or an electric blue.

shana

Veteran

BTW, you can paint the inside of the cabinets even if it is not real wood as long as you use a good all purpose latex primer. I painted a rack for my son's room and I think it was melamine (a kind of plastic used on the outside of alot of cabinets). I primed it and spray painted it and it looked perfect! I didn't even bother to sand.

Nicole

Veteran

Thanks for the tip Shana. I was just discussing with my friend the best way to paint the inside of a cabinet, and we both thought spray painting would be best. SO any kind of latex primer will adhere to the finish? Oooh I'm getting excited thinking about it. Maybe I'll leave the door on but remove the center panel and replace with glass. I have to look thru teh cabinets and see what I can put together. The more I think about red or orange, the more I like the idea.

As for the brown stripe--it was painstaking to do, and I used math to make sure the proportions looked right. First you meansure from floor to ceiling and then divide that measurement by 6. That will be the width of the stripe. In my case my ceilings are only 7.5', so 90/6=15" If my ceilings were a lot higher, like a cathedral ceiling, I woud have brought the stripe down much farther. Then I just used a level and a pencil to make the lines, measuring down 15 and using the level to make the bottom line as well. Then I taped off my pencil lines and applied 2 coats of paint. I used a credit card to scrape down the tape to try to get it as tight to the wall as possible. But I still had to go back and touch up the edges with a fine artist brush, freehand. That was the hardest part.

Jenniferblue

Maybe it's because I just bought a bunch but the beautiful colors in your dining room remind me of a sunflower. Brown face, yellow petals...... so now I think you need some green. It's a softer green then you might think sort of a light sagy silvery pale green. It could work. JB

Nicole

Veteran

Thanks JB...that is an excellent point..incorporating the third color from the flower that inspired the room. Thanks!