My Home Design

Kitchen/Living Room share a wall..what color to use?

I have beige countertops & medium to dark brown cabinets. My vinyl floor is also a medium to dark brown color. My appliances are white & black. Three of my walls are red & one beige. The beige wall is on the side w/ the breakfast nook & this wall continues into the living room...so I have one long wall. The red paint in the kitchen is glossy & the shine from this paint is making the beige wall in the breakfast nook look pink. I thought about painting the living room & kitchen 1 color (a different shade of cream or beige) 2 tie them together or maybe the three red walls one color & the the long breakfast nook/living room wall (and the other walls in the living room) a lighter shade of the same color. I would like to keep the red but maybe just as an accent color. I don't know what color would look good w/ the beige countertops in the kitchen (if I use a shade of beige). BTW, I don't do green! Any suggestions?

Public Comments

1. i have a kitchen with red walls and it opens to my living room which is painted a subtle golden yellow. i think the colors compliment each other well. of course it depends on the colors of your living room furniture and accessories. i personally think yellow goes well with most everything. it comes in so many different shades & tones making it really easy to coordinate with other colors.
2. You should play around with the Sherwin Williams color visualizer. It is the best paint visualizer on the web, imho. I like how their color palette is laid out, I like that you can search by color family & color name, the "painted" rooms look the most realistic, and it suggests coordinating color schemes. You can literally spend hours: http://sherlink.sherwin.com/swapp/color_visualizer/index.jsp You might try a brown, like "less brown." I think it coordinates beautifully with red, and it's dark enough that it won't reflect as pink.
3. I'd go with a coffee or mocha color....in between a beige in your counter tops and the brown in your cabinets and flooring. The darker color should keep your wall from reflecting the red and making it look pink! Also a darker neutral color will really warm up a room and since this wall extends into your living room it will make a great accent wall in your living room whether you decide to paint that whole room the same color or go lighter in the rest of the living room. If you go lighter in the rest of the living room (similar to what you have on the connecting wall now, you can add a wide strip or chair rail border in the darker color to match the wall that runs from the kitchen to the living room!!
4. The gloss from the red paint will color any light colored paint you do in the living room/nook so painting the kitchen is your best option. Painting everything the same color is not only a lot of painting and time, but also possibly some redecorating in all three areas. Since you don't think the beige in the livingroom/nook will go with all the brown/beige that's already in your kitchen and green is out (and dark colors in general since you've got a lot of dark stuff already), that leaves blue, yellow, taupes, and whites. Blue might look really good if done without any gray tones in it, but would be a big departure from your red walls and may not allow for red accents really... Additionally, the blue may make that breakfast nook look greenish, which you seem to be against in general. Yellow would be good, but may make your cabinets look dingy if they've got yellow tones in the wood (red-toned will look good). The yellow may also look weird next to the beige, so make sure it goes with the beige too. A pale taupe may look really good, but it has the same issues as the yellow... and it adds another neutral to the mix you already have, so it would have to be selected very carefully so the kitchen doesn't look too bland. Whites are your best overall option -- you can keep the red accents, it won't darken the room or color your nook wall, and you don't have to worry as much about having it go with your cabinets/countertop as much. Just make sure you pick a bright enough one to contrast with your countertops..... Also, consider the option of leaving red accents (like a stripe that is normally in tile above the countertops, or an accent wall or decorative bit on the far wall from the nook). If you do paint the living room/nook, you might want to try a darker beige on just that long wall so that the reddish light off the kitchen walls come out more yellow/orange on the walls instead of pink.