Painting Kitchen with Sapphire Blue Counters

I need help with kitchen wall paint color ideas. I have light maple cabinets with a coffee glaze, with a sapphire blue granite counter top (it has blues/grays/and an orangy brown color uniform throughout). I have 2 skylights and 3 windows in the kitchen so lighting is decent.

The kitchen itself is set up galley style, then it Ls out at the end into a dinette/breakfast nook area. The tile for the floor is a light color as well (it brings out the orangy brown in the granite). Please help me pick a wall color that would look decent. Any and all ideas will be greatly appreciated. I have been searching for a while now and can't decide what would be best.

Nicole from NY

Answers:

Painting Kitchen With Sapphire Blue Counters

I'd go with a light to med blue if you live where it's hot most of the time because blue is a "cooling" color. If you live in a place like Alaska or Seattle where there's little sun most of the year, I'd go with a golden beige or a golden tan color because it reminds you (a little) of sunshine.

But if you have the guts to go a little wild, you can always go with a "pumpkin" or even a "peanut butter" color. Remember, if you do choose blue, always make sure the blue has a tiny bit of gray added, otherwise the blue can tend to look "juvenile".

But, I'll tell you what I tell all my clients: Pick something you really love (like a picture, painting or a rug) that has some of the colors that match your counter tops and/or cupboards then use this piece of art and the rest of the colors in it to choose your decorating colors from. If you pick something you really love as your starting point, then you can't go wrong. It could even be a set of handpainted canisters, a large bowl that sits on the counter or large wonderful plate that's hung on the wall or even a piece of tiled backsplash art (be it modern, Italian or traditional) or even a collection of botanical plates or prints, or cobalt glass in a garden window or even a fancy throw rug.

Then choose 2 or 3 colors from this piece and you've got it made.

But, lets say you've chosen to go with cobalt glass as you decor item; you don't have to pick the exact color, cobalt, you can go either darker or lighter on the color swatch, or you can chose the color that's opposite on the color wheel, (the "complement" color) which would be peach, orange, golden beige or golden tan, or the color next to it on the color wheel, which would be green. You don't always have to have only 2 colors to decorate with (your main color and your "accent" color) you could also choose 3 colors to decorate with, your main color and 2 "accent" colors. In your case, this would be most likely be blue (light or med), green (probably sage or olive), and a "gold" shade of your choice (golden tan, golden beige, mustard, peanut butter, peach, or pumpkin). (09/12/2008)

By Cyinda

Painting Kitchen with Sapphire Blue Counters

I just painted my kitchen. Since I could not get the old wall board glue off the bottom half of the wall, I decided to texture that part first to hide the old black paste. I then put 2 coats of primer on the walls and painted the top half a color called Morning Frost (light baby blue) and the bottom half (textured now) Waterwheel, which is a little darker and put a border on to separate the 2 colors, and left the ceiling white. I think it looks wonderful and trust me, anything looks better than they did. I have attached a picture, and I think according to your counters, this would match great. Just an idea. Happy painting. (09/18/2008)

By Chris