kimberland30

We will be painting our cabinets in a couple weeks but I'm stumped as to what color to paint them.

Our appliances are 'bisque', which isn't white or beige, kinda in between. Our counter tops are beige, basic laminate, with a bit of color speckled in (you can't tell unless you are looking closely at it).

We have an island in the middle of the kitchen as well. My initial idea was to paint the cabinets a light tan/beige color, and the island cabinets a sage green color - just to add some color to break up all the blandness of the cabinets and countertops.

The walls in the kitchen (separated by a chair rail) would be the sage green, and the ceiling and trim would be done in white.

Does this sound like a good idea, or should I consider another color for the cabinets? I don't mind going with a darker tan color, I just don't want it to look like we are trying to get a wood look out of paint.

Thanks for any help and suggestions!

gma2rjc

It sounds like a nice color combination. I like the idea of the island being a different color.

The most important thing is if you like the colors.

kimberland30

That I do, but I'm just wondering if it would be overkill with the beige-y colors if the appliances, cabinets and counters are all similar colors. By having the island a different color would probably help that, I just have trouble imagining the end result. Anything is better than the nice 1980 Williamsburg Blue they are painted now. Unfortunately the backsplash is blue, as are the accents in the laminate flooring. We can't do anything about the flooring (maybe put a rug under the table in the EIK part to block that half of the kitchen), but the backsplash is tile looking plastic so I can paint over that.

I'm so looking forward to the update, but so not looking forward to having to clean, sand, prime and paint everything.

gma2rjc

By the time you put a few things on the counter top and island and maybe a few things on the walls, the beige may not stand out so much.

If my 'before' pictures of the work I did on my kitchen cabinets weren't on negatives, I'd post them and the 'after' pics. The difference was amazing. Well worth the time and effort.

I couldn't look at the cabinets anymore or replace them, so I took them all apart, cleaned them with TSP, primed and painted them. As much as I hate the idea of painting wood cabinets, they sure looked a lot better when I was done.

Get a good quality paint. That's really important.

MaureenLopez

The color combination you have choosen is really good. i like your idea. I think there should be no change. Make sure the paint quality should be good. keep it up.

kimberland30

Thanks!

I've been posting in the paint section of this board to get recs on paint.

I wouldn't paint them at all except that right now they are Williamsburg Blue thanks to my dad who added a few cabinets and used a different wood, so they painted them all. Unfortunately he had to paint them twice since my mom couldn't make up her mind. We bought the house from them in 2005 and have slowly updated all the rooms - the kitchen is one I didn't want to tackle but our dishwasher flooded under our cabinets and rotted a lot of the kick board, and there is no way to paint them to match. Since my DD is home for the summer from college, I figured this would be the best time to get it painted.

HelloMotto

Depending on the size of the kitchen and celing hight, you may also consider painting the ceilieng in the same sage green as walls. Also, since you have a chair rail, you might consider two different tints of the same green below and above the chair rail and ceiling.
For the backslash you may consider installing another laminate over the old one.
Just my 2 cents. Good luck!

Jay123

Swmbo wanted to paint our cabinets last year...and went through the same thing.... After I drew it up, she was able to play around with a bunch of colors by herself (thank god).

http://picasaweb.google.com/jjfwoodw...eat=directlink

nycgirl

Gray seems to be a "new" color for cabinets and there are so many differents shades. You could find a gray that'll work with your williamsburg blue and the sage green. I have also seen a lot of black island cabinets that I think give kitchens a designer look. One thought is that your beige and your bisques are your neutral colors-you can select colors that you like-you can always repaint your sage and white-so don't let that limit you. Paint is a lot cheaper than a remodel, live w/ it for a while, if you don't like it repaint it. Another thought-I don't know what material your backsplash is made of, but you could always replace that w/ white subway tile-it's cheap, looks classic and expensive and you don't need too much skill to install.

kimberland30

Our kitchen is 18' x 13'. It was originally two separate rooms (9'x13' each) divided by a wall in the center, but that was was removed to open up the space. One half of the kitchen is where the table is, the other half houses the appliances and cabinets.

I like the idea of doing two different tints of green below and above the chair rail. I don't think we can install another laminate for the backsplash since it was installed prior to the counters being put in. But that is something I can look into.

Wow, that program is really cool! What color did you end up going with?


I never thought of gray, but after seeing the colors that Jay123 posted, it's definately an option. Black would be a good color for the island, but too contemporary for the rest of the house. I may go with a darker color though, maybe a hunter green or some other deep green to go with the sage on the walls.

I'm a chronic painter. I've done our living room 3 times and am still not happy with it. I usually a year or so and if the color doesn't grow on me, I'm back at the store buying more paint.

Our backsplash is made out of plastic that is made to look like tile. I menioned above that it was put in prior to the countertops, so it goes behind them and up behind the cabinets. I'm sure that there is probably still some ugly 1970's wallpaper behind it. I don't know if I want to paint it or try to remove it and replace it with something else.

I'll post a few pictures of our kitchen for reference. Yeah, it's a hot mess and we have a lot of work to do, especially getting new lighting, knobs for the cabinets, etc. The old refrigerator is pictured here, we now have a side-by-side model. A lot of the country stuff has been removed and replaced with original paintings. The table we have now is oak, as is a hutch that is on the wall where the wine rack is. These were taken a couple years ago.

Since our budget is "bare minimum" on our kitchen right now, I only have enough for paint since we need to replace some areas where our dishwasher flooded.

Attached Thumbnails

       

Jay123

We (well, she) ended up using a color similar to this, but a couple of shades lighter...we've both really liked it...until she paints them again.

Attached Thumbnails

 

kimberland30

That is pretty much what I have in mind, except that the walls will be sage (lighter than your picture) and the cabinets will be tan.

1st_House

^^ Woah! where'd you get that design software?! I've been lookin all over for that!



Just me, but I'm not a fan of painting cabinets.. I like the o-natural look..

You can get some tinted bees wax and do an easy stain job.. Then just buff em with a car buffer or similar tool.

Jay123

It's something I use for work... http://www.chiefarchitect.com/

I'ts great for illustrating projects before they're built:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jjfwoodw...eat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/jjfwoodw...eat=directlink

Ken_80

sounds like a nice color combination, the idea is pretty good!!!