Go Kitchens

What colour should I paint my living room and kitchen? Should I paint the baseboards, or leave them white?

My kitchen and living room are connected in a long narrow rectangle. It is a small but bright and sunny space. Our couch is a light charcoal gray and we have a pumpkin orange accents. The floors are pretty neutral. My favorite colour is green, so I was thinking a pale olive green, but I don't want all the the walls the same colour. What should the other colour be? I like contemporary but comfortable design. Any thoughts?

Public Comments

1. I like a sage green color, probably go with the pumpkin and i'd leave the baseboards white.
2. Brown might work -- try holding several brown color samples against the other colors. I like to think of what occurs in nature when planning rooms -- if you have green (leaves), orange (pumpkins or flowers), light charcoal grey (cloudy sky) then brown fits (bark or twigs).
3. This is what I think of when you describe your room, it not a perfect image but the closest I could think of...http://www.cb2.com/popup/zoom.aspx?fi=4321&t=room . Also, you do a two tone design like the upper part of the wall a soft green and the bottom a darker tone of the same color. Tape off where the 2 colors come together and paint a white stripe. This will give you a more modern wainscotting effect, or buy some simple trim and trim it there. Usually it is 36" high but you can put it where you want it. The higher the line the higher you eye will travel, but put it too close to the ceiling it might make your room feel short. This will give some interest to the room. I feel all trim should be painted a bright white, stained (if real wood) or black. With the colors that you are wanting to use I would do a bright white, semi gloss. You can play with colors at www.velspar.com (Lowe's paints) or www.sherwinwilliams.com, These websites will also give you option with the colors that you wan to use. Hope this sparks an idea. Mander B.
4. Funny....I was thinking a sage green. A great way to get ideas is go to Lowes or Home Depot and grab a bunch of paint samples that you think may work together. See what colors work well with the green you pick out and compliment your accent colors. If you're doing one or 2 walls with the green, I'm thinking you should have the other walls more neutral with a slight hint of color. Something really subtle. I would leave the baseboards white. It's hard to visualize, but the paint samples always give me good ideas when you're trying to see how everything looks together. Hope this helps.
5. This is to mander b I looked at your picture and I really like the design I never thought of orange on a wall but that looks really good nice skills
6. play around with the Sherwin Williams color visualizer to find something that you like. 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://www.sherwin.com/visualizer/ I think a dark blue like "seaworthy" (# 7620) would coordinate beautifully with the olive & orange colors.