DH wants to stay away from green, since our great room adjoining the foyer is green, but we both like the idea of a deep, dark red, maybe with a black undercoat. I've heard red is hard to get right, though, and I don't want anything too bright or too pink. Any suggestions for a paint color? Also, should I keep the backboards stained a dark walnut, or just paint the whole thing? Les - I like your idea of using an area rug. It would also help with the dirt and dust that's getting tracked in from outside. I've never shopped for rugs though. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good place to start looking? newdawn - I also like the smaller hutch in the foyer, but I have 3 hutches and 3 rooms to use them. The larger hutch won't fit anywhere else but the foyer, and I think it might actually work better with the scalloped Irish pine table that's in this room. It's also much larger in scale, and the smaller distressed hutch seemed a bit small with the 13 ft ceilings. I tried using the distressed hutch in my dining room, but it was so similar to my RH trestle table and chairs that it was all sort of monotone and the table seemed to become less of a focal point. I ended up using my antique red stepback cupboard in the dining room. The hutch is more narrow, which gives more room for traffic flow, and it contrasts with the table and makes them both stand out. Right now I have the rustic foyer hutch in my eat-in kitchen. I'm not sure the color works with my pine table and black chairs, but having the 3 bins in the kitchen are great. I can keep dog food in one, and outside toys in the other two.

"What is the style of your house, and surrounding rooms?" The style of my house is evolving to my taste. We remodeled the kitchen and family 2 years ago and now are doing the master bath. Then we will tackle the formal rooms which are in between, bringing the whole downstairs together. Here are a couple of pictures of the remodeled kitchen and family room area which reflect our taste. I like the combination of the crisp white cabinets, darker island cabinets, light stone on island, wood floors, and the rustic pine table. It's comfortable to my eye. These photos were taken when the rooms were almost done. I haven't taken any really good recent ones. I was thinking that a stained cabinet in the bathroom would be the "bathroom equivalent" of the stained pine table, to warm up the room since there will probably be marble counters and white vanity cabinets, plus the glass of the shower. All that cold needs something to warm it up. I think I have made my decision to stain the cabinet. Hearing the advice here and typing all this out has convinced me!

lyn, the coloring is beautiful! nice job. what color green did you use? I love layering colors. I did my blue doors w/5 different shades, along w/the walnut base stain.just in case anyone wants to see the process,, completely raw, left, coat of stain, right I used milk paint mostly, maybe a little chalk paint. I mixed diff colors of the milk paint and overlapped w/wet brush to get blending. This is how milk paint looks once dry (and why yes, I do have a paint hoarder issue, thank you. I've used every single one of those cans of paint!) you have to pick where you want distressing. has to be where it would occur naturally, so the edging gets it the mostapplication of pure Tung Oil. really makes those colors pop, eh? after a few days it gets absorbed. repeated applications of tung oil will act like a varnish, harden and close off the pores. almost dry here. now you can see how the blending of the colors w/the wood really tie in to one another. (I had seeded glass cut and installed it myself.) the backs of these doors remained the walnut stain color. and their final resting spot after I installed the vintage door hardware. the colors really darkened and I ended up coating this with poly.

I’d love to see the cabinet in a color you want to feature. You could paint just the back a great color (don’t see any color in the room but neutrals). Or you could use wallpaper on the back. I personally believe in a colorful environment feeds the soul.