If I were married to the idea of the golden yellow in the kitchen, but also the olive in the Living area, then, I would paint the kitchen walls that are separate walls in the golden yellow, with the shared wall going into the living area in the green. Cutting it off in the middle of a wall is going to look like you cut it off in the middle of a wall. It would be preferable to just pick one of the two and put it everywhere. Here's the thing. If you really want to use both your colors, then, you can always add more of the yellow over the green, or more of the green over the yellow.........later. For now, keep your colors where they can easily be stopped at the end of the wall. See how that looks. See how it feels. Then, move on from there. And if you can thumb through some decor magazines, you will see that there are no lines down the centers of walls. It just feels wrong and spoils the pleasure of the paint. Red

Looking at the shade of blue you've chosen, I would paint the stairway beige. (The blue might make it seem like a cave, and you certainly don't want use the brown, great color, but too dark for an entire stairway...) Is the ceiling in the kitchen freshly painted? I think the soffit would look okay painted to match the ceiling. If you want the seamless look, certainly paint it brown to match the walls. I tend to go with that opinion when I am asked for work. (I have my own small business.) Also, it's a bit easier! Looks like you have decent cabinets! Seems like a cute house!

As long as all the colors work together nicely, you can start and stop anywhere that feels right to you...typically though you want to break colors at inside corners. Unless you are really good, outside corners can be tricky to paint. I would paint the wall with the stairs the beige and do the rest of the family room in the blue. I would not paint the bottom of the soffit dark...I think it should match the ceiling. One way to think about it is, am I in the room. If you are in the room then the color can be the same. If you are not in the room, the color can be different. So the brown wall on the kitchen side is in the kitchen. The wall in the pass through is in the family room so should be blue. The stairwell is the stairwell so should be beige. But you are inspiring me to create a thread on color blocking...there seems to be a lot of questions around how to do it....

Owls4me, I am fairly steady handed, but I only purchased one Chinex brush, and it is a bit too wide for me to paint that neatly. Also, the cabinet is on the wall, and I am perched on the counter when I paint. Not the best for a steady hand on an edge. I did end up trying painters' tape, and it worked fairly well, though now, after all the discussion about color I posted in another post, and the excellent advice here, I am going to try white on the sides and bottom/fronts of the shelves before I give up entirely on the Fiji. timber.j, thanks for posting here too! I am going to try your idea before I give up on the Fiji/other blues. Thank you too for the compliment - I am overall pretty happy with the "bones" of the cabinet - I installed the plate rail myself, and really like the way it works next to the stove in my small kitchen. Funny, I tend to not be overly neat, and I was afraid of what an open cabinet might look like, but the casseroles work very well, and I can reach my serving bowls pretty easily. They take up a bit of space so they tend to organize themselves. becktheeng & writersblock, thanks for your support as well, if I can stand the heat, I'll get in the kitchen (we don't have central air - it was in the 90's today, and there I was mixing paint in the kitchen - I finally retreated to the back or our home which we cool with a couple of window AC's). Antiquesilver, yes, you understand perfectly. That is how I ended up "ending the paint colors" - it was frustrating, because I just didn't know where to stop at the bottom. Now it appears to be a moot point, as others have convinced me to try painting only the back wall blue - I love your cabinets. They are the perfect color for the backsplash - it is copper? I am going to have to peek at your "finished kitchen." Hope I can find it. FYI, to anyone else reading this, I posted a different post on just the color issues I am having, that is why the Fiji color is coming up here. You have all given me impetus to try keeping the Fiji. Thanks.