I like the colour that is directly above the cabinet. I don't like the darker one that is to the left of the cabinet.

On my monitor they're practically indistinguishable.

What's the natural lighting like in your kitchen? Artificial light?

What's your gut telling you?

Hi Sailormann-- the one to the left on the bottom is the old color-- that's out.

RMkitchen-- I thought darker. My dad & husband did too. Grandma says lighter and she's pretty persuasive. Picture was taken w/ artificial light (regular bulbs in there).

Good to know, though, that they are almost indistinguishable.

Do you think I need to abandon ship and go with a different color altogether?

I had to look twice to see the two shades above -- I also thought I was looking at a lighter one and the darker below, but in both cases, I say the lighter(est) one, especially with a slate blue. The two darker ones seem a little on the muddy side with the cabinet -- maybe it's tone, but it may just be not enough contrast.

I think the lighter one would be really nice, but would caution you that of all the colors that give people problems on this forum, yellow seems to take the cake.

yellow can be so tough and looks so different at different times of the day depending on the light coming in.

Are there any non-yellow options to consider?

Paint color choice is turning out to be one of the hardest decisions ....so I'm not sure you shoud take advice from me. But I'm seeing more of a light gray/blue to go with the slate island and marble.

Maybe post a picture with the slate cabinet to help everyone pick one.

thanks for the feedback!

mamadadapaige-- any options you think I should be considering here?

It's reading kinda "peachy" to me. I had that trouble with colors that I thought were more tan but on an entire room ended up looking too peach... (still have to repaint)

Thanks again for the feedback.

remodelfa-- the peach might be the camera's fault-- the formula only has yellow, black, and grey in in. No orange or red. It is definitely yellow-y, though. Wondering if I should avoid that.

I think the wood is causing me problems. The cooler colors look better with the soapstone, but they do not go as well with the wood.

The island color is in this picture:

Danielle,
I like Positano am seeing a light gray with the slate / quartersawn / soapstone combo. I think there is a coolness to the slate blue and anything in the yellow family is going to have a warmth that might clash with the slate blue.

Have you looked into C2 paints? I just checked their website and there were lots of grays with a tiny hint of blue... this would be a great direction to consider.

Here is a link that might be useful: C2 paint

Hi Danielle,
I think the oak is more flexible than the slate blue. I'd put the blue first... the yellow doesn't seem sophisticated enough (but as we learned from the very long thread kelleg started, not everyone is going for sophisticated so my apologies for pushing my own view point, which is very decidedly in the sophistication camp).

here is a pic from crown point's website of oak cabinets with soapstone counters and a pale blue (cool) wall. I think it works very well, and think that other colors with a cool tone will work as well.

I don't think the yellow is exactly right either. I would lean more to the blue/gray too. Is there marble? I didn't catch that. Is it on the island? Or, I think you could go in the khaki/gray family. I am not great with color either, though. This is just my initial reaction.

thanks... I guess we'll look at some more in the morning. I had gotten a fair number of light blue/grey sample jars and something about it didn't look right with the wood. I think we'll end up painting, putting everything in and then repainting if necessary... my dad actually offered to do the repaint if we stopped calling him about the color decision ;o) (seriously, though, I don't think it would be a big deal for my GC's guys to do it over at the end-- they've been really neat and tidy so far)

kelleg,
Marble is on the island.. it's a small island, though (2 x 4).

Thanks for the response, Danielle.

While I am a h-u-g-e sucker for sheer grey-blue (given my use of it in my own kitchen), I am really, really concerned it will a) clash with your beautiful slate island or b) come off as too matchy-matchy with your island. (I'm not a fan of cutesy.)

I'd rather see you go in a totally different direction, which I think you already did (with the yellow), and I happen to really like the yellow. I love how the yellow(s) you have (kind of like pale butter, right?) picks up on the warmth of the wood without being all "hellooo! look at me!" while making complete and perfect sense with the depth and tone of the island's slate blue. I really see the yellow as being a good supporting player to the elements you've pictured.

It's not my kitchen, but I'm leaning toward the darker (left) yellow.

Danielle,
maybe you get your inlaws to repaint during their visit!

:)

your dad's comments have me LOL. You have really good taste. I am sure it is all going to turn out GREAT! if your instincts weren't digging the gray, you should trust them.

well, if it doesn't turn out great, i'll be one of the ones delaying the Grand Reveal while we compulsively repaint (or a family member has me committed). we love grey w/ the blue, marble, and soapstone, but not with the wood. with all the time I've spent trying to pick out a color, it would have been more cost effective to just pay the upcharge and go for a white kitchen!

& rmkitchen, your comments on the grey/blue were why we avoided it. I think if we had the perfect grey/blue, we would have done it. but, we were concerned it would either clash with the island or look odd against our oak cabs and pine floor (both of which are very warm).

I think if our color doesn't work out, we'll get some sort of color consultation. We have an architect friend who has someone he really likes a lot (pricey, but at that point it will be worth it so we can stop the insanity)

The problem with those paler yellows is that I find they tend to look like dingy white rather than yellow. That's how I feel about our pale yellow ceiling. To me it looks more like an old, white grease-stained ceiling rather than a nice freshly painted intentional yellow. Unfortunately Hubby likes it so it's staying.

On my admittedly color-distorting monitor it looks like you are having the same problem with your yellow.

I like the yellow (the lighter one on top) too, though it's sometimes hard to tell after running it through a camera and seeing it on a monitor.

Check out how it looks in different lights. If it goes sad or dingy, that's another story.

Oh, wait. I was the one who said yellow the first time out. Still holds, but makes sense that I'd like it. I think it brings out the warmth in the wood, softens the soapstone, and will make the blue of the island pop.

Thanks, everyone. My GC and his guys are off Thurs and Fri, so if we decide we hate it, we can DIY another color before the cabs come next week. I think that's what my husband and I decided.

danielle....you may be looking for more color on your walls, but a thought was something like redrose's kitchen....very neutral. i think she used bm's natural cream???????? if you check out her kitchen and like it, i'd send her a quick not because i'm not sure if that's the color.

Forget about the soapstone and slate for a just a minute. Regardless of whatever else is in the kitchen, what kind of overall "mood" are you seeking for your kitchen? When you walk into the kitchen, do you want to feel "cheered" and/or "warm" or do you want more "serene" or "soothed?" Also, where is your kitchen in relation to the other rooms of the house and what are the wall colorings there? Are you looking for a complementary flow of color or a single room color statement with your kitchen? I think once you answer those kinds of questions for yourself, you can more easily find a color that personally pleases you as well as works great with your cabs, counters, etc.

I chose yellow for my own kitchen so, like Pllog, I'm probably biased in suggesting you go with your first instinct and choose the yellow. But, again, as Mamadadapaige has pointed out, yellow is a very tricky color to get right! In planning my kitchen color, I was looking for a saffron-like yellow. I'm not kidding you when I tell you that I put up close to 20 paints samples to test the colors. And, when I'm talking samples, I don't mean a touch of paint on the walls. Indeed, I bought those poster type sample boards that you can get in paint stores. The ones I chose were approximately 18" x24" in size. Once I painted each board, I stuck them to the walls with painter's tape and studied them for weeks! In this way, because I could move the samples around, I could see enough of how a particular color looked in every wall area of the room and how the light hit it at different times of day and night. This also allowed me to place it next to the appliances, cabs, sink, etc. Now, having said all that, would you believe I still got my color wrong? LOL! The saving grace is that, even though the yellow I ended up with is paler, more pastel than the yellow I initially intended, I believe it works in the kitchen nevertheless.

And, BTW, when I was thinking about my paint choices, I was actually torn between yellow and gray! In the end, with the help of my ID, I finally accepted that as much as I wanted the serenity and sophistication of a pale gray that I've admired in other folks' kitchens, I am much more a "warm" person at heart. So, between the two, yellow became my color of choice.

HTH

Hi,
I have a strong yellow in my kitchen with oak cabs, pine trim and floors, and soapstone. The ceiling/trim is cream, so that brings the entire tone to warm, because there's only a tiny amount of bright white to refer to. OTOH, there is only a very small amount of painted wall in the room.

Positano said "Paint color choice is turning out to be one of the hardest decisions .... " and I totally agree with her. I've thought about / worried about / agonized over colors for months. It's funny -- paint is the most-easily changed thing in the whole house, but it's still one of the hardest things to choose.

And it's greys I've been fussing about. I did the Marthavila yellow fussing in the last house and liked my choice so much that I'm using it again, so that was easy. But the grey was hard . . . it's in SO many places, and involves scaffolding, so when that's down, it won't be easy to repaint! It's going up as we speak and I'm loving it, but I don't have all the elements in place yet, so we'll see . . .so far, so good . . .

Arlene

These guys have some nice, complicated, lighter cool tones and send sample cards. The nice thing about complicated colors is the wide variety of shades that blend with them.

The thing I don't like about the yellows is that they make your very nice cab color turn pink.

Here is a link that might be useful: Farrow and Ball

All our monitors are different, so it's hard to tell.

But, if you check out the Farrow & Ball link above:

My cabinets are Pavillion Gray (pure light gray) and my walls are Tallow, a little warmer than some of the other creams, which look a little "fake French vanilla" in my house.

It looks great. To me, anyway. Bright, clean. It IS quite pale. (Other paint lines have more shades or can manipulate the percentages.) And sorry, I don't own a camera.

Now, you don't have to use F&B. This is just an endorsement that this pale yellow/grey combination can work.

Good luck!

sombreuil,
Thanks for sharing your picture. Your yellow looks great.

Marthavila,
I'm thinking warm... we had the best grey in our other house (it was a BM color-- silvery moon or something like that). It was perfect for our old kitchen, but the room was rather 'cold'.. soothing, but not warm at all. good thoughts.

Bmorepanic,
we'll watch out for the pink effect-- I have a feeling we'll be doing a round 2 of this once everything is in. we are attempting to paint before the install and it is hard to imagine how the end product will be.

growlery,
thanks for the color rec.

arlene,
I hope your colors work out for you-- these decisions are hard.