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Home Decorating

Paint for a little galley kitchen and a bedroom!

15 years ago

We've just moved into a 1950's split-level rental house and we desperately need to paint the little galley style kitchen (as soon as I get the horrible wallpaper off). Since I'm hopeless at picking out and coordinating paint colors, I'm hoping you all can offer some suggestions.

We painted the main L-shaped living and dining area Benjamin Moore Shaker Beige. Not very original I know, but we really like it! The kitchen opens at each end to the living and dining area. It has white cabinets, butcher block looking counters, and a nondescript white vinyl floor. It also has a window and gets a decent amount of light.

We'd love to stay with one of the Benjamin Moore historic colors, but we're open to all ideas. We do want to stay away from yellow and cream (since we had that in previous houses for years) and colors like dark red that might require multiple coats or be hard to paint over later.

We also need a color for the master bedroom that opens off the hallway (also painted Shaker Beige). We painted the other 2 bedrooms B.M. Revere Pewter and love that color, but it would be nice to do something different in the master.

We don't have furniture, bedspread, etc yet. The only things we have are 2 small, old asian tables that we'll use as bedside tables. They are red, black and green mostly.

Thanks for any ideas you might have. After these 2 rooms are done it's on to the pink tiled bathroom!

Jane

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Comments (4)

teacats
15 years ago
How about:

Benjamin Moore's "Palladium Blue" (HC-144) in the kitchen and "Hollingsworth Green" (HC-141) in the master bedroom.

As for the pink bathroom -- try the Revere Pewter! Add lots of silver touches!

Jan
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ncjaneausten
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for those ideas, Jan. I've stayed away from blue for years, probably due to an unfortunate daisy print wallpaper that was in my bedroom when I was a kid. I think I need to go to the Post Traumatic Stress thread here!
Anyway, that Benjamin Moore blue looks lovely, and I like the green as well.

Our pink tiled bathroom actually has one row of grey tiles around the top, so the Revere Pewter might be perfect in there. I'll have to paint a test patch to see how it looks!

Jane
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mclarke
15 years ago
Hi, ncjaneausten!

I know you're probably anxious to begin painting, but it might be a good idea to get your furniture, artwork, rugs and bedding BEFORE you choose your paint colors.

There are a gazillion paint colors to choose from, and it's usually better to choose one AFTER you see what other colors are going on in the room.

Just a thought...
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ncjaneausten
Original Author
15 years ago
Hi mclarke! You're right, I should probably hold off on the bedroom for a bit. We do have a large silk kimono that we'll be hanging on the wall in there, so I guess I need to choose a paint color based on that. The walls just look terrible right now though (awful color, lots of patched holes) and it's depressing to even go in there!

I need to pick a color for the kitchen NOW though! I have to paint the walls so I can set up a free-standing pantry so I have somewhere in this teeny kitchen to store food so we can stop living in chaos with food in boxes and bags and a teenage boy constantly complaining that there is nothing to eat....

I did get a sample jar of Palladian Blue and put a big patch on the kitchen wall. The color is nice, though maybe a bit minty? The problem is it looks to me like it kind of clashes with the Shaker Beige color in the adjoining room. As I've said though, I have zero ability to tell what colors will look good together.

I'm about to give up and just paint it Shaker Beige too, but I think this poor little kitchen would look so much better with a little bit of color. Please help, all you color experts!! I need some more ideas for a color that would liven up this kitchen and also look good with the living area.

Thanks!
Jane
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