That looks like the same color I painted my kitchen. (And KM Swiss Coffee is the trim color I use throughout my house - spooky.)

Is there something wrong with the colors? I don't think so. They seem neutral enough to me. Maybe you need a real estate agent with better taste!

I'd go with a light grey, something that is clearly lighter than the floor. I like your kitchen.

Do you have crown in the rest of your house? I notice you have it trimming the tops of the cabinets but not the adjacent walls.

Love it! I wouldn't touch it. But then I may not be your average home buyer.

To please the most people, I'd say either light gray or a neutralish tan or cream-yellow, depending on the paint in the rest of the house and also depending on how the warmer colors would look with your marble (I can't tell for sure from the photos if they would clash).

I love the fridge-corner cabinets; clever!

I can see why it was thought the color was a little, um, personal. Dunn Edwards has a line of paints they call "Classic" because, I guess, they work well (I've heard other theories about this name, that it references classic situations, that the colors are old; dunno. But *I* find they're just really mind-easing good). I think DE is on the west coast; it sounds as if you are too. I imagine all the paint companies do the same though. Point is, selecting from this series is easy as the numbers of choices are very limited. The colors I like best are the ones that they had pre-selected this way. I'd spent hours agonizing and money testing, just to find my favorite was part of this series all along. Lessons learned the hard way.

Taking this lesson to heart I selected a bedroom's color this way when I was dithering between a fancy slightly-different color and one of these. I didn't immediately love it, but I have grown to completely, deeply adore this color. There is something about this series that just settles deep.

I'm no realtor, but I'd guess if you just pick any old random classic color you'd be in good shape. The idea is just to appeal to the broadest group. Yellow is a happy, classic kitchen-type color; that's what I'd suggest. But I'm not representative of house buyers!!

Though I like the green, I'll second the suggestion of yellow because you'll get the trendy yellow+gray color combo that way.

I think it's neutral enough. some RE agents go to extremes.

if you feel you have to repaint maybe a very light grey would work.

Jilly, I picked the paint color because the POs had used it as trim everywhere and I liked it just fine.

I don't have crown elsewhere and I wanted something very light or none at all but I lost that fight.

Grey might be nice, but it might also turn everything dismal--I didn't mean to end up with everything grey but somehow I did.

Yellow I can get behind. It's my other color of choice. (The last kitchen I tried to sell, my Realtor told me to paint the yellow! It was sort of a cross between bicycle and daffodil so I probably should have...)

The rest of the house is a tannish brownish thanks to the PO. Tasteful, dull, entirely acceptable. I'll have to see if it'll work.

The ceiling is blue. Maybe I could do the walls the same?

Thanks for the suggestions! This should be fun! (nooooooo)

Is there a cream in the counter/backsplash? Maybe you can match it. Since it all goes so well together, I would assume pulling out one of those colors would work on the walls too. I know...beige....but what do those experts remind us...you aren't choosing it for you, but you want a buyer to love it and think that there is nothing to do when they move in.

Too bad about the green. They say "your" kitchen is taste specific? Uh oh. I'm screwed.

Ha, you literally have the same combos we just put into our new kitchen (though our walls may be a little lime-ier---we used BM Wales Green with Eternity marmo floors). The one thing I will say about our kitchen is that it turned out gray-er than we expected overall---the green and the gray sort of blend into a muted fuzzy gray feeling for the space, and I can see that not appealing to everyone (it doesn't always appeal to us, even---DH thinks we should have gotten brave and gone for a shade darker!) So if you want to make it pop a little more, I think yellow is a great suggestion; we almost switched to yellow several times but I was hung up on green for some reason.

I can't wait to hear what they say about the 'Hefty Kat' cat flap. We used it to see if there was a kid in front of the door when coming in from the garage.

Not sure how I ended up with a monochromatic kitchen. I guess it's better than the clown puke Marmoleum I wanted. They don't seem to carry it anymore...I really liked the orange/blue Marm. Makes me want to gut my current kitchen ASAP!

Here is a link that might be useful: How I picked my floor.

I have a thing for revere pewter.

But I would look up the colors BM does for Pottery Barn? ANd pick one from there. Those guys know the market, and I think it is the same market you might sell to.

Hmm,, I fell in love with this blue when I went to look at the colors. Look how nice baskets (dirt cheap) look against blue!

I also forgot to ask you what colors adjacent rooms/halls are. If they are also adventuresome, doubly important to go neutral here

Here is a link that might be useful: Pottery Barn colors

I'll look into blues as well.

The neighboring rooms are all neutral--I didn't get my hands on them yet so they are still in the PO's tan-for-sale color. Realtor probably wants me to change them but I think I will balk. Looks better in real life.

I would leave it.

I hope you are taking and reusing the Rejuvenation fixtures and putting in their cheap cousins.

Fori, the color on my monitor is a sort of light spring green...kinda the green color you see baby clothes in. Is that right?

It's nice, but yes, a bit off the beaten track. For what it's worth, I would NOT paint it cream, light gray, beige or any other really bland color. I'd go for a rich pewter grey, as mtnrdredux suggests to emphasize modern sophistication or again, as she suggests look at the Pottery Barn latest BM colors. I like the idea of something like Buxton Blue, Azores (my fav), Canvas or Coastal Path...or a lighter version of them. Perhaps Silver Sage or White Rain (two of my favorite BM greens).

My reasoning: Paint is cheap and even the most-dull witted buyers know that or retailers tell them. So...

Those who ONLY like white/cream/bland walls will realize they can easily paint it and one of the above mentioned colors will look trendy enough to not look "odd" to their eyes.

Those who lack imagination, will be glad to see a color that they couldn't envision, but like.

And those who have imagination and like color, will know it's only a paintbrush away.

FWIW

I think the blue that's on the ceiling would look great on the walls as well. It's very fresh, will make the white cabinets pop, look good with the grays, and save you some bother. :) While a pale gray would go great with the marble veining and floor, I think it might show (as in when it's shown to buyers) a bit dreary. The pale blue is one of those "fresh", "sunny" colors, and better, I think, for selling.

I love your green, but I think it might be too taste specific even though it's also fresh. The tans can stay. Looks good (and neutral) with the wood. :)

I forgot to add that I have a black stairwell and hallway in the apartment (covered with Keane prints no less) and One person out of the many who have looked had something negative to say about "not getting" the interior.

We have staged it "zero" but it is always kept super clean and ready to look at. No realtor has every suggested neutralizing a thing. In fact, a couple have said they Love showing it. (Its the condo fees that are the issue.)

Yes, spring green, baby green, CELERY green was what I was targeting.

I really do appreciate all these suggestions. I thought I was doomed to taupe. There's even too many choices! For example, it didn't occur to me to do something rich and intense ("sophisticated" never comes naturally to me).

As far as the fixtures go, I was a little disappointed that the Realtor said they were perfect. I think I want them. Nobody really likes them. Just me. I might yank them. On the other hand I don't NEED to be that frugal. And the "new" house sort of calls for a brass finish.

For the record, I am not really a fan of staging and prefer an empty house (as a buyer) but from what I've seen, these stagers do a good job and--this is the important bit--will use enough area rugs so that I don't have to refinish the floors. The expense is about the same.

Can you find a poster or framed piece or nicknack or whatever that indicates that the end of the countertop is for baking? Or lay out a rolling pin during open house? Most people won't get it at first so you gotta tell them gently. In your "literature" be sure to boast "baking center" so they don't miss it. Somebody's gonna swoon.

You betcha Flo--because otherwise it's just for embalming corpses (I think it looks bad all naked). Especially with the small oven.

If these so-called "staging experts" don't take care of it, I'm dragging my big ol' stand mixer back.

And I'm assured there will be a blurb espousing the glory of induction cooking.

I agree with Plllog, the blue you used on your ceiling would look great on your kitchen walls. Plus you already know how the color will look in the kitchen.

I love the green and personally don't think it needs to be changed. If I were looking at your house, I would think "I'm glad the realtor didn't convince them to paint the kitchen boring blah brown."

I might wait to hear what the first potential buyers have to say about the kitchen before I painted.

And definitely play up your wonderful baking center with your stand mixer and other accessories. I would bake chocolate chip cookies in the oven just prior to the showing and have them on a tray for visitors to munch on. Use the Pillsbury ones that are sliced and ready to bake, they make enough cookies for an afternoon of visitors. It is hard not to smile in a kitchen that smells like chocolate chip cookies.

Good luck with your decision and let us know what you decide.

I used to have an intense cobalt accent walls. I always knew that it was one of those colors that either people loved (I loved it) or people were thinking "what did you do that for?" but did not say it. Unfortuntately, this green is one of those colors; either you love it or you say eek (as I see it.)

If you are painting to sell, I would not do a strong color. Just do a neutral that is trendy. Mushroom, grey, taupe are all neutral trendy colors. Many people like trendy colors not necessarily because they are good colors but because they see it all the time and they are familiar with the color. If they see the color with beautiful decor, they associate the color with good taste, good decor etc. There is a huge component of "lemming" mentality in how we feel about color. Otherwise, you can't explain the popularity of these awful colors in the decades past.

I just looked at a house today with black trim and dark midnight type of blue accent wall. It was an "eek" color! The house was not right for us other reasons. I am one of those people that can look beyond the decor and don't care about the color because it is easy to paint over. However, may buyers are not like that.

I LOVE gray, but I think more in this case might be too much.

So this is the explanation...I was confused by your other post about ripping out and re-doing your 'new' kitchen. At first I thought you meant something had gone wrong, like water damage, or some other problem, and you had to start over... But the pics weren't at all what I expected from the plans you'd had. ;-)

I have an OT question. I assume that the area with the marble countertop is the "baking center". Why is the counter height lower? (Until the baking center was mentioned, I assumed that was a desk area and wondered why the knee space was all the way against the wall instead of between two drawer units.) I've been congratulating myself for having put together my very own baking center long before I found GW, and now I might discover that my counter height is all wrong!

Thanks. So not only am I unable to decide, I'm confusing others! Woot Win!

The staging "expert" suggested Kelly Moore "Tropical Straw" for the entire house, I assume including the kitchen. It's so close to the color of the rest of the house I'm going to stick with the tan already in the rest of the house under the principle that it's easier to cover up the same color than something new. Light tannish.

Anyway I'll take all these great suggestions and some swatches and see how they go.

MCMJilly, the baking center. It's traditional but not required to have a little marble area to roll out dough that is more table height because then you can really lean over and get into your work. Short people especially appreciate this feature. Tall people probably think it's silly. I used it as an excuse to put cabinets in front of a low window instead of replacing the window and changing the exterior of the house. The kneehole is because the spouse really wanted it.

Ah. So, I guess I'm in the "tall people" camp. You're lucky your low window is high enough to allow a countertop. Mine was even lower, so I had to get a new window.

I thought about a dove grey, but I share the concern that it could seem dreary. Now, if it is going to be staged, you might be able to overcome that. The yellow and grey could look good too, but will require repainting the ceiling and probably some good staging to pull it off. And it's trendy, not necessarily that wide appeal you want.

That led me to thinking a pewter to steel grey, but that was before you pointed out that the ceiling is blue. I think you can use that same blue and everything will feel clean and fresh and that's probably the easiest since you have the color and don't have to coordinate with the ceiling or repaint that too. Some folks are not blue people, but it won't be so strong to scare them away and the rest of the house is neutral (I'd leave the beige). The staging can add some yellow and green to make it feel cool, fresh and summery.

Probably a good idea to stage the baking area. You don't have to haul the mixer -- some smaller things will work. A baking cookbook lying open, the rolling pin and a rolling mat, maybe a couple of cookie cutters and a cookie sheet. If you have an open house, bake some cookies in the oven so the house smells good and have them out on a plate or in a cookie jar.

Or another keep it simple idea -- paint the ceiling white or the same green you have on the walls. I don't think it is either color the realtor is probably concerned about as much as the multiple colors. And even the dual color approach could work with the right staging -- it just raises questions about what to do with it with the kitchen vacant.

Keep it simple. You've got at least a 50/50 chance the buyer is gong to change whatever you do. You can't pick everyone's favorite color, so you you just want something most people won't see as a barrier.

I think the buyer will gut it and make it bigger, but that's just a hunch. Some people think when you buy a house in this price range (location location location) you deserve a big kitchen. :)

I don't think the multiple colors scared the agent--the ceiling is so light nobody notices it's blue until you point out it's not the same color as the cabinets. It's much more tasteful (or at least less in-your-face) than the green.

I'm not a green person, but we painted our last kitchen green for resale -- in the days of sage green everywhere, wit white cabinets and folks loved it. I had a white tile backsplash though -- no grey.

Looking back at this today, I'm thinking the shade of green is nice, but not quite right with the grey -- I'd go the blue and call it a day. If you go to a yellow, you would have to paint hte ceiling too and that;s a pain. And the yellow that goes with the grey might not work well withthe adjoining rooms in beige. Keep it simple.

Do not waste your time or money on paint for your kitchen. It is a mellow color and is in good condition. A buyer can change the color but just may like it. I'd change it if it were a strong overpowering color, but that is soft and cheery.
If you have an urge to paint, do it elsewhere. Your kitchen as a whole is a selling feature and not a problem!
I would put out a few kitchen accessories so that it does not look quite so bare. Even a single dish towel could warm it up.

(r.e. agent over 21 years)