Love your kitchen!!! The arches are fine - very soft. The backsplash is beautiful. I would recommend staying within the tones of your backsplash for wall color. Too bold of a color would look chaotic. It looks like Sherwin Williams 6128 Blonde 0r 6129 Restrained Gold would be good. It will compliment the adjoining rooms as well. I would also do the ceiling in 6126 Navajo White.

~ Jeana Joseph

I have similar colors in my home, with red wallpaper on the soffits over my cabinets. It's beautiful. And so are your cabinets! I think a deep red would be beautiful where you want to put it.

I'd paint it and I like the burnt orange idea, though picking up the golds in your tile would also be nice, but a bit on the "safe" side, and I think with so little wall showing, you can afford to be zippy.

I would do something in the tile color, to carry the eye up and get rid of the 'horizon' that the top of the cabinets create. I would do the ceiling, too.

I don't mind a valance there, but I think you need to hang it up much higher, again to break up the horizon and also to give the window the max visual height and light source. In the alternative, you could build a box valance and stain it to match the cabinets.

Beautiful kitchen! I'd paint it because the white walls gives it an unfinished look.

I also like the suggestion of a shade of red, mostly to add color.

The soft curves of the cabinets are very nice -- please go back to loving them. Other styles will looked "dated" in time.
I would go with one of the softer colors above the cabinets. A bolder color might look just as out of place as the white does now. Keep the valence, but perhaps change the style, and put some pattern and color in it. I think a great fabric would be the oomph you're looking for to complete your beautiful kitchen.

Here is a pic to help visualize. I love orange but it will definitely be a monochromatic room since the cabs are orange in tone.
{{!gwi}}

If you had used either of these colors in your home, I would suggest something really punchy. However you've stayed pretty strict with the color scheme. It's fun, though!
{{!gwi}}

I meant to mention a box valance in place of the gathered fabric, so thanks for mentioning it, les917. I second that suggestion - strongly.

~ Jeana Joseph

I agree with Les about choosing a color from the tile. I'd probably go with one of the lighter colored ones for contrast, since the dark ones are too close in color to your cabinets. I think the colors orange and red will certainly "pop" but they'll take the eye away from your cabinets and back splash.

I think a color would be good. You could pick a soft color from your backsplash but why not do a soft blue or green? I think it would brighten up your kitchen and home to have one of those colors.

There is nothing wrong with your curved cabinets - it's an updated version of the curves found in the 80's. As someone said - go back to loving them and be very happy that you didn't follow the rest of us into something more simple.

One suggestion - if you are looking to bring some colour into the room I would change out your valance and update the design of that and use a fabric that brings in some of the colours of the accessories (DR area rug and pictures) in the other rooms. See if you can find something with a punch of orange in it.
I don't know how your DR fits in space-wise to your kitchen but you could also add a complementary fabric (eg. abstract design fabric in kitchen with maybe stripes in DR with the same colours) valance to your DR window(S). It looks like you have the same blinds and so there already is a tie in between the two rooms.

Then consider taking the same colour of accent wall from the DR and LR and again getting a complementary wall colour or cutting that wall colour in half for the kitchen and see how it goes.

We've only seen a little of the hallway - do you have similar colours in there somewhere? From the kitchen it looks a little blah.

Being really nosy now - if you did put valances above your DR window(S) which will take up some wall room - maybe consider an oval mirror in the DR to mimic the soft curve of your (very nice) kitchen cabinets. That will also help to soften all of the rectangles you have in the DR. (Table, chairs, pics, window, blinds etc).(Unless the mirror is a family keepsake or unless it can go somewhere else - maybe front entrance). Ok I'll stop typing now.

Yes - paint! You really don't have too much going on considering it is all neutral. I really don't like white walls, and I think a red or orange would be beautiful.

You all are so kind to take time out of your busy day to help me. I just love this forum! First off...thank you for the kind words about the cabs and kitchen overall. I so needed that. It's actually kind of crazy how many negative comments I've read about arches in the past 6-8 months, especially on the kitchen forum. I know no one meant it in a bad way...they were just being honest about what they liked/disliked, but it was really starting to discourage me after spending thousands on these cabs to keep hearing how undesirable and outdated the design was. It's just a curved line for gosh sakes. No one considers a coffee table "outdated" just because it has a curved vs straight shape. Why a cabinet door? Anyway: you've made me feel much better, so many thanks for that.

Re: paint suggestions. Your feedback was so interesting. Two camps here. The "keep it calm/match a color in BS" group and the "go for the red/orange bold" group. Yet 100% agreement NOT to leave it white. So that answers my #1 question - perfect!

Alex9179 thank you big time for that pic of the orange kitchen. Incredibly helpful to see my kitchen colors with the orange wall...had the hardest time picturing that. If I go w/orange, think I may have to find a darker/"spicier" orange due to ultra-white tile floors. That wood floor in pic is gorgeous but same orange with my floor may look too "cartoony". Still a great visual though. So close. LOVE the blue and green...won't fit in my world, but I just love it. Next house!

Blfention: please don't apologize for the detail and questions. I definitely welcome it. Re: hallway...not much color yet. Point well taken. Have to do a better job livening that up. I have a curved half-moon two level freestanding bar in one spot (black/black barstools) and a curved half-moon foyer table in entrance, next to DR. Great idea re: curved mirror in DR...the square one is my late father's...some sentimentality there. Have to think about that. New chandy since that pic was shot: now a larger drum shade style with 6-light candelbra and lots of crystals which does offer some distinct softening.

Les...thanks for valance suggestions, as well as others who added their thoughts. I just bought these two a couple of months ago when I put the LED UC lighting in...they actually have a very distinctive pinstripe modern texture the camera doesn't show. Maybe I can hang them higher and find a way to pull in some color accents from other rooms for now - then switch for box valance later on which will look better. (The cab company had a matching wood valance, but it was pretty pricey and I already splurged my budget on the upgraded all-plywood and deluxe construction details instead.)

Thank you again everyone...it's so wonderful to get objective eyes on this...I'm definitely too close to it all myself to have any fresh thinking.

I'm a fan of color on walls, so definitely vote for painting the white. The reason I'm responding, though, is to vehemently oppose the idea that curved panels on doors could ever be considered 'dated'. Dated by who? The mfg's that want to sell new doors and so introduce 'new' lines (that are simply recycled from prior decades/centuries)? Dated by those who want to follow trends in furnishings that change as rapidly as trends in clothing (again, frequently just a recycle of a prior style 60's/70's bell-bottoms return in the 00's, 80's skinny legs return in the 10's.) Curved panels are a classic style - they echo the curves of the legs of a Queen Anne's wingchair, the stylistic swirls of Art Nouveau, the arched panels of a Chippendale highboy, which themselves echo the curves in nature that surround us. The classic arch is as at home in an ultra-modern home as in a firmly traditional one filled with antiques. It is not dated, it is timeless.

Please don't feel you made a mistake in choosing a style that will stay current forever. Just because the mfg.'s and marketers are trying to sell door replacements constantly to help their bottom line and therefore recycle old styles over and over again in cycles doesn't mean that the classic styles from the prior years are 'dated.' An avocado green stove frm the 60's/70's - now that's dated (although I keep expecting it to be resurrected by the same people that renamed 50's/60's stuff to 'mid-century modern'), but a classic arched panel will never, ever be dated. You chose beautiful cabinets and should take joy in the fact that you chose a style that will not be out of fashion, ever.

Just my (very opinionated) opinion. :-)

Orchid

I have the same curve on my cabinets that I got in 2007, which is practically yesterday. I don't think the slight curve that you and I have are "out of style". I think it's still popular.

The much more arched curve I have on my cabinets in both bathrooms, the laundry room, and a built in cabinet in my living room is dated.

OrchidOCD and happyladi: you rock! I'm bookmarking this thread, so every time I read yet another comment about "dated" arches, I'll re-read this and remind myself it ain't necessarily so.

After reviewing everyone's feedback, leaning towards a darker/spicy orange hue which gives me the bold color I want, but is still in same family as cabs and coppery black galaxy counter sparkles - won't be as jarring as bold red or a diff color. Does anyone like this one...Cinnamon Stick? Seems to be a very popular color for kitchens...

Hi!

I'm another "embrace your curves" fan! My "dated" curves are a ripe old 4 years. I chose them because all of the doorways on my main floor are arches. So my cabinet arches mimic my doorways. I love them! Soon I plan to update my counters, at that time I plan to update my cabinet hardware as well. We selected our hardware quickly as part of our new build, and I prefer the type of pulls that you have on your cabs. Mine are a simple SS knob. Just a little boring.

mom2sethc: thanks for sharing your pic...your kitchen is so pretty. Really like the green and that mirror/bench combo.

I don't think the white does anything for the space so I would change it. We have a similar backsplash and cabinets and went with BM Carrington Beige. I tried lots of greens but for me the warm-warm combination was better than warm-cool. I think trying different colors in your lighting is so important because everybody's is different.