Naked Kitchen - Help with paint & backsplash

13 years ago

My naked kitchen - I need great GW input on paint color, window trim (natural, stain or paint) and back splash.

Red birch cabinets, some painted "white" (BM dove wing which is a little gray/green under) and island painted white, gray counters to be installed next week (pietra Cardosa on perimeter, high contrast super white quarzite on island.) Appliances stainless, stove (Blue Star, thanks GW!) & hood to be installed under high window, fridge to the right out of photo.

My vision is casual, light & warm but flirting with elegant (i.e. framed shaker style cabinets with bead but no chandeliers.) I struggle with the word "transitional" but I guess it fits - it is not traditional, but has reference to and certainly not contemporary but clean lines...not quite cottage. Features I see are windows, red birch cabinets (very warm with gray, green & red undertone, good amount of movement) and island (apron, legs, counter.)

I have seen so many beautiful and unexpected ideas generated by GWers - Please help me. I am visual and love photos.

Here is a link that might be useful: naked kitchen - need color & back splash

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Comments (13)

jterrilynn
13 years ago
Do you have pictures of the rest of your home that include colors you are now using for "flow" ideas? Very nice kitchen!!!
sparklekitty
Original Author
13 years ago
Actually, the house has been pretty much gutted and the kitchen color is the starting point for the first floor. I am taking the photo from the dining room it opens into, but it is set up in such a way that the rooms can be painted separate colors. Because the kitchen has the cabinets & counters, we are using it as the starting point for all the other colors.

I forgot to mention the floors are natural maple. We were thinking of paining the dining room a light gray with darker gray trim (with some very subtle under tone.) We have natural cherry dining table and two sets of french doors that are stained a medium/a little darker brown. BUT it all starts with the kitchen...so that color can change.

Here is another photo of the kitchen that shows the red birch a little better.
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Ooooh, you have me a little worried. I am planning a white on white kitchen...but back to the topic at hand. No I definitely don't think a lip of a backsplash is at all unfinished. In fact, i think most houses just have a lip? I wonder if the wall of a BS is a new thing. In fact i just took a quick look at property listings (no I am not a realtor, haha) and the 3 houses I clicked on (close to a million$) all had a lip of a backsplash. I think it is personal preference. And your right it is a dust catcher=). but better to have dust than me rub off my wall every time I wipe my counters down. (good paint may well solve that dilemma) but I do think that it looks naked with nothing. We cook alot ( and I am messy) so I have to have something behind my stove...and personally i do like the full wall of backsplash. If you have soapstone, that may break up the white enough to not make it so stark. You could possibly consider the lip of soapstone and then tile above that....? Best of luck
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Have you considered wallpaper? You can bring in color, as well as a design, if that's your 'schtick'. Just throwing another consideration in the mix. I personally *hate* a backsplast covered in tile or granite from countertop to bottom of cabinets, or even further up. I've gone *about* 3/4 up the wall, with the remained just the neutral color thruout the rest of my home, but only on the interior cabs, so above the stove and sink areas. On the perimeter bank of cabinets, it's just a painted wall, where I had planned to use wallpaper, but haven't done so yet. I also picked up at an auction a painted canvass, which is long and narrow, and thought of using it here. It's a vintage French scene of a girl feeding chickens in a barn, done in dark colors, which is my preference. I just don't want to leave it should I sell. ;)
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jterrilynn
13 years ago
IÂm seeing very light grey /blue or very light grey/green wall paint and some type of light textured backsplashÂfeeling a bit of Christopher PeacockÂs new version contemporary kitchen vibe going on. IÂm a person who likes bold splashes of color but can not see that in your beautiful calm kitchen.
earthpal
13 years ago
Sparklekitty,
your kitchen is looking beautiful! Took a look at your pictures after reading your email to see what colors you had so far. My suggestion would be to look for a soft green with a gray undertone for your walls and a white with just a little bit of blue-gray in it for your ceiling. This would help to bring in the feel of your outdoors that I see thru your windows.

Backsplashes are often used to tie all your colors together or to provide a resting spot. I think I would choose paint colors first and then do your splash... Because your cabinets are so strong visually along with your windows, I would keep the 'splash toward a more simpler classic design and use mosaic size for an accent strip at the very most. You have lots of rectangular shapes in your cabinets. Using longer subway, 2 by 6 versus the normal 3 x 6 would look great. Using the subways would repeat that motif and help also tie the kitchen together visually.

I think you are doing a great job of balancing the casual, light and warm with elegance. :))

Enjoy!
monkeymo
13 years ago
ok..just playin around with photoshop...here is a green and a blue version

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}
sparklekitty
Original Author
13 years ago
Monkeymo, thanks for the photo shop looks. Surprisingly, my husband had some interest in the blue. I think they would have to go gray with a little blue versus pure blue with the pietra counters & we would have to be careful of the color to not clash...

I saw this in a recent thread about backsplashes (sorry if this is yours...) The blue is beautiful, but not sure if it would be too much in my space.

Only if the paint color was more neutral light gray? With a backsplash like this it definitely does not blend...but it is so pretty. so now I am editing - just following everyone else's lead with the photo editing (thanks.) I may just get the hang of this...

A bit much? It looks a lot brighter in my low quality clipping in MS paint - more gray would be better, but again is it just too much?

Jterrilynn, I definitely appreciated the comments about a serene kitchen. Honestly, that is my bend, but I don't want to feel like I took the safe way out (part of me just loves the bold.) I think the process of exploring will make me more confident in whatever decision I make - especially if I go more low key (versus always wondering if I just chickened out.) I am enjoying trying out new things. Any more ideas or thoughts?

Maybe I should just install a photo of that beautiful blue tile in a picture frame and move back to picking a wall color then that backsplash :)
jterrilynn
13 years ago
Did you look on http://www.annsacks.com/home.jsp Ann Sacks? Love, love, love some of those textured tiles by Barbara Berry, Michael S Smith (layrrinth collection), Abyssinian and blueshour.
sparklekitty
Original Author
13 years ago
Earth_pal - I mocked up the light gray wall with the white marble long subway photos I had. Kind of clunky because I am using MS Paint and not very adept, but I was also able to overlay the counters. MS Paint doesn't render the colors well.

jterrilynn - I am going to have to see the Ann Sacks in person, thanks for bringing it up. I had seen the Michael Smith online in the past and completely forgot about it - I particularly like that one, but seeing them in person is always different.

Other ideas, thoughts, colors, tile...

We will have a simple Kobe SS hood and the bluestar SS stove - not sure if something fun in that space and keep the rest simple. I will try to post a photo of the "spot" where the stove will be.
monkeymo
13 years ago
sparkle... I like that blue backsplash...here is a pic with backsplash and a blue paint color...and one with taking the backsplash all the way up...of course i don't know if that would work for you because I couldn't see what was above the window.

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}
jterrilynn
13 years ago
HereÂs a picture with marble tile, tying in with your other counter top.
http://s1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/?action=view&current=marblebacksplash.jpg"; target="_blank">

Here are some pretty glamorous serene looks.

Seaglass textured by Art Effects Glass
{{!gwi}}

AndÂsomething simple
http://s1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/?action=view&current=lavaglass.jpg"; target="_blank">{{!gwi}}
earthpal
13 years ago
Sparklekitty,

hmm... Not surprising that your hubby went with blue... #1 favorite guy color! Personally, I think the green toned down to a softer look with gray would look better tho...

Your subway mockup does look clunky, because it looks stacked instead of running bond in the picture. Try doing something that is closer to your kitchen cabinet colors and you will notice a big difference. We have shaker style cabinets and drawers in a warm butternut finish on alder with 2 by 8 glass subways and they look great together. ;)

While I do love the colors and tiles that jterrilynn has posted, I am pretty confident they won't work in your kitchen. Your kitchen colors are more calm and needing gray-based colors to complement them. Those tiles are pastel and iridescent and thus shiny. The hexagon shape, still reads country because of its shape. Take a look at the finished kitchen blog and look at the mosaic backsplashes. Most of them become a design feature in themselves. I believe using a mosaic tile would totally change the look and feel of your kitchen from calm and serene that you are going for.

I do understand about loving color and boldness, I am a fused glass artist! My DH, KD and ID all kept telling me to tone it down and simplify my designs, sigh... and they were right! Someday, we will be done and I will be able to post pictures!

Ultimately, it is up to you and your DH tho... Good Luck!
sparklekitty
Original Author
13 years ago
I agree about the blue being too much (the hexes are beautiful), but feel good that I gave it a whirl. I think that I could do something more gray with a tinge of blue, but a very light gray. Any ideas/photos for a light gray backsplash?

I am curious about the idea of something like the cabinets...I have not really considered that route. Here is something I looked at that would fit the bill, but it doesn't really have the gray in it - I think that might not work. Any more ideas/photos of tiles that might match the cabinet color?

Here is another tile that I saw that is hideously expensive that has the color of the cabinet & the counter, but is a small mosaic which I was never looking for. They said they could make it bigger, more like a small brick (say 2x4ish) but it would be the hand cut. I may also be able to get it in the standard cut small brick in a subway pattern (when I sell my kidney.)

Any other ideas??? Help me, the painters are starting prep today.
lil_jill_3
12 years ago
sparklekitty on your last post on June 14, on the second picture, where did you find that grey/white backsplash? Or what is it called? I am absolutely in love with it!! I love how the cubes are all different sizes, it is beautiful!