orange is opposite the color wheel from blue so should be the most eye pleasing color choice, but not sure if that would work for you. there are so many nice shades of orange, from pumpkin on the bolder end, to salmon, to peach. just something to consider.

without seeing the kitchen it would be hard to comment on mauve as a choice. in general i think of it as a 1980's color. sorry!

I think I'm the biggest blue fan on this forum. In my world, there are only two colors, Blue and Not-Blue (and Blue is superior). However, I will never paint walls blue where there is blue on the floor and elsewhere in the room -- it may sound like a wonderful idea in the summer, but come January I think I've moved into a fridge. So, here are some of my favorite color combinations:
--yellow and blue -- a lot of permutations here
--red white & blue -- either bright or country style
--tropical blue, orange, lime green, yellow; or same in lighter shades (easter egg colors); or primary colors
--cobalt blue, white, black, grey/silver
--country blue (medium blue with a lot of grey and a hint of teal) with cream, warm woods, barn red, etc.
--peacock shades -- several shades of bright blue, teal, periwinkle; or the same in misty watercolor shades
--that "spa blue" (robins egg) shade that is trendy right now, with or without the dark chocolate accent color
--depending on the shade of blue, sometimes the best wall color is either cream or white
--the blue that is my granite!!!
But not mauve. Sorry. I can't think of a way to make mauve work with any shade of blue.

Do a search for how to insert pix into photos and find the thread started by lynneinnewmexico. Hope all that helps, and I'd love to see pix!

You can open a free account at Photobucket and upload your pictures there. Once you do that, copy the HTML code that's under your picture and paste it here.

Laurie

thanks for the tip msrose.... i will do that when i get home, and upload the pictures tonight!

okay here are the pictures

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

here is one of the kitchen floor to give you an idea of the colors that are in the tiles.

right now i am thinking of doing a light green on the walls. what do you think of that idea?

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

Your cabs are a nice warm color that would offset any coldness that might happen if the walls were painted blue. With the cabs and the eye-catching, very colorful tiles on the wall, I think you don't need to introduce another color. Looking at the colors in the tiles, I can't picture a red that wouldn't clash with the deep red tones in the cabs, and I can't picture a mauve that wouldn't look sickly next to the cabs. So, when in doubt, stick with a neutral.

Disclaimer: I'm not a pro. I hear the decorating forum is filled with people with better eyes and stronger opinions than mine.

Cute dog!

i am thinking a light celadon green? i tried to link a picture with the colors i like so far from the sherwin williams site, but it wouldn't work. the names of the ones i like so far are baize green and honeydew. what are people's opinions on this type of color in my kitchen?

bluekitobsessed, thanks! :) we have another one too, but she is more my husband's dog, so the one in the picture is very much my baby.

What a cute kitchen! I love your flooring. For colors, I would stick with what you have. I like the neutral with it. Makes the colors in your tile, pop. You could, however, choose a color in your tile and go with that or a lighter shade of it on the walls.

Some of your floor tiles appear to have a nice warm creamy yellow in it. I love the look of yellow with blue and think it might work in your kitchen. It should also offset your cabinets nicely. You can't count on me to intelligently comment on greens since I'm not a green color person. Ohhhh... but how I love blue....

I would definitely pull the blue from the BS tile. I don't think green would work at all. Two kitchens ago, I did blue with deeper wood cabs & it was stunning and made the cabs really pop.

angel, I love your cabinets and floor. I was trying to look at as if it were my kitchen. Even if the backsplash tiles were neutral in color, they would still have an 80's look to them (sorry-please do not take it personally, I'm very opinionated). The other thing I would do that would give it an updated look is to replace the cabinet hardware. I would definitely pick up a color from the floor for paint, even if it is blue.

One trick I learned from a TV show is to stand back and squint your eyes while looking at xyz (in this case, your floor) and try to see how it "reads." I tried this on the picture you posted and I saw a blue-grey (this may not be accurate because of monitor differences). Using this, for example, you would then have a wide range of intensities from which to choose. It's really worthwhile learning Photoshop or something similar so you can change the color on-screen to help you determine the direction to go.

nuccia, no problem. that backsplash was there when we bought the house and i don't like it either. we've actually decided to take it down! i'm really excited about that. i was expecting a lot of resistance from my husband when we talked about it last night, but he was actually surprisingly agreeable (he doesn't even think i need to paint, so i didn't think he'd want to go to the hassle of removing the tiles).

a couple of you said that i should do yellow. i am leaning towards that or tan/beige right now, but i'm kind of unsure about the yellow. i'd need help/suggestions about what shade of yellow i should do. also, instead of putting a backsplash back up i am going to get a scroll/swirly stencil and do it there in a blue or gray i think.

It's easier to change paint than backsplash. If you haven't yet decided on a backsplash, shop for that before paint. Also, there was a thread last week from gardenwebber on whether a backsplash is truly needed (consensus: no) with pix. HTH.

bluekitobsessed, i didn't see that thread but i have heard other places that you don't need a backsplash, so when we tear this one out we aren't replacing it with more tile. we will fix the drywall and then just do regular paint. so i just need suggestions on what shade of yellow i should paint the kitchen

I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but the yellow needs to mainly look good with your floor and countertops plus whatever shade of blue the walls you can see from the kitchen happen to be.

I happen to like blue a lot and have chosen navy as my "neutral" in this house. My kitchen has navy and silver (stainless) as the accents. My mudroom has a soft aqua that picks up the colors from my Casa Dolce Casa Flagstone tile. I knew I wanted to paint my breakfast room yellow because I wanted something "not blue," and felt that a lemony yellow would look good. I bought a couple of yellow sample bottles from Benjamin Moore and painted poster boards with them. Once I put them in the room, it was obvious that the lemony color was way too harsh, especially with the strong light. I settled on a more buttery yellow and am very happy with my choice.

Before you paint the samples, you need to narrow down the yellows to a manageable number. Sherwin Williams has larger color chips. I also tape several color chips together to get a better feel for the direction in which to head.

You should do this AFTER you take down your backsplash so it does not influence your decision. After you narrow your yellows down, paint different sections of your backsplash and/or poster board different yellow shades and take pictures of them. That would be a good time to post your photos and get opinions from GWers.