I do like the color and your kitchen is really lovely! From the photos, I would've never guessed your floor was vinyl instead of tile. The combination of wall color and floors is far from terrible...However, I think you may be onto something with your guess that they're too close to the same value. They're of similar intensity and both call for the same amount of attention. Maybe you'd like it better if the walls were lighter....and maybe a little grayer/softer in tone. Maybe you just need some more colorful items on the counters to tie with both colors? The problem may be all the light colored cabinets and backsplash without a connection between floors and walls.

Marytw,

Your kitchen is very very pretty. I love the soapstone with the white cabinets. And I love Nantucket Gray, which has a greenish tone. But
I think your kitchen would look even better with a different wall color. I can not think of any green that plays well with
terracotta on a large scale.

I would either go with a soft yellow like BM Yellow Creme (I am not sure who's kitchen this is).

Or a gray blue, which always looks spectacular with soapstone, and is on the opposite side of the color wheel from the orangey toned terracotta.

Jsweenc used BM Quiet Moments and it looks beautiful:

Judydel used EK Gustavian Gray in her lovely kitchen:

Our kitchens could be sisters seperated at birth :)

We used BM Horizon for our walls - here is the link to my pictures. I also think I used your paint color as a sample and I too thought it was 'off'

Hope this helps

Piaa

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1118074630215.html

ps: you can see more pictures on our blog although you may have to search a bit :)

Here is a link that might be useful: our kitchen/remodel blog

OK, so I just looked at my link and realized you can't really see the wall color in any (I think I need to take one from a different angle) so I found one with only the floor, white trim and wall color - hope this one helps.

Piaa

I don't think it's a problem with it being green. It's that the floor and the walls have the same intensity or value. If you lighten up the green a bit that should work.

A trick that I was taught is to squint your eyes when looking at the two colors and if they appear to be the same darkness, then they'll fight and not look good together.

Shucks it's a gorgeous kitchen!

Maybe if you threw down a rug and put some junk on the counters and maybe even some art on the walls you wouldn't mind it at all.

There is a Benjamin Moore paint color called Adam's Gold (Benjamin Moore HC-18 Adams Gold) which was used in Pottery Barn ads alot 10 years ago. I only know about it because the decorator ladies who staged our house to sale had us paint our walls this color to go with our dark rosewood (reddish) furniture. Anyway, it is a green/yellow color which looks more gold in certain light. You might see how that goes with this terra cotta color. (You might want to buy a sample and paint part of a wall to really see what it looks like during day and night.)

Your kitchen looks great! Are those the original cabinets?

I think it's BEAUTIFUL as is! I wouldn't change a thing. I like the contrast between the white/black and the earthy terracotta and green.

These are GREAT suggestions! Thank you all so much. And I appreciate your kind comments.

Yes, these are the original cabinets. The owner before us (which means around 1971!) put the molding trim on the cabinet doors, and we redid the hinges this year.

I'm off to look at the colors you suggested. I think it's going to make a huge difference!

Marytw, I guess I'm in the minority, but I really like your paint--at least how it appears on my monitor. But then, I currently have very saturated color in most of my house (just got really tired of having white/offwhite walls for years & years). Your kitchen is beautiful, warm, and very welcoming.

Hi, I just did my budget kitchen around flooring close to your color. Most colors go well with terra cotta but if you want to sort of balance things out Benjamin Moore Asbury Sand works well. Another color I like with terra cotta is grayish purple shades, these shades can look modern or historic depending. Your green shade looks fine but you may want to add some accents or art to tie it all in. I love terra cotta but just like a child it can not be left alone or it will take over, it must have friends (accessories) with things in common or that compliment.

Mary,

I also think your paint color is very pretty and I wouldn't change it! The whole kitchen is just lovely and classic.

It is a *lot* of that terracotta color...I think that once you have more stuff around (maybe a rosemary plant in a terracotta clay pot on the counter?) it won't bug you as much. You could also try covering up some of the floor expanse with a sisal/seagrass rug bordered in a green-gray:

The light fixture is the only piece with a "personality" and that's going to go, so I can't tell how contemporary or classic your taste is. This is still a nearly neutral canvas to make a masterpiece upon.

Red and green are complimentary and they do work, but the room is still too stark. How about a stencil band of red along the edge of the green walls, about 2 inches from the edge?

If you could also add some items into the mix, that would help--a fabric that uses the red and green, some houseplants with pots that put these colors onto the countertop, towels and washcloths, stool cushions, silicone spatulas, fruit bowl. Rugs are a good idea. Paint the legs of a stool or chair?

Get some brightly colored croton plants [strong colored leaves] to put near the kitchen. You might also want to introduce a strong mustard yellow, if that's a good color for you. There are a lot of linens with this combo--I just saw plaid napkins with large checks of these colors marketed at Tuesday Morning store as "Christmas merchandise."

If that's a recessed refrig. with a flat panel above it, consider a fairly substantial work of art over it, with your colors in it.

I'd avoid white in the printed fabrics and art pieces, I think, but I reserve the right to change my mind.

Can you use a reddish-value light? There are a lot of interesting ones, including some with reddish glass mosaics in them. For example, Elk lighting has some good ones.

Red and green are complementary colors. (note spelling...lol). Because of that, when they're the same value and intensity, they tend to fight one another. Think of those tests where you look at a red dot on a white paper, then look away and when you look at a blank white area you'll see green. By graying down the green, and lowering the intensity of the color it will work better. In art, the fastest way to lower the intensity of a color is to add it's...complement. So I checked my BM book for softer greens with a bit of a red undertone and came up with:

Stingray 1529
Inner Balance 1522
Coastal Fog 976
Limestone 513
gray mirage 2140-50