How about a pale yellow?
Did you have a plan for the wall's paint color?

BTW - I think your kitchen is coming out fantastic!

Thanks, dianalo. I actually considered painting all the cabinets pale yellow, but I chickened out. And I think I need enough contrast between the tall cabinets and the white ones that any yellow would have to be relatively strong.

The walls are painted BM acadian white. I wanted the slightly muddied white of the inspiration pic, and now I am stuck with it. (We will, however, be cleaning the grout residue off the subways.)

Meanwhile, I hope your boys are still young enough to be slightly thrilled about having noisy earth-moving machines in their back yard.

HOw about French Gray? This is allison's island from attic mag.

I think if you add some copper accents it would warm it up. For the record... I think you are doing an amazing job!

Here is a link that might be useful: French Gray

Are you trying to avoid grays and blues? If not, I liked BM Coventry Gray---this is a pretty blueish gray, pretty muted. It seemed to work well and contrast with Acadia White (our trim and half of our cabinets are painted Acadia White)---we wanted a green gray so it didn't work out for us in the end, though.

I think it would look fine to keep them the same color as the other cabinets too, though, if you're not sure which direction to go. Love how it's turning out so far, too!

I don't know if the color is the problem...or that your inspiration cabinets are solid and your uppers have glass fronts.

If it were me, I'd paint the cabinets the same color as the other glass uppers, but I'd paint the back of these two cabinets, a nice color (maybe a french blue...not blue/gray) to bring out your china/display pieces. I'd also paint the walls a soft yellow, if you want to warm up the room.

Here's my favorite inspiration picture. Maybe it will give you some ideas...even if they're not exactly your colors :)

{{gwi:617005}}

What about a deeper muted blue, and like Lavender suggested, paint the insides to add more weight and contrast visually.

Here is a link that might be useful: Farrow&Ball

Aqua could be a nice color and not head into beiges while still having some contrast.... If you were feeling really wild, you could do a coral tone. I'd personally want a cool soothing color. I love lavender but know that may be too girly for most people.

Tomorrow the town inspector comes and then they continue to do the foundation. The boys should be home in time (half days this week) to get to see some more outside work. They are fascinated by the machines, demo, dirt, etc... I will have to figure a way to keep them from bothering the crew, lol.

I still like the idea of blue for the cabinets, but I would also suggest a warmer blue than the grey-blue you originally envisioned. French blue or periwinkle, perhaps. When I picture all of your choices, however, the one thing that sticks out to me as really adding to the "coolness" of the room is the galvanized pendant. I love the idea and the way your eclectic choices are coming together in the room. But with the grey-white-blue of the countertops, the white of the walls and cabinets, and the northern light, it does seem as if warmer touches are needed. How about finding a copper or brass pendant instead? And then using a few more small accessories of the same metal finish (teapot, etc.) and the same blue (a small bowl or vase, a few disthowels or a bowl of flowers? as the cabinets around the room. I think you'll end up with a lovely serene, but not chilly feeling room.

I LOVE your glass front cabinets! I would say unique and eclectic NOT "cobbled together"!

Oh man, everybody is being so kind and helpful, I think I should explain why the kitchen cannot be done as my "forever" kitchen.

BUT ANYONE WHO JUST WANTS TO GO TO THE COLOR DILEMMA SHOULD SKIP THE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING MATERIAL.

The kitchen is in a 1923 Sears kit house which won my heart, all my available retirement money, and a good bit of my sister's retirement money. It was to have been an investment, but once you lose your heart, rational decision making goes by the wayside.

This is what I bought out of foreclosure last year:

This is what it looked like this summer, the day after the new double-paned wood-framed windows were installed:

{{gwi:1989742}}

The objective was to give the envelope and the systems of this house that arrived in pieces on two boxcars another 90 years, so most of the money went into scraping and painting the cypress siding, insulating and replacing wallboard, upgrading the electricity, putting in AC, and the 20 windows. I knew from the outset that the kitchen could not be expensive.

Because the plan was to rent the house out for a few years before selling it, I was pretty ok with the idea of a vaguely period-appropriate looking kitchen with good quality but not brand new cabinets, appliances, etc. Meanwhile, I have gotten crazier and crazier about this little 26 ft by 26 ft house, and more ego invested. I probably will in fact live in it myself early next year while work is done on the 1906 brick rowhouse I have lived in for most of my adult life, but all my roots are in my current neighborhood and in any case the Sears house is supposed to be bringing in rent.

THE KITCHEN DILEMMA

So now I am working on a kitchen that I am psychically invested in but cannot just do to my own idiosyncratic taste. Because the house is modest and funky, it would look silly with a grand pristine kitchen anyway, so the notion of painting the two older cabinets a different color than the the rest seemed appropriate.

[Note: The inside beadboard will stay white; only the doors and frames will be painted. Clearly if I get the color wrong, repainting will not be a huge deal. I am just utterly brain-dead from triangulating to make decisions small and large on the fly.]

The bits of my wardrobe that I hung on the cabinets to see how the colors looked proved that muted aqua, the original-idea dusky blue, or a slightly brighter but still muted blue would be the best. It was only when the "charcoal" stain I put in the countertops turned out to have a distinctly blue cast that I fell apart. I am now actually thinking the yellow color in lavender lass's country french dream kitchen might work. [Of course, part of me wants to admit defeat by picking F&B's Dead Salmon, solely for the name.]

If the five coats of tung oil I need to put on the counters quiets the blue tinge of the counters, I still prefer blue or aqua. I just need another idea -- and something that someone other than I could imagine decorating around.

Here is the kitchen at night, shot with a flash because I am an idiot with a camera. The countertops are face down for oiling, but you can see from the edge of the one on the left how blue the counter color is. [The outlet covers are going to be more the tile color.]

Thanks again to everyone for all the encouragement and idea. Apologies for yammering on and cheers.

Can I rent that house? ADORABLE!!!

The kitchen is fabulous. Anyone would love it. A million times better than new builders grade kitchens going into expensive homes today look like. I am so so so impressed.

I think everyone is offering great suggestions for paint color. I will add a rainy bluish gray to the suggestion box.

Can't wait to see this kitchen all done!

I am sorry that I could not copy the link but do a search for
"Blue/Grey cabinets instead of paint" and you should see a great link, from a previous Garden Web Post. There are some nice examples of muted Grey/Blue/Greens for Kitchen Cabinets, some mixed with White as you are describing.

Hope this is useful.

I LOVE your house. I LOVE your kitchen. If your counters are as blue as the edge indicates, then I also think a blue background in the wonderful glass uppers would be a nice touch. Alternately, I can see it filled with blue plates, glasses or cups and a nice blue rug. Or yellow is always a nice accessory color. I am in awe of your talent. It's going to be charming when you are finished, take your time.

Your house is GORGEOUS. If you want a bit of warmth, and you like Lavender Lass's yellow and blue inspiration pic (which I love too), then here's a thought: paint the walls light yellow (bright enough to contrast with the cabinets, but not super-bright), and then for the cabinets over the sink, leave the exterior white but paint the interior in something like the blue you were originally looking at. I think having the exterior white but the interior blue would help tie everything together, because it would go with both the counters and the other cabinets without looking overly matchy-matchy, and then the yellow on the walls would solve the "looks too chilly" problem. Also, yellow walls would resonate with the yellow tones in the oak floor. It would really all come together that way.

I think I'd start by grabbing a gallon of soft yellow and painting the walls. It looks like it has a lot of tile, from what I can see in the pictures, so it should be quick to paint above. That might make the entire kitchen feel warmer and help you choose your accent blue. If you don't love the yellow, easy enough to repaint.

Are you sure you're going to be able to rent it? The more of yourself you put into the house...the harder it may become. It's a beautiful house, so I'd have a difficult time leaving, too :)

Wow! I can see why you fell in love with the house. It is wonderful!
As for colors, I know "muted" is all the rage, but in time, muted will come to represent this particular time period. I'd do something fresh and cheery. That is never out of style.

So I am now reminded by my long-suffering major domo that the floor refinishing people start on the 13th and will have the house for a week. What this probably means is that I should just finish the counters, wait to see what the floor looks like, and hope either for an epiphany about the perfect color or the courage to make a nice plodding process-of-elimination decision.

Meanwhile:

sabjimata: Of course you like my kitchen; the backsplash is your famous 23-cent subways, with grey grout. I don't think the house would be big enough for you to live in, but we might do some kind of occasional barter, as I am a vegetarian and your recipes make my mouth water.

greenhousems: I was able to find the kitchen you mentioned on the FKB. The cabinets read too grey for what I am hoping for, but the caramel-ish granite suggest a cabinet color that would warm the room but still be neutral enough to accommodate several approaches to decorating.

trailgirl: I really am hoping to make the countertops that lovely grey that is in my inspiration pic. I was going less for fake soapstone than for a kind of driftwood. I love blue and white, and if I end up having to sand the counters back down to the wood, I may finish them more naturally and paint the cabinets a delft blue. But that is so pie in the sky right now.

ideagirl2 and lavendar lass: For better or for worse, the entire main floor has to remain Acadian White, because that is the color that works in the rest of the space. (The floorplan is in the ad, but the DR wall has been removed.)

That said, a variety of blues and yellows are still well in the running for the two old cabinets.

dianalo: The idea of something between celadon and the color of the Ionian Sea still has appeal to me. Also, congratulations on your GC having been deadpan joking about what it will cost to fix what you hadn't known needed fixing. It was very grown-up of you not to have burst into tears at the mention of $25k.

Cheers and many thanks to all. I am putting a fair bit more into this house than the neighborhood warrants, and I will probably have to work until I drop. It helps to know that other people will get it when I wail, "but the porch was so cute!"

Delete all of the above.

I spent three hours this morning using steel wool to take as much of the pigment -- which I have now named "stale peacock" -- as I can off the surface. Once the wood seems porous enough, I am doing a straight steal from brickmanhouse: matte black india ink.

It isn't what I had in mind to start with, but it will be way better than what I have now.

Thanks to all.

I think that is going to make choosing colors so much easier. I am not a huge fan of using more than one blue in a room because as a kid, my mother redecorated around her blue bathroom by using blue accessories and even a carpet (shudder!). Everything clashed and convinced me that blues need to stand alone surrounded by other colors.