Whatever color you paint it, try to get rid of the back splash. There's too much ss there and this is coming from a ss fan! The backsplash will be held on with contruction adhesive so dry wall will come off with it but that is easy to replace. Once replaced, paint that area (orange would be good) and then try the perspex route that has been tried and posted in AT in the past.

Do you like the granite on the walls? I would take them down also.

Those cube chairs are just juicy.

The room needs the warm orange to balance all the cold steel.

If you paint the steel, which may be ugly: paint chips pretty easy.

Remeber the cardinal rules: prepare the surface, and use the correct paint for the job.

The SS may have coating so you will need to "sand it" or "steel wool" it to roughen it up so thepaint will stick. Then metal paint primer (not house-wall paint primer), then metal rated paint.

Unless the kitchen is an open one (the chair comment makes me think it probably is, though) whatever color you choose could wrap up onto the ceiling. And personally, I think removing the SS backsplash would be a bigger pain than it's worth. Besides, it probably provides great protection against heat and splatters from the stove.

Asparagus by Behr is great if you want to go away from orange.

Red or orange. That will warm the place up. Don't paint the steel. You will regret it when it peels/chips.

How about a neutral that coordinates with both red and orange? I'm thinking of colors like honey or butterscotch -- something with some golden yellow in it, but deep rather than bright.

no no no not orange. I have never posted on AT before, but I have to share the wisdom of my experience on this one.

I live in an apartment with a similar kitchen, and the previous owner painted it orange, which sounds like a good idea-- but it looked *hideous*--garish in a kind of aspirational way that I can't quite describe in words. we repainted it a much paler color- kind of a honey-yellow, and I like it 10000000 times better.

wende in SF is right: deep rather than bright.

Yes, butterscotch leaning toward apricot but with some life to it but not too much. medium to dark tones. not smoky/dull.

I vote a camel or a mustard, assuming the walls you want to paint provide you a clean start/stop point.

Otherwise, I'd stick with the white (oh, the horr!!), since it seems to be the vibe of the rest of the space, and will let your furniture/accessories etc. be where your color comes from.

i like the idea of orange because i remember how gorgeous angela's orange kitchen was in last year's contest. and i'm not normally a fan of orange.

whoops, horrOR.

I think painting the backsplash with a red paint meant for radiators would be great. Then just add a dash of yellow or red-orange somewhere and you got a nice analogous color scheme going.

Did I miss something about actually painting some of the metal? I didn't really get that impression from the question itself...

Can you hang dozens of utensils with colored handles, or beautiful wooden cutting boards or similar from the utensil rod to cut into the monolithic s.s. backsplash? Enough of them so that it almost becomes a pattern in itself. And, there's always magnets . . .

You don't need radiator paint-- just careful priming meant for a metal substrate.

May I ask where your coffee table is from?! I've been trying to find a glass version of the plastic ones in the CB2 catalog, and wham! there it is.

dont paint the cabinets, get them powder coated.

I agree with Christy and vote for the green route-
go with a pea/asparagus/olivey yellow green.

I always think this looks awesome with orange and vibrant reds...

alomsot like the color of the buttons on this page- I think behr calls it "new grass" or something like that. Or maybe it was new leaf?

honey-mustard-caramel?
I just can't imagine that.

umm..rereading some of the comments and having just redone my kitchen my self:

- if painting is all you plan to do, don't bother with the backsplash removal as some suggest...you may be getting into way too much work, with potential plastering needs
- don't paint the metal or cabinets, no matter how expirienced you are with spray paint / cabinet paint, at one point it just stops looking 'clean' (someone suggested multi tone kitchen tools to break up the steel - I agree)
- i think orange is a good suggestion, as any other warm tone would be - orange is generally the first thought though as you have that beautiful espresso machine which could coordinate

Christy, just wanted to note that I recently painted my bedroom in Behr Asaparagus and it turned out great - very soothing! Also, I was wondering if tiling over metal is an option? Using some glass mosaic-y tile over that swoopy backsplash shape would definitely warm it up considerably.

michael--
I think you are mixing our condiments.
And turning "camel" to "caramel."

wow, yeah. You're hurtin' for some color lovin' there. Go bold. Asuming the walls are smooth? Gotta ask, everything is crap orange peel textured here in TX. Blue or red would be pimp. Or my wife and I chose an "asparigus" green for our kitchen.

If red or orange doesn't do it for you, and green is too strong a 60s/70s vibe, what about purple? Another adjacent color, just going the other way on the color wheel.

There's not all that much wall to begin with, so even if you try a color and hate it, it wouldn't be so bad to try again.

Looks like a fun place.

You don't need to skim coat drywall. Drywall installation and finishing work is really very easy. Much easier than a lot of other DIY projects.

I guess the question is, what exactly do you like and not like about the kitchen? I am assuming that you don't like all the ss and neither do you like the black granite. If I am wrong then take others' advice on paint color. However, if you don't like all that ss and granite then taking off the wall and re-doing drywall is a viable option.

I generally love ss backsplashes (and always defend ss from the "but it shows fingerprints" mob) but with this much ss it is really the only place you can easily cut down.

I personally would stay away from orange. Yes its bright and warm however it can easly become garish.

I colour I think would go well would be a deep bright red (hard to explain however its a bright red with a black tint to just nock off the brightness a little but not enough to actually notice that there is black.) doing the doors and the sides of the cabinets, leaving the top rim area of the cabinets, the wall oven, door hands and back splash.
Leave the granit as is, I think it would help soften the brightness of the paint.

Red and orange go well together with the black as a devider type thing.

To paint it I would recommend you sand it back with 800 grit wet/dry to ruff up the surface, then give too coats of a metal primer perferable light fill or no fill, lightly sanding smooth with 900grit wet/dry between coats, first coat up/down second across the servace.

then your colour coat minimum of 2 coats then a clear. I would highly recommend against spraypaint tins, perferably go with an airgun, if not then the paint I recommend is acrylic based 1 pack car paint, you can wet sand this till the dogs come home.
Go with a quality paint, from a good manufacture.

I would stake my intire life savings on it not peeling EVER, it may wear away or go dull after 20 years but it wont peel!!!

I'd cut the stainless steel & granite backsplashes, install some robin's egg blue tiles and paint the rest a creamy light (very light!) green.

What about a deep, warmish blue? Blue complements the orange and actually plays off the stainless steel well. I used a blue tile backsplash against a stainless steel countertop and it looked great.

how about mixing ss with a bit copper to warm up the metal look? it would also blend well with the orange coffee maker and you could make the utensils into copper ( i am warming up my all white dull kitchen with a copper back splash with ss color stenciling, and metallic copper color all along that wall and it already warmed up my kitchen as a beginning step andi have ss appliances) and spruce up with some acessories like a copper/orange modern tea kettle etc. your home is ultra modern, so keep it in this fashion....green/blue is a cold color scheme and you definitely need to warm up. how about a wallpaper border on top of your high wall with a color scheme enhancing your kitchen too? in this you can be very color friendly; say red/orange/ yellow and a deep blue maybe?

Agree with taking off the backsplash
Lovely red chairs - and I have to know, where did you get that coffee table? I'm looking for one just like it

thanks