apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Depending on how big your kitchen is, I love orange with blue - but not if it's a huge space. For a large area, I would go with a lighter baby blue or dove gray and then pop out color with appliances and art on the wall, or a bright colored table and chairs. The color of that spaghetti suggests that maybe a nice saffron-y yellow could work too - Good luck!

A lemony yellow would look nice (squint and look at those yellow marks on the wall in the pics).
Do you have any special accessories you may want to highlight in the kitchen with the color?

The kitchen adjoins another room. I'd carry over whatever the wall color is in that room into your kitchen. Unless the space is hugh, chopping up the space just makes it look smaller. Use blue accents in the adjoining room to connect the two.

For color, consider a pale apricot (yellowish) or peach (pinkish,) the complement of blue. It's warm, flatters food, and seems to pick up the cast of the floor.

Do lay your paint chips on the floor to check that they don't look terrible against it!

keep it cool, go for greens or purples (the blue shades not the redder shades - so no magentas) Try plums or eggplant, or royalty purple. Yum. Have fun with it.
Celadon green is a really nice, somewhat safer color too.

Oh I also wanted to say since you have a glass door facing east the warm colors will be washed out, b/c morning sun is blue whereas evening sun is red...so evening sunlight enhances warm colors but dulls cool colors (and vice versa).

I like the thought of orange-if you really want want bold; the blue of you counter looks almost blue-green and kind of flat-I would avoid pastels, it would make everything look washed out; you need something that pops. even a rusty pumpkin-y color would look nice.....

I think a blue-gray, sort of a dusty slate color, would look really crisp and fresh against the white cabinets. The color of your countertop is quite bold, so I would put a lighter, more gray variation of that on the walls. Orangey-red or buttery yellow accents in art or ceramics would pop with the white and blue as well.

another vote for blue-grey in the same family as your countertop...

Go for the eggplant or a deep maroon color.

Orange... I think is would be a great, bright color that you could play some other bright colors off of or keep your accenty colors (accessories) lighter and it still would work well.

Green? Something in the apple-green to kelly-green range? Or would that be TOO bold?

Pumpkin orange or eggplant might be nice too.

I would go for orange if you want bright and a gray-blue for a more relaxing neutral space.

You said you wanted bold. I'd try a bright green (apple or kelly, as insanity pepper suggested) or even a rich, glossy red with blue undertones. The white trim of the windows would pop and the whole thing could look very neo-colonial. The cabinets are kind of traditional anyway. You could then do some retro curtains in a barkcloth or "50s picnic" type fabric (checks, cherries, etc.). Funk it up with a cool wall clock or other accessories (even change the cabinet hardware if you can spare $100 or so) and it could look very put-together.

Your countertop looks like it's a teal blue and if that's the case, here are my two picks:

Benjamin Moore Affinity Colors:
Exhale - AF515 (lighter blue)
Inspired -AF595 (lavender)

Don't choose a color that is the same intensity as the blue or they will compete with each other. Better to use one a bit lighter.

~Lorrie @ MyDesignSecrets.com

I am also in nyc. We have the same floor tile in the kitchen. I can't wait to see your new wall color. Please post it when you are done painting.
If you can't post a photo on apartment therapy, please post it on gardenweb.com.

@nickel525, that is the most interesting/helpful piece of colour adive I have read in a long time. THANK YOU (Iabout morning vs evening light. It never occurred to me so clearly, but it is SO true.)

Ugh, enough with the Simpson's color pallete. You have a color, it's blue, set off nicely by white. Celebrate it. Benjamin Moore's Grant Beige is a great color, warm, neutral, the white and blue will pop and you'll be calm. If you want to add pops of another color, do it with your accessories, small appliances, napkins, and dishes. Make sure they all match and keep it simple. Fresh flowers always brighten up a space and you're not stuck with them too long. Please don't paint it orange. I bought a house with an orange room I thought was pretty. After 6 months I wanted to jump, luckily it was only on the first floor. Just some grass stains ; ).

I think you should redo the backsplash w/a glass mosaic tile, great choices/prices here: http://www.wholesalersusainc.com/mosaic-tiles-giorbello-glacier-mountain-c-23_166.html

i agree w/stt64, a bright white kitchen is relaxing...you can bring color in w/window coverings and new hardware on the cabinets & a backsplash.