apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I think a lovely pale turquoise would be really pretty...a bit brighter than gray but still matches and would be great with the red light!

Perhaps a cheery red like the apples/gumboots?

I have white cabinets and black counters in my kitchen, and we painted the walls in Restoration Hardware's Butter color. It looks great. The yellow is very subtle. Here's the link: http://www.restorationhardware.com/rh/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod1048005&navCount=1

I think you should go with the pale grey in the kitchen as well. Or you could go with a light grey that has more blue in it. I used that color in my kitchen and we also have white cabinets, and otherwise modern fixtures. It looks light and clean. Good Luck!

It's funny. Early 20th century phychologists recommended painting kitchens green because they belived the color would calm women down and make them less psychologically nervous. The woman's place was in the kitchen, you see. That being said, you have quite a color on your hands. You have TONS of options here

(A): If you want to stay in the green family, I suggest re-painting in a softer pastel mint green. White and black accents can be popped off of it with fantastic results and the color might work better with your gray walls. One thing to remember: You're going to have to paint over everything w/ a white primer first because your current green is so dark. If you don't, the darker color will always peek under the lighter one unless you add 3 or 4 coats of the light paint.

(B): Some other pastel color, like a Tiffany blue. That always looks great w/ white accents like your cabinets.

Good luck and have fun with it! It's just paint!

Our new kitchen was painted that RH Butter color and I had to get rid of it right away. It really depends on the size of the kitchen and if you have natural light or not - can't tell from your picture.

I second the idea of a light but warm gray perhaps different from what the rest of the apt is painted (depending) especially since you seem to like red accents.

i'm glad you hate the color, it's really pretty awful.
I'm never one to disagree with pale-grey as a color choice (it's the color of my bedroom now) and would look lovely with your cabinets and countertops.
since it sounds like the rest of your place is that color and it appears you were making an attempt to interject some color into your home perhaps a soft yellow would be nice. pale grey and yellow is always a nice combination and it would be a lot less jarring then your current wall color.

I'm guessing you picked green for a reason, so why not try a toned down green instead? Something that is a lot closer to the grey you have in the rest of the house, but still has a hint of the warmth (but none of the acid) that you were going with here.

You can look up colors by name or range at the Behr site, here by clicking the Color Smart button. Some possible choices include Spirit Whisper, Mystical Sea, Peridot, Water Sprout, or Palm Breeze, all of which are much greyer and more soothing than the current shade.

forget what i said about the yellow; i like designgod's suggestion of tiffany blue (or what has now become martha stewart's blue) much better.

I like greens to be soft and cool. A sage grey/green would blend with the rest of the house.

If your kitchen doesn't get a lot of light, I'd shy away from the gray -- warmer colors in the kitchen tend to be more inviting, and you already have the cool white cabinets. I like the tiffany blue/pale turquoise suggestion a lot -- I think that would look great with the black and white, and the red pendant light would contrast nicely.

If you want to try more soothing green, we went with Benjamin Moore's Aura color "Spa" in our dining room and love it. Guilford Green from Benjamin Moore is another option you should look at -- it's a designer's favorite for kitchens. But given the red pendant light, I'd still go with a tiffany blue/pale turquoise. Good luck! Paint colors are so hard to nail.

Yikes that reminds me of when my mom let me pick out a color to paint my room and loved green apple green. Needless to say I had to reselect because the outcome was similar.

I think something that will not overpower the crispness of the cabinets and counters.. in this case I think the walls should recede not move forward like they are right now.

I would paint the all above the upper cabinets (ceiling) white as close of a white to the cabinets you can get. It looks too choppy the way it is now or with any color. By painting above the same as the cabinets it will appear more spacious and cleaner.

Paint only the center a accent color.

What other colors are going on with the rest of the house? I think it is important that the color from one room to the next work well with one another not the same color but they should compliment.

I think the accent color I painted my back room would work for you because you can see the color from my kitchen which is white cabinets with black counters.

Check out Benjamin Moore- Gray Cashmere - it looks more grey green on the sample but I was pleased with the outcome its much much more a pale blue grey. I get lots of compliments on this color. I guess it will depend on how much natural light you have and what exposure.

Love the pale turquise idea.

My suggestion is based on the availability of little natural light so go for mango - a bright yellow orange ... looks great with food and that black countretop ... never thought blue was a good colour for the kitchen especially if that window faces north. How about a light bright granny apple green ... would look great with that future red fixture. Both would work well with gray.

http://www.coxpaint.com/store/cart.php?target=category&category_id=265

A4 A6 A14...any will keep the room light. hints of turq and green, as others have suggested.

this company features 6 or so paint companies, and it's a quick reference. ralph lauren also has nice, quiet color called beachwalk and i mixed my own green that looks wonderful in morning light and in bright sunlight: "pine white" (glidden, i think), plus tube Liquitex "cerulean blue hue" mixed in a little at a time.

I had the same color in my kitchen in my previous rental and with the white cabinets it just popped. It will look great with black, white and red accessories. But then I had lots of natural light, so I guess that made the difference.

If u still think its too bright then go ahead and repaint it with maybe softer green like
(a) Restoration Hardware - Silver Sage Paint Collection/ Bay Laurel Paint Collection.

(b) Atmospheric AF-500 by Benjamin Moore for Pottery Barn.

Remember its just paint ;)...Good Luck!!!

I made the same mistake and painted my guest room Benjamin-Moore Pear Green, which looks pretty similar to what you've got. I know what you mean about it being too jarring. Unfortunately I didn't read the original Apartment Therapy book until after I did it, or else I probably wouldn't have put such a saturated color on all 4 walls either. I think green would still look nice, but I'd go to a much more toned down version, possibly with some cooler gray or blue tones in it, like others have mentioned above.

A deep dark gray or the blue green color of Restoration Hardware boxes

Holy Neon!
My vote is for Spanish Olive from Ben Moore, that color is the bomb..it's a greyish green, never fails.

I actually made the same error in my kitchen -- going for an apple green that made everyone (but me) crazy. I ended up repainting the kitchen another green that was slightly lighter and more desaturated. It has just enough punch to give the apple green color without the intensity.

I would paint the under counter wall a different color than above the cabinets, if possible. I would use lighter and darker shades of the existing gray in the house, the lighter on top.

I made the green mistake too. I had a powder room painted a light light celadon. It grated on my nerves, and I thought I would love it. Long after my grandmother was gone, I found out she had painted her first home celadon, every single room!

I love the color as it is - but I think that it only comes off as bright because the rest of the house is grey and the cabinets are white and the counters are black.

Rather than repaint completely, just do a glaze over the existing color to tone it down a shade and consider bringing in more earth tones in your accessories, etc to warm up the space.

go bold! plum or aubergine look very chic with grey!

mattab, I TOO painted my BEDROOM pear green, thinking it would look so fun and happy...NOT>>argh..I love color..but always end up going back to white walls...Plum sounds excellent..fun/modern and personalized....edgy..with the light gray...but all the other colors do too..(I always go back to white..mind you)

I had those same gray/blue/red slate tiles in my kitchen (though I can't tell if yours continue into the kitchen). I didn't have quite a much wall showing, but I painted a fairly soft cranberry-ish red. I think that might go well with the gray you already have.

I'm all about mustard yellow and gray. Since you have grey walls everywhere else in your house, yellow might spice it up a bit. Plus, there are so many products out there this year with the yellow/gray combo so you'll be sure to find kitchen and other home accessories to coordinate!

i did my kitchen in a nice tea-with-milk, sort of light toast color and i have a red and gray table in there - it all works really well with the trim the same color as your cabinets. good luck!

Our kitchen is apple green with charcoal gray counters and red accents, but the green is a bit bluer than your color now, so it's not quite so...shocking.

So if you want to give green another shot, we love our Laura Ashley Apple 4 (available at Lowe's).

I suggest....

orange polka dots over the apple green.




~runs away~

I'd go for a soothing buttery yellow. It's cheery but it won't be too jarring.

is it bad that i love this color? :/

Seeing as how you are in a bit of a conundrum over selecting a color, it's best to step away from making a choice altogether and go drink some margaritas and watch the sun set.

If you want to stay with green, Benjamin Moore has a lovely one I've used called Kittery Point Green. It's soft and would complement pale gray quite well.

I agree with Seaside about the margaritas. Have a few and then make a choice later.

Restoration Hardware Silver Sage is hugely popular because of the way it changes colors depending on light. I got something similar to it for my hallway, but it was a sheer shade of green by Behr. I had a beach blue in my hallway and found it was way too much to take in in the morning. The light green in there now is nice and relaxing.

I made a mockup for my future kitchen remodel with a sage green with white cabinets and black countertops. I loved it.

Leslie, the brand-new (August) issue of House Beautiful has an article on page 34 called "Twilight Field" -- it's all about muted paints. Several Sherwin-Williams colors for you to consider.

http://www.housebeautiful.com/decorating/home-makeovers/twilight-fields-paint-0808

OMG! I did the same thing!!!

I just did the apple green in my kitchen - BUT ONLY ! WALL!!
keep one wall and paint the rest a color that matches the cabinets.. see it you like it better, if not then paint that wall a color that matches the cabinets - it will make them disappear and the counters will pop

Thanks for all the great advice (especially on the margaritas). Our inclination now is as some have suggested, and to stay in the pale grey territory. Probably a greyed white. For colour I'll rely on accessories and some art.
The kitchen colour has been the bane of our existence in this house, we did 4 versions of a robin's egg blue before ripping the room apart... nothing seems right in the light in there. Removing a cabinet next to the window (not pictured) has helped tremendously with that... but it's made a nuclear mess of this colour. I've learned my lesson. I can love colour and not feel forced to have bold wall choices.

I'll be sure to post a follow-up in a couple weeks when we've painted!
Cheers & Thanks!

Just to disagree with the crowd: warm yellow, not mustard, since brownish yellows make food (and everything else) look ugly, and would make your white cabinets look dingy.

I just moved into a new place this weekend, and the kitchen was painted almost exactly that color. It drove me crazy, and I ended up doing a lightning paint job to change it to a warm, bright yellow. Since I'm a poor graduate student in the midwest I used Behr paints; I think the actual color was "citrus". The white and yellow combination comes off clean and welcoming, and the black countertops would add some welcome visual relief.

You can go with gray, but why not have something happiness-inducing?

We have white cabinents and black counters too and we used Ben Moore's Patriotic White, which reads as a very fresh light blue. I'm usually not a blue person, but it totally works. You can see how it looks here

http://mosseclectic.blogspot.com/2008/08/small-kitchen-is-hard-to-come-by.html

I think it would tie in nicely with the pale grey in the rest of your house while still remaining bright and clean. Good luck!