Hi Guys! All our projects are progressing. I am just about finished with the painting of the foyer. We painted it a fairly neutral color, a bit of a warmish yellow-gold. I think it looks pretty nice. I will post some photos as soon as we get it finished off. Actually, I do have one photo taken, so I will post it here, I will post more / better photos once it is completely done and the plant is back in the planter. The color looks more rich / more yellow in this photo then it actually is. We decided to dive into giving the kitchen a coat of paint. Well it is much more work than we had realized. There was a lot of old wall paper that was glued directly to the wall without then using any primer on the walls. So it has taken many many hours to remove the wall paper. We are still scraping the adhesive off the walls so we can prime and paint. We decided to paint the kitchen walls a bright sunshine yellow. I painted one wall and it looks great. I am using Truecare paint from Truevalue for the kitchen and am pleased with the results so far. This is a shot of the kitchen, the plae / yellow gold is old paint that was under wall paper. It is NOT the color we are painting the kitchen. So Here is the plan so far: 1: All the walls including the box that the lights are on are going to be painted bright sunshine yellow. 2: The ceiling and the underside of the light box ( by where you see the spot lights) are going to all be painted a deep dark blue color. 3: A tile back splash will be installed on the back of the counter that is dark blue glossy tiles that match the color of the ceiling, with a trim piece of white tile with bull nose on it. Now is were I am a bit stuck; The counter tops, I can't quite decide what to do. Here are the options we are considering; A: Install new laminate material; considering Wilsonart, possibly one of these designs: http://samples.wilsonart.com/images/PRO ... ium/78.jpg https://samples.wilsonart.com/images/PR ... um/524.jpg OR B: Tile the counter top, possibly with the Dark Blue tiles, or with white tiles or with a pattern of both tiles. C: ?? Other ideas? I am not ready to paint the cabinets, but would consider it as a possible option in the future. I hope that I can keep the wood grain for now. We are going for a kind of modern cafe type of look with the bright yellow and the dark blue ceiling. I guess my biggest problem is that I don't know if I should use tile for the counters or laminate, and if I should aim for a dark counter top color or a light one. I just have not gotten a good feeling about what fits in right yet. Thanks so much guys! Your tips have helped me quite a bit in making decisions about our remodel!! Jamie
I kind of like the first laminate (the coffee bean)pattern idea with the dark blue tile backsplash. I'd love to see a picture of whatever you decide. Hope this helps
What you've got to ask yourself is - will I still like the worktop and tiles in six months or a year from now? If you decide on dark worktops then go for light tiles or vice versa. If you make everything too dark then the whole room will look smaller. I have tried both tiles on my worksurfaces and laminate and find laminate easier to care for. Now I have laminate worktops and tiled walls which seems to work well.
I love yellow in the kitchen. I've painted every kitchen that I've had yellow. I've never mixed it with blue. I would stick with the laminate if you are not going to paint the cupboards. Sometimes when you paint cupboards the paint scratches easily. Maybe it's just the paint I used. The cupboards were an ugly green when we moved here and where it's scratched that ugly green shows. What color would you paint the cupboards? I would maybe use a lighter shade of the same yellow if they make one. dooley
I would definitely go for the laminate counter top and not anything too dark or busy with a pattern. That's just MHO!!
I don't know what color I would use on the cupboards. We really do like the wood look, the unfortunate problem is that some of the wood has faded (or more likely the finish) and looks discolored and different from the rest of the cabinets. I just wish it were more cosistent in the way it all looks. I would likely coat the cabinets with a white shellac, then paint then with a polyeurothene based paint. Then I might even coat them one more time with a poly clear finish. Using the poly paint makes a very strong surface, I did this on my work bench that sees no end of abuse and I don't have a chip on it. The shellac is only necessary if your covering some old finish and your not real sure about how the poly is going to go on. The shellac is just a primer. We started looking at some (physical chips) laminate samples, and we do like the lighter colors better, but still need to spend alot more time looking at them. I do plan to stay towards the ligher colors as you have suggested. I think the cabinets are going to stay oak for now. The celing is primed now, and I am trying to get up the energy necessary to go put on the blue paint. The primer is gray, but almost looked a little blue when wet, and the contrast with the yellow was great. I think we will want lots of light in the kitchen, which is good anyway for working in there, and I don't think it will looks small with the bright walls and lightish floor. Thanks for your suggestions, I have to get back to working on things. I will post some more updates soon. Jamie