Kitchen/family room paint advice (PIPs)

[Susie]

We're planning to close on our new house next month, and I'm trying to strategize what we need to pick out and get done before move-in.  Key items include replacing flooring, and painting a couple key rooms.  On that list is flooring, painting baseboards white, and painting walls in the family room.  The ceiling peak is 12' tall, and I want to do all the ladders/etc. before we have furniture in there.

We were going to paint the kitchen neutral and the family room blue, because our family room is SW Sleepy Blue now and we like it, and we'll be putting most of the same stuff in it.  But I realized at inspection last week that I don't think that will work.  The back wall runs uninterrupted from the family room across the dining area/slider in the kitchen, so there would be no natural stopping point to change color from family room to kitchen.  There is a half wall between the dining area/family room, but above that, the wall is continuous.  I wish I had better pics, but listing pics will have to do:


Slider wall is continuous across family room


^ Half wall at left - kitchen dining area is on the other side.

I don't want to run blue into the kitchen (even just up to the corner by the slider) because I think it would make the cabinets look more orange-y, and I also think it would look weird to run blue only along that wall.  

My plan was to redo the backsplash after we move in and get settled, probably ivory subway.  Now though I'm thinking I at least need to pick out the new backsplash tile so I can pick a paint color for the kitchen/family room that will look good with the eventual tile.  I do not want to paint that 12' ceiling peak twice.  I'm thinking something in this ballpark:


But the exact color will probably depend on the backsplash tile.

Then I was thinking down the road, since I wanted a blue family room, we could put up chair rail and paint below the chair rail something along the lines of SW Tempe Star:


The chair rail will be useful because it will make it easy to repaint just the bottom 30", which get the most trashed by kids/pets, without going up to the tall ceiling.  But will I regret the blue as a dated choice?  Are there better ways to do this?

ETA: I realized I can also share a screen grab from a youtube video tour that shows the wall a little better.

[maudefindlay]

You could do the fireplace wall in a blue. Another option is looking at the half wall and making shelves above it or something to create more separation so that you can paint different colors in the different spaces.

[origami]

Apr 12, 2021 11:22:17 GMT -5 maudefindlay said:

You could do the fireplace wall in a blue.

I agree - accent wall with the fireplace in blue, the rest neutral, would look nice.

In my old house I put up vertical trim pieces to divide 2 rooms like this and paint 2 different colors. It just never looked right though because you could see both rooms at the same time and it was too jarring IMO. YMMV though. My current house has a similar layout and we painted both rooms a light neutral cream/beige. I’m planning to add color with curtains, a rug, (eventually) new fireplace tile, etc but that’ll take a while.

[Susie]

Oh the accent wall idea is a good one too.  And would actually be logistically nice... that mirror above the fireplace is going to come down, but it might take a while because it's adhered.  Since that wall doesn't go up to 12', it would be an easy wall to paint blue later.

[origami]

Apr 12, 2021 12:33:24 GMT -5 Susie said:

Oh the accent wall idea is a good one too.  And would actually be logistically nice... that mirror above the fireplace is going to come down, but it might take a while because it's adhered.  Since that wall doesn't go up to 12', it would be an easy wall to paint blue later.

I’d rip down the mirror and replace it with a tv, mostly so I could get out of fixing the drywall haha

[Susie]

Apr 12, 2021 15:33:34 GMT -5 origami said:

Apr 12, 2021 12:33:24 GMT -5 Susie said:

Oh the accent wall idea is a good one too.  And would actually be logistically nice... that mirror above the fireplace is going to come down, but it might take a while because it's adhered.  Since that wall doesn't go up to 12', it would be an easy wall to paint blue later.

I’d rip down the mirror and replace it with a tv, mostly so I could get out of fixing the drywall haha

We're going to put the TV on the wall opposite the double window.  I have a thing about TVs over fireplaces, I know it's popular, but it's just not my jam.

The garage is on the other side of the TV wall, which makes it really easy to bury the cords in the wall.  It mostly makes up for the PITA of having to fix the wall over the fireplace... hopefully it is not too awful.

[TR]

I'll dissent because I hate accent walls. I especially think doing that particular wall as a darker accent wall will draw attention to that lower ceiling and take away from the nice high ceiling in the middle and make the room feel smaller. You could eventually retile the fireplace with a cool blue tile or something.

[darby]

I love the colors you’ve picked out! This is admittedly a bold option, and will only work if the kitchen ceiling levels out somewhere before starting the vaulted part...which it looks like it does. But I think it would look gorgeous to paint the vaulted ceiling blue and walls gray. I don’t know how to add a pic, but here’s the closest I could find for inspiration. Hopefully the link will work.

images.app.goo.gl/nir7M7mYGE4mgagk8

[simpsongal]

For the scale of the room, I think a stone fireplace up to the ceiling would look nice and be a good anchor for the room. I too prefer TVs anywhere but above the fireplace.

I’d paint the neutral color for now.

[Susie]

Apr 12, 2021 16:39:03 GMT -5 TR said:

I'll dissent because I hate accent walls. I especially think doing that particular wall as a darker accent wall will draw attention to that lower ceiling and take away from the nice high ceiling in the middle and make the room feel smaller. 

I can see that.

I think as much as I'm disappointed with the idea of painting the FR the same neutral as the kitchen/foyer, that's what it's going to need to be for the beginning.  We can figure out how to do some blue later.

and simpsongal I agree re: stone.  I don't love the tile that's there.  I just think it might be a while before that rises to the top of the priority list!

[mrsukyankee]

What about putting something on the wall above the half-wall? A shelving unit or something like that? And then, you can paint up to that wall unit in the blue and then the kitchen begins after it.

[ssmjlm]

Beiges always end up pink to my eye, so I would probably go cooler on the color than warm, but I'm admittedly not a warm toned decorator anymore.

Are you painting the baseboards or replacing? I think something a bit taller would work better with the tall ceiling in the FR.

[Susie]

Apr 13, 2021 6:37:39 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

Are you painting the baseboards or replacing? I think something a bit taller would work better with the tall ceiling in the FR.

Painting.  The whole house has white trim except the kitchen & family room, it seems like it was probably once all stained and they just didn't finish painting it all.  I would rather have it match throughout than have the perfect (different) trim for the one room with a vaulted ceiling.

[dr.girlfriend]

I don't think a chair rail would make sense in the living room, and with such a bright contrast it would cut the nice big walls in half. I would do one color. We painted our big high-ceilinged room Benjamin Moore's Pale Oak and really like it.  It seems similar to the color you chose and we have wood tones similar to your kitchen cabinets.

[hbomdiggity]

I would keep it neutral. I came from a house that we had painted every single room a different color (to our liking, it was great) to a new build with basically one color throughout.

I figured we’d repaint eventually, but 5 years in, it’s still working for us. It’s a much more open floor plan so the same color just works. And I’ve added plenty of color with other things (curtains, pillows, etc).

[macmars45]

Apr 13, 2021 9:16:22 GMT -5 hbomdiggity said:

I would keep it neutral. I came from a house that we had painted every single room a different color (to our liking, it was great) to a new build with basically one color throughout.

I figured we’d repaint eventually, but 5 years in, it’s still working for us. It’s a much more open floor plan so the same color just works. And I’ve added plenty of color with other things (curtains, pillows, etc).

Same.

Our TH had a red bathroom, green bathroom, brown bathroom & the entire downstairs was brown. It was newly painted that way when we bought it and we loved it.

In our new construction we'll eventually paint DS' bedroom and paint an accent wall in our bedroom, but that's it. The rest will stay neutral. We've only lived here for 4.5 months so far though.

[woowoo]

Susie, one note on Worldly Gray - I love it but it can really lean purple, especially with beige or ivory around it.

I love the space - I think once you move in you might love the continuity in the wall color.

[lilac05]

If you’re really tied to keeping the living room blue, you could add something like a bump-out of the wall (just a few inches) that goes from the half-wall to the ceiling. We had something similar in our first house, and it was nice because it helped define the spaces a little more. You could also do like a 6” deep open shelf there, but it would have to go all the way to the ceiling for it to work.

I’m typically indifferent to accent walls. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. I don’t think I’d want to draw attention to how “low” the ceiling is there. I think it would really throw off the feel of the room.

Personally, I’d keep it all neutral paint and find some big statement art piece that I love. You could also create something yourself, that way it has exactly the colors you want in it!

[circa1978]

You've gotten good avice. We actually have chair rail in our living and family rooms and it's next on my list of things to do to tear it out. Ours is the same color above and below but it cuts the room in half and makes it look much shorter and very dated to the 80s. Would avoid.

[deadwing]

There are a lot of good idea here on ways to make the 2 colors you want work.

Accent walls aren't my thing, but I think they look best when done on a long wall. So, I'd use the wall across from the windows, where you want to put the TV.

My kitchen and living room are open to each other and I have the entire space painted a neutral color (Revere Pewter). I have fun/bold paint colors in other parts of the house, like my home office and bathroom. In my living room, the color comes from the furniture and art.

[Roc A Bee]

I too would paint it neutral right now. I don’t love an accent wall, and also think chair rail looks dated. I’m sure you will bring in color in others ways.

[wildrice]

Your blue sample is a bold blue, but what if you went with a more neutral blue in both rooms? I know when I was looking for paint on the Benjamin Moore site there was a wide variety of whites that had other color tints to them. Maybe there is something in that family that would bring in the blue tones that you want while still being a neutral?

I am in the process of repainting my whole house from grey. I don't mind the grey but in contrast to the new colors I've done, it is pretty drab. I'm sticking with fairly neutral colors, so so far I've done a cream color (BM French Macaron) and BM Nosegay, which is a white with a slightly blueish/purplish tint. I love bold colors but I think choosing subdued, more neutral colors is working to fill my need for color without going crazy with it.

[lust2hart]

You could add a vertical trim piece to the long wall, that runs up from the half wall to the beam, to create 2 separate rooms.