Hi Annie- I love your blog and I’m hoping you can help with my color dilemma.
We remodeled our kitchen and painted the walls [Benjamin Moore’s] kiwi 544 with the trim forest hills green 433. So far so good.
Then we decided to repaint the dining room (connected to the kitchen) and the living room (open to the dining room). The trim I’m planning to paint chatsworth cream 225 to match the rest of the house.
Now for the trouble. In the dining room we tried winchester sage 628 (too aqua), then greenwich village 445 (too blah), then rushing river 1574 (too cold), which is what we picked for the living room. I like rushing river in the living room, but I’m not tied to if it needs to be different to work with the dining room.
In short, nothing looks good with the kitchen greens. We were thinking of trying a darker gray/navy, but we’ve been so far off that I thought I should ask for help before getting another sample.
What color would go with kiwi/forest hills green for the dining room? Should I use that in the living room too or something else?
Thanks, Chloe
Hello, Chloe! Let me first say that you are BOLD. Nay, BOSSY. Good for you for using such strong colors! They look great.
For your living room, I like the blue/grey on the left in the fireplace picture. It doesn’t look like the Rushing River swatch, but that’s the one I like.
In the dining room, dark orange was my first thought: get away from all the cool colors and contrast rather than worry about matching. But then I saw the built-in cabinets, and I think the orange would make everything too, well, too orangey.
So a deep purple would be lovely. Benjamin Moore’s 2073-30 Passion Plum could be perfect, but keep 1392 Fire and Ice in mind also – it’s a little lighter but still reddish.
Gentle Readers, do you see why going with something light, like Chloe’s Chatsworth Cream trim color, on the DR walls would be a mistake? The flanking colors – the green and blue/grey – are so strong that a much weaker color would leave the room looking unfinished.
I just wish I could hear the phrase “Fire and Ice” without Blades of Glory popping into my head.
If you don’t suffer from the same problem, totally go for it.
Thanks for the great question, Chloe! Keep us posted.
