I Hate My Chosen Paint Color...Help!

by Tori
(Florida)

Bone China Collectables

I am trying to design a kitchen to showcase my kitchen collectables, inherited from my Grandmother.

I plan on using shelves around the kitchen and above the cabinet space to do so.

My kitchen and family room are all one space and my cabinets are a light oak. I have one long wall with a light oak hutch and three door openings.

I have a chair rail on that wall and have painted the bottom section of that wall a pea green color.

The top portion of that wall and the walls around the cabinets I painted brown mustard - it took many coats to color and it kept getting darker and darker... there's so much brown mustard that when you walk in the door it looks like someone puked up a hotdog!

I really like the green and thought about using it on the other walls with maybe a cream color on top of the long wall and keep the green on the bottom.

My cabinets are light oak and my couch and chair are red. There are a lot of windows and there is a cook-top island that is light oak as well. My bar stools are cream with light oak seats and my countertops are off-white. I have got to get rid of the brown mustard and my budget has run out....help!

Remember, I want to showcase my collectables on the shelves I am putting on the walls. The collectables are vintage and come in various colors.

Andrea’s Response

Oh dear Tori – I know how disappointing it can be when you have put a lot of time, money and effort into redecorating and the finished result isn’t what you imagined it would be.

I hate to say it but I really think you need to add in as much neutral color as you can to your rooms. If you really like the green then you should of course keep it but what you don’t want is for the walls to dominate rather than enhance your collectables and I fear that is what you may do if you have a lot of strong color on the walls.

I think the only way you can use color well with your china is if it can be grouped into collections that have one predominant color – blue for example – when you could then paint the wall behind, or a panel on the wall, in a pale shade of that color which would pick up on the blue in the china.

I have used a similar idea when hanging paintings.