We used Ben Moore’s Raisin (1237) as a base coat and then went over it with a metallic paint called Statuary Bronze (ME190) from the Modern Masters Metallic Paint Collection. The walls have a wonderful lustrous quality, terrific for an elegant master bedroom. The homeowners love it! Thanks for asking!

-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach

The kitchen and living room do not have to match, but you certainly have a palette already in the kitchen and you can bring some of that into the living room. I would bring the salmon into the living room, for sure. And the turquoise will be fine. You can add more colors but first decide what rug and artwork are going in the room. Then take colors from them. With a neutral tan wallcolor, you can add a lot of other colors if you like. But make sure they’re in the art/rug first.

Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach

My living room wall is a tan colour and I am planning to buy new furniture. I was thinking of an off-white leather sofa, two dark brown fabric chairs and adding in turquoise accessories to the room. Do you think they would look good together? I`d like to add more colours. If you have any better colour suggestions I would be glad to hear them.

Also, my kitchen is partially open to my living room. The colour of the back splash is salmon, beige and yellow. I was wondering if the colours of the kitchen should match the colour of the living room.

Thanks, Minat.

Sounds like your brown had too much yellow in it. The purply/mauve color has a lot of gray in it which will clash horribly with any kind of yellow-brown. If you want to try again, look at something like Driftwood 2107-40 or sandlot gray 2107-50 to blend with the mauve. And then you might consider the cream sofa set to avoid introducing such a strong color in a more sophisticated/muted palette. If those browns don’t work, then just bring the kitchen color into the family room and go with the cream sofa for sure. That way the two spaces will blend seamlessly.

Hope that helps.

-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach

I’d decided on a set from rooms-to-go for my family room(trying to be frugal); it’s the cindy crawford avenues aqua set. It’s modern and trendy and light blue; not something I would invision liking, but I do. Anyway, I planned to paint the family room a rich chocolately brown. However… today I bought a few samples of brown and put them up on the wall and eeeck-aaaads; they all seem awful. It may have something to do with the transition from the other rooms. My kitchen is completely open to the breakfast room, which is completely open to the family room. They are really just one big room. The kitchen and breakfast room are painted a purplely-gray mauve color that I really like. The kitchen cabinets are dark; mahogany reddish and go well with the purpley mauve color. The breakfast room furniture is dark as is the furniture I bought for the family room- a large espresso entertainment center and tables – as is the trim on the light blue sofa and love seat. It’s obvious that the browns I selected aren’t going to work in this room.
I would be grateful for your advice. Do you think I can use this furniture in the family room,? and if so, what color do you think I should paint the walls? It’s probably not too late to change my mind about the furniture since my delivery date isn’t for another week or so. Do you think I should go with another color? They have the same style in off white leather, which I also like…. or I could go with something completely different.
The family room is rather small, 13×13 roughly. One wall is completely open to the breakfast room and kitchen, and the opposite wall is the one that will house a rather large entertainment center. One of the adjacent walls is mostly window facing west and the opposite wall has a door to the patio.
I’d really appreciate your advice on a paint color to transition the kitchen/breakfast area to the family room (with the blue sofa), or to ditch the blue sofa and go with white or some other color.
I appreciate your help – I’m lost. !!

Linda

I would paint that connecting piece as if you’re coming into the kitchen from the living room. So that would be the brown. (But either way will work ultimately.)

As for the flooring, you will need some contrast with the dark walls, but I am a big fan of dark wood floors and since they would be there permanently (although the wallcolor might change), I would pick the floors you like best. If that’s dark, then go ahead with dark. Once they’re in, you might want to put a jute/sisal rug on top of the floor to provide some contrast and lighten up the room. Also add cream to the room (pillows, window panels, accessories) and that will help too.

Bottom line: If you have enough light coming into the room, then dark walls will be fine. Otherwise you might want to keep only one of the dark walls (the accent focal point wall) and paint the other three a lighter neutral. But it’s only paint, right?

Hope that helps.

-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach

PS Yes, I’m so busy answering questions that I have no time to write additional blog posts — every so often you’ll see a new one though. I’ll keep at it.

Secondly, my husband & I are painted our kitchen wall an earthy red with a slight hint of orange sponge. Our livingroom is being painted right now and we are painting it brown, it is like a chestnut brown (originally had it darker but made the room look too dark in our opinion). I have two questions actually,….

Our kitchen wall connects to the livingroom (so there is no doorway between the two) – should I paint that connecting wall from the kitchen to the livingroom earthy red to help blend? That’s what we were planning on doing. Let me know what you think

Secondly (and most importantly), we are going to remove the carpets in the living room and put in hard-wood flooring this month (once the painting is complete). i have always dreamed of having that “antique dark wood hard-floor” in my house. Would that be too dark with the living room walls being chestnut brown. A lot of our furniture is like a “stained light brown” (using stain – not nearly as dark as the walls). I’m afraid it will be too much brown and too dark.

Help!

Thanks,
Lacey

You can send me an email at bmeglis@yahoo.com and we can set up a consultation.

Thanks.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach

How about an off-white like Ben Moore’s Maritime White 963? Or China White to coordinate with the countertop even better. The greyed-down white will allow contrast with the walls and counter but won’t stand out as much as white would. You might even consider using some of your mocha paint to “age” the cabinets by painting it in the corners and cracks and wiping it off for a great look.

See if that helps.

-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach