Joni's condo kitchen remodel: Picking wall color is not easy

Progress is being made on Joni's condo kitchen remodel. See Joni and her nurse-friend Patti in their scrubs working on the kitchen.

See the kitchen before any work was done.

So far, the overhead cabinet that blocked the natural light has come down, and a fun s-curve track light has gone up. The boring wood cabinets have been sanded, painted brown, glazed green and coated with polyurethane.

Plus, the backsplash tile (right) has been chosen, ordered and paid for. It comes to a whopping $641 out of the $1,000 budget.

"We were found to have very expensive taste," Patti noted.

The latest indecision revolves around the wall color, which surprised Patti: "I thought the wall color would be pretty easy to chose," she said. "Well, it's not!"

As you see in the photos (click to enlarge), a coating of a terra cotta/mocha color went up on the wall (center left photo) and Joni loves it.

Patti, though, feels it takes away from the excitement of the green cabinets and of the very expensive glass tile for the backsplash.

So Patti found some cream-colored paint that Joni had used in her hallway and brushed some on to see if it worked better (center right photo). She leaned a sample of the tile up there to see how it looks.

Me? I like the lighter wall color. I think it sets off the tile better.

On the other hand, why not get the tile installed and then play around with the wall color?

What do you think?

The spending so far:

Sanding sponge: $5.38
Track lighting: $54.65
Paint: $71.60
Paint containers: $6.02
Polyurethane & brush: $36.61
Foam board for paint testing: $2.80
Sandpaper: $15.19
Drop cloth (plastic): $3.21
Glaze (2nd can): $8.57
Paint application tools: $5.87
Flat polyurethane (satin was too shiny): $18.31
Staining pads: $2.67
Coolest backsplash tile ever (Patti's words): $641

(Photos: Kathy Price-Robinson)

Comments

[lil_gaucha]

I personally prefer the cream, but I think for the coffee house look they're going for, the mocha works better. Maybe leave the mocha as an accent color inside the cabinets and do cream elsewhere?

Either way, get that gorgeous tile up first. That's the money shot we're all waiting for. Can't wait!

[riley]

terra cotta looks frumpy or dated. It looks like the cream is a fresh cool contrast with the warm tile colors. Definitely contrasting cool with warm will liven up the space. And it looks like the cream goes with your counter choice.

[Mike Johnson]

"On the other hand, why not get the tile installed and then play around with the wall color?"

Because you should decide what color grout for the tile before you have it installed. It makes a *huge* difference. And the best grout color would probably be chosen because of how it looks with the wall color.