We bought a house 6 months ago. Up until now, my husband has been ENTIRELY opposed to painting anything. He actually has a personality disorder. He's super conservative in his taste, and thinks that all walls should be white. Once he said he'd already compromised by buying a house that had tan walls.
After counseling, he has opened up a little bit to the idea of painting. He gave me a home-made voucher for painting supplies and paint for Christmas! He just said he wants to be in on the color choices.
Here's the problem. We have warm maple colored cabinets and laminate floors in the kitchen. Overall, they are a light orange. I saw a kitchen that was painted a light orange, that had the same color cabinets, and it was completely monochrome. All the same color! Because we will not be changing our cabinets, I used light orange as a starting point for the color scheme.
I also took a picture of the kitchen and changed the color of the walls in PhotoShop, so we could visualize. There are very few colors that look good in there. Red looks amazing. I worked up a color scheme of red, green and light buttery yellow for our kitchen, eating area, and family room (which are all one space, and need to be unified).
But my husband hates red! We went to BYU, whose colors are blue and white. And their rivals are U of U, whose colors are red and white. So red is somehow evil because of his football team's rival colors. He also says it's communist to have red in the house. I pointed out that there are about equal amounts of red and blue on the American flag, to which he replied, "So are we going to make our kitchen Americana?"
No, I don't want an Americana kitchen.
He says he either wants charcoal gray walls (blech) because our countertops are dark gray, or blue (but nothing too bright or too dark, which looks awful with our cabinets)
I'm starting from scratch with my color scheme, and I'm not coming up with anything. Please, does anyone have any ideas? I know a lot of you have kitchens with that color of cabinet. What colors look good on your walls?
I'm not about being "in style." I just want something I like.
It seemed like a painful experience for my husband, but we compromised. He got a blue kitchen, and I got to keep all my red stuff in the family room (curtains, lamp shade, table runner, candles, baskets, etc.)
I painted the kitchen a grayish blue on the verge of turquoise (it's called Tucson Star on Sherwin Williams.com). It's bright and cheery, and looks AWESOME with our gray stone backsplash and gray counters. The eating area and family room are "cornmeal" yellow (at least one side of it is, I haven't finished!) with blue, black, and red accents. I found a big frame at a thrift store to reframe a poster (of a painting) we already had that has blue, black and red quadruple mats! Not bad for $8.
Hmmm...sounds awful, actually, but it's not. It's really looking polished and pulled together.
Thanks so much for helping me to try out colors I thought I didn't want. I think DH can live with the colors (instead of white), and I love them!
Try something like a slateblue. Grey tinge for him, color for you? There are cheery colors in this range. My kitchen is a light olive green, with a darker olive green flowing into the livingroom. I love it!
I think it is a big enough step that he is letting color into his life. Red would be asking a lot for ANYone. Blues and grays are VERY in style right now. I would reconsider his color choices again.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=pg&p=okv/okv_sp...
These are always fun!
I have a red kitchen too!! My kitchen has light Maple cabinets with Fox red walls and "pesto" countertops. I went for a latino look and love it. i did a charcol colored room with maple (reddish) beadboard halfwall and doubled white baseboards that turned out fabulous. Maybe charcoal accent would work.
I actually think the blue would look nice with the orange tone cabinets and grey counters. You could go for a lighter/brighter blue as opposed to "flag blue" so you won't have an Americana kitchen, or how about yellow? I personally love bright colors but I always feel like I am not in the norm. And by the way, the red is going out of style anyway! Good luck!
*HUGS*
I'm sorry you're having to deal with this. When I read your story, I just needed to give you a big hug. Hope everything works out for you. *more hugs*
Story first.
My Dad is the same way. He also does not work well with other people in our family. He is very bossy and expects perfection even when he has no idea what he is doing. No one like working with him including my mother. So when he leaves town, she rally's the troop and we get a quick project or two done while he is gone. We have built household furniture (like picnic tables), put up needed walls, and even painted while my Dad is gone for a weekend or a few days. He just knows (after 40 years of marriage) that when he leaves town something is going to change.
This does not work in my own marriage, I just let my husband know what I'm doing and then get it done.
But I would let him know that if he doesn't like it, to give it 6 months and then he can change it. Paint isn't really that expensive nor worth fighting over. I also have yellow cabinets and my walls are a soft brownish, peaches...something I picked up from Lowes...I can get more info it you want. But it is conservative, but yet not white...nor gray.
Hi S. - regardless of a personality disorder, your husband is all-guy! I lol when he said he hated red because of rival football! We have very similar tastes in color and my kitchen and family room are in that yellow/green/red tones you said you wanted.
My husband is an engineer so it's not unlike a personality disorder - ha!. I have had similar discussions and here's one thing we did.
When choosing colors for the kitchen/family room I just asked my husband what kind of look he wanted and I would choose colors to achieve that. He didnt want dark walls or red. He hates yellow. Blues were out because of our furniture. He wanted the walls to be neutral. He wanted a warm homey feel like _____ has at their house. That was something I could work with. This could be a good exercise for your husband.
I have red oak hardwood floors and lots natural oak cabinets so we have a lot of orange in our kitchen as well. Our woodwork and doors are white. The color I chose is Sherwin Williams SW 7688 called Sundew. When you see the card, you're going to thing "boring beige" but once you get it on the walls it's very warm with the butter tones you like without being yellow. It looks fantastic with the orange in the cabinets but not too orange so that the black in our kitchen looks off.
One good thing is that you're husband will see the card and feel like you are choosing a neutral color. I was able to incorporate my darker colors into the kitchen and family rooms with accessories - Lamps, plates, art, picture frames, curtains, throws etc.
I hope that helps you!
What about each of you taking different rooms and selecting colors on your own? It doesn't seem like he is going to agree with you...so, perhaps this would be a better solution?
For credibility, the walls in my house are a mustartdy-yellowish, red, green, and blue. I love color.
My favorite however is charcoal grey. I yearn to pain a room this color. My husband is not on board. I think it's fab!!
The trick I use with people who are not inclinded to love color is to help them THEM find a piece of fabric that works all the colors together, and use that as your palette. He may not trust the computer screen or your photoshop. But, if you (he) finds a towel or sheet or shirt or fabric at the fabric store that he likes and the colors are all in there, somehow that makes it all real & easier to envision. I have used this technique many times without fail. (Since I have always had a colorful house people often ask me to choose colors for their house).
I once had a kitchen with light buttery yellow walls, slate grey countertops, and maple cabinets, and it looked fabulous. Grey and yellow complement each other, and the yellow harmonizes well with the maple. Yellow is also not as far a stretch for someone like your spouse who is conservative about color as red would be. In my opinion, gray walls would be a huge mistake - a kitchen is first and foremost a work space - most likely YOUR workspace. Who wants to work in a dark, gloomy space? Yellow brightens and brings energy to a space.
Has youre hubby seen the photoshopped picture with the walls the colors you want? Show that to him so he can see it - guys are VERY visual. If he still doesn't dig it, get him involved with the photoshopping and show him that the colors he's talking about don't look good.
If he is afraid of color - I would pick the color you like and then go to the lightest version on the color strip. It will probably "read" as white to your hubby, but the overall mood and tone will co-ordinate with your cabinets. Decorators often do this for ceilings when a room is a vibrant color white is too harsh to go with it so they "water down" the color for the ceiling.
Also, has he gone with you to the paint store? There are about a million colors of "white" that can make your home feel warm and inviting or bright and lively without being pure-xerox-paper white. We lived in a house where the previous owner painted everything white-white and I felt like I was in an insane asylum.
Is wallpaper something he could live with? We have a nice wallpaper around our maple cupboards that has some blue and some off-white in it. I think it looks pretty good.
my countertops are charcoal and the cabinets are a light alder. we have painted the walls blue (bracing blue from sherwin williams, specifically) and i think it looks great.
Tell him that Satan is in his kitchen and he better just deal with it. Seriously, more general authorities have graduated from the U of U than the Y, and my brother in law who is very spiritual got his bachelor's and doctorate from there and is now a successful pharmacist. This is the funniest thing I have ever read on here. OK, now to be serious, if you are still reading. There has got to be some shade of blue that works with orange, or maybe try a bright orange mixed with white. Stripes, or maybe boxes?
Meanwhile here is a color selector, and that may get you started. http://home.att.net/~squam.boaters/select-wall-color.htm
Best of luck and I'm sorry if he reads this, I couldn't resist.
The nice thing about paint is that you can paint over it if you don't like it! Maybe you could paint, give it a month, and then see if he ever gets used to it, offering to repaint if needed. Also, choosing one accent wall is a nice way to get color without painting everything. My house is very colorful--the kitchen iteslf has a china white back-splash and some walls, but the accent wall is a cheery goldish-yellow, cabinets slate blue, red hutch, black accents... I just kept bringing in color and art, and it didn't seem like a huge shift. Good luck!
