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A well-known trick to planning out comprehensive color schemes is to take tints directly from a designed product, such as a rug, fabric, or wallpaper.
I ordered a few different swatches from Wallpaper Direct's Orla Kiely Wallpaper Collection. (Unfortunately, many of the designs that I sampled have disappeared from the website - including the one shown to the left, which is "Multi Striped Petal." Yikes! I may have to try one of the other wallpaper suppliers, if this is not discontinued...) I hung the swatches around the living room and kitchen areas, and discovered that I am not actually a fan of fully saturated, bright colors. The pattern that I ended up choosing for my inspiration has very de-saturated, muted greens, and a clever motif that repeats the background color as a foreground color. There are some pops of color at the center of each flower, but they don't dominate the overall design. (Hah! Finest Wallpaper, a Canadian company, carries the pattern and will ship to the United States. I need to jump on that before it entirely disappears! The shade is called "Cool Stone." At $200 per roll, I do have some hesitation, but I know that I will be sad if it is no longer available later.) Here is an advertising photo, from Finest Wallpaper, of the wallpaper on an entire wall:
My mother suggested taking the countertop color from the grey flower centers, so when I went to Home Depot to look at solid surface countertop samples, I took the wallpaper sample with me. I also pulled some paint samples and color matched the "white" in the wallpaper (I did have to pay for the sample-sized paint jar, but I used that to paint a big swatch on the foam board that is pictured below).
Left to right, paint swatches are Behr "Baby Artichoke (a pretty close match to the wallpaper background)", "Seasoned Salt (surprisingly green, but a good match for the cabinet shade)", and "Caraway Seeds."
The big, black rectangle below those is a Wilsonart Premium Laminate sample that I have been holding onto for years that is still very easy to find in stock. The color is called "Black Alicante", and it is shown here in a textured gloss finish although I would prefer something less shiny.
The "white" background is, as previously noted, is a color match to the field color of the wallpaper sample. The "green" background is a cabinet door that I have simply layed down next to the painted foam board (this is the same color that I matched for my pantry redo).
Lastly, the two little squares are the solid surface countertop samples: the "grey" is Hi-Macs Woo3 Shadow Concrete, and the "white" is Hi-Macs VW01 Gemini. (Online, Home Depot states that the tiny samples cost $12.50 - please go to the store directly where you can obtain them for the fine price of zero dollars.) While I loved the mosaic pattern and bright quality of the "white" sample, I think that I will ultimately choose the darker countertop. I have thought this through carefully in terms of: 1) What do I want to hide? and 2) What do I want to contrast? the "grey" sample very nicely disguises the black cooking range that I so dislike but that my husband loves. And since he has so few strong design opinions, I do tend to pay attention when he says something. The darker countertop also blends in well with our blender, electric kettle, and toaster oven, which stay out at all times for smoothie, tea, and toast emergencies.
I have done some redecorating recently around the annoying black stove to hang my cast iron pan collection above, which makes me feel quite happily like a Calico Critter (see reference photo below).
So I think the color scheme will be dark countertops to contrast with the light walls and medium cabinets. It will keep it dark in here, but the lighter cabinets would just contrast jarringly with the black appliances and blend in with the walls. I am also playing around with the idea of visually opening up the doorway by cutting out part of wall about a foot up from the countertop (to hide all of the incredible clutter that you can see here) but leaving the bottom wall and cabinets. Redoing the flooring is not desired nor in the tentative budget!
I have no immediate plans to take action on any of this, but I can see the new countertops going in on our next big work break (not because I plan on DIY'ing them, but because I have to physically be on site to let workers in the home and to make sure our cat herd doesn't run out away the moment a door is left open to the outside world).
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