What colour kitchen?

[IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]

We are getting our kitchen vinyl wrapped.
It is 17 years old, structurally sound but vinyl coverings the doors are beginning to crack in places.

Current kitchen is off white with chunky silver rod handles. Floor is grey slate. The walls are fushia pink, but need repainting anyway.

I'm drawn to navy, but concerns are
1- will it make the room too dark
2- will it date?

DH says that off white has been fine for 17 years, why change it? I say that off white shows every splash of cooking, every dribble of tea, every muddy cat paw print, and also, why not take an opportunity to change?

We went for Navy, in a shaker style when we rejigged the kitchen in the last house. Gotta say, i've never had anything show fingerprints more. Admittedly, it might have been the type of vinyl? But the grey i had before were much more flattering of my cleaning regime!

It did also make the room a bit darker, but we were lucky to have big south facing windows in the kitchen, so it wasn't as much of a trouble! My current kitchen is the exact opposite, and it'd be almost oppresive in blue. I think, anyway!

My DS has navy and it looks great. It is really high maintenance - looks amazing but shows every crumb, bit of fluff, fingerprint etc

Ah well, there's my navy dreams shot down!

I'm thinking tomato orange with coffee coloured streaks, and mic coloured paw prints might be the most practical!

How about a beige/ taupe colour like this?

I would go for a sage green, My kitchen - now 15 years old is F and B French Grey and I love it. Gentler than navy and would go well with the slate floor.

It will definitely date, same as the grey everywhere which is already dating.

Personally I choose what I like and I don't really care if it dates.
Like others have said though navy does show fingerprints, we considered it but spoke to a local kitchen fitter who put us off by telling us about how it marks.

In the end we went for a neutral colour, it's a kind of beige/pale coffee colour and is very easy to keep clean.

Could you go a slightly darker neutral and put navy on your walls so you still get the colour you like in the room?

I think you might be right @Wildywondrous, and @SquawkerTexasRanger, although navy walls would make the room very dark I think.

I loathe sage green!! It is just about bearable as a "heritage" colour in older properties. This house is 25 years old, and traditional styling looks ridiculous. It looks fine if we treat it as the 25 year old house that it is.

.... posted too soon, although moving in from sage green, I'll look at some other more muted shades.

@IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads - well I loathe modern houses so there you go!

Having had a black kitchen, it was far harder to keep clean ie showed every mark than a white

We have Navy; marks only show if the sun is low and shining at the wrong angle. Ours is painted rather than wrapped though, so that may make a difference. We also tried dark blue walls when we had a white kitchen (gloss - that really does show the fingerprints) and it just didn’t work in the same way. I love the navy, very happy with it. My friend has a putty grey type colour and that looks lovely.

Have a look at Cashmere. I think various companies do something similar. Our is either Symphony or Sylvarna.

I'd go a light colour such as white, off white, cream, light grey or cashmere colours.