Painting a dark room dark?

[Decoratingsucks]

I want to repaint my kitchen and am struggling for a colour.

I have white kitchen units with a hideous grey marble effect laminate worktop and grey slate tile floor. Initially the walls were Dulux Just Walnut which is a pale grey.

The kitchen is East facing and can be dark. We decided the grey didn’t work and so repainted it a pale green. The decorators used cheap paint and it’s now destroyed with kids hand prints etc, hence why we want to repaint. We don’t want to just use the green again as it doesn’t really look that great.

I’m tempted to paint the walls a mid- dark grey but will that look strange with grey worktops and floors? And will it make the room look even darker?

Hi Decorating!

I absolutely love yellow with grey ...

People will probably pile in immediately and say how much they hate yellow, so be aware of that.

We have a modern (north-facing) flat and have done it in grey (not grey walls as I hate those, but a grey wood-look floor etc), white, a very pale yellow on most walls and a very strong yellow in small amounts (below a dado in the hall and main living area).

In the kitchen, the floor is grey wood (dark so maybe like your slate), the units are white gloss and the walls pale yellow.

I love it. Other people have been complementary too. I was a bit nervous, but actually it's just paint so went ahead and it makes me happy to come home.

I would go dark, yes. Either very dark grey, or a dark colour (F&B Railings, F&B Brinjal, F&B Hague Blue, Little Greene Livid, Little Greene Invisible Green, Little Greene Hicks Blue).

And then you think about how to bring in light and colour. In a kitchen, this could be as simple as tea towels and storage in mustard or burnt orange.

I have recently painted my small study (sadly, all the rooms in my house are small) Little Greene Livid, which is a grey green. It is VERY dark. But it looked beautiful once I hung curtains (ivory with a green tree pattern - it's actually that Scion design which I found cheap on ebay) and put in lots of accessories in ochre, mustard and green (and a dark plum sofa and a wooden desk).

On the walls I have hung a huge gold-framed mirror, a mustard yellow clock. And I gradually collected lots of mid century oil paintings on ebay - just ones I liked, nothing expensive, my top ceiling was £30. I made all the frames an old gold, simply by painting with a tester pot of Annie Sloan dark grey, then rubbing gold wax over the top. So I now have an eccentric but gorgeous gallery wall, and the dark paint shows it off better than a pale colour ever could.

Sorry, that was way too much detail. I think dark paint if fantastic, but you have to think a bit differently about how to make it work.

And while I'm here, I think we've all now got the 'paint a dark room dark' message, but when I was in the F&B shop looking at colours for my (very sunny) bathroom the sales assistant insisted that I shouldn't choose a dark colour, that light rooms also need light paint. I'm not sure I agree but maybe she's right.

Thanks for the suggestions. I’m going to have to find the perfect paint colour now. My DH will kill me if I ask to paint it a 4th time.

This is very similar to my kitchen/diner only my kitchen window is overshadowedso doesn’t bring in much light.

I can’t edit the post above but my floor is dark like the one in this pic.

So I’m thinking a dark grey could possibly work.

I think it depends on the light in the room. My bedroom is south facing and has 3 walls painted in f and b Hague blue. It looks great - l love how you can partner it up with equally dramatic colours like burgundy and dark green and it still feels warm because you get the full sunlight ! On the other hand my dining room is north facing and can feel gloomy and cold. I decided to embrace the darkness and painted it a copy of f and b's reading room red. In my mind I wanted it to be like a Victorian study - cosy and snug. Even though we've a log burner, loads of prints on the walls, fairy lights, nice rugs and a floor lamp etc in the room it just doesn't feel right and is never really used - partly because it's just too dark. We are actually now in the process of redecorating it in a much lighter color and using wallpaper !

Walls same colour as the floor. Inject some light and colour with funky lights under the units and shelving if you have any.

I wouldnt go mid grey I’d go a definite dark grey, then as someone said above, bright accessories - look at F & B Downpipe or Hague Blue.

I think a deep teal or navy would look amazing with the grey and white. I’d then have deep mustard or burnt orange or similar for tea towels and the like

I love Hague Blue - we have it and it goes beautifully with yellow/gold, burgundy, pale grey etc so its very versatile.

Really impressed with the paint quality, it really has improved in the last few years as I only needed two coats over a rich red.

Hague Blue is indeed the business.

Hague Blue is gorgeous. I must admit it terrifies me a bit to use it in my kitchen though I have got similar in bedrooms.