Painting open-plan kitchen/dining room/lounge

[Weta]

The kitchen will need some kind of gloss/washable paint, especially as we are only having a low splashback, but we're not sure how you do the transition from the kitchen paint to the paint in the adjoining dining area. There will be a breakfast bar separating the kitchen from the dining area.

Is it best to use the same colour but change from washable paint to matt paint where the dining room starts, or to have some other kind of transition? and if so, what?!

Thanks for any suggestions...

We have an open plan kitchen/dining room/lounge.... But have broken it up.

The lounge is a teal colour on one long wall (with alcoves with 2 chimney breasts) then the rest of the walls are a light grey.

Then, the a tiny step down into the kitchen.. with a low splashback too. I repainted it a week or two ago in a grey ish pink... 'dusted damson' by dulux. I never honestly thought I'd have a pink kitchen in my lifetime! But, it's a black gloss units and dark wood worktop... which we inherited, so was desperate to feminine up the kitchen... and this 'dusted damson' is more of a grey - than a pink... and what with the teal and light grey of the lounge.. it looks really lovely.

I think, as long as it's all on the same kind of colour palette.. mine being grey, grey teal and grey pink.... fabric of curtains and cushions in lounge, and pvc covered tablecloth and cushions in kitchen is this from John Lewis 'Seedheads' (dark grey steel colour)

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JOHN-LEWIS-SEEDHEAD-FABRIC-CUSHION-COVER-RETRO-STYLE-/130674074596#ht_840wt_1270

It all sounds quite grey, I know... but I bought a fabulous extended edwardian property, that had been designed by the man of the house! And literally every room was skyblue... and the kitchen is euber masculine.

Going back to the type of paint used in the house... I only every use the Dulux Endurance paint- which is wipeable. It's in the kitchen, even above the low splashback, and I'm wiping it everyday - especially behind the cooker. But, I intend to get a cheap stainless steel splashback - as it does get alot of splashes! So, feel the splashback would suit us better....

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250824142589?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_578wt_1037

I also have the same Dulux Endurance paint in one of the bathrooms, and it has lots of splashes and drips - and it's coping fine.

I can't bare the 'sheen' that you get with kitchen and bathroom paint, so this Dulux Endurance paint is a happy compromise. Especially in the hallway too! Hand prints everywhere already up the stairwell, even though I painted it last month... but, all I have to do is wipe it, and it comes off.. leaving the paint on the wall!

Crown do 'Easyclean' wipeable paint which is just as good... and Farrow and Ball do 'Modern Emulsion' which is wipeable too!

Hope that helps! Have fun!

When I used Dulux Dusted Damson it came out purple. I've just covered it with white. 5 coats later. I knew it wasn't the right colour for the tin...

Thanks Vickles, your colours sound lovely and I will look out for the Dulux Endurance paint, that sounds good.

So where your kitchen joins the dining area, do you just have the greyish pink and then a sudden switch to the light grey?

Our kitchen will have gloss chocolate brown lower cupboards with a cream bench and cream (magnolia) upper cupboards. We would like a taupe-y wall along the far wall of the lounge (away from the kitchen) but are not sure yet what colour to paint the rest, something fairly neutral I guess. Not sure either whether the kitchen should just be the same colour as the dining area or different.

Sounds like you do want more of a splashback - we will have a full-height glass panel behind the cooker and then about 20-25 cm of mosaic tiles around the benchtops, so hopefully should be ok!

toddlerama.. what a bloody nightmare! 5 coats of white? crikes! our has come out a pinky grey... more grey than pink sometimes, and sometimes it can look quite 'heathery'.

weta... thanks. yes, there's a little step up (from off white tiles to cream carpet) - the kitchen wall ends quite high above the step into the lounge due to it hitting the original external wall

(our lounge is the original lounge knocked through into the original dining room... then a small step down into the extension - huge kitchen diner now)

yes basically - it goes from greyish pink to light grey on the right side, then greyish pink to the teal on the left side....

when i sit in the lounge at the front of the house - and look back into the kitchen... it looks lovely, the long teal wall, then it turns into the greyish pink. i wouldn't have put teal and grey pink together in the same room... i would've put the dusted damson with a cream/stone colour. the teal and grey pink work so well, as they're in different rooms, but compliment each other.

i painted the hallway in 'perfectly taupe' - which is a mid grey... so even the hallway fits in the 'downstairs palette'.

your kitchen sounds lovely.... if it's a kitchen diner, personally, i would paint it as one room... to make it look bigger.

i've used a green paint before in my old house (which was cream and dark wood) - it's dulux's 'overtly olive'... i bloody loved it! it went brilliantly with the cream.

our lounge is quite a bold teal, quite dark... and as it's such a large room, i haven't really wanted to paint it... especially as the old owners left the gorgeous curtains.. i've kept their style, as it works... and it takes our black sofas and white furniture with wicker baskets really well. i just can't see how i can better it - so why change it. but, it is dark and at times cold. hmmmm... somedays i sit there and think... shall i paint it in off white and get some pretty bright florally curtains and cushions and go all girlie!!! but, then our black sofas wouldn't look right.... so, it would become a huge job and cost a fortune. so, i shall leave it for a few years.

i don't like the black gloss kitchen. i would never have chosen it.. your kitchen sounds more like me to be honest! but, our kitchen is a wow kitchen, especially with the dark oroco wood surfaces - which matches the bi fold doors... so it is really super... but, it kind of dictates a style, if that makes sense. and i really don't like being dictated too! (lol!) but, since painting the kitchen more a girlie colour, it looks lovely and it blends in nicely to the tealy/light grey lounge.... then, they mid grey hallway. hey, they say grey is the 'in' colour at the moment!! lol!

our tiled splashback is same as yours... mosiac tiles, black, white and glittery silver -about 25cm high. again, black and white - very masculine.

at my last house... cream kitchen... it was a long, rectangular kitchen diner... kitchen one side, dining table and doors into garden the other side.... i did a bold colour on the long wall where we walked in - so the wall that ran behind the row of kitchen cupboards, and where the door into the kitchen was, and then followed into the dining room was 'overtly olive'.. then, the rest of the walls, either end of the room (kitchen and dining room end) and the window/doors into garden wall. it looked lovely.. splash of colour in both kitchen and dining area... but, then it wasn't too overpowering or dark - due to incorporating the cream.

i think having a splash of colour in your kitchen would look lovely... even if you do paint it neutral... you could but a huge brightly painted canvas... or paint it yourself...

we have this canvas in our kitchen....

reviews.next.co.uk/4377-en_gb/382103/next-multi-heart-hand-painted-canvas-reviews/reviews.htm

or how about brightly coloured kettles, toasters etc....

www.next.co.uk/x491314s1#749894x49

The whole area is open plan, so it's basically an L shape with the kitchen in one end of the L, opening into the dining area which is the corner of the L and then the lounge is the other end of the L.

I guess part of my problem is that if we use the same colour the whole wall which goes behind the kitchen cupboards and through to the dining area, it will need to tone in with the taupe wall opposite at the far end of the lounge - which I think may confine us to neutrals. We had also wondered about some kind of transition from neutral in kitchen to another taupe wall behind the dining area (opposite the other one) but I'm not sure how two darker walls opposite each other would look - may make it all look smaller?

Sofas are a kind of terracotta/orange colour - hard to describe but just a single colour, not too bright but they do add colour, and then we have a mat and a runner on the coffee table in dark reds and oranges.

The mosaic tiles in the kitchen will be this: www.firedearth.com/painted-desert so that should give a bit of colour in the kitchen. Floor will be cream-ish tiles throughout (we live in Luxembourg where everyone has either wood or tiles, no carpet, but as we are having underfloor heating we prefer the tiles).

It's being built at the moment so there is a lot to work out!! kind of the opposite to you, we're going for a very modern style throughout but I'm trying to soften it a bit with some curves and colour!