Open-ish plan and colour schemes

[Yorky]

We have just started the process of extending our 2.5bed semi (have hired architect and are on revision3 of the plans before permission - so a little way to go yet )

The original house was a through lounge/diner for about half the house, with hall/stairs and kitchen the other half. A previous owner added a single storey extension which we use as a dining room across the hall from the lounge door, giving an L shaped footprint (hope you're following)

We plan to push the kitchen wall out, and square it off to the dining room to give a lovely big L shaped kitchen/diner (and add a couple of bedrooms upstairs). We are also considering knocking through between the kitchen and lounge/diner (currently there is a doorway but we want to widen it to 2m or more) as the DC use that end of the lounge as their playroom and we want them to have more space. The jury is still out on whether to fit folding/sliding doors in this opening

Sorry for this getting long, I'm hoping you can now picture a kind of U shaped open plan layout going form kitchen to diner to playroom to lounge, with the original hall and stairs between the kitchen and lounge at the 2tops of the U

And now we get to the point of the question - Do we need to coordinate colours in the 'zones', or would they help differentiate between them?
Any opinions on doors between playroom and dining area also welcome

Thank you

how about re-instating the lounge, is that possible?
To answer your question, I would have one colour scheme. the doors? Depends how messy you are in the playroom.

I had a similar type of issue and really wanted to be Origanl, stylish and creative. After agonising for hours and hours and using a couple of dozen taster pots I ended up painting the whole lot magnolia.
It goes with everything, can be bought cheaply, premixed in bulk containers and can be easily matched. It's warm and looks nice throughout the year.
I have put up some big pieces of art and very embarrassed to admit have a feature wall in the kitchen along a long and plain wall. This way when I get bored of the wacky wallpaper I can easily replace it.

You can have different colours but make sure they form a good palate,so that they work together. So you wouldn't have lime green with dusty pink for instance. You want the colours to work all the way through. You could do different types of neutral, or different types of one colour, or if you're brave, you could try toning colours.

So, you could just use Dulux Period Coloursd for instance, and still have different colours, but they work together. Difficult to explain without examples tbh.

I'd go for plain white everywhere, and then get creative with soft furnishings, art, furniture and light fittings.

Is it wrong that I prefer Rhubarb's plain white idea to Leander's magnolia simply due to having spent 8yrs of married life in entirely magnolia forces' houses I have enjoyed painting walls for the first time here!
But the thought of plain white is scary with 4DC under 6!

I'm going for cream cupboard doors on the kitchen units so they go with anything
The suite is 'mushroom' I think officially

Lounge is currently beigey-biscuity with one light blue wall, and I was thinking of cream walls in the kitchen (poss same colour if we get painted cupboard doors) with one red wall to stop it being bland (no need to blush for your feature walls here Leander ) The problem is when we have the dining table extended one end will have a read wall and the other blue - will this look a mess, if there are creamy/beigey shades around/between them?

I have an open plan area of 45ft x 20ft which consists of 3 areas - kitchen/dining/family. I did consider zoning but decided on one instead - Elephant's Breath (matched Johnstone's so I can touch up!) Extremely happy with the colour - yes, the finish is not chalky but chalky is too impractical for a family with young DC. I've done my hall/landing/stairs in Skimming Stone. My Separate uility & study in Slipper Satin & my sitting room in Blue Grey (actually is a sage green) which looks absolutely fantastic! Note that I had it all F&B colour matched with Johnstone's paint and I am really happy with the results.

I have littlies too and I've found plain white eminently practical. For a start it's cheap, so you are not tearing your hair out that the little buggers darlings have put grubby finger marks on your cost-a-fortune Farrow & Ball Dog's Fart; you can scrub it clean without worrying and magic erasers work well on it. If it's really bad, you can slap on another coat cheaply and easily without any colour matching worries. Dulux is unlikely to discontinue brilliant white!

Plain white is the way. Preferably some kind of washable paint like Dulux Endurance or the trade version (can't remember it's name or the price comparison).

Mind you, I have fallen in love with Dulux Cloud Pearl 4 too - seems like it will lend itself to many amendments in the colour scheme. Cost a fortune in Endurance paint though...

yorky you ate not wrong to like white over magnolia, I think white can look more modern. Like I said, I was very surprised I eventually chose magnolia. I just worked better with our floorings and kitchen etc. I don't regret it.

Best thing to do is buy a small tin and get painting. A trial pot is too small.