North-facing open plan kitchen - can my colour scheme work?

[sweetmelody]

Anyone out there hot on colours/lighting etc who might like to give me some advice?
We are renovating our house and will have a large open plan kitchen/dining/living space (7.5m square). There will be a 6m run of sliding doors out to the garden and close to the centre of the room (running parallel with the doors) will be a line of large skylights. The kitchen/dining area will be in one half of the room with a hob run along the long wall, a large island in the middle of this half of the room, and a fridge/freezer/larder unit combo along the short wall. Flooring will have an oak finish.
I always intended painted units with a charcoal/pale grey/white colour scheme, with the island in a charcoal/dark grey and the hob run and larder units in off white or with a hint of grey. The worktop is a white quartz with pale grey veining that mimics Carrara marble.
But I am now really worried that for a north-facing room, which currently is too dark but where we are hoping that the sliding doors and rooflights will introduce lots of light, the colour scheme is ?wrong?. But I can?t work out how to warm it up so that it works better (if the light will be an issue at all with the new windows/doors?) or what colour scheme would work better but be just as nice.
Can anyone point me in the direction of, say, any Farrow and Ball colours that might solve my dilemma?

I would get some samples(sorry) and try the grey scheme and also something erring more towards brownish greys and whites rather than blue. Paint large pieces of paper and live with them for a week or so. The plus about a north room is that the light is steady there is not much variation so if you like the colour in the morning it will be fine all day. Slate tones could be cold although I think it sounds great I have had similar.What about (very)dark olives and off white

Yes I doubt I can avoid the (endless) sample-trying, and you are right, I probably need to try my 'ideal' against what is recommended.

Dark olive is a verrrrry interesting suggestion. Off to peruse....

The other problem I meant to mention that restricts the time that I have for trying samples is that I will need to advise the kitchen company of the colours before the doors are in place. Although the rooflights will be in beforehand, and Im hoping that its those that will make the main difference light-wise (in that the light will be coming through from a different direction than before)

I think the white and grey work well, I would have a third colour though. I have a west facing kitchen, so only get the sun later in the day. I have some grey gloss base units on the bottom, white on the top, with raspberry pink glass splash backs. The light is reflected off the surfaces, the glass is like a mirror and I can see the reflection of the children at the table etc, very handy!
My worktops are white quartz with flecks or grey and mirror, also light reflective.
I have painted 2 walls Dulux Potters Clay, which looks grey on the wall but when I washed the roller out, it was stained magenta, so a grey with a lot of warm tones, lots of people have commented on the colour and asked what it is.
When we first moved in the walls were more of a blue grey, I found the colour to be very cold and had a very depressing effect on me in the mornings!

And yes I know that what I have had fitted is already 'out' by Mn standards but I love it

It's your house isn't it?!
Depends whether you are looking to sell at any point soon -
E agent told me that A Dark Kitchen is one of the top things that put folk off a house (we have one)
Good luck with it all - am going thru similar so feel your pain

Yes keen on a third colour and really like the white and grey schemes that have a splash of that chartreuse-yellow. I know I need to veer towards brown-grays rather than blue-greys, but havent got anything that I can point to and say 'that's what I want'.

Not selling any time soon, but definitely dont want to live with a too-dark kitchen either....

A tip a decorator gave me was to paint big pieces of lining paper, rather than match pots on the wall, and try it in bent in corners to see what the colour looks like reflected on itself.

The Dulux mix up colours come in small trial pots, worth spending on a few to see what works best.

Given the large windows and the amount of roof lights you will have, I think it is really unlikely that you will find the room dark unless the garden/house is very enclosed by other buildings/large trees etc. I think greys - or what I call drabs such as khaki, stone etc - will look fantastic. Very about the size of your room.

Thanks for the vote of confidence on the additional light, la la. SO used to living in a cave I just cannot picture the room being lighter.

I am increasingly liking the idea of a dark-grey with some green/olive in it, since I want to use yellow as an accent. I thought Down Pipe had a lot of green in it having seen this picture, but in reality I think it is probably more of a simple charcoal.....

I like Egyptian cotton (I may have said that before )

Resurrecting an old thread, but I have a very similar north facing open plan kitchen diner which I'm also planning on doing in white/grey (Ikea Abstrakt). Just wondering what you ended up going with, and whether or not your happy after living with it for a few months?

Hi, we have recently completed a similar north facing kitchen/family room. We have shaker / Harvey Jones style cabinets with long bar handles, and a pale grey work top with sparkly bits ( not footballers' wives - honestly). We went for a Dulux colour called Potter's Clay, which comes in 4 grades. It has a slight purply feel to it.

We painted 2 walls in the darkest one and 2 in the second palest. The cupboards along the L-shape are also in the second palest, but they are against the darkest walls. The island is in the second darkest shade. Does this make sense??

It looks fab, very contemporary, and it never looks dark & gloomy.

Haven?t been on Property for a while since I have very little decision?making left, really (just the long slog to get it all finished!!), and just spotted one of my old threads. Can?t believe I stuck to my original colour scheme! We went for Down Pipe on the island, Cornforth White on the perimeter units, Carrara marble-style quartz worktops, and Timeless by Dulux on the walls (only one coat up so far ? Dad has gone AWOL). Looks fab, delighted with it. Have still got oak flooring to go down (not anytime soon since found water under the floorboards last week ) but am thinking of going for a yellow/teal/magenta colour accents (it works, honestly!) for cushions/rugs etc, rather than just one colour. Will try and put some pictures up on my profile later?.