I have come to hate my grey kitchen in the winter.

[Allthethings]

New kitchen several years ago. Opted for dark grey units, white quartz worktop, light grey flooring. I didn't want the walls white so opted for a lovely pale blue.

It all makes me very happy in the spring and summer. Its south facing and gets beautiful light filtering in, 'rainbows' cast by the sparkle in the quartz, foliage shadows on the walls etc...

In the winter, it just makes me feel miserable and cold and I don't want to spend time in there. We have an oak table in the dining part, have added colourful art on the walls and even added some oak shelves to try and add warmth and make it cosy. Ultimately though, the grey makes the space dark and the blue walls make the space cold.

I'm open to suggestions, or even commiserations if you have experienced similar. I love country style kitchen diners and I'm not sure what I was thinking when we made the choices we did. It was part of an extension so perhaps we were deciosion-fatigued. Also, it was difficult to plan a kitchen for a space which didn't then exist.

What do you think would make the biggest difference? Change the floor colour? Lighting? Wall colour? If so, what colours? Would painting one wall deeper shade help or make it worse?

I’m and one that doesn’t like timeless, to me it sucks the light out of the room and feels a bit depressing. I can imagine it suiting a cosy country cottage though.

I’m another one

I'm another timeless didn't work in our room either - drab almost brownish tinge..

we have some bright pops of colour (yellow) however I think a pinky colour woud be warming and also work in spring/summer freshness and goes really well with grey/white - however maybe too bold for your style - although Little greene Dorchester comes in different depths

www.farrow-ball.com/cinder-rose/paint-colours/farrow-ball/fcp-product/100246#BVRRWidgetID

www.littlegreene.com/paint/colour/red-and-pink-paint

Johnstone matching is good .... its a lot easier to paint than strip floors!

I had this issue in my old house in the living room and painted it darker in the winter for cosyness and back to cream in the summer! Bit of a pain but worth it so having a separate set of furnishings and ornaments for winter colour might work - just need storage space in the summer!

Adding mustard in for an accent colour with grey but may not go with your blue walls

IKEA have some great tall fern like plants that are lovely and bushy.

Remember these dark evenings make a lot of kitchens feel dark. One massive , very bright painting over the dining table would help. I also buy flowers from lidl very cheaply every week so these cheer me up. Also l plant lots of tulip bulbs outside the garden doors and they are a fantastic lift after Christmas when all seems misery. Use all the same colour and you will smile every time they catch your eye on those cold February days.

Our kitchen sounds exactly the same as yours. We have a colour called Sea not Sky from the Paint & Paper co, it's blues green but not a cold colour at all. Also we have had blinds fitted at the French doors and windows, they are Venetian blinds but they are actually attached to the door, they sit inside the frame, hard to describe but they work well and it's so much cosier at night. How about something like a big rug or runner for the floor? Ours is wood but I would still like to try and break it up a bit.