Kitchen and living room makeover

[SugarandSpiceLatte]

i have just bought a house and want to update my kitchen to make it brighter- kitchen cabinets are only a few years old. I’m thinking of painting the walls or maybe changing the floor tiles in the kitchen and maybe painting the living room walls blue and white to make it brighter. Any suggestions?

Yes, I'd repaint the walls white / off-white. The grey makes it look gloomy. Lighter floor tiles in the kitchen too. In the living room I'd avoid blue as it can look quite cold. Stick to whites and creams, and possibly get a large rug for the living room, mainly cream coloured and / or with a simple minimalist pattern that picks out an accent colour from something else in the room.

I did similar when we moved. Grey was replaced by off white, cream ceilings now white and I painted the kitchen cabinets (orangey wood). I used light coloured vinyl over the floor - it had been tiles made of vinyl in dark grey - as I plan to replace in a few years. It made a huge difference, much brighter. The living room painted the same as the kitchen plus blue at the bottom of the walls. So much nicer than grey and much brighter. If light is low use mirrors to direct light further into the room.

I think if you can afford to change either the rug or the curtains to something more colourful that would help too. Possibly think about painting the mantelpiece white as well? I think a really large print or piece of art over the sofa on the wall adjacent to the window would look good

I have not moved in yet (completing in two weeks) I am planning on painting the walls white and mineral blue dulux paint with grey sofas with cream and blue accent pieces. For the kitchen I was planning to change the flooring to white marble floors with sage green walls, would this work?

I'm normally against blue in a living room (unless it's a blue green), but I had a tester of Dulux Mineral Blue for another room and it's a really nice colour, so could look good if there isn't too much of it. I can't comment on the grey sofas, as I just really don't like grey (except silvery grey as an accent colour).

The green in the kitchen sounds nice if it's a pale sage. As regards the flooring, just watch out for clashing whites with the units. Personally I'd go for a pale wood effect LVT / laminate, which would add warmth but still nice and light.

Maybe it's not actually as dark as the photos make it look? Putting the lights on is a mistake amateur photographers sometimes make. It just screams 'no natural light here'.

Definitely change the grey floor. Be careful of sage green, it can absorb light. I'd be inclined to go for off white for a while until you see how much light there is and then decide. If you just have one small window, you'll need to make sure a blind isn't blocking it. In the longer term, you might want to enlarge the window. It makes a huge difference.

I would live there a bit before changing the floor tiles if they are porcelain or ceramic. Expensive to change. The dark floor might grow on you (or not show the dirt) darker floors can be "grounding".
Don't put down laminate it's awful stuff.
What about a big kelim red hued rug from IKEA under the kitchen table to cosy room up.
Mineral mist from Dulux is a lovely blue wall colour. But chilly in eves Looks nice with red accessories! I would paint living room blue and kitchen pale sage. Sage and red/dark pink accessories look great...red and white oil cloth perhaps
You don't need to paint fireplace if you have lighter walls even blue.
Or live with grey walls until you've worked out light in the room times of day etc. often a favourite picture over mantlepiece has a keynote colour that you can use to match your wall.