Is it really time to pick the dark paint colors for the kitchen? Almost. Come see what I’m thinking.
Confession time: sometimes I get a paint sample and…it scares me.
The dark blue master bedroom? Scared me.
The dark green study? Scared me.
The VERY dark green mudroom? SCARED ME.
All this to say that when a color is so bold that I feel a LITTLE uncomfortable, it generally means it’s a goooood color.
We still have a lot of work to do prepping the kitchen walls for paint. But we’re close enough now – and we’ve done SO much unfun work – I decided I had to treat myself to a little bit of a break in the form of paint samples. AND I’M SCARED.
A Dark Yellow Kitchen – Round 1
I’ve known for what feels like forever that this kitchen needed to be yellow. But yellow is a tricky color.
Too dark and you have brown. Too light and you have baby ducks. We want something juuuuust right.
I went through my giant collection of chips, considered far to many dark paint colors, and came up with four different yellows I wanted to try.
Option 1 (top): Turmeric by Behr
I wanted this to work SO BAD. It seemed like the perfect just SLIGHTLY too bold to be comfortable color. But still on this side of reasonable.
Turns out in real life it’s just radioactive. This was Brandon’s pick and he’s honestly pretty good about color so I was a little let down for sure. Oh well. On to the next.
Option 2 (second down): Butterscotch Ripple by Glidden
This was an obvious yes. Yup. For sure. This is the right direction. We’ll come back to this color in a minute.
Option 3 (third down): Ochre by Benjamin Moore (color matched to Behr)
I’d seen gorgeous pictures on line using this color. It looked dark and rich but still bright and interesting. So I asked the lady at the paint counter if she had it in the system.
Pretty much before I got it out of the store, it was a definite no. I LOVE the color. Just not for this kitchen.
Attempted Option 4 (bottom): India Yellow by Farrow and Ball (color matched to Behr)
I had also seen amazing pictures on Pinterest of India Yellow…and definitely wanted to try it. I brought the color card to the paint counter with me in hopes of getting a color match.
Womp. What I think I actually got was a color match of Sudbury Yellow, which is quite a bit too light. I think Inida Yellow would be too light too so it’s not too big of a hardship.
A Dark Yellow Kitchen – Round 2
Out of these four dark paint colors, I for sure 100% liked Butterscotch Ripple best. What do we do when we like a color best? Test it on the wall!!
Well. I definitely didn’t like that. I’m all for dark paint colors, but this was reading almost brown. It was just TOO dark. Let’s see what we can do to fix that.
First I changed the paint sheen from semi-gloss to satin (as a rule, glossy colors will look bolder than their matte counterparts). I hoped the satin would calm the color a little.
Second as a precaution I also got one shade lighter, just to see.
Option 5: Butterscotch Ripple by Glidden (top, this time in satin)
Option 6: Amaretto Sours by Glidden (bottom, also in satin)
I tested both of these on the walls and…again. Underwhelmed. Butterscotch Ripple (left) was just a tad too dark. Amaretto Sours (right) was just a touch too light.
By this point I felt quite persnickity. But THIS IS IMPORTANT. We will keep getting samples until the perfect color is acquired. So when one color is too dark and the other color is too light, what’s the natural solution? MIX THEM. Duh.
I mixed one part Butterscotch Ripple and one part Amaretto Sours to get…quite possibly the most delicious color on the face of the planet. I mean…LOOK AT THAT. It’s the middle one. And it’s PERFECTION.
Sooooo I found my magical color. I need to get a color match and then verify it looks ok with the refinished floors. But…man oh man am I getting excited. Pretty sure this is IT.
A Moody Green Pantry
BUT PAIGE. If you knew your kitchen was going to be yellow, why did you get green samples?
Because if one has the opportunity to make a pantry gloriously dramatic, one must DO IT. I honestly do not know where this idea came from but my brain spat out this Excel sketch a few months ago. I haven’t considered any alternatives since.
My heart skips a beat just looking at it. The walls and ceiling will all be painted a medium, saturated olive green. The cabinets will be the same color but several shades darker. I find green a little easier to pick since I’ve picked it before.
Interestingly the cabinet color came first. Eastern Bamboo by Behr jumped out of the paint deck at me, and the sample didn’t disappoint (bottom color). Then I selected two different options for the wall color.
Pantry walls (middle color): Truly Olive by Behr
Alternate pantry walls (top color): Olive Shade by Behr
Either of these lighter greens would work. But I felt more drawn to the lower saturation of the Truly Olive. And the two of them together? Absolute perfection.
Dark Paint Colors Are the Best
Seeing these three colors together, I actually can’t even contain myself. I LOVE color and these three together just make me so HAPPY. I have never regretted any of the other dark paint colors in our house, and I’m just ITCHING to get these ones up on the wall.
We still have a lot to do before we can actually get to painting with these glorious shades. So. Now I’d better get back to priming so I can paint these bad boys sooner rather than later.
Well done! Being of a primitive-colonial bent that much color for whole walls is not quite my cup of tea, but I can appreciate how lovely and fitting with your house style your kitchen and pantry will be. And what a joy; finding the perfect color(s) that just “click”! Ahh! Satisfaction!