RHome410: In-Laws' Kitchen, Part 5 begins: Paint chips, tile boards, laminate samples...

Time for the fun part. The part that gets my creativity going and allows me to paw through boards and samples at the design store with purpose, and with goals in mind. The sheetrock and Mom and Dad-in-Laws' house is getting textured this week, so it's time to specify paint colors so we can flow into the next step without delay.
Since none of the specific materials (wall color, cabinet color, carpet, kitchen flooring, countertops, backsplashes) have been chosen, it's time to get onto all of it, as I like to juggle it all until I'm sure everything will fall nicely into place together. I have picked all but tile or carpet for previous projects, then couldn't find that last piece of the puzzle to make it all work, so I now try to do it as a package and consider my initial choices as tentative until all are decided. I'd rather take a 2nd choice on one of the main elements to make sure the individual parts form a cohesive and hopefully stunning whole.

The realtor had a consultant come in several months ago and she suggested Devine's Macadamia for the walls throughout the house, but our painter is buying from Sherwin Williams. Online, Macadamia appears to be a golden tan. I'm not sure that's the color we should be headed for, since, as Princess Bossy pointed out, the Northwest marine and mountain view is the focus of this home, and the interior should coordinate, not compete...If anything, it should take a back seat. She suggested something grayer and earthier...possibly with a hint of green to go better with the cooler colors God has placed out the windows, and I think I agree.

With this in mind, I've decided to tentatively move toward paint colors that I refer to as 'chameleons.' The kind of color that no one can really identify, since it looks gray, tan, and possibly greenish all at the same time and a little different from every angle and in different lighting. We have colors like that in our house and they allow for use of so many different color schemes. I'm not usually one to do a more monochromatic, classically neutral palette (tones of beiges). Hopefully, though, this is a little more exciting, while suiting almost any buyer's decor. I find that colors like cinnamon, navy, burgundy, red, black, and others can all work well with this as a backdrop, but it has more character, depth, and appeal than 'builders' white.' The ones I'm liking most are SW 7052 Gray Area, it's lighter shade, #7051 Analytical Gray, and #6170 Techno Gray.

The next elements I looked at were cabinet paint and countertop. Tossing a few samples of each around on the table, taking care to check them with the window lighting rather than the overhead fluorescents, Formica's Perlato Granite, an elegant swirling pattern with creams and taupes, and Wilsonart's Jeweled Opal with browns and some bluish and burgundy inclusions are looking like possible options. The design store and Home Depot didn't have the full range of laminate samples, so next week I'll be off to the builders' supply store to search out more. DalTile's classic Biscuit or Almond 3 x 6" subways looked pretty good with the tentative wall colors...and SW 7011 Natural Choice seems like a good cabinet color if we use the biscuit tiles. Another option would be to use the Architectural Gray tiles of the same line in the 6 x 8" size for more contemporary pizazz...But maybe that's not best for resale. I think a grout similar to the wall color, but a shade or so lighter, will give definition to the tile and connect the cabinets, walls, tile, and counter....The 'whole' I was looking for.

Other major pieces to the puzzle are flooring: Carpet for most of the house, some bathroom vinyls, and flooring for the kitchen. Hubby is set on click-together engineered wood for the kitchen, as it will look warm, rich, and be a good choice to butt up to the stone entry flooring. Because the original wood trim will be staying, we want to, not match, but coordinate with it, and 4 of us agreed that a Hickory in a 'Saddle' stain with a hand-scraped look was the best choice. So that's the only element so far that we're not considering as tentative. But having one material that isn't flexible helps guide and narrow-down the rest of the choices.
The carpet search is next...

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