Shades of grey - colour-trained eyes required

Rosa_Damascena

I'm looking for the discerning eye on this one!

I've always wanted a green kitchen but an a little worried that a large bank of units in even a light-ish shade will look darker than intended (going by my choices of paint colour an how they look on walls). So I'm now thinking of toning back the green and going with a sage-grey colour as in the image below:



My question is what colour palette should the walls be to bring out the green? If I go with a green colour such as the Dulux Overtly Olive below its going to look even greyer:



I don't want to end up with a drab grey-looking kitchen but again the more I look, the more confused I become

Rosa_Damascena

Does this look grey or green...?

And a couple of examples from Howdens, the lower one looks a drab grey-brown to me:

searchlight123

very difficult to tell on a computer screen where colours are not always reproduced accurately enough.
much better to buy a few match pots (around £1 each) of the few colours you are considering and actually try them on your wall. colours look different in daylight or under electric lighting also, so really need to try them in situ.

Rosa_Damascena

tonygold said:

very difficult to tell on a computer screen where colours are not always reproduced accurately enough.
much better to buy a few match pots (around £1 each) of the few colours you are considering and actually try them on your wall. colours look different in daylight or under electric lighting also, so really need to try them in situ.

I did plan to do this once I've narrowed the colour palette down a bit. Which wall colour is likely to make the grey look greener? I just can't conceptualise it.

Rosa_Damascena

The cabinet colours will be the sample on the left with the white / grey sparkle worktop. Can you see from the colours I picked from B&Q, the colour route I am going down is completely wrong

EssexExile

With grey units I'd want a brighter green to warm the room up. Soothing Sage would be my choice, but I detest grey so don't listen to me!

[Deleted User]

Be careful. If you view the same image on two different devices, the colours are likely to look very different.

Rosa_Damascena

Believe it or not sage-grey is a green! And yes I agree about grey, any monochrome IMHO is as boring can be. I have realised that pairing the subtle green with a true green will merely make the cabinets look a dingy grey shade Picking colours shouldn't be a difficult or time-consuming task, yet it is!

gt568

Having had to repaint my kitchen three times to pacify my wife, I'd suggest the only way to be 100% sure is to paint an area with a sample.  IME the colours just never look the same on a swatch as a walll.

Ganga

gt568 said:

Having had to repaint my kitchen three times to pacify my wife, I'd suggest the only way to be 100% sure is to paint an area with a sample.  IME the colours just never look the same on a swatch as a walll.

Or get your wife to choose it and put it on the walls 

twopenny

I'd go for bigger than swatches. Get a sample pot or two and paint a bit of A4 paper you can hold up or leave around.

I tried this with a theory I tought would be ridiculous and used a batch of coloured photocopying paper and layed it out. A heck of a lot. But it showed I wasn't nuts and it would work to lighten the kitchen.

But do it to suit you. I'm still looking for my cream worktops because I want to create a feeling of sunshine when I walk in.

And remember - grey has been around a long time. Any moment now they will change the prevailing colour to encourage people to spend more money on their house to be up to date.

Anyone remember the lime green and orange 'must have'? Followed by cream cabinets? Followed by ultra gloss? And I was so envious of my friends new Avacado bathroom................