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Our kitchen is now bright yellow-green - what goes with that?!?

Recently my husband and I decided to repaint certain rooms in our house. My original plan was to incorporate these colors: Green tea green (kind of like a pistachio color) Chocolate brown Wheat gold My husband was reluctant to repaint our accent wall at the moment, so I convinced him to repaint our kitchen. I wanted it to be a shade of green because green is the most soothing, relaxing color, and because it is very nature-y. After going through several green chips, holding them up to the wall, and looking at them in different lights at different times of the day, we finally decided on Behr's Carolina Parakeet. We initially liked it because it is bright and fresh and happy. So then my husband painted the kitchen a few nights ago and the color seemed overwhelmingly bright on a large scale. It takes some getting used to, anyway. Our kitchen is not that big, so there isn't that much wall space anyway, but the color is very neon. It's almost exactly the same color of this shirt: http://www.artoshirt.net/catalog/bio.jpg Before my husband even got done painting I started to have doubts. Keep in mind, my original plan was to do a nature theme - greens, browns, golds. Very earthy. This is more space-agey. I am really unsure about it, but my husband is pretty convinced he likes it, and several other people who have seen it seem to agree that it's wild but they like it. My problem is, the kitchen is open to the living room, and nothing in the living room now matches the kitchen walls. In fact, the accent wall in the living room is kind of a dreary grayish-green color. My question is, what can we make the accent wall that won't clash with the green? I looked through some magazines and happened to find a page where a neon green color was paired with a rusty orange or a pumpkin orange. Me and a few other people seemed to think this looked like the best match. Should we just repaint our kitchen, or can this work? My husband hates anything gray and generally avoids blue. My only restriction is that I don't like stressful colors, or colors that cause a stressful feeling because they are in the wrong room. If you have not seen the Carolina Parakeet color, look it up - it's a Behr paint color. It reminds me of a yellow highlighter. Can a white/oak kitchen with beige floor tiles look good with this paint color? What do you think? Can we still fit chocolate brown into our scheme? Is there a way I can embrace this green color and make it fit the mood of our home?

Public Comments

1. I have yellow kitchen walls and I painted one wall red!! I love it and so do others!!! And I add red or black accents where I can.
2. i would repaint the kitchen. i like the color scheme your going for. just tone down the green a few notches. then to get some of the new green into your living room. take a paint chip of the new color and shop for accessories. it can be candles, a throw, pillows, on a rug, etc. what color is your living room? paint it wheat gold and use chocolate brown curtains in your living room and in the kitchen. do you have open shelving in your kitchen? display something with those colors. best of luck! keep any receipts if you can afford it buy to many items then when you at home narrow down your selection and return what you aren't going to use. i always do that with pillows. i have to see it on my couch before deciding.
3. pumpkin orange would go better but if you would like the room to not look too bright go with a pale yellow
4. I would repaint with a color that goes with the rest of your walls and furniture. There is not much that goes with highlighter green. :o) (You cant always tell with colors before you get them up on the wall. I painted my living room what I thought was a nice warm beige, and it turned out to be pink. It was like being inside a hot dog...I had to repaint. :o)) Some paint companies provide paint samples you can actually paint on the wall, rather than just the little paper strips. You might want to go that route.