Decorating Tips - Kitchen

Anything permanent, like a backsplash, keep pretty neutral. You don't have to go beige, but one day you will be sick of purple, and then you will be stuck with a purple backsplash.

Put hints of color in your backsplash, so that you can repaint your walls when you are sick of them (and it will happen), and the backsplash won't dictate what color you can paint. I had bright purple and yellow in a living room once, and I certainly wouldn't want that now.

Pick something with subtle multi-color, to give you options.

If you are willing to go non-traditional, I love the moroccan/mediterranean look, and the plum and red you described might fit right in it. I would describe the coloring to be muted, bright and darker colors.

They have textiles w/awesome patterns - beautiful swirls but w/modern borders and patterns.

If you have a Cost Plus World Market, they have what I've described.

Wall decals can add some great accents. You can get a wall decal for just about anything for any theme.

I like looking at large furniture store websites for decorating inspiration...and every once in a while I watch random soap operas b/c their sets are amazing.

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I would not use a high gloss for the walls. You will have too much reflected light. You can get scrubable paint that isn't high gloss. Just ask at the paint store. I would go with a satin. It has some sheen and is easy to clean but it won't glow.

I guess I am lucky because my island has wood all the way around. Much easier to clean than painted walls. If I were you I would go with a tile that compliments the counter tops. I use tiles where ever possible because once they are in they can be cleaned over and over and over.....

Another idea would be stained wood panels.

Depending on the theme of your house you could go with a brick facade, stuco, even types of planking.

My kitchen and family room are open to each other with no wall separating the main wall. What I did paint wise in that area was to find complimentary colors. So if you look at three walls of my family room they are a sage color. The wall that has the open stairs is a light green with sage undertones. One sage wall goes into the kitchen and the rest of the kitchen walls are the lighter color. Basically small spaces or spaces I want bright are the lighter color, large rooms are the darker. It is then accented with a dark blue and deep red.

Back splashes...tile!!!!!! You will thank me for that one. Well if you cook you will cause everything gets spilled and tile is soooooo easy to clean.

To prevent stains on paint, NEVER use 'matte' paint. It attracts dirt and stains.
Always use either semi-gloss or high gloss paint. And it can be wiped clean. So redo the paint, under the island.

High-gloss paint, is usually used for trim and/or accents.
Or yes, you can do a whole wall with it. Up to you.

You can always, bring in a 3rd color, to complement your existing colors. Usually "3" is used to balance things out. But use it in a minority manner. Not predominantly.

Back-splashes can be anything: metal, glass tiles, ceramic tiles, stone etc.

My color's are similar to yours. I have a picture with lots of red in it in the eating part of the kitchen and a floor lamp with a red shade. My backsplash is painted plum. I think you have enough color going on with the purple and red. My suggestion is to go with a taupe semi gloss color (which is what I put up). I used Valspar signature and I think the color is called Lyndhurst Timber. It's taupe, not beige, not coffee, just a nice classic taupe with no undertones. Our eating area opens into the living room where we have a dark Chocolate accent wall and two red wingback chairs. All the colors look really nice but not overdone. I wish we could post pictures on this site, would love to see your final choice.

I just have a suggestion for the type of paint. We used Behr Flat Enamel paint for our whole house and that has been great! The look of "flat" with the washability of semi gloss, the best of both worlds. If you've already used Behr paint for your other walls, you can plug those colors into the Behr paint website and it will suggest other colors that will look good with those. We did our whole house like this. Had fun painting online too. Good luck!

http://www.behr.com/dsm-ext/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=6bd8ea6...