Color combinations?

Green and red are complementary colours but if it's a light green it matches a pale yellow with white walls, or at least white ceiling.

as an art director of 15 years, i see a couple ways you could go

a mellow yellow, a sage green, or a blue-grey

play around here: http://www.valspar.com/painter.html

ignore the combination in the room, was just trying to show where the color should go, not the combination

Lotta flat surface there. If you have a friend who's an artist, you should do some kind of mod mural to go with the wallpaper

That's a great tool there at Valspar, thanks! You can't see it in the photo but the wall over the cabinets is sage green now. I've been leaning towards yellow, but I really wanted an aqua that I don't think will jibe with the oven.

I don't want anything painted in the same color as the oven/stove, really. Do you think yellow and white would look good? Like the two shades of yellow in your example, along with that whitish color?

Irina, red scares me! I wouldn't know where to begin in terms of shades. Yellow is one of my favorite colors so I'll probably use some combination with that color.

Monkey, I like patterns, textures and colors but am not so inclined towards a mural. I think my kitchen is too small, and I can't think of anything I'd want to look at forever. It would be horrible to paint over it if I ever wanted a change after someone put so much work into it.

Watch out picking too bright a yellow, though. My mom recently painted a bathroom yellow and well, EVERYTHING in that room now looks yellow. You look in the mirror and it's like you have jaundice. The color of the walls will reflect light in the same color--so combining it with white might be a good idea. We just painted kids' bedrooms last weekend and we did blue up to a height of about 3.5 feet, then put a white trim border and had white going up the rest of the wall and the cieling--it seems to work really well. The rooms are nice and bright and well lit because of the white, but there is also color.

yellow and white look good, just make sure it is a more golden yellow, not too bright, a bit on the more orange/red side, and feel free to use shades of brown (tan, beige, etc.) as accents, or even a bit of brick red for accent - yellows can lean towards earthtones easily

1. Take a photo of your stuff
2. Go here http://kuler.adobe.com/
3. Upload photo
4. Profit

Thanks, Gayle, that's good to know because I am drawn to bright canary yellow by default. There is a foot and a half of wall space between the cabinets and ceiling so I'll keep that lighter.

Kirk, thanks for that the link, it's pretty fun messing around in there! It taught me that Irena and Richard KNOW what they're talking about.

Richard your suggestions all came up as complementary on the Kuler site! So, I have to ask you to do me a big favor and if/when you have time, tell me the colors or product numbers for the paints from the Valspar site. The two yellows and and a suitable brick red. I'm nervous about using red, but I think painting the wall over the sink that color (along with the paintable wallpaper) would look good. It's not a huge wall, but it's visible from the living room.

Just be careful that the bold colors don't end up looking like a football team. When in doubt, take it down a notch

DARK YELLOW:
3001-1B Dandelion Wish or 3002-1B Chickadee

LIGHT YELLOW:
3004-2B Hazy Dawn

BRICK RED:
1011-2 Fabulous Red

and I picked a grey/platinum that might be nice for accents
1002-10A Wool Coat

Or find similar chips wherever you go at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.

HAVE FUN! The red, used sparingly, will be like adding in a brick tile backsplash.

Agree with the light golden-yellow. It would bring light into the kitchen, complement your appliances, and make the room feel larger overall.

You rock!

Oh, and I feel really great because I actually know what "backsplash" means as of, uh, five hours ago!

Gonna go check out those colors now, thanks again.

The light is okay because the living room wall/dining room is a wall of windows, but more would be great because the lack of windows in the kitchen itself.

I'm kind of falling in love with orangey terra cotta red so I may paint my dining room, too.

love terra cotta

have fun, and good luck! post up pics!