I would use the same color for both rooms, you could paint the end wall a contrasting color for more visual interest. For the backsplash I would do tile to give the kitchen some interest.

Jessica, I'm so glad you posted. I would hate to think that people feel that this site is only for those with large and grand homes. I certainly don't have such a home, and I don't hesitate to post when I have a question I think the talented folks on here can help me with.

As I wrote on another thread, I love small spaces because you can do so much with them without spending a ton of money. For example, check out threads by My3dogs. She has gotten great bargains from ebay and Craig's list and with paint and sewing and her talent, her home is beautiful!

You've made a great start in your BR!

I would use the same color on the walls in both your LR and kitchen.As for your kitchen counters, be aware that butcher block is not a great surface for water, such as around the sink. I have butcher block on my island and have to be careful to wipe up any water spills right away. And also , that the butcher block should be sanded and reoiled every few months (I'm about a year behind on doing that, lol). There may be other finishes that don't require this on butcher block but I went with a natural finish and mineral oil for food safety.

I think that formica is very underrated as a counter surface. It's too bad because it is a great surface, is inexpensive, and comes in so many choices of colors. To jazz it up a bit, you can have a beveled edge in a different color put on. I think that if you paint the cabinets white and the walls sailcloth, that more colorful countertop might be nice. Or even a black countertop? That is a classic look with white cabinets.

I think beadboarding could look really great, but just would hesitate to use a different wall treatment from the LR.

If you did use the beadboard for the wall, it should not be difficult to enclose the end of the counter with it too. I think it would give a more fiinished look to the kitchen.

I'm thinking the back of the bar should be the color of the kitchen cabinets, but I would paint that area last to get a visual on it.

We also have an open floor plan. My husband wanted tan piant, but I felt like that much tan would be too blah for me, so we did our kitchen area tan and our living area green. There was not a clear place to change colors--the space really should have all been one color. But, I did 2 walls tan and 2 walls green. I am happy with how it came out as I would have hated so much tan.

So, since it's your house--I would say do what you want--paint is easy enough to change. I think it would look fine to paint the end wall a different color. Although it may be hard to find the right color to match the rug.

It's hard to see the tone of the sailcloth. Is it dark enough?

I vote for white cabinets with a tile backsplash. I can't really picture green cabinets with the purple rug.

Good luck! It sounds like you have some good ideas--and your bathroom came out great.

If the green used is a soft green, it would look very nice near the purple carpet. I had the opposite in our last house with seafoam laminate counters from the p.o.s, so we painted the walls in the kitchen lavender, and it improved the look 100% from the beige that had been there.
Green and purple work together nicely as they are far enough apart to not clash. In our current home we are using a dark rich purple and a vibrant green together and it looks great.
Our current plan is wide open, and we have 3 colors on the 7 walls that form the perimeter of our kitchen, den, dining room and living room. The living room has 3 walls of the same color. The den shares one color with the dining room and one color with the kitchen on its 2 walls. It sounds busy or complicated, but as long as the colors look nice together, it flows. I think life is too short to only buy 1 color paint!

Thank you so much for the input and encouragement!!

sloyd, I hadn't seriously considered tile since I'm trying to keep as much diy as I can, but supposedly tiling can be a diy project, so I'll have to see if there's a more interesting affordable tile I could love as much as bead board.

barb, thanks for the tip on butcherblock! That has been a concern of mine, since I tend to let dishes sit beside the sink longer than they should, and occasionally they trap wet spots. I love pirula's kitchen, which has both bead board and butcherblock around the sink. Since the little prep work I do on my counters can easily be done on cutting boards, I may do Waterlox if I go the butcherblock route for a little more durability.

Ikea butcherblock (if I measured & added correctly) would be $600 if we drove the 6-7 hours to the closest one, and closer to $1000 if I had it shipped. I got a rough estimate on laminate from a local distributor for $1400. I need to check back and see if flat or bullnose edge options will lower that, though, since she may have thought I wanted beveled like my mother just got. I do like the practicality of laminate, just not sure if I want to pay more for something less attractive (maybe worth it if it holds up better though).

You may have noticed that the panel beside the dishwasher is missing...my husband removed it when he put down the flooring and hasn't bothered to replace it. That's on the list to do when painting cabinets! Possibly beadboard if we use it as wainscotting in the kitchen, but otherwise just plyboard painted white. I'd also like to replace the corbels under the bar with prettier ones.

You can see my Dune Grass green paint sample by the purple carpet in the living room shots (Hopedale is a tad grayer). I was seeing how wild the green & purple look together. I agree dianalo, that they can compliment each other, which is what I was aiming for with my green/greige in the bathroom. It's a little too colorful for me in the livingroom, though. If I use green as a paint color, it would need to be confined to the kitchen...and even then, I'm somewhat worried that the overall effect would be too much, like kristen hinted at.

kristen, I don't know if Sail Cloth is dark enough! Here's a shot where you can see some of the other colors I've considered:

DH has pretty much said he's fine with what I want to do, but early on he threw yellow out as a color he wanted. Yellow with purple! When I wanted the purple carpet to disappear! I think what he really meant was that he wanted the room to be bright, so I've shied away from too dark colors. Edgecomb Gray looks nice with the carpet, but it's cooler than I really want, too cave-like in the evenings with our small windows. Manchester Tan is ok, but somtimes it can have kind of funny gold (maybe even green) undertones in comparison to the carpet...and I'm afraid it might be a tad dark when on all the walls. Maritime White and Gray Mist, however, do seem too light to me.

Here's a picture of Sail Cloth on someone else's walls:

Of course, we have white walls and that's what I grew up with, so I might just be afraid of color.

Here is a link that might be useful: An apartment painted in Sail Cloth

I would paint the cabinets white, not green, if you think you will sell in a few years. While I love green cabinets, I'm not sure it's a look that will appeal to most buyers.

I would do a tile backsplash and put the beadboard (also painted white) on the back of the bar that faces the living room.

I think I'd paint both rooms the same color. The rooms are not large and I think doing different colors will just make the space look choppy.

I wanted to put in a plug for Manchester Tan. I used it in my family room. My room is large and lots of windows, so it will probably look different in your room. But, I just wanted to say don't cross it off the list yet. I almost didn't do it because it also had a green undertone when I sampled it on my walls. My kitchen is green, and I didn't want green in the adjoining family room. Once it was on the walls, there is no green at all. I never saw any gold in my samples, so it's certainly possible your lighting or carpeting is doing something different to the color. Anyway, just wanted to give my 2 cents on the color since I almost discarded it as an option too and was so happy I didn't. The link below is a thread on my family room if you want to see the color. There are a couple pictures at the top, and more if you scroll down.

Good luck! You have great ideas, and it will be beautiful when done.

Here is a link that might be useful: Manchester Tan family room

I think once you paint the cabinets, the carpet will look better, the orangey tone of the wood intensifies the purple undertone in the rug. I think Sailcloth or Edgecomb Gray would both work pretty well.

Are you replacing the vinyl in the kitchen area?

jill - Manchester tan looks beautiful in your family room! I remember reading your thread and it turned out just lovely. I envy you all that natural light!

palimpsest - thanks the color advice, and for giving me a ray of hope regarding the purple! :) There's no plan to replace the floor at this time. It does need some touch-up where it wasn't cut quite to fit, but it's an improvement over the original white linoleum. I don't know how it will appeal to buyers exactly, but DH installed it before we got married last year, and it's part of what helped me visualize myself living here (warmer than white, easy to care for and doesn't show every spec!).

We have the same thing, but lighter color, in the bathroom.

Here is a link that might be useful: TrafficMaster Allure Tile

Can you go with the color in the bathroom in the kitchen/living room? I think it came out great!

I for one like as much of the same color as possible in open spaces, especially without a clean breaking point. that could be just me though.

I have to say I kind of like that your counter goes with the carpet. My last house had lilac/grey odd colored cabinets though and it was just impossible to work with or nearly so. Painting the walls a green did help, they do work well together.

I think another poster , maybe mrsmarv? inexpensively resurfaced her laminate/formica counters with laminate. It was red and she made it green or maybe the other way around? I remember it looking great in both the before and after but I think she wanted a change. You might be able to find her post. If you could save money on the counter maybe you could redo the carpet if it isnt' something you love, or put it towards something else.

Again in open rooms I like the flooring to be the same, but not sure if that is an option for you.

this is the link....

Here is a link that might be useful: Counter redo

Man, now I'm picturing how our home would look with hardwood or laminate throughout! Not happening in the immediate future, but something I'll keep in mind in case we're here longer than expected.

boopadaboo - thanks for the link! I thought about re-laminating our countertops a while back, but I think I was intimidated by the process. However, mrsmarv has done it twice!! Maybe that means I could handle it once. I like the color she chose, too. Wilsonart has some really pretty patterns. I like Sable Soapstone 4883 and Oiled Soapstone 4882. I'll have to see if I can get any similar sheet laminate around here, because the potential savings is huge! And if I can cut down on waste by not actually replacing the countertops, it'd be great.

Since a few of you like the Hazy Day from the bathroom so much, I've moved my sample back out to the living room to think about it again. I'll try to post a pic in the morning. I really do like the color. It might be muddier than I want for the living room...but I'll think about it. I have to live with things to see how the light changes them before I can know what I think. Sail Cloth, for instance, has an annoying pink tint in certain light...but it's not often, and it's less offensive in this setting than other undertones. Edgecomb Gray is a candidate for our bedroom.