I like the idea of painting inside a blue that matches or compliments the blue bit of glass tile, maybe the color of blue that you love. For more balance, what about something on the counter top in a similar shade of blue also? I love white and blue and more white and blue. I think many shades of blue go with yellow too and there is yellow in the floor, so there is balance with the yellow. So my vote is choose the blue you love or the blue that matches the tile or even a grey-blue that ties into the grey in the flooring. (and since green is really blue and yellow, no need to try to make the color green as the yellow accents will compliment the blue paint as a sort-of green) Hope that makes sense! Good luck!

I'm wondering about painting your uppers white, the backs of the uppers Fiji, and then the lower cabs either Fiji or a more subdued version of Fiji. Keep in mind that I'm sort of obsessed with open white uppers and different colored lowers at the moment.

OK...I say, keep the bowls you love and that will connect with the floor accent. Keep the vision you've had for so long with the white lowers and blue inside the uppers. This is only an issue of finding 'the right' color for the inside of those uppers, so no reason to 'throw the baby out with the bath water!' :-) The Fiji could be fine when the cabinets are full and all the other elements are in place, and like Fleur222 said, you can add accents to balance things after, if necessary. If Fiji isn't it, though, can you take the blue green tile and find a color that's just barely darker? Can you lighten the Fiji and have it work?

We have a color in our laundry room that might work for you. We used BM paint, but had it color matched to Ralph Lauren Emperor. I don't have a good photo of it, but it's a little lighter, a little greener, and a little grayer...Not so strong, but I think inside a cabinet it will be saturated enough to set off the dishware. We have white and gray in the room with it...No yellow, though, so I can't promise. ;)

Best wishes.

The Fiji is great, but I think you need to listen to your instincts about the balance and rhythm. It's very heavy.

When you say "blue" I keep thinking something more classic and softer, like Robin's Egg (not the color for you scheme). The descriptions of your other colors is soft like that. But again, because you're looking for rhythm and something that won't float the top cabs as a separate territory, I agree that a gray that ties it down to the floor might be a lot better. Maybe a similar gray but less yellowish so the white will pop more. The ochre bowls can give you that yellow touch.

If you love fiji, use it. There isn't any reason not to use strong colors except for fashion.

There are a couple of other blues that might work
whipple blue
Mill Springs blue
Paradiso
Peacock Feathers

Something very different - Dried Basil shown with white and yellow bowl blobs.
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Thank you all so much. I knew that color changes with light, but wow. I kept track of the colors through the evening until it was dark, and the Fiji, though I love that color, is almost a black pit at night. Even with light. The first blue, which is WAY too BLUE during the day (and I confirmed this this morning) is just right at night in our light. And the very light green/blue is pretty much out.

fleur222, I love blue and white as well. I guess with the cabinet looking me so "blue in the face" I have to think that our kitchen is too small for a strong blue. Sad face. I think I will need to go with accents that are smaller.

pickle 2 - I would definitely consider that if my kitchen wasn't so small and dark. Our kitchen was very dark previously with dark cherry cabinets and one window off to the side. Depressing. After seeing the Fiji in the kitchen last night, I can't do that.

rhome410, - my dh and I have talked about lightening the Fiji to give it a try - I will try mixing some swatches today - the thing I am concerned about is that against the greens (light and dark) our yellow bowls look brownish. They looked fine against the backs of the natural cabinets, and I wonder if painting the cabinets the Simple White (warmish) would keep them yellow. I also had taken the tiles with me to the store, and ended up mixing a color that was similar, but slightly darker. That ended up being too blue on a large scale. Sigh.

Pllog, - I LOVE Robin's Egg blue - the Icing on the Cake was very similar - I had tried numerous BM small sample pots trying to find the right blue by painting swatches. That is when I ended up mixing my own blue. I think you are right, and that I need to look at something more gray.

bmorepanic - (btw, I love your "name"!) Thanks for the Photoshop!!! It is funny, the Whipple Blue is almost the same as the color I first mixed. The woman at the store pointed this out to me. I had brought the peacock feathers home in a sample pot, but had decided that it was too bright. (The Fuji is bright, but I love the richness of the color - I actually only painted it on after the "almost Whipple Blue" looked too "bright blue" on the cabinet back. The Paradiso is very nice. I'll look at it in the store, though I still think that it will make my yellow ware look brown. I showed my dh the Dried Basil, and he said, before hearing the name, that it looked like dried sage. Funny. We will consider those warm grays now.

Thank you all for your wonderful insights. I think, based on how the color looked last night, that I need to go to the paint store for the fourth time, with two bowls as well as my tile in hand. I also think that since the rest of my room is a lighter key (except for the butcher block and baseboards) that I need to find a color in a lighter key for the backs of the cabinets.

I've looked at inspiration photos forever, and have finally told my dh that he has to accompany me to the paint store next time. This may mean war, as both he and I are very opinionated about color. But obviously I am having a hard time with this. I wish that we could have a glass of wine together at the paint store, it would ease the tension -

That is what those stores should do, offer "Gallery Nights for Couples" where they serve wine to offset the whine, with the requirement that no gallons can be purchased that night - only sample pots, with the inclusion of a coupon for a few dollars off a gallon of Aura. They could even charge a nominal fee - I would pay $15 - $20 a couple to have a glass of wine, painting demonstration, and choose colors, have some professional advice, and receive a "goody bag" that included two pots of sample color that we chose, and two small rollers (the right brush is very expensive), a couple of pieces of foam core, and a coupon for a few dollars off a can of Aura. (or, they could have us paint the boards there using their brushes that they wash and keep for the next time - the rest of the sample would come with us for home sampling.) I think that would be a win-win in this economy.

Anyway, I think that it will come down to a "paint off" where we purchase two more sample pots (one each), paint two pieces of foam core, and let some friends and our kids vote.

Thank you again!!! I'll post again when we get it right.

I love the Fiji! How do you think it would look mixed at 50% or 75%? It would lessen the intensity a bit and hopefully still give you the great rhythmic color.

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

I'll be interested to know how the Fiji tints turn out. I hope it doesn't just go all aqua on you.

Since you sound like you might be obsessive enough to try it, something you could give a go is letting the eye do the mixing. Do the Fiji in a shirting plaid with the white as the background.

The figi is a beautiful shade of blue, I hope you can make it work! I would love to see your tile, too, if you have any pictures of it.

Hi again,

I've been mixing paint. Different tints of the Fiji. Different tints of the other blue I first mixed. It doesn't work in my kitchen. I took some photos of my tile, but light really changes it as well. I took some outside, inside, and on screen they don't really look like they do in person. Here are the stats: Manufacturer: Oceanside Glass Tile
Blend: Veil (mixture of "Oxygen Irid, Oxygen Matte, White Irid, White Matte. Honestly, the Oxygen looks clear - clear frosted and clear iridescent.
I had to take some of mine off of the paper front to show the fronts of the tiles, so forgive the odd spacing.

Same tile, different lighting:

Same tile with some of the blues/greens popped in (this will not be all over - in one specific area.)

I could just go with all white with a butcher block counter and be done with it. Any other advice? I thought about scanning one of the tiles, but reflective surfaces do not scan well.

Hestia, I hear your frustration but don't give up!

Gray-blue-green is the HTML approx. of R 181 G 199 B 198. Can they mix RGB? I can translate it to CMYK if neccessary. The real color isn't quite as dark. I took this out of one of the green tiles in your photo, but it's actually pretty blue-ish. More blue gray than green, and maybe a possibility.

Here are some other tones from your tiles:

lighter-gray-green R 206 G 215 B 206

turquoise R 173 G 247 B 255

gray-blue R 147 G 255 B 239

Also try it with just the back wall painted, and white on the shelves. That will give you a lot more light reflection inside, rather than having it sink so far into blackdom at night.

Bella_Victoria, & Timber.j, thanks for your kind words - it helps to hear someone else cheering (my dh doesn't have time right now to help, and I'm on my own.)

plllog,

Thank you so much for pulling those colors! I especially like the first one, that is the color I have been dancing around - in addition to the colors I've mentioned above, I have tried:

Covington Blue (very similar to the first color you pulled)
Palladian Blue (a slightly lighter value - almost like your second color)
Fun and Games (too intense)
Water Drops (looks "feh" in my cabinet)
Peacock Feathers (too blue and intense)
Icing on the Cake (very light green - almost looks like an oversight)

They look either too bright/intense in my kitchen, or too grayed down/tired next to my yellow ware. I love the idea of using white to reflect, though I am not going to paint the tops of the shelves (no one can see them, and I am trying to avoid the "sticky shelf" syndrome.) I may paint the inside sides white, as that will accomplish the same as you suggested.

The hard thing is that I had such a strong color vision, then it is just not working. I looked at white and blue kitchens again today, and realized that the yellows are always clear and bright - my yellow ware is warm and just not the right yellow to sit with the blues I love. They may look fine behind a glass cabinet door, with white muntins in front, but not contrasted directly next to the blue/green. I need to go and obsess some more.

Thank you!

Oh, been there!! In real life it just doesn't look like in one's head!! I think they're finally shipping my tile today so we'll soon find out how mine did. It could be pretty scary! And there's no take backs in tile.

Re the shelves, you can achieve the same thing with white paper, and no sticky. Or put a little furniture wax on the paint.

And give a pale dove gray a try. It might look especially nice with the ochre bowls, and make the whites pop.

Good luck with the obsessing!!

Those glass tiles are pretty-it looks like they will go with many variations of blue, so it doesn't really narrow down your paint options, does it?

I happened to have a blue sample jar of paint that I wanted to try, and a little cupboard that I bought at a garage sale that had a funny shade of purple on the inside, so I quickly painted it so you could see if it might be an option for you:

It is Sherwin Williams St. Barts. I need a color that works with my hutch (greenish) and my island (red) for my kitchen chairs, and dh has vetoed black. So I am thinking either a blueish color or a warm yellow like the plate in the picture.

There's a handy little RGB-to-BM paint color tool available at www.easyrgb.com. I plugged in plllog's example RGB values and had the following results:

Gray-Blue-Green (R 181 G 199 B 198)
BM Colors - Gossmer Blue, Yarmouth Blue, Smoke, or Wedgewood Gray

Lighter Gray Green (R 206 G 215 B 206)
BM Colors - Grey Cashmere, Wickham Gray, Moonshine, or Palladian Blue

Turquoise (R 173 G 247 B 255)
BM Colors - Blue Seafoam, Jamaican Aqua, Serenity, or Misty Teal

Grey Blue (R 147 G 255 B 239)
BM Colors - Bermuda Teal, Green Coral, South Beach, Caribe Green

By using the color conversion tool, you can also input the BM name and then get the RGB values and apply them to the surfaces in your design drawings. This can be a quick and easy way to visualize colors.

Here is a link that might be useful: RGB to BM color tool

timber.j, that looks almost exactly like Fiji! Maybe a shade darker. That was so very nice of you to do now. All of those colors go very well together. I wasn't able to paint last night - it was just too very very hot in our kitchen. I am going to try the white on the sides/top/bottom this morning with just the Fiji in the back. Then I will regroup with my dh.

Mereanne, that is an awesome resource. I have not seen that posted here before. You should consider posting it as a new thread - did you and plllog use Photoshop for figuring out the RGB? There should really be a Photoshop "How To" (and for anyone else reading this, "Photoshop Elements" is a much less expensive version of the software. - if anyone is currently tempted to purchase it, Wacam sells a tablet called Bamboo that you draw on with a stylus (pen) that is very easy to use, and the Medium sized tablet comes with Photoshop Elements, and there is now a $20 rebate until the end of the month. I hope that it is ok to say that here?). I'm off to visit the easyrgb site.

Then paint.

Hestia

You might also try the other way around, fiji on sides, white on back. Glints of strong color?

Usually I stay out of the paint color threads because I don't keep up with the different names, but just wanted to add that I think Fiji is a gorgeous color (of course I love anything with a greenish tint, LOL) - but you don't need a lot of it. I agree with everyone who advises to paint only the back of the cabinets with Fiji & the ceiling, sides & shelves white, especially the ceiling & underside of the shelves which reflect a great deal of light to the objects below. Waxing (I use Briwax) the painted shelf tops will prevent sticking & marring and will make dusting a lot easier - something to consider with open cabs - & the subtle gloss will also reflect light & tie in with your beautiful tile.

I don't know how to figure out the RGB values- wish I did. Plllog must have found a way to do it, perhaps with Photoshop as you suggested. I'm a little scared of photoshop and haven't ever been able to figure it out.

I have found the Easyrgb tool to be incredibly helpful in trying out different BM paint colors on Google Sketchup models. For example, the drawing below shows BM Simply White on the cabinets and BM Stonington Gray on the walls. In Sketchup, you can change the RGB values for any material and voila- you can visualize instantly how different paint colors would look. Really cool feature! If I were at home, I would paint the cabinets in the model with a radical color to show how fun this can be.

I might post a thread on this topic if it would be helpful. {{gwi:1940270}}From Changeup 5

Did I mention that my cabinets are white, my countertop shades of white and grey, and my plan is for a blue backsplash? Not the same as trying to find the right shade of blue for paint, but I am writing to cheer you on for finding the perfect blue!!!

Photoshop is not for the pure of heart. :D I use a variety of programs (because Photoshop is not for the pure of heart and I try to avoid it). I think I probably used PaintShopPro because that has a really easy color tool. Yeah, must have been because if I'd used anything else I would have given the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black), which is pigment colors, rather than RGB (red, green, blue) which is light colors (as in projected light, i.e., computer monitors).

I feel your pain. It took me 8 tries to get the right shade of BM blue paint for a bedroom when I was looking for a slate/blue grey. The paint chips that looked like like blue-grey read a much more saturated (brighter) blue. Trying looking for a grey that has blue instead of the other way around. That's where I finally found a blue that was toned down enough for what I was looking for.

Hi everyone, I painted the inside tops/bottoms and bottoms of the shelves. I may be brave enough to paint the tops of the shelves (and wax them, thank you antiquesilver for that advice.)

Mereanne, I poked abound on that color/paint site, and they will give you the RGB values. That is a great tool, because you can find complimentary shades of many different hues. They should have that program up and running in paint stores.

Well, don't everyone yell at me, but I have pretty much given up on the Fiji - the only time of day when it is in all its glory is between 2:00 and 4:00 or so. Then it gets very dark, and almost sad looking, even with the white surrounding it. It would work beautifully if I painted the outsides of my cabinets a steel gray, with the Fiji interior, but my kitchen is just too small with a lack of enough natural light. I will be playing with the color tool some more, and going off to look at some soft grays with some blue tomorrow.

Hestia

Condolences on your loss - there's always at least one color that won't work no matter how hard you try. I look forward to seeing the next selection. What's your favorite color? For me, it always comes back to a variation of that. After all, you have to live with it every day.

I am totally impressed with you guys for figuring out RGB and BM paints! Wow, that's great. Hestia good luck on painting the interior of your cabinets and finding just the right color. You go girl!

antiquesilver, I had a BIG belly laugh over your condolences. I needed that. My favorite color is deep teal, very much like Fiji. Sigh. Big Smile. I also love periwinkle and duck egg blue.

I just don't like it when color looks like a yawning cavern ready to swallow my dishes. Even with the white sides/shelves. And my white stuff on the shelves. It looks like pond sludge in the wrong light. As I said above, gorgeous in the afternoon, but come winter, it will be depressing. I am thinking of maybe having a teal or periwinkle accent on the shelves towards the front would look nice. I am really not obsessive about this stuff, but I don't want to feel like not going into my kitchen ever again (it used to be very, very dark all of the time. One overhead light and one 17 inch window off to the side. - it is much, much better, but I am not leaving my happy place now. :)

Thanks karena for your cheers.

Hestia

Libby Lehman once made a huge, gorgeous art quilt based on the algae growing in a swimming pool...

I concur about the arrangement. Adding a Fiji blue budvase.

Hi All!

If any one of you die hards is still interested in this thread, I've put a couple of coats on the back of my cabinet with the color I chose for the outside of the cabinets, Simply White (BM Aura). I also went on a field trip to Ikea to pick up a couple of things, and I ran across some very pretty Duck Egg Blue dishes, one of my other very favorite blues. I picked up a bowl and a dish, just to see how the color looked. I love it. DH would still like me to try a gray, but as I said, he's coming with me. I don't think I could face it alone. In the meantime, I am going to keep my eye open for two Duck-Egg-Blue serving pieces - I think that this will tie in nicely with the blue in the tile, (the duck egg is more bluish than gray - Ikea calls it turquoise, but I don't think it is quite so bright). Funny thinking that a serving piece can help to tie in colors. Now if I can just get the walls right!

Smiles, Hestia

ps, thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I'll post some photos when the cabinet dries - need to drag dh to the paint store first.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blue Bowl

Totally not what you were looking for but so cool!

Teal platter (click to see)

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