I think the Indus Red countertop is a warm fiery red.

My concern with the Roselle on my monitor is that it is a bit cooler and may look pinky with the countertop. Of course you need to check it all together in person, but would lean toward the Chestnut, and if that is not saturated enough you may need Java to stand up to the Indus Red.

These types of countertops tend to work best with either very pale or very saturated cabinets, midtones can be hard to coordinate.

Same here -- chestnut was one of the first to catch my eye and the roselle looks too pink on my monitor. Spice might work too, and if you entertain a lighter finish, the oak in bisque or Autumn look like possibilities. You'll have to check out samples together and in your lighting to be sure.

If the red counter is a limited area and accent, it is not likely to be a major resale deterrent and may be just the thing that perks the interest of a buyer who is tired of whites and beiges. I''m ore of a blue person, but I have always liked black with strong blues or reds, and a black and red kitchen is somewhat of a classic dinner or retro combination. The colors wouldn't turn me away if they were well done.

If you aren't looking at resale in the near future, I'd be most concerned that it is something you will not tire of looking at after a while. Sometimes we love bright and funky things in one mood but not another. If you aren't sure or might face resale soon, you can pop that same red color in a set of canisters, a fruit bowl, some fun accessories -- even utensils by the stove. Then you can change them out or take them with you.

One of my favorite kitchen photos from a magazine had off white cabinets and island, off white counters in the perimeter and a red island counter - it was gorgeous.

I am not a fan of red so just sharing my thoughts with that viewpoint in mind. If I was interested in buying a home that had red in the kitchen, I would want to remove it and would ask for the following:

~ A full red counter top would be very expensive to replace so I would want to negotiate on price (which might be substantial).
~ If it was simply red walls, I would want to paint (realizing that is a strong color to cover, would ask for paint allowance).
~ If the red counter was only on the island (then the price for a new counter top there would be less).

If you are in love with the red, you might think about making a portable island you can take with you. It is a pretty material and I can see why you like it. If your home is MCM, then a red counter would indeed look awesome with white cabinets and could be a strong selling point for your home.

JMHO...but I am not the mainstream. :-)

Total red countertops might be a stretch. Today I'm thinking about a red square that would be maybe 36 x 28, rather in the middle of the kitchen, over the microwave, then a red range on the far wall, and then a red door on the near side. Then dark grey on the rest of the countertops, slate color on the floor, and dark grey trim on the windows. I think you are right about the chestnut cabinets - thanks!

There isn't much wallspace. Would I dare paint it a rich pumpkin? So that the overall effect is a field of dark greys, chestnut cabinets, with bright cherry red and pumpkin accents? Hmm. I love the idea, but can I bring it off? Must think about morning and artificial light. And it would confirm the exit of the white appliances.

Hi, I know this style of kitchen & tile may not be for you but just wanted to show that you can get all the color you want in a backsplash. Lets say you picked a natural cherry finish for your cabinetry in a door style you loved and used the dark countertop you picked and then added a colorful backsplash with reds and pumkin...that would be pretty. You can also buy these colors in a washable wallpaper which is pretty cool. I Love the warm colors too but it can get tricky. Best of luck on your picks!

http://s1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/ideas/?action=viewät=0307_sunset_redkitchen_l.jpg"; target="_blank">

Although I was the "Red Sink Gal" in a former life, I second the suggestion of jterrilynn to put the strong colors into use in ways that are less traumatic to change out, if things come to that point. [An excellent visual, jterrilynn! Visitors and cooks will think of this space as being in the red and orange family, even if most of it is extremely neutral.]

If you have not looked at the Red Freaks thread, it's worthwhile in illustrating how strong color can be included in a design.

Here is a link that might be useful: Red Freaks thread on Garden Web Kitchens

ooh - loved the red freaks thread! And the gorgeous poppy plllog painted.

I love color. I have a dark red living room, with dark brown plantation blinds and an oatmeal couch and loveseat, which we use for quiet things - reading, knitting, praying, planning additions and such. The bedroom is grey blue and wake me up sharp yellow, the hallway is sunny yellow and white, the yarn room is apricot, the dining room is lavender and cream, the second bath is mid purple, and the theater/guest bedroom is a rich dark blue green, call it spruce or teal. DH says no more blue, but the fallback plan if the red turns out to radical is blue and white. Unless I change it. I love the paper stage. I'm not even spending real money yet!

I think that is a great picture that jterrilynn posted. If I was purchasing that home, I would think that kitchen is beautiful and I could easily replace the backsplash with a different color and change the whole look of the kitchen if I felt so inclined. Having just the backsplash would not "scare" me...LOL.

Hey your dining room colors and second bath sound wonderful. I'm just bad about red, but if you look at that thread you will see that there are plenty of people that absolutely love it...so pay me no mind. :-)

I told my mother a red stove was cheaper than a red porsche. And the dings won't cause whiplash, and I won't get pulled over. Such a deal!

DH caught wind of the red idea and is in his "NO" mode. I'm predicting sanity will prevail in about two weeks. He will warm up to the idea as I exhaust the novelty of it, and we will find something. But for now, I want a tile mosaic of a big red harley to go over the stove. Yeah, momma! That's cooking with gas!
{{!gwi}}

I can see the draw of red, but I am more like vampiressrn, (yet I kept thinking how ironic that the user name vampire dislikes red!) :) and I would be changing it out. It just doesn't match well with all of my favorite colors.
But there are folks here on GW that LOVE red. So go with what you love, but like florantha said if you are thinking resale down the road... maybe items that can be changed out.
A red Harley over the range? Now that is a gal with some fire in her! :)

Lyvia, have been thinking about your color combo at the top of this thread. I am assuming that the room will be very contemporary in its decor and design. Am I correct? That blackish and real red combo is very striking. I can imagine it with stark chrome, lots of light-ish wood, and perhaps white appliances or sink instead of stainless, just to relieve the industrial quality. And some strong red in a gel mat on floor for work area. And some kind of red in the window treatment. And a fabulous piece of art on the wall that looks like the room was designed to feature it. It would be possible to make this less exotic and more real-world for visitors, esp. potential buyers.

You have mentioned wrought iron hardware. If this is a mod product, I can picture it. If it's colonial, I think I'd choose a less modern countertop product. If you don't like my bright chrome suggestion, there is a move currently toward "Swedish iron" in hardware by some companies. Not pewter, not wrought iron, it's more silvery than black and more black than silver. Most of the pieces are rather rough in finish, somewhat earthy.

If you prefer black wood trim instead of the light woods, I'd suggest a near-black instead of the stark black stain or paint. There have been threads discussing custom mixes of stain or paint that have a muted black aspect. I think Igloochic did one.

Your Harley doesn't work for me (DH would applaud if it were a a vintage MG, though), but the shock value of something really unexpected has a lot of allure. I have a House Beautiful mag with a colonial era cottage spread, the work of a designer who lives in this home. Although much is an eclectic mix of old and new, there's a large reddish orange-bordered gov't poster from something like the Red Scare period on one wall. Really defuses any sentimental cottage-ness!

Here is a link that might be useful: Go to photo #8 to see startling poster in antique setting.

Lyvia, have been thinking about your color combo at the top of this thread. I am assuming that the room will be very contemporary in its decor and design. Am I correct? That blackish and real red combo is very striking. I can imagine it with stark chrome, lots of light-ish wood, and perhaps white appliances or sink instead of stainless, just to relieve the industrial quality. And some strong red in a gel mat on floor for work area. And some kind of red in the window treatment. And a fabulous piece of art on the wall that looks like the room was designed to feature it. It would be possible to make this less exotic and more real-world for visitors, esp. potential buyers.

You have mentioned wrought iron hardware. If this is a mod product, I can picture it. If it's colonial, I think I'd choose a less modern countertop product. If you don't like my bright chrome suggestion, there is a move currently toward "Swedish iron" in hardware by some companies. Not pewter, not wrought iron, it's more silvery than black and more black than silver. Most of the pieces are rather rough in finish, somewhat earthy.

If you prefer black wood trim instead of the light woods, I'd suggest a near-black instead of the stark black stain or paint. There have been threads discussing custom mixes of stain or paint that have a muted black aspect. I think Igloochic did one.

Your Harley doesn't work for me (DH would applaud if it were a a vintage MG, though), but the shock value of something really unexpected has a lot of allure. I have a House Beautiful mag with a colonial era cottage spread, the work of a designer who lives in this home. Although much is an eclectic mix of old and new, there's a large reddish orange-bordered gov't poster from something like the Red Scare period on one wall. Really defuses any sentimental cottage-ness!

Here is a link that might be useful: Go to photo #8 to see startling poster in antique setting.

Kind of OT (with apologies) but I like the shelf over the sink in jterrilynn's picture. With the back a different color than the backsplash, it looks more like a niche than a shelf. I like having my sink under a window, but sometimes I see threads with people asking what to put over a sink that's not under a window. I like the example above, with storage and some open space over the sink. (Plus, I love red!)

Actually I'm not a contemporary person - more carved wood and fewer straight lines for me. That swedish iron sounds pretty though. I did find a starting picture, that sort of shows the feel of the charcoal and chestnut with cherry and pumpkin bold splashes. Picture a slate floor instead of more wood.
There's something about a finish tucked underneath uppers that just doesn't say bold splash of color the same wild way. But thanks for the picture - it's all helping me work through this mystical coloring process.

I am tempted to find a poster of a red motorcycle on a black ground and photoshop blur it into an abstract. Or maybe just buy little ones for hood ornaments ;)

Magglepuss
I iz in your kitchen, stealing your floor colorz!

This could be a beautiful way to blend the chestnut and grey.
Slate looks to be fairly easy care. And the colors are wilder than I had imagined. It does drift from the reds a bit, although purple slate is an option, and might tie in the cranberry stove better. Maybe my cherry red table accent just turned pumpkin.

So DH wanted a soft floor for his aching joints (gel mats? when I'm not staring at the floor) and thought we might cut costs there with vinyl, and upgrade later. Surprise DH! Rule #1 everything gorgeous costs at least 3x what we expect. How much does a new kitchen cost? every dollar you have.

Meanwhile, I was looking at the new cambria colors - this Waterford looks like more movement than the Williston, and I think will look less like asphalt from a distance. I wouldn't call any of these decisions yet, but I am at least getting closer to a color scheme.

Thanks again Magglepuss for sharing the beauty!

{{!gwi}}

Well, after some contemplation, I am looking at the mannington adura vinyl floor tile. Now I am thinking a backdrop of the manhattan brushed steel with rug-like areas of the corsican. The idea is to have a background of dark grey and chestnut with separate bright rectangles of color popping out. (I haven't forgotten the cranberry stove and the cherry tabletop)

with the chestnut cabinets. And how about this for a backsplash? It's wilsonart laminate canyon black 1755-1. Does anybody know how the price would compare to tile?
{{!gwi}}

Coming in late here, but I love the colors you're using! Looking forward to seeing followup pics. The cranberry stove is amazing. The kitchen jterrilynn posted on 9/20 is very, very close to the look I'm going for. I've mostly been in lurk mode thus far but it's good to know there are some other fans of bold color around!

To recap and update, the current collection includes:
an inspiration picture:
{{gwi:1571019}}

The prominent dominant wood color, a mid chestnut like above. For the countertops the cambria waterford:
{{!gwi}}

and for the floor, duraceramic dreamscape in midnight grey, with areas of sierra slate flaxen:

Into this mix we add cranberry stove and maybe matching fridge (omg would I really spend this much just to match?)-

and then some tile backsplash - these are my favorites so far, from arizona tile, but I don't see how to get samples, and I wish there were more sizes. If the walnut is framed in the grey, the grey will pick up grey in the countertop, and soften the whole effect.

Nu travertine walnut

and metro platinum

Anybody know of comparable tiles? or comments in general?

Your color scheme sounds and looks wonderful. I plan to do something similar. I think the Metro platinum with cranberry accents would be stunning with that stove.

Is there some blue in the countertop?

Lyvia - FUN, rich, warm. Honestly, I think the cranberry stove should be all alone - no cranberry fridge. Don't let anything steal her thunder - so much more fun/cute as stand alone. Go for a black, stainless or paneled fridge.

Enjoying your evolution of color.

I was just noticing that my favorite local Thai restaurant has that same red quartz on the sushi bar. I love it! I probably wouldn't choose it for my kitchen but I think you should go for it (or whatever you want) if it's what you want. We just bought a house and NO ONE had a kitchen that I loved every aspect of. In fact, almost every single house we saw (and we saw a TON), I knew I would want to change the counters. Granted, our budget wasn't huge(up to $450,000) but the idea that you can get a kitchen you love or else ask for any kind of allowances here is not reality based. No one here is going to give a buyer that. The buyer has to know that they have to make the chances themselves. A countertop is an easy fix compared to some strange layout. So if it's just COLOR that you want to go wild with, I'd go wild. Color can be changed by the next owner.

lyvia, I'm rereading the lower end of this thread and I'm beginning to think that we're both working on similar colorways, although I'm going in the lighter direction and have not banished white. I'm trying to keep away from carmels and browns but there will be some. White, ivory, pewter grey, shiny silver, and bland camel colored unstained oak are the dominant colors. But people will think that it's a red kitchen because the walls will be a terra-cotta browned red with a border of maroon and ivory stripes instead of a backsplash where wall meets countertop. (No plum, though. If I stray farther, it will be toward more reds that range from cranberry maroon to terracotta. Nothing farther into the blue direction.) If I were in the financial bracket to have begun planning around that red range of yours and cherry-toned cabs, I would have done so eagerly, but this will suffice and will allow us to project lightness into the adjacent tomb-like dining room.

Keep us posted on your ideas. And consider your DH's feet and legs when you pick out that floor. It's very hard to put in then change out a tile floor and it's pricey.

OT: look for the thread about Vermont slate if you want to see a muted red stone countertop material.

Yes Debrak, the countertop has tiny light blue sparkly bits.

ooh - I hope it didn't seem rude that I just answered the question and quit - I got interrupted, then had to go to work. Thanks for the supportive compliments. Regina and Sparkle Kitty. Florantha, good luck with staying light. Seems like my favorite colors are rich and deep, but that means dark. So hopefully the grey will help it be lighter.

Next I need to stop shopping for colors and review plans ... although I saw some lovely formica 180fx pictures today.

{{!gwi}}

Is that my antique mascarello formica?

Florantha, I saw some of your 180fx pictures on other threads - absolutely gorgeous. Thanks for so much for sharing. Trying to fit seating into my plan, I ended up with a countertop/table about 7x2 against a wall. I talked to my builder about it this past summer, but there's no way to support the weight of stone there. So it needs a laminate that blends. Plus I was envying the swirly stone patterns. And whaddayaknow - 180fx!

Above is the blue storm. I ordered samples of blue storm, golden mascarello, and yellow river. The antique looks just a little pale/cool for my blend, at least online. I can't wait to see the samples.

And I "dropped in" to a Firuze tile store. OMG - overwhelming possibilities.
They had the nu travertine walnut from arizona tile, but it doesn't look quite right for me. The grey veining is more of a shadow than a color to pick out. But I'm sure I can find something in there. I learned after many discussions that I really can leave some things until later in the design process.

Your walls sound beautiful. It's smart to keep the rich color on the walls. And of course, the 180fx is stunning. Gotta love it.

Here is a link that shows a Cambria Williston countertop.

Here is a link that might be useful: williston

Here is a link for a picture of Cambria Wilshire Red.

Here is a link that might be useful: wilshire red

I think this link is for Cambria Waterford (because there is no Woodford). Also there are 2 Williston pictures here.

Here is a link that might be useful: waterford

My color choices are stabilizing, just in time for the bank to impose cutbacks. But here's the latest -
dura ceramic floor in a dark grey with "area rug" rectangles of warm tan.

then cabs in a medium wood from Yorktowne, with as much carved detail, corbels and fluting and such, as I can afford.

quartz counters in waterford from Cambria
{{!gwi}}

tile daltile veranda in gold, steel and gunmetal
echo the area rug pattern on floor
{{!gwi}}{{!gwi}}{{!gwi}}

and then accent tiles in daltile eqyptian crimson
and aventurine, aga pro+ stove and fridge in cranberry (paneled dw)
{{!gwi}}{{!gwi}}

Most of the walls will be painted a peach/creamy pale pumpkin color, and the windowsills pale grey. I may add some pale grey beadboard in one corner.

Then the towson by waterstone for faucets, in either a pewter or black, and the blanco antracite cascade sink,
and maybe something from the casa by Hinkley line of lighting, but I don't know yet whether up or down lighting is called for. And the miele chef speed oven, but that's rather out of sight.

So this is my goal, and it should motivate me to do some bank paperwork and such. Any tweaks or suggestions?

I forgot the burnished montana from formica 180fx for the table.

bump
How goes the battle? Anything to show us?

Well, the first bank wanted to lend us almost enough money, so I went to a second bank which I like better, and they said the next step was to sign a contract with the builder. At which point I realized I could not sign under that architect. So we are architect shopping. Plus the nose surgery was another delay, so we are moving slowly. Thanks for asking!