Weddingbee boards

Hi bees!

Here are pictures of our house. Really, to start, we need paint ideas. Any other decorating themes/ideas are just icing on the cake (and greatly appreciated). We are both creatively stupid, so we appreciate all the help you bees can give us! Thanks in advance! Let me know if I should give more info to help on the decorating inspiration. Thank you thank you thank you!

Kitchen/dining room: Dark wood cabinets, cream tile on counters and floor, black appliances.

Living Room: Light tan carpet (we are not replacing carpet), dark wood cabinet color and cream tile shows when sitting in living room

@mwitter80: hmmm. I'm not sure. Here are some things I've liked so far, if that gives you an idea. I really like yellows and greens, but not sure how to pair it with the white/cream tile and dark cabinetry in our kitchen. I also like olive colors. I like country kitchens and modern kitchens about equally, which makes it hard.

First thing I would do is paint those dark cabinets a light color. Instead of a white, maybe a green or blue to contrast with the cream tile. (Love the tile.)

I'd also get rid of the carpet altogether (though you may want to store that idea for the future) and put in wood flooring.

I'd get rid of the blinds on there now and go with roman blinds and some kind of drapery over them, ceiling to floor if you can, to make the ceiling look higher.

I'd leave the walls off white & neutral tones, especially if you paint your cupboards. (I also like neutral walls because I like a lot of art, and I like to change it around.)

Are you on Pinterest? That's a great place to see decorating ideas.

ETA: I love that first pic, with the yellow walls. Very warm and inviting.

Ooooh I don't think you should paint the cabinets. I've heard it's a mess and also I think they look super pretty how they are now!

thanks all! Here's what I've come up with, integrating what you've all said. I really like an olive and mustard yellow theme, with white to tone it down and incorporate our tile. I think I'll incorporate olives throughout (olive oil, martinis, actual olives, etc), with some decorative food accents for the yellow (yellow peppers, squash, etc). I'll try to stick with a down home, comfy, country style theme. I think I'm going to keep the cabinets because I love dark wood and I think it will look good with my color palette. Let me know what you think, constructive criticism extremely helpful! I don't want to mess up on this! Also, I'm still not sure on how to incorporate the white and which color (yellow or green) to make primary and which to use as an accent. Help on this greatly appreciated!

ETA: I see you posted while I was inserting my pictures. Love the inspiration board! Maybe incorporate the white in crockery?

RE: painting cabinets

There's some good info on DIY here: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,783875,00.html

You can also hire people with all the equipment to do it for less than replacing the cabinet doors. (I'm always seeing ads in the paper for cabinet painting.)

Anyway, here are some pictures:

@Elvis: I do like the look of painted cabinets, but FI and I have a bunch of work to do! It's a short sale house where the prev owners actually took out some of the cabinets (among other things), so we have to keep design simple. I could go with a simpler color scheme, though, so that I have the option to re do the cabinets later? So many options! 

If you're going to stay with the dark, maybe use your mustard yellow as your accent wall in the dining/kitchen?

(sorry I'm a crap photoshopper)

Maybe add a couple open shelves and use them for dinnerware? (Plain white dinnerware, to bring in the white you were looking for, maybe?)

@smyley:

You're totally right about it taking some time to get it right. But I always like to paint before I actually move in... it's so much easier without having to disrupt the living space.

Oh! you can get paint samples and put up swatches on the walls. It's virtually impossible to tell from those little cardboard samples how it will look.

What furniture do you already have?

Because if you're going rustic, I'd kill for something like this:

Or maybe something like this, except with your green instead of the blue:

@Elvis: I like the yellow accent wall...a lotttt! And the idea of featuring nice white dishware to bring in some neutral color. I mentioned it to fiancee and he was not on the same page. lol. It's back to the drawing board.

We are currently in the process of remodeling our kitchen but this is our inspiration.  I think it might work for you also.  We are going for Behr's cornmeal yellow on walls and we have an ivory tile floor and bianco romano (cream) granite.  Fingers crossed it looks good.  The cabinets were installed on Wed. and granite installed tomorrow morning.  After that, I can paint.  But this was our inspiration pic. 

@miss.skinner: ooooo I love it! :) You've gotta post pics when you've painted!

@kala_way: I really love the first palette you posted. I like both the yellow and green walls, but I think if I did yellow I would use it as more of an accent wall where the other walls in the kitchen are white. I do love the living room idea though! I never thought of that sort of blue color, but I'm definitely going to play around with it since you can see my living room from my kitchen. 

@Miss Marbles: I don't have any more pictures of it, we haven't moved in yet! We are waiting on our keys. I think a backsplash would be possible though. I've considered it but am not that design savvy to really know what to do with it! And thanks, I love the cabinets too! I just don't think they go all that well with my design concept.