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Q. Can you please tell me what colors would blend with golden oak kitchen cabinets. I just painted my kitchen a deep rose and it looks terrible. I want to get a new countertop and tile but cannot seem to find a color scheme that works. The floor in the dining room is oak and the kitchen has a blue grey cushion floor. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. From: Marlene, Canada

A. My first instinct was blue! Most blues look great with timber, especially oak. If you want high contrast for the walls choose a deep blue, but don't use a purple/ red base, more of a green base. Dark green would work well also, but these both depend on the amount of wall space you are going to paint. You can often get away with using deep tones on the kitchen walls as most of the space is taken up with cabinetry. The bench top could be the same color that you select for the walls to contrast with the cabinetry, it could be textured or mottled, but don't go too busy or it will compete with the lovely figure of the oak. Your floor is to remain as is, so our other selection is the tile. This can be used as an accent, select a yellow to go with blue or red to go with the green. (you could also use this accent color as your bench if you wanted to lighten up the space). You may want to try and repair your deep rose color, I am guessing it looks a bit washed out against the timber and there is not enough contrast. You could use a deep blue (navy) bench top and accent tile to try and provide a change in the color and detract from the wall color, or you could use a deeper rose or burgundy red in a similar fashion. It is obviously very difficult to be more specific when I can't see the space you are dealing with. I hope these ideas are of some use.

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Q. I have a very small bathroom. It is white and black tile. I recently sponged the top half a very colorful (it was supposed to be Rose) red. It now looks like I slaughtered something in there. Can you give me a more helpful idea of what color to repaint so it would have a more peaceful look. From: Stacey

A. Sounds like your painting experiance was very scary! Did you use a medium when you sponged. Visit this page to find out more (decorative painting). As this can make a large difference, as it dilutes the intensity of the colour and makes it translucent. The base color can then be seen through it. The base color is also very important as this will provide the depth to the color. As for repairing the situation, I would probably repaint the in a light base color , perhaps white to go with your tiles and as it is a small space we don't want to close it in with a dark color. Then select a softer hue than rose red, perhaps a mauve, lavender, mint green or soft blue, as these are all calm and restful colors. You only require a small amount of paint to add to the medium to sponge on the walls. I would take some newsprint paper and practise the sponging to get the look you require before attempting the wall. Try to make the sponge overlap and irregular so you don't get "stripes" over the wall. Blend it as much as possible. You can use more than one color to create more depth to the sponging. This can be done whilst wet or dry - depending on the blending look you require, for a softer look use a similar tone of color whilst the paint is still wet and blend them together. By the way, I am sure you are not alone, many other readers are bound to have had a similar experience, so don't let it put you off, give it another go. Good luck.

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