choosing paint for kitchen/LR

I have an old home to which I have taken out all the walls in the downstairs leaving it a open concept Kitchen/Living Room. I am having trouble with painting it because I want the Kitchen one color and the Living room another. I want the Living room in dark blues with a faux finish and only have 2 walls to paint in the Kitchen with a white fireplace on one of them. I am not sure if it is the white fireplace that is confusing me but I can't seem to match another color. As well my living room ceiling is framed in wood beams with 10 squares which I am not sure if I should paint the wood one color and the squares another as I do not want a white ceiling. My sofa is brown with a darker brown thin stripes through it, that's where I started from with my color choice of blue, am I on the right track.

 

you've gone to great lengths to create an open space, now you want to chop it up into 2 spaces by using 2 different colors. you have a brown sofa, so you've chosen......blue?.....for what reason?

stop & think about why you're doing/choosing things.

why 2 different paint colors? would the blue not work in the kitchen? or do you just want a splash of a different color there?

why the blue in the first place? what else is blue? an area rug? a floral arrangement? a lamp?

you need to start with a color scheme. to help create one, look for one that already exists somewhere, like a multi-colored fabric or an area rug or a painting or your dishes or placemats, etc. pull colors from that object. then you'll know already that they'll work great together. that object then ties the colors together in the room/s.

as for the beams and ceiling, the beams are usually painted or stained the same as the rest of the woodwork in the room, so stick with whatever the baseboards/doors/door frames/window sills/etc already are. the ceiling can be an accent color or a lighter tint of whatever the wall color is.

and if nothing else is white, then paint the fireplace another color. even just changing it to a cream might help, or maybe black would work. or stained. but don't endure it if it's out of place - change it.

 

I chose the blue because I liked the brown/blue color combination in a friend's family room. The ceiling is wood beams and 10 squares of ceiling which I don't want to be white. I thought the blue going into the kitchen would be to closed in because the blue is a shade or 2 lighter than navy. I am getting the colors as well from pillows and window treatments.
Thank you in advance for any comments or advice that you give.

Luckysweet

 

Can you post pictures at www.photobucket.com and post a link here for members to see and make comments?