Yikes! You would think turning a kitchen with oak cabinets and pink tile floors and pink counters into an Tuscan style kitchen would be impossible. 

As luck would have it… I have faux painted a kitchen with a very similar problem.  And…. I did turn it into an Italian wine themed kitchen and breakfast nook!

So I am happy to include the photographs of the finished product below. 

But first… I received this email, including photographs with a call for help:

Hi,I have oak cabinets, pink/tan tile on the floors and an pinkish tan  counter top.  Without changing any of those items, what colors would make  my kitchen look modern and warm. I would like to go with a faux finish with Tuscan colors, I just can't decide what colors would be best.  I look forward to hearing from you.  Thank you,  Robin

Well Robin… what a challenge. At least the Oak cabinets and the peachy/pink counters both are on the warm side of the color wheel. And your floor is just neutral enough that it doesn't cause a problem.

If your counters were not pink… then I would have advised you to go with greens.  Greens bring out the natural wood tones of the cabinets and create a warm atmosphere.  BUT… green would make the pink counters look even more PINK.  

So… the answer is to use the colors of your cabinets and counters and floors all in the faux finish.  It will take several layers to create an effect that looks Tuscan anyway… so use the yellow/gold of the cabinets and the pink color of the counters.  THEN…. another layer with the floor tile color.  

This decorative painting technique is really ugly when you first start painting.  I mean scary ugly. But the more layers you add, the better it looks.  The most time consuming part of this project is taping every thing to protect it from paint. Kitchens are full of lots of things that need protecting.

Once you have the taping done… the faux technique goes really fast.

Here are several photographs of a wine themed kitchen that has mauve tile counters, oak cabinets and peach tile floors.  The grapes are hand painted but the wine labels and bottles are stickers…. They look great.

The client wanted a Tuscan feel for her walls, but couldn't afford to change anything else… so I had to work within the confines of color.  Actually the colors looked great with the hand painted grapes. It's hard to see in the pictures, but their is a bit of yellow gold in the finish to match with the cabinets.

Good luck! And send pictures of the finished project.

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