White with spots of color or yellow. Yellow always works in a kitchen because it's warm.

How about beige with spots of colors? (just thinking of ways to make it easier)
I hope you are hanging in there!

Are you sure you have to strip the ceiling? I feel sure we've used ceiling paint that could just go over...

But who knows. I could be mistaken.

This is a lot of work!

Good luck!

It's just a very high gloss paint--I don't have to strip it but I've been told it needs to be sanded enough to take hte gloss off, or nothing will stick to it. And I'd believe that.

And it's not one of those nice, neutral, goes-with-anything beiges either. It's a horrid clashes-with-everything beige.

What about another green -- in the same family as the pear color, but a couple of shades darker? All your multicolored pots and towels would look wonderful against that backdrop. With white trim.

Also, you could use Kilz primer without sanding -- this stuff will stick to laminate and other slick surfaces.

I really like the white with splashes of colour from your stuff (or paint. Or both.) and then colour the insides of drawers and cabinets. That would be very cool. You could also do squares of colour on the doors and drawers, as long as they're real wood and not laminate.

How on EARTH do you sand a ceiling? I'm getting a crick in my neck just thinking about it.

Red!

RED RED RED!!

I'm biased, but I love a red kitchen.

Even better, you can take the cabinet doors off the top, buy picture frames in the same size, brace the corners with l-brackets, and put rice paper or funky wall paper inside the frame, and put the hinges on them. Instant funky kitchen cabinet doors!

Then throw a few sets of Ikea Non lights inside, and voila. Awesome.

Laura, I'll have to look for that primer. I don't think I've seen it in any stores yet, so maybe it's just American, but it doesn't hurt to look.

Julia, so far I'm getting a lot of grit and dust in my eyes.

RED, you say, RAchel?

I think that by this stage, I'd be sorely tempted to hire someone to come in to sand and paint the ceilings. They are hard enough to paint, I can't imagine having to sand too...ugh.

I have to agree with Rachel...something bright especially since there are no windows. Maybe mostly white walls with red, or maybe a nice bright blue trim. Or orange!! Bright orange. ;) Just bright coloured backsplash might be nice!

You can also get things that look like ceramic tiles, but they are actually stick-on! I *think* they are meant to stick on tiles that are already there as an accent, but I bet they would stick on kitchen/bathroom (semi gloss) paint. Just put them here and there on the backsplash. I wish I could tell you exactly what they are called, but you can get them at Rona or Home Depot in the paint/wallpaper section. Lots of different designs too. I've been wanting some for our kitchen for years but haven't gotten around to it.

Yes, RED!

What color are the cabinets?

The reason I say red:

Orange-yellow, and sagey/leafy green are all on the hot side of the color spectrum. Because the kitchen is in the same zone of the house (the public zone) you want to keep it in the same range on the spectrum. I'll try to email you a color scheme to show you what I mean.

Ok, go here:

http://kuler.adobe.com/

And search for "andrea" - the first one that comes up is called "andrea's apartment".

Not knowing the exact shades, plus the trouble of computer screen inaccuracies, I put a sage green (i think your green and yellow/orange are brighter, these are a bit muddled) to the left, then a yellow orange - I centered an orange-red in the middle, then a red toned yet cool pink (Frances's room) and then the cool ice blue of your bedroom. You can see how the hot red (like a chili pepper) brings it together without being sedate.

Oh, and I would continue the white trim everywhere, but paint a soft lemon yellow inside the cabinets, if you can paint them. Or line them with yellow paper - but it has to be a cool lemon yellow, like lemon sorbet, and then white dishtowels/cloths. Then your red and multicolored other stuff won't be too overwhelming. THe red will actually recede and feel like a strong neutral, while the yellow and white provide rest points for the eye.

My goodness.

This is why I need you to come and do this for me.

Oil paint is eeeevil.

(Just sayin'.)

I vote for white with colour inside the cabinets - I love the idea of surprise colour, especially bold primary colours. Plus it would be easy to accessorize!

Alternately, a nice warm yellow is a very good kitchen colour.

Posting fiend! Anyway, counterpoint to my point above, look at the colours in your banner. :)

Green in the greenery, orange/yellow in the flower, with a red center. ;)

I like yellow in a kitchen. I really do. White shows too much.

I like red in bathrooms.

I also like to read in bathrooms, but that's a different story.

You definitely get bonus points for enthusiasm.

See, the orange and green are different than the header (though good job on pointing that out). If you go to behr.com and search for "pear" and "cornmeal" you'll see the colours I like. I think red might be ok but it would have to be kind of mellow--and it's a small kitchen, too strong a colour would overwhelm it.

What about a slightly not-quite-white with a warmish tinge, with red bits?

You'd asked what colour the cabinets are. Three guesses....

Hopefully a good primer will take care of a lot of problems.

Ok, if the cabinets are beige, and painted, then go ahead and paint them bight white...

Now, I looked up the colours on Behr. You should paint the kitchen "Juicy Pasionfruit" for a milder red, or "wet coral" for more zing. They both look really good with the palette you've chosen, and would look crisp against white cabinets.

Violet is the only part of the spectrum you haven't touched.

Do you have a platform from which to attack the ceiling? Can you cover it with something like shelf paper and then paint over that? This beige conspiracy: it wasn't done between tenants, was it? Somewhere, there's a family weary from covering colour with beige...

I'm with ewe_are_here and Emily -- I like the idea of a yellow kitchen. But I have to admit, I'm also with Tanya on the "hire out" front!

I really enjoy reading your writing. Take care. Good luck!

What if you just paint over the bthrm ceiling with a bright colour? Paint the walls white, as you said, and give the ceiling something wild!

Kitchen, hmmmm.... Need more time to ponder that one!

Warm pale yellow! With splashes of colour! Not too bright yellow, because bright in a small kitchen is just overpowering. (When we moved into our very small house it had a bright yellow kitchen and honestly it felt like being shouted at all the time. Very bad before my first cup of coffee.)

Counting down with you and looking forward to hearing that you're in your new apartment.

Callie

Macarena, it was done between tenants. I know b/c hte last tenants painted the bedrooms yellow, and when I got the keys the bedrooms were beige. So it's definitely the landlord's fault.

Instead of sanding there is a product out there called Liquid Sander. It made my job MUCH easier to do since I didn't have to hand sand the entire ceiling. Check it out. It might work!

Pictures. If you don't have windows, then simulate a window with pictures. My mother-in-law has cut out pictures from magazines and framed them; it sounds cheesy but if you get the right picture it looks great. You could also find some online and have them printed on high-quality paper.

Of course you could decorate with pictures of your daughter, too : )

I tried to avoid painting the ceilings when we first moved here, but after the first one i discovered that it's really nice to have a freshly painted ceiling when you have freshly painted walls. Otherwise the ceiling looks dingy. Sorry about the sanding though -- that sucks.

I might go for a warm cream... almost a yellow but not quite.

Cinnamon gurl, I'm definitely goign to have to do at least some spot touch-ups on even the white ceilings. It's pretty obvious that they haven't been done in many years.