Harmonizing midcentury modern paint colors

“Are the colors all from the same decade, does my fridge go with my couch and have I wasted all his money and ended up with a disaster? EKKKKK!!!!,” Ashley asks.

Reader Ashley loves bright colors and retro style. Though her house was built in the 1930s and originally a country style, she wants her great room to have a more 50s/60s vibe — at least in her kitchen/dining/living room area. She’s painted the built-in shelves a burnt orange to match her vintage modern sectional couch and even put up — yes, I said put up — wood paneling along the front wall. With a new Big Chill fridge and some Youngstown vintage steel cabinets waiting to be painted, Ashley needs our help to pull it all together and create her retro modern dream room.

Ashley writes:

Hey Pam,
First off I just want to say that your site is amazing and I cant even tell you how much this has helped me in the past few years. THANK YOU!

(I apologize in advance because this will be long) I don’t know where to start so I will just tell you everything….

I live in Alabama and we bought our house a little over a year ago. We wanted a more midcentury modern style house but we needed acreage for my husband’s business and shop so unfortunately we were not able to get that. Our home was built in the early 30s and is more of a country style home (I am not complaining anything old is better than new in my book) and has been updated and added on to several times. It has a very open floor plan and the den, dinning room and kitchen are all connected and technically one room.

I bought my second set of Youngstown cabinets yesterday after almost a year of searching and need to decide how to do the kitchen to where it will still go with the rest of the connecting rooms and have the mcm look I am going for.

We painted the den and built ins, put up wood paneling, bought furniture all when we moved in and recently bought a BIG CHILL fridge in jadeite green. With all that being said…Now I am looking at these rooms as a whole and I am not sure what I have done. Are the colors all from the same decade, does my fridge go with my couch and have I wasted all his money and ended up with a disaster. EKKKKK!!!!

I am so overwhelmed! I hope that made sense.

I have attached photos of our den/dinning/kitchen area and photos of the couch, Big Chill Fridge and my drexel dining table. (Those three pieces have to stay) I also want to keep the same color palette pretty much, but I know something needs to be tweaked (just not sure what). I have no idea and I dont want to just start changing things and still not get it right especially since we are about to have our Youngstown cabinets repainted and installed along new laminate countertops.

I am struggling with:

What color to paint my youngstown cabinets and what style and color of laminate to choose that will go with my jadeite fridge and burnt orange/red couch. (The cabinets that are currently in are painted jocular green by sherwin williams and the match the fridge exactly, I had originally planned on doing that color on the youngstown cabinets, but unsure if that really goes with the rest of the space.)

I obviously need to repaint the mustard room past the den…so should I paint it the same color (vegan sherwin williams) as the den and kitchen or change the color all together.

Lastly, the built-in shelves that flank the fireplace and are in the mustard room (are actually the same color as the couch but the pictures make it look a little brighter than they truly are) not sure if those should be muted down?

Geeze Louise this is long and I hope it makes sense. Cant wait to hear back!

Thanks so much in advance.
Ashley