what color are your walls?

[ladykemma]

the thread on rocky talky about the fellow who discovered he didn''t like h color "off white" stones made me think about paint.

a few years ago i painted my ceilings and crown mouldings one shade off from blinding refrigerator white. (sherwin williams collector white) i am sensitive to darkness and gloom, and my hubby and i do hobbies that involve being able to see and near vision. it made quite a difference in tthe cheerfulness of the house. my wall are painted blood red, primary yellow, williamsburg governor''s palace blue, tourmaline green, and octagon house pink (washington DC.)
i have a neighbor who keeps her house in gloom and darkness, when she is at my house she turns off all the lights even when i am doing something. different strokes for different folks.

 

[Lorelei]

My walls are a shade of white...not quite...a popular colour called Magnolia here in the UK. It is a very pale creamy shade with just a hint of pink. It goes with anything so I can use any accent colour with cushions etc. However we are planning on redoing our bedroom soon and Laura Ashley have a beautiful new fabric and wallpaper in Champagne....YUM!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Our walls a painted a color that is kind of warm creamy light taupe (if that makes any sense) and our ceilings are white white. I wanted something that would contrast with the ceiling a little but would be neutral enough that when I go impulsively buying new furniture (can you say Dee Jay has had 4 new sofas and countless chairs in 8 years?) I wouldn't have to worry about anything clashing.

Our last place was blindingly white (I think it might have just been several coats of white primer, LOL!) when we moved in and I always intended to paint it, but it kind of grew on me. It was a big open loft on the river with tons of windows so the whiteness made it kind of etherially airy in there and the water used to reflect in a very cool way off the walls.

 

[sumbride]

Our ceilings are still "builder''s white" because we moved in just a year ago, but almost all of the rest of the house is painted. I LOVE color and have to have it around me. Our living room/dining room is Restoration Hardware''s Silver Sage... the color used most often in their stores and on the catalog. We love it. The flooring is a light pine and it just makes it so cozy without shrinking the room. It also really lights up our white painted exposed brick inset in the living room. The kitchen is RH''s "cafe au lait", and it ties in nicely with the sage, since it is an open floor plan. In the master bedroom, we chose a dark rich blue called "dusk", also from RH, and it is just heavenly. It''s a bit masculine, looks great with the dark wood furniture, but is lightened up with the white ceiling and trim and the light carpet. Everyone that sees it says "wow, beautiful." The office is a deep sea green from Sherwin Williams that my BF chose, sort of blue/green but definitely green. It looks great with the birch furniture.

I''m begging him to agree to paint my bathroom plum, but he really just hasn''t been won over yet. He''s talking burgundy for his den (Redskins fan thru and thru) so maybe I can get my way with the bathroom, or just wait until he''s out of town for a while and do it anyway!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Sum - I LOVE RH''s colors! If I had seen "cafe au lait" before making my husband paint the same wall in the living room different shades of tan 7 times (literally) it would have saved us both a lot of agony!!!

And I am hoping to use "silver sage" in our master bathroom but I have to get a sample to see how it will look with the green glass vessel sinks that I''m planning on putting in.

 

[FireGoddess]

Well, I rent, but the place I''m currently in (and leaving end of the month) allowed us to paint. We left most of it off white as it came, with the exception of one room we painted a dark red and one accent wall we did a sponged red on. The new place will be all off white again...can''t wait to get my own place!

 

[sumbride]

Date: 7/21/2006 11:18:43 AM
Author: Dee*Jay
Sum - I LOVE RH''s colors! If I had seen ''cafe au lait'' before making my husband paint the same wall in the living room different shades of tan 7 times (literally) it would have saved us both a lot of agony!!!

And I am hoping to use ''silver sage'' in our master bathroom but I have to get a sample to see how it will look with the green glass vessel sinks that I''m planning on putting in.

It is hard to find just the right tan! I wasn''t even thinking tan but when I spotted that color it won me over! Our flooring is a burgundy and brown checkerboard pattern, so it goes really well with that. The sage would probably work well with the green glass, but those little tiny sample jars will definitely help you decide! They have a couple of different sage variations too, so if it doesn''t work, maybe one of the others will. It''s such a restful color without being boring.

I want to paint our upstairs hall a light yellow, but what I really want is the color it turns when the sunlight comes through the skylight around about 3 pm. How on earth do I capture that? Quit my job and stay home and match paints to times? ha. Maybe that will be my weekend activity for the rest of the summer. "Busy at 3! Have to capture sunlight color!!!"

 

[sumbride]

Date: 7/21/2006 11:28:56 AM
Author: FireGoddess
Well, I rent, but the place I''m currently in (and leaving end of the month) allowed us to paint. We left most of it off white as it came, with the exception of one room we painted a dark red and one accent wall we did a sponged red on. The new place will be all off white again...can''t wait to get my own place!

FG- I painted my last two apartments and boy, it was a nightmare when I had to move out to get it back to white, but it was so nice to be able to have color while living there. I was in my first apartment a little over 5 years, so it made sense to me, and I really lucked out because they decided to renovate it after I moved out. They told me all i had to do was prime, but it took 3 coats to cover some of those colors! The handpainted daisies in the bathroom were my pride and joy but covering over that texture? UGH! I wish I''d known how hard it would be! I wish the rental companies would let the new tenants decide if they want to keep the paint color!

One of the best things about buying a place was saying "we''ll never have to ''undo'' this" when we painted. Of course, I guess that depends on our potential future buyers... after watching all those "sell this house" shows, maybe I should have held my tongue!

 

[Mara]

i love the RH colors as well...*and* kind of off topic but i wanted to share that in the latest catalog there was an announcement that PB also has it''s own line of colors from BM as well that coordinate with all their bedding etc...YAY!!! i was SO happy to see that after my nightmare with paint color choosing for our upstairs rooms!! and guess what? my chestertown buff that we chose for the guest room is one of them! yay! so i guess i chose a well-coordinated PB color, which is appropriate since 1/2 the stuff in the room is from there for decor..hehe.

i''m kind of bummed they don''t seem to have a nice dark olivey gray green...the one they have is BM HC110 which actually i painted swatches of on the wall and it looks good BUT the picture in the catalog on the same page they have the swatch is a really hideous brightish green! totally not how it looks on our wall OR in the sample bottle, but now i am too paranoid to paint the whole room that color. darn, back to the drawing board again. anyway i may look at the darkest RH green and see but i really wanted something a little more dark.

oh and on topic, 90% of our house (the living areas, interior living room, family room, dining room hallways etc) is this light taupe gray color that i don''t even know what it''s called, we had the house painted when we moved in. it''s a very calming, cool color, but during the winter i wish that it was ''warmer''. the bedrooms are painted various shades of different colors, our master is ice blue, the guest room is a warm sandy yellow and the office is going to be a dark gray green. the bathrooms are complimentary colors as well. i love using paint as a decor tool!!! i just hate choosing the colors!

 

[MINE!!]

Ohhh... I LOVE color... I think that white is dull.. so I suppose it is differnt strokes for different folks.. I plan to post the rest pf my house tonight..

Living room~ Amber and Baked Clay with wood trim
Kitchen~Tender Bud and Backed Clay
Hallway 1 (Clay Trim) and Foyer 1(Wood Trim)~ Amber
Hallway 2~Tender Bud
Office~Garden Green (looks great with the dark oak furniture) (Creamy White trim)
Guest Bath~ Green Apples And Creamy White Trim
Mater Bedroom~ Garden Grass Green
Master Bath~ Lettuce with darker sponged Lettuce
Bed 1~ Sentimental and Windswept (the only "light" room in the house)(with lettuce trim)
Bed 2~Clay and Amber with Garden Green Closet doors...

I love being surrounded by color.. it reflects my personality. My llight fixtures are all a dark antiqued color.

 

[diamondsrock]

our living room walls are a coffee/taupe color which is very relaxing and pretty much blends with anything. Trim around the house is the slightest hint of off white but looks white for the most part unless you compared to stark bluish-white.
Bedrooms are pale blue and the dining room is a darker dusty green.
My goal is to do the bathroom a pale creamy yellow but I haven''t found one I like yet. Some are too bright and others look like off white.

 

[eks6426]

I got really lucky when I moved into my house. Previous owners had painted a lot of it taupe and sage which are colors I like. They did some amazing color combos using shades of both colors...in the same room. For example by 1/2 bath has 5 colors in it...but they are just subtly different. If you don't look closely you think there are just 2...sage walls with taupe trim.

Oddly enough the 2 main rooms in the house...living room and dining room were really horrible colors. The living room was what I called "electric pea green." It was a very strange dark yellowish green that had this odd glow about it. Then the dining room was school bus yellow. I like yellow but this was too much. Oddly enough the house next door is that same school bus yellow and 1 of the dining room windows face it so the window just blended with the walls.

I wound up painting the living room a glazed taupe. I did a light cream base coat then did a taupe glaze top coat using dry cleaner bags to pull off the glaze to create a texture. It turned out really cool. I like the subtle texture...especially good on plaster walls that weren't perfectly smooth to begin with.

The dining room is a greyish-purplish-bluish color. One of my girlfriend's painted her bedroom this color and I thought it was the coolest color. It looks different depending on the light. Sometimes it looks dark blue, others dark grey or even dark purple.

My bedroom is currently a very light lavender which is the color it was when I moved in 4 years ago. I'm thinking of changing it to a teal color this fall. I have magazine pictures taped all over my walls for the look I want. Now, I just need to get out there and get some test colors and start painting swatches so I can watch them in the light. I want my room to make me feel like I'm on vacation in the Caribbean.

 

[moremoremore]

Bright white trim with (in different rooms obviously LOL)

1. China White (which is a not too warm beige)
2. The *perfect* shade of blue/gray that took me forever to find so as not to be a chilling blue
3. And in one room I got daring ! LOL.... The pale sage green with gray undertones...


p.s. I was also disappointed with the PB Ben Moore colors....they didn't seem to have a nice taupe/gray (unless it just looked that way in the catalogue)

 

[FireGoddess]

Date: 7/21/2006 12:12:03 PM
Author: sumbride

FG- I painted my last two apartments and boy, it was a nightmare when I had to move out to get it back to white, but it was so nice to be able to have color while living there. I was in my first apartment a little over 5 years, so it made sense to me, and I really lucked out because they decided to renovate it after I moved out. They told me all i had to do was prime, but it took 3 coats to cover some of those colors! The handpainted daisies in the bathroom were my pride and joy but covering over that texture? UGH! I wish I''d known how hard it would be! I wish the rental companies would let the new tenants decide if they want to keep the paint color!

One of the best things about buying a place was saying ''we''ll never have to ''undo'' this'' when we painted. Of course, I guess that depends on our potential future buyers... after watching all those ''sell this house'' shows, maybe I should have held my tongue!

Oh yeah...last time I did this red it took three coats of primer to cover it.

Thankfully this guy is fairly lax, cuz when we moved in the accent wall was LIME GREEN and he was like, "I can paint over that if you want." I told him not to worry since we''d just paint it red. But now he''ll have to paint over the red.

 

[Miranda]

White white white white white white white...And it''s driving me NUTS!!!!!! We moved in a couple of weeks ago and I''m going crazy with the white walls. I do have plans though!

- DD''s room (tackling this weekend) will have white crown moulding, white ceiling, pale yellow on top, white chair rail, pale pink(called Limoge pink) on bottom. Let me tell ya, it took some talking to sell her on the yellow. She wanted EVERYTHING pink...Including her carpet...You can imagine her dissapointment when she saw the neutral beige! Now, I like pink, but, I think an entire room of it will be too much. Her nursery was lavendar with lavendar toile bedding so pink is shocking for me.

-DS1''s room will be beige with a blue stripe. The blue will be ocean blue to go with his skim board and surf posters.

-DS2 is givin'' me some trouble. He wants bright yellow (think too many vitamins yellow) and red and blue. Ummmm, he''s a comic book fan and a little eclectic. We''re trying to agree on something more muted.

-Master Bed will be dark taupe in the sitting room, blue (the light/greyish one in the PB catalogs) on the walls and a taupe ceiling with crown moulding in the bedroom, and in the bathroom taupe...I think...blue would be good, too. Don''t know yet.

-Upstairs halls will be a creamy beige to tie in all rooms.

-Living room???? Furniture will be here in a few weeks.

-Playroom - Green, maybe. Something that goes with Dr. Seuss'' secret art prints.

-Kitchen - Green, when I find it...Must be olive, but, not too beige. Must look nice in natural light and flourescent as room gets tons of natural light during the day, but, flourescent tends to make colors brighter at night.

-Family room - Neutral beige or same green as kitchen.

Sorry about the long post..I was just thinking about paint when I meandered onto PS!

 

[hlmr]

I love colour!!!

My bedroom, ensuite and son's bedroom are a dark green, very relaxing.

Most of my house is a beige colour - I think it is called camelot by BM. In my front entrance I painted the bottom half of the walls a couple of shades darker and put up white chair-rail to break up the two shades. Looks great and the darker colour helps to mask the stains of children's hands, shoes and ball marks, etc!

My family room is dorset gold and I love it!!! especially at night.

ETA: My DH got really scared by the dark green when it first went on the walls but now he loves it!

 

[MINE!!]

Miranda... you should look for Tender Bud in the Olympic collection. It is bright at night.. looks a little green but in the sunlight it is more of a pale yellow. It is really nice. I did my kitchen in it and I have seen it done in a Bedroom as well and it turned out beautiful!

 

[Miranda]

Date: 7/21/2006 10:09:13 PM
Author: MINE!!
Miranda... you should look for Tender Bud in the Olympic collection. It is bright at night.. looks a little green but in the sunlight it is more of a pale yellow. It is really nice. I did my kitchen in it and I have seen it done in a Bedroom as well and it turned out beautiful!

Thanks for the tip...I''ll be off to Lowe''s tomorrow for a paint sample! Sounds like a perfect kitchen color.

 

[firebirdgold]

My walls are a light beige from the previous people and I painted all the trim (there''s lots of it) picket fence white. It makes for a beautiful contrast. The bathroom is currently brown, but it needs repainting.
A tip on the bathroom ladies, cool color walls reflect light on to us that makes most of us look a bit... ill. My last house I wanted something flattering in my bathroom so I took a blush brush and my favorite neutral blush and brushed it onto a piece of paper. Told the plasterer to match that! It came out beautifully! The other bathroom I did in a pure yellow. I have to say that not only was it cheerful and pleasent to live with, but I think they helped sell the house in a week! (wish I kept it though)

Fi''s house has apricot walls with Satillo tile, makes it very cozy!

 

[Mara]

heather what is your dark green color, and what are the undertones? i am in desperate need of a dark olive or grayish green color for our office, does anyone have suggestions? i was going to do HC110 but after seeing it in that PB catalog i was like WOAH maybe not.

 

[moremoremore]

While I usually try to stick to Ben Moore, my office is a Glidden...it was the lightest one on the strip and they have several darker variations on the same strip...I can't recall the name right now, maybe it will come to me...but this particular strip had lovely gray greens that I couldn't find elsewhere...

 

[KimberlyH]

Our whole house was sprayed w/ Frazee''s Desert Castle (light creamy tan w/ a bit of pink) when it was built, and the original and only owner (the house is only 2 years old) didn''t change a thing. I painted Frazee Coconut something or other stripes in my office, FI painted his office a darker tan color. I think we''ll paint the MBath to match the color scheme of the MBed once we get that settled, I''m thinking champagne and pale blue w/ blue bathroom walls, but the rest of the house will remain the same. The house is very open, ranch style and painting the main living areas could get very complicated because it''s hard to pick where one room ends and another begins.

 

[hlmr]

Date: 7/22/2006 7:19:52 PM
Author: Mara
heather what is your dark green color, and what are the undertones? i am in desperate need of a dark olive or grayish green color for our office, does anyone have suggestions? i was going to do HC110 but after seeing it in that PB catalog i was like WOAH maybe not.

Sorry, I just saw this post now. I am not sure what the undertones are so I took a pic of one wall with a picture on it to give you an idea.

As you can see, the green is very dark but we get a lot of sunlight in our bedroom and I love the rich green colour.

 

[FireGoddess]

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhh, pretty, hlmr!!!

 

[hlmr]

Thanks FG!!!

 

[lovelylulu]

my husband and i just re-painted our bedroom on sunday to give it a post-wedding makeover

we''re only renters, but we think it''s worth it.

the bedroom was originally a deeper, brightish blue -- but the room only gets good sunlight in the late afternoon. now it''s a lighter blue, not baby -- more like an ice. i love it. our wood furniture looks great against it and it reminds me of living in a beach house

our living room is a lovely yellow that makes me extremely happy to spend time in.

kitchen is a work in progress -- we just can''t decide...

 

[MelissaSue]

hmm. where to start..
I think ALL of our paint with the possible exception of the living room are from Lowes... mostly the Ralph Lauren
Our kitchen is Daffodil - very happy yellow color

Our Dining room is bungalow gold - Kind of between a tan and a yellow. but very neutral.. LOVE IT!

Our Living room - I can''t recall the name of the color, because it was not the color I had originally chosen. But it is a medum toned muted blue. (This was a battle for DH and I to pick this color.. he "won" the battle.. but I actually love the color)

Upstairs hallway - I believe the color is called Corkboard. A warm brown with some orangish tones..

Bathroom - Scribble Pink!! (from the nickelodeon collection) - Its REALLY bright pink..

Guest bedroom- oh crap.. what was the name of it.. something Leather.. its tan.. and SHOULD be lighter and less yellow than the dining room.. but since the rooms are nowhere near each other, when you walk from one room to the other you''d barely know they were different colors.. I actually really hate it. Its not what I wanted at all.. but HOPEFULLY in about a year it will be getting painted Pink or Blue.

Our bedroom is BRIGHT WHITE - Like... the white basepaint that you buy before they mix the colors in. I think its "ultra white" or something. I DESPISE OFF WHITE.. CAN NOT STAND IT. So anything we painted white had to be REALLY REALLY white..

And our office is still wood panelling. I kind of liked that it was different and it seemed officey -- Would perhaps like to paint it a deep burgandy/maroon color.. there is a very specific shade I have in mind and can''t quite find it.. but I''m not super worreid about painting it now..

 

[ladykemma]

Date: 7/25/2006 12:00:50 AM
Author: MelissaSue
hmm. where to start..
I think ALL of our paint with the possible exception of the living room are from Lowes... mostly the Ralph Lauren
Our kitchen is Daffodil - very happy yellow color

Our Dining room is bungalow gold - Kind of between a tan and a yellow. but very neutral.. LOVE IT!

Our Living room - I can''t recall the name of the color, because it was not the color I had originally chosen. But it is a medum toned muted blue. (This was a battle for DH and I to pick this color.. he ''won'' the battle.. but I actually love the color)

Upstairs hallway - I believe the color is called Corkboard. A warm brown with some orangish tones..

Bathroom - Scribble Pink!! (from the nickelodeon collection) - Its REALLY bright pink..

Guest bedroom- oh crap.. what was the name of it.. something Leather.. its tan.. and SHOULD be lighter and less yellow than the dining room.. but since the rooms are nowhere near each other, when you walk from one room to the other you''d barely know they were different colors.. I actually really hate it. Its not what I wanted at all.. but HOPEFULLY in about a year it will be getting painted Pink or Blue.

Our bedroom is BRIGHT WHITE - Like... the white basepaint that you buy before they mix the colors in. I think its ''ultra white'' or something. I DESPISE OFF WHITE.. CAN NOT STAND IT. So anything we painted white had to be REALLY REALLY white..

And our office is still wood panelling. I kind of liked that it was different and it seemed officey -- Would perhaps like to paint it a deep burgandy/maroon color.. there is a very specific shade I have in mind and can''t quite find it.. but I''m not super worreid about painting it now..

of all the posters'' paint choices, yours and mine are most similar

my kitchen is a bright daffodil cheery yellow.
I despise off white paint.
and my bedroom is bubble gum pink and somehow it works with maple and cherry colonial furniture. we actually copied the color from historical paint at the octagon house in washington dc