Room Colors

[indecisive]

How do you decide what color to paint what room? I am building a house so I have a blank slate but am overwhelmed by choice. We don''t even have that much furniture so I don''t even have that to go off of. So I am looking for ideas and tips on how to decide! I have 3 bedrooms, kitchen/dinning room, living room, guest bath, master bath, and hall way to figure out! Thanks so much in advance for help!

 

[diamondsrock]

That''s a good question! We moved into a fixer upper so redid all of the walls for the most part. I was in the same boat with making decisions.

I decided on a neutral for the living room and went with a beige-taupe color to go with my white woodwork. There are so many shades of beige it was kind of difficult to decide. Mine is more of the gray-beige rather than yellow-beige. Neutral in the living room is nice since it''s kind of a blank slate for couch, curtains, etc.. and is a pretty relaxing color.

Bedrooms are more personal. Mine are in shades of blue because I find blue very calming. Growing up I had bright yellow floral printed wallpaper (my choice at the time) and does that wake you up in the morning! Green is also very calming in a bedroom.

Bathrooms are fun and can be sort of unique, wild, some color you wouldn''t normally go with. My neighbor has bright teal colored walls in her bathroom, which I would never do in a regular room, but is really fun in the bathroom and looks great. Since the bathroom is usually smaller, that pop of color isn''t so overwhelming. I plan on doing my bathroom in a pale yellow because I''ve always wanted that color in a room but can''t think of another room I can do it in. Some people like black and white or gray as well, which is sort of modern looking.

I''ve noticed a lot of dining rooms in terracotta lately. Earth colors are becoming very popular. I have my dining room in green and I love it. Green is a very relaxing color. One of my friend''s sons told me he''d like to take a nap in that room it is so calming!

I would definately try to buy those small jars and bring home if you can to try on the wall first. It''s awful to get a whole gallon then decide you don''t like it. Benjamin Moore has those tiny jars you can buy for a few bucks. Put some on the wall and see how it looks in natural light as well as at night with your lights on. The color can change a lot depending on the source of light.

Have fun with this! Take home bunches of paint cards from the store, spend some time with them, and see what colors you are most attracted to. I remember having a giant handful of just blue and green cards. It''s hard to believe there can be so many shades of one color!

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Our main rooms are a grayish-tan. For the other rooms I take my inspiration from the soft materials (bedding, rug, etc...) Our sun room has windows EVERYWHERE so I went bold with a chocolate brown. My playroom is a grayish-green taken from the area rug. The bedrooms are colors picked from the bedding. When in doubt pick a nice neutral. You can ALWAYS repaint later.

 

[Circe]

Well, to start with, what are your favorite colors? I''m definitely over on the blue side of the spectrum in general - it''s soothing, peaceful, stimulates the intellect, etc., etc. if all the psych books are to be believed. BUT, I also love startling dashes of red - crimson and scarlet and ruby and madder. So my entire house is kind of an unintentional variation on that theme: unlike you, I wasn''t clever enough to think of the house as a unit: instead, I looked at it room-by-room, and then once I was finished, I thought ... hey, there''s a theme here!

My dining room and living room aren''t separated by walls, so I''ve tied them together with black furniture in both, one pale blue wall that runs their mutual perimeter, and red silk shantung cushions on the couch with red flowers on the table almost all the time. The curtains in the living room are currently a blue that matches the paint, but when I scrape up the funds I''m planning to get red silk shantung curtains, too. The rest of the house deepens the theme: my study has indigo walls and more red balancing it out (with gilding everywhere, because that''s just how I roll). And so on, and so forth.

I think, more than being decorator-perfect, it''s important that a house reflect your personality in order to function as a home, a nest, a safe space. So start with the themes and aesthetics that you like best, and go from there ....

 

[Haven]

This is a great thread. We''re having the same issues in our new home. The previous owners had the rooms painted in great colors, but the grays they had in the living, dining, and family rooms don''t work for us. The problem is that I don''t know what DOES work for us!

I''m loving reading everyone''s replies.

Do you have any inspiration pictures of the types of furniture or style you''d like in your new home?

 

[indecisive]

Thank you all so much!This is really helping!

dismondsrock- I love hearing your thought process about all your rooms! It def helps! It feels like such a big job but the way you break it down makes so much sense. Those paint cards always overwhelm me but I think you are right about taking them home. I really like the idea about going with more intense colors in the bathrooms so I can go lighter on the rooms but still have variations. It sounds like you have done a lot with your house! Thanks again!

tacori- The grayish tan sounds really nice. We are getting a whole new bed/bedding after we move in so I am still looking for something I love. The only other bedding I have is my pink and white damask bedding from college! Did you decide on furniture/soft materials first or wall color? Thank you for your input!

Circe- Your house sounds really pretty and interesting! DH and I like so many colors that I am worried it will not look cohesive. I love the idea that you used with your dining/living room because my kitchen/dining room are connected and it has a really "open" floorplan so you can see the living room from the kitchen, etc. That means the colors have to really tie together and your dinning room/living room sounds lovely!

 

[packrat]

I had a hard time deciding what I liked, so we ended up painting the kitchen 4 times in 7 years..but I LOVE what I have now, so it''s staying. Living room was painted 3 times, our bedroom twice, and the bathroom twice. I started going to hgtv.com for ideas, and ended up asking for help in the Colors section, and got pointed in the PERFECT direction. When we got married I painted each room a shade of off white, figuring the light neutrals would be best..but then I felt starved for color..so now our living room is burnt orange, our bedroom is sage green (tho now I''m thinking of changing it to a more olivey green), our daughters room is a soft yellow, and when we do our sons room to a big boy room, he''s getting a reddish/brown rust color. The kitchen is a khaki green w/a little bit of yellowish/white on wainscotting, and the kitchen trim is all in a dark (brick?)red. I couldn''t be happier w/it now..tho my husband complains that the walls are closing in b/c of all the layers of paint.

If you go to benjaminmoore.com you can pick rooms and colors to see how the look together..and if you sign up as a designer, you can get the big 8x8 paint chips. Plus, it''s fun to play w/color combinations!

 

[niccia]

A show I love (and I hope this is ok with the moderators) is Design Inc and if you go to the website (its a Canadian site) you can see every episode they have done with pictures and all the paints/ wallpapers they used listed so you can recreate the look. It is amazing what a professional designer can do with a room.
For my own tastes, I like some amount of colour and I like the rooms to flow, but not be too smilar to each other. The condo I am in now has very dark wood flooring with polished concrete walls and greyish taupe paint, which is very masculine and modern but I really love it. It has tons of windows, otherwise it would be too dark. I also love dark wood with a silvery wallpaper and white furniture with splashes of fushia (saw that on one episode and fell in love so that is my future dining room). I love chocolate and pale pink or chocolate and pale blue combos for a bedroom, and green is very restfull. Sunrooms have to be lemony yellow for me, and I love bright red in a nice modern kitchen or small powder room. I also really like a nice golden yellow in more traditional living rooms.

 

[elrohwen]

I think I would get furniture and rugs and things before deciding. My apartment was a blank slate, but before we moved in we bought a beautiful rug that had reds and blues, so after that it was pretty easy to pick out some paint colors to go with it. If you paint the walls first, you''re locked into finding accessories to go with it which can be hard unless you do something really neutral like beige.

Good luck! I think picking up those broshures in the paint section are helpful because they show rooms all decorated using different paint colors and it can help you get ideas of what you like and don''t like.

 

[Anastasia]

I agree about choosing furniture, area rugs, or draperies first.

You can always find paint to match fabric, but you can''t always find fabric to match paint. If worse comes to worse, you can have paint custom mixed to match your other choices.

I agree about the pumpkin color. I am seeing it more and more and love it. It is what I plan when I get around to painting my living room again.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Date: 1/17/2009 5:34:08 PM
Author: indecisive

tacori- The grayish tan sounds really nice. We are getting a whole new bed/bedding after we move in so I am still looking for something I love. The only other bedding I have is my pink and white damask bedding from college! Did you decide on furniture/soft materials first or wall color? Thank you for your input!

No offense to anyone but I am kinda over the tan look. Probably b/c that is how our old house was (and everyone else''s). So the cooler neutral is really nice. We used Valspar Taupe Stone. It has a hint of tan so it isn''t a COLD gray. People seem to like it b/c we get lots of compliments. We used antique white on the ceiling (I also have a thing against white ceilings) and glossy bright white on all the trim. Then for the rooms with color I use the same color but two shades light on the ceiling. I think it really makes the crown pop that way and adds more interest. I also choose the wall color last or at least after I have my inspiration piece. I think it is MUCH easier that way.

 

[pennquaker09]

One things that I learned from designers I worked with is that it''s best to design around something you love. For instance, if you find a pillow or fabric or rug and use that for inspiration. That''s what I try to do. Some people try to pick things and expect them to come together, but I think that rarely happens.

Ms. Tacori, I whole agree with you on the tan thing. When people think neutral they seem to automatically think tan or beige or taupe, but there are shades of blue, green, gray, and brown they are also neutral.

Another tip of advice. When you look at a paint color on a strip, it''s best to start at the color in the center of the strip and maybe paint adjoining rooms in one of the other shades.

 

[April20]

I''ve never moved into a house where I didn''t re-paint every single wall. Nothing goes untouched. It''s my favorite part of a new space!

I usually start by deciding what rooms need to be neutral. I generally do the living room, hallways and guest rooms a nuetral. I jazz up the neutral and give it some personality with art, pillows, rugs, window treatments, etc. My current favorite nuetral is Wool Skein by Sherwin Williams. It''s a warm tan that doesn''t go pink, yellow or green on you.

After I figure out what''s nuetral, I decide which rooms are going to be my "jewel boxes". I like good, strong colors in select rooms. A lot of this depends on what kind of light the rooms gets or what other crazy ideas I have in my head at the moment. In this house it''s my dining room (well, it''s that room in almost every house) and my study/office. I did a deep jewel toned turquoise in my dining room as I''m a bit obsessed with that color in the last few years. I chose a copper color for the office, but knew it was way too much for a whole room, especially as it doesn''t get a lot of natural light. I had beadboard wainscot and chair rail installed to 4'' AFF and had that painted white. It really balanced the copper color out. I''ve found that if you have a room where you think the color is a bit over the top for the whole thing, doing it above or below some chair rail is often a really good alternative.

If I find I need other colors and what I have going already won''t really work (lighting, adjacencies, etc), I''ll often pick another color off the same paint chip that I''ve already used. Case in point: I couldn''t figure out what color to paint my kitchen. It is directly adjacent to my dining room, so a color wouldn''t work, but has vaulted ceilings and my neutral would wash out to nothing. I ended up painting it two shades darker than the neutral I already had going on and it looks great.

If you''re unsure of a color, many places will sell a small sample size so you can test it out. Paint a section of wall with it, live with it a few days and see how you feel. The cool thing with paint is that if you hate it, it''s pretty easy to change.

 

[Erin]

My boyfriend''s house: tan furniture, tan carpet, tan walls, wood trim.
I''m trying to get him to paint one of the ''free floating'' walls either maroon or dark teal.

Btw there is nothing "tan" in my house except for the rug under the kitchen sink

 

[Circe]

Oh! One thing I forgot to mention, but that April20''s post reminded me of (I really like the "jewel box" description!) - I love deeply saturated colors, but I''m aware that they can be overwhelming in anything but a loft. I tend to choose one or two walls as the focal points of the room and paint those, while leaving other walls in neutral, complimentary shades. It seems to make rooms feel bigger, and it gives me more scope to play with really dramatic choices. If my entire study were indigo, I think I''d feel claustrophobic: instead, it balances out the accessories in the rest of the space.

 

[Elmorton]

DH and I are "white wall" people - we tend to do color with what''s hanging on the wall instead of wall color, but I did want to introduce a little bit of color for the walls in our house. Our living areas are all ivory - we have an old house, so it works with the woodwork and keeps those rooms looking crisp. Our study/guest room is a soft yellow - neither of us are yellow fans, but the really brightens the room and ties in the ton of color that is going on in there via bedding and stuff on the walls and reddish oak trim. Our bedroom is a soft beige-y toupe with white trim (sadly, someone painted over the wood trim in there). We have a small bedroom so the color is calming but the light also makes it look bigger. If you have a large bedroom, I''d really avoid the whiter colors on the wall. Our last bedroom was enormous and it always felt so cold to me. I think a blue or lavender or even a deep tan would have made that room a lot more cozy. The bathroom in our house has the deepest color - a greenish khaki with white trim. We didn''t choose that color, it was there when we moved in, but I love it. It pops against the white and while it''s still a neutral, it''s a little unexpected with all the white but also still fits with the neutrals in the rest of the house. So, everything we have is neutral to the core, but you still see a little bit of a color shift when you go into the bedrooms.

 

[radiantquest]

i am bolder. we are slowly repainting all the rooms in our house and none of them are going to be bland. they were beige and tan and white and BORING. my living room is the first one we have finished and i love it. it is two colors. opposite walls. one is called brandied apple (redish) and the opposite walls are heirloom quilt (dusty purple) it sounds hideous, but it is awesome. everyone who sees it is impressed. my SIL asked me to pick out her wall colors from now on.

my advice would be to get one of those colors things and go with a color that speaks to you. jumps up at you. i have always wanted a red or orange dining room. have fun with it. you will either be thrilled with it, that you had the nerve to paint your wall that color or you will not like it and paint over it.

 

[janinegirly]

how did i miss this thread? I also have a blank slate: new home with no furniture, rugs or artwork and need to paint all the walls. I''m one of those "beige" people too--I like tans and neutral shades, I must be so boring! Although, a room or 2 in a bold shade looks great too. Our house is small though, so not much extra space.

My main question with painting is what is the "rule" when it comes to continuity between rooms. If there is no wall between rooms, I can see how it would be necessary to keep the shades the same or complimentary, but what if they are just adjoining? What if they are visible from varous standpoints (like a central staircase) but not once in the room?
And what about bedrooms, do they have to be complimentary if they are all next to each other?

 

[fieryred33143]

Date: 1/17/2009 3:23:44 PM
Author:indecisive
How do you decide what color to paint what room? I am building a house so I have a blank slate but am overwhelmed by choice. We don''t even have that much furniture so I don''t even have that to go off of. So I am looking for ideas and tips on how to decide! I have 3 bedrooms, kitchen/dinning room, living room, guest bath, master bath, and hall way to figure out! Thanks so much in advance for help!

We are ''neutral'' type of people so we went with different color cream in the house. It goes from light to dark.

But for some reason, we painted our bedroom blue. I have no idea where that came from.

I highly suggest stalking the paint section of home depot/Lowe''s. They have inspiration cards and you can see what works/feels better for you.

 

[laurel25]

We are in the process of completely renovating our house (which used to be an Amish farm) and we''re currently finishing up the drywall and the painting, so I''m in the same boat. We decided to go with a neutral tan-taupe in the living room/dining room area, up the stairs, and in the upstairs hallway. The kitchen and both bathrooms are going to be a warm white because we''re trying to keep the "old farm house" feel to the house and the bathrooms have white & black tile and the kitchen will have dark colored wood or laminate flooring. The bedrooms are: master - light sage green, nursery - warm white because it''s really small, 2 small bedrooms - pale yellow because it''s really cheerful and bright. All the colors have yellow undertones to tie them together and so far it looks really nice.

I have to add though, that we''re probably going to sell the house once we''re done with all the work to it, so we''re trying to pick colors that are very appealing and kind of neutral. If this were a house that we were going to be staying in long-term we''d probably pick some different, bolder colors.