Wall color?

[Gardenarian]

All our walls our off-white (except kitchen, which is pale yellow) and I'm thinking of painting.

There's something about colored walls that pulls a room together and makes it look more permanent, less like a container for stuff...at least in other people's houses....

We have no plans to move, so that is not a consideration.

To you prefer neutral or colored walls?
Have you regretted painting?

I'm thinking a pale blue or light green for my bedroom, also pale green for the spare/guest/hobby room, a warmish grey for bathroom (would go with tile and floor.) Possibly, a rose pink for dining room. We have white painted trim, wood floors, and white curtains and blinds. There is no crown molding - I'm not sure whether to do ceilings or leave them white. Leaving the living room neutral, for the time being, but considering a richer beige with a hint of gold tones.

Any advice? Thanks!

[catherine]

Oh, wow, I have had color on my mind all summer. You may recall that when we bought our VT house, I was planning on covering up the walls with some neutral paint. It's only 700 square feet, and I felt that the many colors chopped the house up too much. There are, not kidding, 8 different colors on the walls in this little cabin--sage green, buttercup yellow, pink, magenta, red, neon green, white, and baby blue. I call it the Crayola House.

My son and DH are fearful that changing the wall colors, especially to a neutral shade, will ruin the cool quirky, bohemian vibe. So I've resisted. I've gone so far as to buy two gallons of "Schooner"--a Valspar navy blue, for my bedroom to cover up the pink and magenta. I made the leap on that particular decision because the paint was returned after mixing and so it was only $5/gallon.

But I'm stuck on the other colors, because I've grown to like the idea of a couple of bright colors, but just not these colors specifically.

So, in my research one color palette that is a BIG contender is the palette in the house in this article: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/ideas/1830s-farmhouse-remodel-fit-family

I like it because it combines different colors, but none are fully saturated--I like a touch of grey in my colors. But I also love the primaries: the yellows, reds and blues. And I also like green. It's hard for me to decide--so hard. So I'm giving myself another pass until next summer. By then I hope to make up my mind.

Not sure that helps YOU, but just wanted to share my similar quest for the right colors.



ETA: I also like this palette: 2516

It's from here: https://roomlust.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/benjamin-moore-hawthorne-yellow/

[Rogar]

I prefer neutral colors. My interior is painted in light shades of yellow, green and tan. Off-whites seems sterile. My rough estimation would be that a person would grow tired of darker or vibrant saturated colors compared to less intrusive light shades. I also think that light shades can make rooms feel larger and dark colors can make rooms feel confining.

[Teacher Terry]

I do color on 2 walls in every room and then the other 2 walls a cream color. So the LR, DR, kitchen and guest bathroom all green and cream. 2 offices, MB and bathroom are mauroon and cream. But in the bedrooms only the wall behind the headboard is maroon. I don’t like it when every room is a different color.

[iris lilies]

I agree with the OP that neutral colored walls allow ones furnishings to stand out. That is fine if one has nice furniture arranged in pleasing ways. But – personally I like color to give your eye something to look at.

I am playing around with a color palette for our Hermann house which is years down the road.As of now I am looking at a palette that is light yellow, lettuce green, with Periwinkle accents.I am pumped about getting colored kitchen cabinets this time around, like this:



Never mind, nothing is loading today.



For a while I entertained the notion of using palette that reflects grape country, since Hermann is the heart of winemaking in Missouri. Those colors would be lavenders purples greens. But I think I am over that although I am still attracted to it.

[nswef]

When we moved to our hose in 73 the bedrooms were pepto bismol pink, kitchen brownish, bath brownish, dining room brownish, living room off white, hall green. first to be painted was the bedroom to a pale yellow...it is still pale yellow. Our trim is oak, so dark colors aren't nice with it they way they are with bright white trim. Our next was to paint the dining room a pale avocado green, still green, kitchen pale yellow but now almond to match the 80's formica counter top, hall pale cream and living room pale cream. the other bedroom is sky blue and the bathroom is blue to match the blue in the peach and blue tile. Obviously my color palate is blue, green, yellow. good luck choosing. It's not easy.

[rosarugosa]

Our house is tiny - about 900 SF, and we have lots of windows (28). Our second floor is very attic-like and you can't really say where walls leave off and ceiling begins. So we have white walls and moldings throughout. Boring maybe, but also as simple as it gets.


PS: IL, I think you forgot to add an enclosure.

[Gardenarian]

Aaargh, just typed a long reply then dropped my phone and it's gone!

All your replies are so l helpful! I hadn't even thought of a coordinating pallette - will get on that :)

All the photos I see online have white sofas and bedding. I do not. I have dogs.

Going to try and post some photos.

[Teacher Terry]

White sofa-ugh! We have 4 dogs.

[pinkytoe]

Sounds silly but I did a lot of research on warm whites before painting this house a Benj Moore white. Floors and furniture are light wood and I like that Scandinavian look. Have always used a neutral beigy color in the past so the warm white is a nice change. I have done a couple of accent walls in saturated blue green colors upstairs- like a teal blue color on desk wall and a similar shade on bed headboard wall.

[Simplemind]

There isn't a white wall to be found in our home. I was going for color in a outside/inside kind of way. We have a look coming into our house that is completely different than when you get to the back which is all glass looking out into a large green space. A lot of natural rock, wood and greens. The walls of most of the house are a strange gray that changes depending on the light coming through the windows at different times of the day. It can look blue or it can look green but hardly ever what you would call gray. We have a large river rock fireplace so it picks up the colors from that. We have a pumpkin orange feature wall in the family room that goes great with that gray color. Our bedroom is a deep deep purple, so deep it doesn't even register as purple at first.

[ToomuchStuff]

I prefer neutral colors, however the last few years I have considered repainting a bunch and making one wall a bolder shade, where I put all the pictures and such. (focus wall)

[JaneV2.0]

In all the houses my parents owned, the living room was done in a coral shade of wallpaper--I remember our house at the beach had a bamboo motif against a slightly faded shade. If, no when I get my next place, I want that color, or some variation of it. I devoutly pray it doesn't become the fad du jour by that time.

[Gardnr]

We've always been neutral. i call it builder beige.:~) Then years ago, (10?) hubby was forced off for a week as he had hit the ceiling for accumulated PTO. So, I came home and our family room is half orangy-brown and half dark dusty blue? I don't know how else to describe it. It's awesome and I love it. (our football team is Blue and Orange so that what drove him). our carpet is neutral grey and our furniture is charcoal grey leather and it all works!

I say you do what you want. If you ever sell you can give a painting allowance or offer to paint it their color choice.

[lmerullo]

Our vacation home has pastels - yellow guest bedroom, periwinkle bath, true baby blue living room and the master is called wasabi - it's a bright spring green. The kitchen is painted white, but the color theme is actually tan and red.

Our full time home has been through various paintings of colonial white. After living the pops of color up north, I convinced hubby to go with color. So far, kitchen is sage green, bath is grey and living room is cappuccino. I've noticed that the cappuccino has lost some of the deepness to the color, likely due to exposure to sunlight? I'd like to repaint one wall as a focus, but the color I like clashes with the sage and the rooms are adjacent. Until I reconcile that issue, we are stuck.

[befree]

go for it! You don't have to paint the ceilings; white ceiling with colored walls looks fine, and it makes the job of painting much easier. I like having all the walls the same color throughout the house..my color is kind of almond/sand. But you might like different colors everywhere; your colors sound nice. If you wanted to pick one color, you could do different shades (or do they call them tints?) of the color - you know, how they come on the paint card.

[Float On]

I have a lot of color but then again we made our living as artists so, yeah, color. But I'm considering toning it down a bit now. I have 2 red walls in my dining area and the kitchen is a light brown while the cabinets gypsy teal (lower) and crisp white (top). With all the artwork it ties together. I actually painted the hall bath from a dark Tuscan yellow to bright white and I'm loving it so I may move towards white more. The laundry is a light green and it still feels fresh. Our bedroom is a dark brown and with the white molding and other whites it's crisp yet inviting and I sleep well since I went dark brown. Other bedrooms are red or gypsy teal both with white. The living room is a light gold that changes color throughout the day.

The fun thing about paint is as long as you can muster the energy it's just a can of paint away from a change.

I'm currently debating the exterior. We just got new windows and had to go white instead of the black we had. It completely changes the look but I think I'm liking it. Actually brightened up the full covered front porch area. Now do I want to change from the dark brown cabin in the woods look to something different like greens or even navy blues?

[Gardenarian]

I'm impressed by the cool color choices!

I'm going to the hardware store today to pick up some paint chips. I used to have one of the fan decks - that was cool! It got lost in the move to Oregon.

[Tenngal]

check out "Sea Salt" I think it is a Benjamin Moore color. Very nice.

[Yppej]

I have adobe type colors as I like Southwestern style.

[pinkytoe]

I have found over time that Benjamin Moore colors are more "saturated" than other brands. Perhaps like expensive makeup, the pigments are ground finer. Another thing is that sites like Sherwin Williams let you download photos of a room and try out different colors.

[HappyHiker]

Gosh, nothing is more personal than color! The happiest room in our home is the family room which is painted a special yellow that we searched high and low for and which is perfect--for us! The ceiling and trim are a creamy warm white. Everyone loves this room--it always feels sunny and warm even in the midst of winter....makes ya smile.

Our bedroom is painted a pale coral--I used the inside of a conch shell as my guide, and the trim is a beige-y cream, following, again, the conch shell. This scheme is quite serene and peaceful.

I've found another serene color is a light sage green -- it feels like being in a fern-y meadow.

But these are my colors--you'll find your own. I like the colors of nature best....

[Teacher Terry]

Yellow is a great color but not in bedrooms. It can cause nightmares which go away if the room color is changed. People also fight more in a room painted red. It is not calming but just the opposite.

[nswef]

Our bedroom is a pale sunshine yellow and I love it. It's been that color for 40 years, so it hasn't been a problem for us. Big Bird yellow....that could make you never sleep.

[jp1]

THe thing that fascinates me is how color seems so different depending on the particulars of a given room. THe amount of light it gets, the furnishings, etc.

Our current place is all still painted the stark white that the builder painted it. It seems to work in the space though because we get abundant sunshine through the whole wall windows facing the south on both floors so the walls are just kind of invisible. In my NYC apartment I never got direct sunshine and i found that a single maroon wall in the living room really cheered the place up compared to having all 4 walls off white. Very non-intuitive, at least to me, but a friend talked me into it and once it was done I couldn't have been more pleased.

For us the more important home color is the dark beige carpet. It's very similar to the color of cat yack which makes cleanup of that a breeze. Important since one of our cats has, for his entire life, channeled Karen Carpenter.

[catherine]

For us the more important home color is the dark beige carpet. It's very similar to the color of cat yack which makes cleanup of that a breeze. Important since one of our cats has, for his entire life, channeled Karen Carpenter.

We once decorated around our yellow lab who shed relentlessly. We had gold leather couches, jute rugs... anything that we re-did we re-did to minimize the sight of yellow fur and dander.

Then we got a black dog.. And when we redid our family room floors, we chose the darkest color Pergo we could find. Not a great testament of my housekeeping skills, when I feel better hiding stuff than cleaning it, but that's how it is.

[Float On]

We once decorated around our yellow lab who shed relentlessly. We had gold leather couches, jute rugs... anything that we re-did we re-did to minimize the sight of yellow fur and dander.

Then we got a black dog.. And when we redid our family room floors, we chose the darkest color Pergo we could find. Not a great testament of my housekeeping skills, when I feel better hiding stuff than cleaning it, but that's how it is.

I remember holding up the dust pan after sweeping my white kitchen floor for the 4th time one day and telling my husband; "This. This is color I want the floor to be."

[jp1]

I used to work with a woman who always wore black clothes. (This WAS after all, the 90's in NYC) Her husband did as well. They had 4 cats and every day when she got to work she'd get out a roll of packing tape and use it to get the cat hair off of her clothes. She swore that as their cats died they were going to replace them with black ones.

[Float On]

Our bedroom is a pale sunshine yellow and I love it. It's been that color for 40 years, so it hasn't been a problem for us. Big Bird yellow....that could make you never sleep.

I too had a pale yellow bedroom growing up. Actually it's still a lighter version of the same color and I sleep really well when I go home to visit. I did have issues with sleep walking while growing up but that started in a vibrant purple bedroom and continued well into the yellow bedroom.

[Teacher Terry]

I am sure color doesn’t effect everyone the same way. Just good to know if you suddenly start having nightmares.