Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I want to paint before I move in, while it's empty. The walls are white and the tile is beige. I'm totally not color coordinated at all. I'm horrible at this! As you can see, the front entry, dining, living room and kitchen are all open, so the colors need to flow well together and not clash. My problem is that I can't tell what clashes and what doesn't.
Do I paint it all the same color? I'd like an accent wall, but where? That built-in entertainment center is giving me fits, because I don't know whether to paint it the same color as the walls or accent it or leave it white. I want an accent wall but everything I've read says not to make the TV wall the accent wall because it tends to be the most cluttered wall. I'd like to make the wall with the French doors the accent wall, but would that work with how the entertainment center budges right up against that wall in the corner? Or should the wall that goes the length of the entry through the dining area to the living room be the accent wall?
I like neutral earth-tone colors. I like light and airy rather than dark. My favorite colors are the sage greens, beiges, dusty rose, and most of the earthy tones that are popular here in Arizona. I don't care for very bright, vivid colors on walls (like no turquoise or flaming orange lol), and I don't like blue walls with beige tile and I don't like black, grey, or silver on walls either. I don't have furniture yet, but more than likely it will be off-white, bone, or light beige. My decor pieces are mostly southwestern with a cactus theme, with a lot of sage green, beige and some pink.
I would appreciate any help with picking out colors. Color picking is very overwhelming for me and I'm afraid if I don't get help, these walls will stay white forever.
Let me first preface this with I'm not a designer. I can just offer my opinion, but it's like a you-know-what, everyone has one. LOL
I would use the wall with the French doors as the accent wall, because that is the wall you see as soon as you walk into the house. I think a pretty shade of green would be nice, to make it seem like the outside is coming in.
It's very popular out here to paint the wall/door trims white and the walls a beigy color. I happen to like that look, but I know some folks don't. I think a pretty beige that coordinates with the green accent wall would be very nice.
The only problem for me would be choosing the actual shade of green and then the beige shade, before I had any furniture or an inspiration piece I planned to use in the room. (I would hate to use warm shades and then fall in love with a cool tone sofa or vice versa, if that makes any sense.) The perfect thing for me would be to have a print area rug for the seating area, so I could pull the colors right out of the rug. (You wouldn't have to worry about what colors go with what then. If they all worked well together in the area rug, you know they work well together.) I would buy a sofa first, then an area rug, and then choose my paint colors. That's probably backwards from how it should be done and it doesn't help you to choose paint before you move in though.
Some people like to paint the interior spaces of their entertainment centers a contrasting color, but quite often that makes it too busy for my taste. I would make the entertainment center whatever color I painted the walls, so it sort of blends in, and I'd let a couple of art pieces placed on the entertainment center provide the color on there.
Hopefully one of the professionals or someone with very good taste will chime in, to give you better ideas.
Congratulations on your new place! It's very pretty.
A Nonny Mouse, I had considered that, but I think I want to try to work with the entertainment center.
CheyDee, I like the green and beige idea. Do you think using the wall with the French doors as the accent wall will look ok with that entertainment center right next to it?
I'm going to put regular carpet in the living room and also the bedrooms. My dog has arthritis and can't handle tile well, and neither can my joints. An area rug doesn't give us enough cushioning. I'm very much a carpet person. I'll still need the paint color to go well with the tile though, because the tile baseboard will still be visible even with the carpet, and there will be a cutout next to the French doors for muddy dog paws, so that part will be tile and so will the entrance area. For the carpet, I'm going with an off-white, cream, or very light beige.
Isn't it fun to have a new clean slate to work with!
I'll offer you the color advice I give everyone, which I think it the simplest way to choose colors:
Benjamin Moore has a huge (144) color collection called Affinity. Every color goes with every other color, so you can make attractive transitions from room-to-room or paint focal walls, trim, and ceilings knowing that they will be complementary. I got a free folder for Affinity at Ace Hardware, so you don't even have to make a trip to the Benj. Moore store if it's far from you. Or you can also purchase a fan deck with bigger sample cards from Moore. It's a great idea for people painting an entire house. Not to mention that Benjamin Moore paint is top quality.
And please don't forget to take the color of your floors into consideration. Put color samples against them and figure out what color they really are. So-called neutral tile can have gray, green, yellow, or orange undertones and that should be taken into consideration when you choose.
Pick your favorite color from the Affinity chart and then work from there. I know there will be something on the chart that really speaks to you, or works well with your furniture. I live in Arizona, too, and many of the colors you mention appear in the Affinity collection. And if you want to go neutral, you can get different color tones that will go well together. I wanted to repaint my whole house after I found it.
One other thing to consider since you live in Arizona, there's a great paint consultant and custom paint mixer in Tucson named C.J. Volk. Her company is called Citron Paint & Interiors. C.J. is remarkably skillful and has a beautiful studio where she mixes and sells paints that are expensive but especially well-suited to the Southwest. She also does in-house color consultations. CITRON Paint & Interiors, 7041 E. Tanque Verde Rd., Tucson, AZ 85715 Take a look at the articles about her company that appear on her website: http://www.citronpaint.com/
Last edited by Jukesgrrl; 07-08-2012 at 01:20 AM..
I went to what is supposed to be the Ace store with the biggest Benjamin Moore collection, and they didn't have this folder. The only folders they had were for the Ace brand. I'll try to find another store in Tucson that might have this folder.
What do you have for furniture, etc.? Since you have so much to do, I would suggest hiring a decorator to come in and give suggestions and put together a pallet for you to work with. Most will charge by the hour and a couple hours of their time would be well worth the cost. Many will apply that fee toward items purchased through them. Often furniture stores employ decorators so that might be a good place to start. They can give you ideas about paint colors but also furniture and accessories to look for (size, shape, color, etc.).
Our last house was a blank slate deal. We removed wallpaper and painted every wall in the house. We had a decorator come in and help us get started on colors, furniture choices, etc.
CheyDee, I like the green and beige idea. Do you think using the wall with the French doors as the accent wall will look ok with that entertainment center right next to it?
I'm going to put regular carpet in the living room and also the bedrooms. My dog has arthritis and can't handle tile well, and neither can my joints. An area rug doesn't give us enough cushioning. I'm very much a carpet person. I'll still need the paint color to go well with the tile though, because the tile baseboard will still be visible even with the carpet, and there will be a cutout next to the French doors for muddy dog paws, so that part will be tile and so will the entrance area. For the carpet, I'm going with an off-white, cream, or very light beige.
I think using the wall with the French doors for the accent wall would be great, even with the entertainment center right next to it. I just wouldn't like the adjacent entertainment center to be too busy and compete, which is why I'd keep the paint color the same color as the other walls.
I would think nothing of adding an area rug on top of wall to wall carpeting, just large enough to define a seating area. (They make rug pads to put between the two rugs, so the area rug stays in place.) For a blank slate like you have, I would choose one with a pattern/colors that I love and then work from there. As I mentioned above, choosing an area rug first gives you an entire color palette that you know all works together, so you won't have clashing colors. I'd pull my paint colors from it, my furniture color, even my accessory colors. I would also use the same color palette in the adjacent rooms, since everything is all open.
If you don't like the idea of an area rug, how about a large, beautiful piece of artwork for the wall in your dining area? You could use that instead of an area rug for your color inspirations.
If you don't like the idea of an area rug, how about a large, beautiful piece of artwork for the wall in your dining area? You could use that instead of an area rug for your color inspirations.
That's a great idea! I don't care for area rugs at all, so the artwork idea would work.
Quote:
What do you have for furniture, etc.? Since you have so much to do, I would suggest hiring a decorator to come in and give suggestions and put together a pallet for you to work with.
I'm trying to find a decorator who won't charge an arm and a leg. So far the ones I've called want between $400-$650 for a 90 minute to 2 hour consult.
No furniture yet. I plan on staying very neutral with furniture, off-white, bone, khaki or very light beige, something along those lines. My decor items are mostly earth tones and sage green, with some splashes of pink in some pieces. For example, I'll be using the lamp that's in this picture of my old mobile home living room, and it has sage green and pink in it, and maybe that blanket too. Ignore the other junk in the picture. This was a "before" pic taken before I remodeled the living room, but I love that lamp and still have it and also the large vase sitting on the floor by the entertainment center.
Congrats on your new house! I love the entertainment center with the art deco lines. If this were my house, some depression glass would be going in there. The wall with the french doors would look great as an accent wall. You could paint the room in sage greens. You can do it the easy way by choosing a shade you like then picking a darker shade from the same color chip for the accent wall or if that is too much green for your taste another suggestion would be to paint the walls a bone with a light sage green accent wall. You can accessorize with some pretty pinks, greens, white or beiges depending on the furniture and carpet you choose. I would definitely add some artwork to the room as the walls are too bare.
Here is are some good websights to find and experiment with colors:
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
