I have absolutely no sense of style, and I don’t want to get an interior decorator because I wouldn’t know who to get or where to look and I’d probably get ripped off. I just have a simple question: What color walls would go well with light blond maple floors? Right now the walls are white, but I wanted something a little more modern looking. Any ideas are appreciated. I was thinking cobalt blue or maybe a light gray. Also, what kind of paint should I use? the latex or the flat kind? thanks!
Go to a paint store and get a bunch of different paint chips in colors you like. Stick them up on the walls, leave them there in all different kinds of light, and see how you live with the colors for a few days.
General Questions is for questions with factual answers. IMHO is for opinions and polls. I’ll move this to IMHO for you.
Off to IMHO.
DrMatrix - General Questions Moderator
I’m in the middle of painting my house interior, and so far I’ve painted a room purple, a room brick red, and one light olivey-green. I have light red oak floors that we just sanded and re-varnished, so they’re pretty light colored. Color is a matter of taste, though, so definitely follow {b]brondicon’s** advice.
As for what kind, there’s two basic types of paint - oil based and latex, each coming in varying degrees of lustre. If you currently have oil paint on your walls, stick with oil. It’s ‘better’, although being more expensive, it lasts longer, and looks just a little nicer. If you have latex paint now, you can’t paint oil over top of it. (You can paint latex over oil, though.) To tell which one you have, try to sand a hidden corner of the current paint. If you get paint dust, it’s oil. According to my 75 year old-been-a-painter-all-his-life (great guy) neighbor, sanding latex paint is like sanding a rubber tire.
Prime everything, even if you don’t think you need to. It’s worth it.
Good luck, have fun with it. Don’t be afraid of colors!
here is your handy dandy feng shui key colour chart thing:
green = new life,new beginnings, growth, energy, vitality spring, hope
purple = wealth, royalty, the extreme value of red
red = power, protection, energy, activity,
pink = love, the heart, marriage, motherhood
white = cleanliness, purity, righteousness, death
gray = neutrality, absence of colour, hidden things, benefactors
black = power, authority, absorbing energy, respect
blue = knowledge, the sky, royalty, life, hope
yellow, earth tones = health, the earth, ground, connection
what did you want the room to bring into your life?
cobalt blue or grey sound good to me. i’m building a room around the colours on a book jacket. pick out something in the room you like and try taking colours from that.
Another thing to consider: how ‘open’ is the room, and how big is it? Black will nicely set off the light colored floors, but chances are the room will then feel like a cave. Might not be what you want. 
Usually, bigger and more open rooms can stand being painted in a stronger color, from my experiences. (But I did get a very nice effect in a bathroom that had no windows to paint the one large expanse of wall a rich deep blue, and left the others white. It really made the room seem bigger.)
Also, what’s going to be in the room(s) in question? In general, if I know the stuff in the room is going to be rather blah, I jazz up the room by painting it a stronger color. If the stuff in the room is colorful, or otherwise really draws the eyes, then the walls get painted in a soft neutral color so that people don’t get headaches from the walls and the stuff competing for attention. If I haven’t a clue what I’m going to put in there, I play it safe and paint the room a neutral color. I can always jazz things up later by adding a wall-paper border, stenciling, pictures, etc.
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What kind of room are you talking about? What kind of furniture do you have? A blond maple floor can go really well with a wide range of things, so it shouldn’t be the basis of your decision.
So, what colour is the furniture?
What colour are decorations/painitings?
If its a dining room, what colour are your plates? You could get an idea from those. Or from sheets/bedspread in a bedroom.
How is the natural light? If there isn’t much (small or no windows) I’d recommend a lighter colour - possibly keeping some white in the ceiling or trim to gain the “reflective” properties and make what light there is seem brighter.
Is the room big or small? Do you want it to look bigger or smaller? Bright, “warm” colours like reds and yellows will make the room seem smaller, but more energetic, since these colours “liven” us up, but also appear closer to us when we look at them. Darker, “cool” colours make things look further away, and are more relaxing. This goes back to what room it is, too - is it a relaxing room (den or bedroom) or a lively room (living or dining room)?
You might want to consider more than one colour - depending on the shape and lighting of your room, you can use one colour for part of the walls, or for 3 walls, and another for the rest. For example, my sister’s bedroom has 3 walls (including the window one) dark blue, and the opposite-to-the-window wall and ceiling are a bright yellow, which mimics outside light quite well. Our bathroom is a “seaweed” green (hard to describe) on three walls, and a bright, royal (I think) blue on the other.
Good luck!