We’re choosing inside house paint colors (possibly buying a new house and painting all the rooms). My wife tells me she has already made up her mind and chosen some boring color like Whispering Wheat or Tranquil Splendor or something like that. Just by hearing the name, I knew I wasn’t going to like it (I still don’t know what it looks like.)
I immediately put my foot down. I told her, my criterion is that I want to make a bold statement. I want people to come into the house, look at the walls, do a double take[sup]1[/sup] and say “Whoa!” She’s already told me that I’m not allowed black or any variations thereof.
So what color are the inside walls at your house?
[sup]1[/sup]Actually, doing a double take means that it would take two looks for them to be surprised. I would like them to say “Whoa!” after the first glance.
Everywhere I lived, the walls have been white, unless we’re in a trailer with wood paneling. None of my past landlords have ever let me paint the walls.
Where I’m at now will let me though, so I’m going to paint the bottom half a dark cherry red, have crown middle as a divider down the middle of the wall, then have the top a bright shade of white.
Ooh, fun with paint! I have a colorful house, in part because I let my kids pick their colors for their rooms.
So oldest boy’s room is a particularly horrifying shade of lime green, and the younger two chose a fairly normal, if bright, sky blue for theirs. I chose aqua for the bathroom, and husband and I agreed on a grayish-green for the living room and a deep periwinkle for our bedroom.
The kitchen, however, was a point of contention. I won, and it’s now a lovely deep shade of purplish-red. When my husband opened the paint can, his immediate reaction was, “Oh my gawd…” but he got used to it eventually.
The walls in the living areas are peach. The ceilings are while. Walls in the bedrooms are pale blue. Kitchen and bathroom walls are white.
I’d love to be more adventurous but I know I’d muck it up. The house would end up looking like a dungeon and nothing would go with anything. So I end up sticking with safe colour choices.
I have very colorful art in every room of the house. The wall color that enhances the art without clashing with it is a very pale gray. Except the kitchen, which has yellow tiles in the lower half, and butterscotch-color paint in the upper half. And the master bedroom is dark gray.
Most of my house is white, but my bedroom accent walls are now a deep mulberry colour (it’s called “Endless Love” – ugh, but it’s a nice colour), and the bathroom is a pale tan with a sort of sienna colour that matches the tiles.
Well, I think that for what you want, accent walls may be the way to go. Although for me, that’s not what I did. Lessee, living room, dining room and hallways are an offwhite with dark brown trim. The dining room has one accent wall, in a dark, brownish red.
My office is a gray-green color; the guest room is yellow; the master bedroom is pale green; the TV room is tan. The kitchen is orange (technically, the color is called “bronze” but it’s an orangey shade), the master bath is sand-colored, the guest bath is gray, and the half bath is the same offwhite as the living room.
When I bought the house I really struggled with colors. I ended up hiring an interior designer, who came out to the house, walked around inside for about an hour and a half, and picked all the colors for me. Much cheaper than buying lots of paint and getting it up on the walls and deciding I hated it.
Two “interesting” house painting jobs I’ve encountered. Back when I was in college, students were allowed to paint their dorm rooms. The previous tenants in our room had painted the room in the school colors - lime green and bright yellow. And back before that, when I was twelve, my family was renting a house. The owner had painted one of the rooms in two-foot-wide diagonal stripes that went up the walls and across the ceiling. He used dark blue and red for the colors. My brother and I thought it was cool but we were ten and twelve at the time.
Most of my house would not be interesting to you. The entire main floor is a mushroomy taupe color called “brown bread” for some reason. The kitchen and bath are in neutral shades of browns and ivories. I’ve been looking for color accents for the kitchen, and I’m leaning towards orange.
The downstairs main room is a dark-ish sage green on the top half, with a wainscoting and trim in cottage white. It’s very soothing, without being super boring like beige.
I’ve painted lots of walls in my time, but I have never done anything very shocking. Those who know me would not be surprised at that.
Roddy
Our walls are all white, except for the living room/study, which are pale gray with white trim, and the downstairs bathroom, which is pale aqua. The doors that go into the kitchen are aqua. We bring the color in through accessories, furniture, and artwork. All of that stuff is in bright colors, primarily red and aqua (my dining room table is cherry red). I prefer bright and cheery to soothing and calm.
Thank you. I’m currently on a quest for the proper curtains where white wall meets green wall…I’ve stared at hundreds of bolts of fabric this week. My eyes are bleeding. But yes! I love the green! “Hotel” or “that could’ve worked in my parents’ home in the 90s” is boring to me.
When people walk into my house, they either say, “Oh, I LOVE the colors!” or “Boy. You…sure do, um, like color, huh?”
Standing in the doorway, you are looking at the living room. It’s a lemony-green up to the height of where the ceiling would start were it not for the vaulted ceiling. Above that line, it’s sky blue. Under the peak of the ceiling (it peaks above the cabinets so you can see into the kitchen ceiling area), there is a very large, bright mural of a sun which I did with chalk pastels. The wall behind the couch is bright blue. The door, should you turn around to leave before your eyeballs try to run away without you, is a very freely painted combination of all the colors so far. (My son painted it when he was in 3rd grade.)
You can also see into the kitchen. The wall facing the door is “Carnival” and is my favorite orange ever–like the inside of a ruby red grapefruit. The wall that intersects it (continued from the living room) is lime. The pantry door is bright royal purple chalkboard paint.
The green/blue combo continues down the hall. The Weeping Princess’s bedroom is (a different) LIME green–think Mountain Dew–with purple furniture. Tbone’s room is handpainted to look like a castle room–large limestone blocks, keystones over doors and windows, etc.
My room isn’t painted yet, but I have the paint. It’s called Her Sanctuary and is a medium grayish-lavendar, lovely color. I’m going to have a dark ceiling too, and will eventually give Tbone a night-sky ceiling and WP a daytime-sky ceiling, per their requests.
I love color, but it would be a it much for some people. Every time I look at it, it makes me smile.
Go wild. You can always repaint.
I picked these colors 6 years ago and am still happy with all of them except the Midnight. But that’s just because I thought the room might be used for something other than a guestroom/playroom.
I get the most compliments on my bold blue bathroom. I LOVE it. Like seriously every time I go into my bathroom I think “Man I love the blue walls in here!”
The cardboard in the living room looks great with satin finish white baseboards. It’d look even better if I ever did crown molding. It’s not as dark as you’d think.
I’m currently on a quest for the proper curtains where white wall meets green wall…I’ve stared at hundreds of bolts of fabric this week. My eyes are bleeding. But yes! I love the green! “Hotel” or “that could’ve worked in my parents’ home in the 90s” is boring to me.