Painting the house

I can't keep putting it off, this place is looking bad. Picking colors is hard though, so I'm looking for suggestions...

You can find pics of the place here. Everything needs to be painted, and the only thing I know for sure is that I want white woodwork and colored walls.

Help?

deep red

and some blue.

not in the same room

Like this? The dining room in our last house...



The dining room in this house gets way less light... I fear it would be too dark.
What kind of blue?

I get stuck on how you flow from one room/color to the next...

yup.

and so do I.

all kinds of blue as long as you stay away from pastels and the greener shades.

Have you ever been to the Behr website? Click here, then click on "Start Color Smart." You have to be careful, because sometimes your monitor doesn't really display the right colors. But the tool will give you a collection of colors that coordinate with any other color you give it, and then you can go to a Home Depot and pull out the actual color swatches to look at.

As a starting point, for example, we have "Sweet Maple" on one wall in our livingroom. I was morally opposed to any yellow at first, but Mr. Clod convinced me with this particular shade, and he was right, I love it.

jinx, also, on Sherwin-Williams website (look for color visualizer, I think) where you can upload images from your home and try colors on.

edit: here's the link: http://www.sherwin-williams.com/do_it_yourself/paint_colors/visualizer/

How about something more subtle in places? You could tint the white any number of different colors and still make a bolder statement elsewhere. Dark walls can mean dark house so maybe go colored trim and occasional colored wall.

I think all the suggestions are good especially Griffs since the colors would not take away from the architectural detail.

An all over pale color with only feature walls painted.

I think your house is a wonderful architectural model. If you wanted to stay true to the colors of the period I would suggest colors that are generally pale. My favorites of the time are: cream, dusky rose, sage, gray-beige.

I had a turquoise kitchen once, and it actually worked because there were several windows in the kitchen.

I agree with sky, keeping it relative to the homes architectural period would be my preference. The other consideration is how long you guys are gonna stay in the home. If you are not gonna be there for a long time, you may want to consider a relatively neutral scheme.

When we bought this place a decade ago, we painting everything a neutral color. Arctic fox, which is pretty much just white. It's so freaking boring. So we've been paining different rooms real colors, and it's looking good. Our dining room is a pumpkin color, and it looks fantastic. Our bedroom is a lighter blue, and it's OK, but I'm kind of bored with it. Daughter's bedroom is an aqua color, and she likes it, but I don't. Tiny downstairs bath is a purple blue and looks good.

There's still a lot of white in this house in the hallways and living room, but I really like the individual rooms with their colors.

Yeah, I know it makes sense to... I'm just so sick of the colored trim. I've looked all thru and even bought some of the historic colors from Finnaren Haley, and then decided I didn't like what I got... and the house still isn't painted.
I guess I could live with it if all the trim was the same color.... and maybe like griff said, just tint a few walls. I'll think on that.
The paint sites are cool, thanks for those links.

I vehemently object to doing an entire house in white or neutral colors. The key is to pick the right colors, which takes a lot of thought and planning. A couple of years ago, for example, my mom painted her bedroom with one darker accent wall and the rest of the room a lighter shade of the same hue. Except she never played around with the swatches inside her actual house... It's crazy, but the way the sun happens to shine into the room onto the one darker wall, you can't even tell it's painted a different color. It's something similar to this optical illusion. The whole room looks white, even though three walls are definitely yellow, and one is a surprisingly dark yellow.

New neutral paint all round, like a very light grey beige ( or whatever light color )then painting a few walls is a great idea.

That's Griff's idea too. Accent walls then you don't have to totally commit to a color plus you get a pop of oooh ahhh color.

The Sherwin William shawnee site suggested has information on color washing too. The color is natural and cool looking.
http://www.sherwin-williams.com/do_it_yourself/paint_colors/faux_painting_techniques/colorwashing/index.jsp

Plus that visualizer tool is very cool.

I picked these but I have poor taste. :) I wanted to pull out the colors in the stone.


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I tried uploading the photo, but the colors are going to look completely different in rl anyway. I would definitely get the color samples first! It is a cool little paint tool!

decisions decisions...so what did you decide?

Agree with you on the white trim - Pick a mocha or a gray for your neutral - Agree about the accent walls for color - Maybe in the rooms with the chair railings do a deeper color below, and a lighter version of the same color above. I noticed the exposed beams are a yummy brown - maybe that below the chair rail in the dining area? I'm not a big fan of red walls - too much of a commitment and way to unsettling, although it is said to increase appetites, therefore a common choice for dining areas. I like the blue idea, as long as you go with a nice French blue, and stay away from anything too purple. The house is too gorgeous and classic for anything too modern color-wise. (Mom OTR is an award-winning interior designer. Color runs in the blood.)

We just did our house. We picked a neutral color for the bulk of it, and added accent colors to our bedroom (a medium and darkish blue), the dining room (pale olive), the three bathrooms (medium brown, orange-ish and a smoky grey).

We didn't get the den or the kitchen done; we'll probably pick a few colors for them when we get around to it.

Ask the Gypsy what the cards say... :haha: