Can we talk choosing paint colors for our new house?

[Erica in PA]

For the almost 15 years we've been married, I've done very little when it comes to fixing up our various apartments. It just hasn't been on my radar much at all. However, now that we're thinking about moving into our first house, it's suddenly become very important to me, and I'm actually very excited to choose carpet, paint, etc. We'll have the whole month of February to paint our entire house the way we want it. But since I've never spent any time thinking about it, I'm not sure what I want. I do know that I want it to be classy looking, warm, and inviting. I'm drawn more to warm colors like golds, browns, reds, and taupes, than to shades of green or blue.

 

So, could you share with me how you've chosen colors for your home? Shades that you really like for certain rooms? Even specific brand names for the shades that really have worked well?

 

And if you could link to photos of any of your rooms, that would be wonderful!! I have a hard time envisioning things like this without seeing it. Thanks!

[Michelle in GA]

My Kitchen is painted North Hampton Putty from Benjamin Moore. I love this color! It is warm, neutral, a sort of olive/khaki color. It would coordinate great with many colors.

[hornblower]

Can't help you as I'm "blue, grey, green - the colors of the sea" (cf Sarah Plain and Tall) but I suggest you find a Benjamin Moore paint dealer and go in & get some of their brochures. And then get some brochures from other paint companies - even if you won't use their paint, getting an idea for color schemes you like is good. BM paint btw is excellent but $$$.

 

There are a number of online things too but I find the colors on the monitors are just not going to be true. Getting the brochures from several paint companies & laying it all out on the coffee table worked for us.

[Krista in LA]

We just painted our kitchen/hearth room a rusty color that ended up turning out nice. I got very nervous half way through but I love it now that it's all done. The paint is Ralph Lauren suede paint from Home Depot in ranchitos red on the bottom of this page http://www.ralphlaurenhome.com/rlhome/products/paint/items.asp?haid=76 While they don't recommend the suede paint in kitchens, it worked fine in ours as most of the paint is above the cabinets. I love, love, love the suede paint - there's a special way to apply it which took a little more time, but it wasn't hard and it looks great.

[OneRoomSchoolHouse]

My mil is an interior decorator, so I stole some of her colors. She uses Sherwin Williams in all her homes, so when I say the colors you will know where they are from. She used Blonde in her Living Room, but I thought it was a little too dark for our smaller living room. I switched to a lighter color on the same palate which is Ivorie. We get so many complements on the color and it goes well with our Reds, Tans, Browns, etc.

 

I wanted a tan type color for our bedroom and chose Sensational Sand and then the lighter color Lightweight Beige for the Master Bath. We even found the matching color grout for the bathroom shower tiles...looks really nice. Black accents look great with the Beige color; we used black granite for the sinks and black picture frames on the walls.

 

My other color choices were Cosmos blue for the bathroom and Recycled Glass green for the study, but you probably won't like them. Although the Recycled Glass looks great with the Ivorie, the study opens off our living room with a double door entry (no doors).

 

We used Friendly Yellow for our large girls bedroom. The color is very inviting and feels fresh.

 

Hope that helps!

[3littlekeets]

What "style" does your furniture have? I like cottage/coastal, so my colors are light and neutral in the living room with blues and greens in the bedrooms. My sister has more of a Mediterranean leaning in her likes, so her colors are warmer and richer. My furniture would look horrendous in her home and vice versa.

 

I always try to pick up a color from my fabrics and upholstery, or art, to dictate the colors of the room. I have tried, a few times, to just pick colors I liked, but they ended up being repainted b/c it didn't work with my existing stuff. I love plum and thought a rich plum would be stunning in a dining room. And, it IS -- just not in ours, LOL. KWIM?

Edited January 9, 2010 by 3littlekeets

[Erica in PA]

What "style" does your furniture have? I like cottage/coastal, so my colors are light and neutral in the living room with blues and greens in the bedrooms. My sister has more of a Mediterranean leaning in her likes, so her colors are warmer and richer. My furniture would look horrendous in her home and vice versa.

 

I always try to pick up a color from my fabrics and upholstery, or art, to dictate the colors of the room. I have tried, a few times, to just pick colors I liked, but they ended up being repainted b/c it didn't work with my existing stuff. I love plum and thought a rich plum would be stunning in a dining room. And, it IS -- just not in ours, LOL. KWIM?

 

That is good guidance, thank you! Our style is pretty eclectic, especially since we have a lot of hand-me-down furniture. :tongue_smilie:But when I like best tends to be a warm, rich, comfortable style. My favorite room in our current apt. has an oak mission style table, chairs with beige pads, oak side table, a large bronze-ish mirror, shimmery dark tan curtains, and gold and burgundy glass mosaic wall sconces. Our walls are white, because we can't paint here, but I think a rich, neutral tan would look nice in that room. That's the kind of color I am thinking of for our living room, dining room, and hall in our new house.

[Erica in PA]

My mil is an interior decorator, so I stole some of her colors. She uses Sherwin Williams in all her homes, so when I say the colors you will know where they are from. She used Blonde in her Living Room, but I thought it was a little too dark for our smaller living room. I switched to a lighter color on the same palate which is Ivorie. We get so many complements on the color and it goes well with our Reds, Tans, Browns, etc.

 

I wanted a tan type color for our bedroom and chose Sensational Sand and then the lighter color Lightweight Beige for the Master Bath. We even found the matching color grout for the bathroom shower tiles...looks really nice. Black accents look great with the Beige color; we used black granite for the sinks and black picture frames on the walls.

 

My other color choices were Cosmos blue for the bathroom and Recycled Glass green for the study, but you probably won't like them. Although the Recycled Glass looks great with the Ivorie, the study opens off our living room with a double door entry (no doors).

 

We used Friendly Yellow for our large girls bedroom. The color is very inviting and feels fresh.

 

Hope that helps!

 

I will check out those colors; thank you for the suggestions. That Ivorie sounds like it might work well for us. A friend just told me that the painter who did their house also prefers Sherwin Williams paint. Must be good!

 

I love the name Friendly Yellow! Just perfect for a girl's room! I'll check it out just for name's sake, even though I'm not usually partial to yellow. :001_smile:

[Erica in PA]

Can't help you as I'm "blue, grey, green - the colors of the sea" (cf Sarah Plain and Tall) but I suggest you find a Benjamin Moore paint dealer and go in & get some of their brochures. And then get some brochures from other paint companies - even if you won't use their paint, getting an idea for color schemes you like is good. BM paint btw is excellent but $$$.

 

There are a number of online things too but I find the colors on the monitors are just not going to be true. Getting the brochures from several paint companies & laying it all out on the coffee table worked for us.

 

Thanks for the tip! I will pick up some brochures and try to get some ideas there.

[stripe]

I took out some nice books on various interesting places (because I wanted vibrant colors). It gave me a sense of what the "look" would be of an entire room in some color. I was inspired to go bolder, not be timid, and I love the outcome.

[Starr]

Stripe I like the idea of bold. What colors did you use?

[Garga]

Clinton Kelly (from What Not to Wear) wrote a book called "Freakin' Fabulous" about how to be...well...fabulous.

 

In his decorating section, he suggests using colors that are flattering to you.

[The Governess]

Not all greens and blues are necessarily "cool" feeling. Our family/dining combo room is painted a green similar to the green in this photo. We have medium to dark wood floors and furniture, and a brick fireplace, and I love the contrast of the green with the browns and reds. It gives the room a warm, earthy, almost foresty feel. :001_smile:

 

Our living room is in a wash that looks very similar to this. It was a very long process that consisted of 3 coats of paint/glaze and a lot of crumpled plastic being rolled onto and peeled off the walls. It was almost a disaster but thank goodness we ended up liking it. :lol:

[Perry]

We just did our main floor in Sherwin Williams Latte. (It may not look right on your computer, but you can get the idea.) It turned out really nice. I'm out of town and don't have pix on my laptop so I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.

 

If you don't yet have flooring I'd recommend wood instead of carpet.

Edited January 9, 2010 by Perry

[Erica in PA]

Not all greens and blues are necessarily "cool" feeling. Our family/dining combo room is painted a green similar to the green in this photo. We have medium to dark wood floors and furniture, and a brick fireplace, and I love the contrast of the green with the browns and reds. It gives the room a warm, earthy, almost foresty feel. :001_smile:

 

 

 

Ooooh, that is a beautiful green, and not cold at all. I will have to keep that one in mind. Do you know the brand and color you used?

[Stacy in NJ]

very neutral whites, creams, taupes, tans, and beige.

 

It's easy enough to spice up a room with colorful accessories. Once you paint, you have to live with your choices, unless you're willing to re-paint - and who wants to do that? :001_smile:

 

After you've lived in the house awhile, re-paint slowly, room by room, choosing your colors carefully.

[teamturner]

I think it is better to take your time and not feel like you have to repaint every room immediately. We've been in our house 6 years and are not finished. However, we did a kitchen remodel and some other big projects also. A friend who helped me make curtains for my family room, kichen, and dinning room suggested I pick my curtain fabrics first and then pick a wall colors after. I've often been told that my colors really flow well throughout the downstairs. I love warm colors too. My family room is Gold #3 from Laura Ashley (Lowes), dinning room is a brownish red, and my kitchen is a terra cotta color. Although I'm ready to change my kitchen to an olive green color. Another tip that was given to me was to keep my paint color cards and fabric swatches in a baggie in my purse so in case I found myself somewhere and I wondered if something (like a pillow or picture) would look good in a particular room, I could pull out my bag and see. I'm attaching a picture of my family room and dinning room since you asked for pictures. We just replaced our huge entertainment center for a TV stand so that wall is a little bare and needs some stuff on it.

 

I'm so happy for you in your new house. Have fun fixing it up! Blessings.

[Liz CA]

We have used "Amberwove" and "Ambertone" in the entire house (except ds's room - he insisted on green) and it lends a warm feeling to the house. The color is warmer and brighter than beige but not yellow.

We got those at Lowe's but I will have to see if I can come up with the brand name.

 

If you can tell me how to link one of my digital pics here, I will do it.

 

 

 

Edited January 9, 2010 by Liz CA

[stripe]

Stripe I like the idea of bold. What colors did you use?

I used a peachy orange in the living room, with a brown/orange accent (I mixed colors on the wall), which came out to be vaguely like something in the Moroccan book (see below) and vaguely reminds me of a sweet potato. Neither light nor neutral, but I love it a lot. It makes me much happier than being in an off-white room.

 

I checked out books like Mexican Country Style, Morocco Modern, and Santa Fe Style from the library and found them fun to look at.

 

Benjamin Moore has a thing on their website where you can pretend to paint a room a whole color.

[Natalieclare]

Erica,

 

How fun! I love painting. Er, rather, I love starting painting. Thankfully my husband loves me enough to finish! I paint pretty frequently as I get bored easily.:D The color I have loved the most, kept the longest, and used in the most rooms is called Golden Straw from Benjamin Moore. It's warm and inviting without being a pushy color. I can't remember how to post pictures and my techy daughter is out right now or I would post some pics. I am also pretty happy with a color called Lenox Tan from Benjamin Moore; it's a nice neutral khaki-ish color.

 

When I am trying to decide on a room color, I usually start with some kind of fabric: a bedspread, a drapery, a tablecloth. I am re-doing my bedroom this weekend in a cooler beige-y mushroom-y color (the name escapes me). I picked a particular flower from my quilt and went for a shade lighter on the walls. We have yet to paint the trim today, but that is about to commence. And I tried something new this time: a pale bluish-green color on the ceiling, which I never thought I would do. The rest of the bedding and curtains are much much spicier in color. I can't wait to finish!

 

I used Sherwinn Williams paint in my kitchen, and I must say, I don't like it nearly as well as the Benjamin Moore paint we've used in every other room. It feels chalkier and doesn't wash as well.

 

I also prefer flat paint most of the time. Have you given thought to sheen?

 

Again, have fun! I bet you will never want another white wall again!

[The Governess]

Ooooh, that is a beautiful green, and not cold at all. I will have to keep that one in mind. Do you know the brand and color you used?

 

I don't remember the color name, but it was just the Home Depot house brand of paint. Behr paint maybe? We painted 4 years ago and it has held up well. They will also color match, so if you bring in an item that is the color you want the paint to be, they can scan it and make you a custom color.

 

Forgot to mention, another favorite color of mine to paint with is a nice taupe. It mixes brown and grey and also gives a very warm, neutral, natural feel, like nice stone. Take a peek at this site, I love the taupe used in the first picture and some of the others a bit further down have some great colors as well.