Which shade of orange is "acceptable" for painting a room?

[Dianne-TX]

I'm having a hard time deciding which orange shade to use to paint our boys room. DS age 2 loves orange and DS 12 is on board with that color, but it's hard to find a color of orange that isn't, well, uh, orange. :-/ Help, we are not interior decorators...

[elegantlion]

We did a pumpkin orange in ds' room when he was younger. We did two walls in orange, two in red. He loved it, you're only young once. Orange can be a tricky color. I'd recommend getting some color chips and hanging them in the room to see how they appear in room lighting.

[Seasider]

I'd take it beyond chips if you can find small, affordable sample size containers. Do paint about a 2' square of each color on each wall - as elegantlion points out, the lighting will differ. There are so many different tones of orange...

[redsquirrel]

My friend painted her son's room a deep orange and it looks great! We were all thinking it was going to be weird, but it looks really sharp.

[Dianne-TX]

We have a lighter orange ("candied yam") and a darker orange ("pumpkin patch") that we like. We might just have to buy two small cans of each and put them on the wall and see. Do you know if Lowes takes back "oops" cans of paint like Home Depot?

[DarlaS]

I'm no help. I love color. Intense vibrant orange? Bring it on! This is my son's room. He's getting a little tired of it though (He was 3 at the time he picked this color.). Next up? Brilliant blue. :coolgleamA:

 

 

 

[DarlaS]

When we moved here we allowed our kids to pick colors for their bedrooms. Repainting, in the grand scheme of things, isn't a huge deal to me. One picked SCREAMING orange. So we did it. The only annoying thing is we did a white ceiling (obviously) and white trim. That was a bit tricky.

 

 

Keeping orange off the ceiling was an adventure. I did the flooring, replaced the door and closet door and massive drywall work (It's a manufactured home.) when I did ds's room. The trim was installed after paint. Made it much easier since I just laid at across sawhorses to paint it.

[Erica in OR]

I think you just gotta go with whatever orange you think will work and roll with it, no second guessing. DS 2 will love it no matter what, I'm guessing. The rest of you may or may not like it no matter how many paint chips you sort through or sample patches you put up on the wall. My sister did her kitchen in orange. It was exactly what they wanted and looks nicely done, but I just have to say it isn't my cup of tea.

 

ETA: We painted our living room (not orange :tongue_smilie: ) this fall; the paint guy recommended the green Frog Tape product for taping off the white ceiling. We tried it for the first time and it worked like a charm, no blobs of dark paint bleeding through.

 

Erica in OR

[Coffeemama]

My son's favorite color is orange too! It is the color of his dirt bike and many accessories, posters, etc. i found a great bed set at Target which is a patchwork of orange, light blue, dark blue and brown. I painted the top of the wall the light blue and the bottom medium brown ( a rich dirt color) with a border of dirt bike racers between. Since orange is in the bedding and many of his accessories/decorations/toys it shows up brilliantly as an accent.

 

I love bold wall colors. Consider doing one focal wall in orange or half the wall all the way around separated by either a border or a chair rail.

[Rebecca VA]

Darla, your son's room is amazing. That shade of orange looks wonderful with all the colors around it.

 

I'm redecorating my daughter's room, and it's going to be painted Orange Creamsicle (Benjamin Moore). It's a gorgeous orange-peach shade that glows in the sunlight.

[DarlaS]

Darla, your son's room is amazing. That shade of orange looks wonderful with all the colors around it.

 

I'm redecorating my daughter's room, and it's going to be painted Orange Creamsicle (Benjamin Moore). It's a gorgeous orange-peach shade that glows in the sunlight.

 

 

 

Thanks! Painting it again is not real high on my priority list. He may change his mind before I get around to it. :tongue_smilie: It is north facing and in spite of a big window, never gets direct sunlight. That took FOUR coats and that was over 2 coats of a bright yellow primer. Believe it or not, the light blue underneath kept showing through. Last time I buy a bright color from Behr paint. :glare:

 

Across the hall with the southern exposure, is his sister's room. She will be thirteen this summer. I did her room when she was five and she still loves it. The stripes are nearly a foot wide, which was a good choice. It makes the room look bigger and is kind of sporty--rugby stripes!

 

This is a bookshelf I built with her for her room--before any books were put on it of course. (A couple years ago--now she needs another. ;) ) Best pic I can find on this computer.

 

[DarlaS]

Darla, your son's room is amazing. That shade of orange looks wonderful with all the colors around it.

 

I'm redecorating my daughter's room, and it's going to be painted Orange Creamsicle (Benjamin Moore). It's a gorgeous orange-peach shade that glows in the sunlight.

 

 

Oh, and that color sounds awesome. It's making me want an orange creamsicle just thinking about it.

[DarlaS]

I think you just gotta go with whatever orange you think will work and roll with it, no second guessing. DS 2 will love it no matter what, I'm guessing. The rest of you may or may not like it no matter how many paint chips you sort through or sample patches you put up on the wall. My sister did her kitchen in orange. It was exactly what they wanted and looks nicely done, but I just have to say it isn't my cup of tea.

 

ETA: We painted our living room (not orange :tongue_smilie: ) this fall; the paint guy recommended the green Frog Tape product for taping off the white ceiling. We tried it for the first time and it worked like a charm, no blobs of dark paint bleeding through.

 

Erica in OR

 

 

Frog tape is the BEST. I don't think it existed when I did my ds' room, but I did use it when I did my kitchen. Really good stuff. I especially love how it didn't pull the ceiling paint off like the blue stuff did.

[Dianne-TX]

Those rooms look great! Thanks for sharing. We are looking at the same orange/brown patchwork quilt set, too. I think the decor will make the orange look good. It's hard to picture it when you look at a paint sample. We'll go for it! They will be excited. We can always re-paint, right?! :)

[Stacia]

Darla, are you available for hire? Love the colors & paint jobs!!!! :thumbup1:

 

I love orange. It's my favorite color. Sadly, I have no orange walls in my house. But, now I'm considering it! :D

 

As for the OP's question, I think any shade of orange would probably look great.

[Dandelion]

I don't think there's such a thing as an "unacceptable" paint color. Go with whatever color your boys like best. :)

 

We love to experiment with paint. My favorite room in the house is my dining room, which I painted a deep rich red. Paint is so easy to fix if it doesn't turn out the way you expected. Have fun!

[Ellie]

Well, none of us can really tell, 'cuz it's your house. :-)

 

For myself, I cannot think of a shade of orange that I could paint a room. o_0

 

What color carpet/other flooring is in the room? What color bedspreads? curtains? Just go to your local paint store (which could be inside Lowe's or Home Depot, lol) and pick up some color chips. Choose the shade of orange that you all like.

[LucyStoner]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I would love many sorts of orange rooms. I had a room painted red-orange and mossy green in collage (better than it sounds, trust me.) Other people would be induced to vomit at the sight of an orange room. You can't please everyone so go ahead and please yourself/your family. It's your house!

[EthiopianFood]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I would love many sorts of orange rooms. I had a room painted red-orange and mossy green in collage (better than it sounds, trust me.) Other people would be induced to vomit at the sight of an orange room. You can't please everyone so go ahead and please yourself/your family. It's your house!

 

 

Pic??

[AlmiraGulch]

 

 

Thanks! Painting it again is not real high on my priority list. He may change his mind before I get around to it. :tongue_smilie: It is north facing and in spite of a big window, never gets direct sunlight. That took FOUR coats and that was over 2 coats of a bright yellow primer. Believe it or not, the light blue underneath kept showing through. Last time I buy a bright color from Behr paint. :glare:

 

 

 

Ugh.....same here! We painted two of DD16's walls orange (tangerine, maybe?) and two red a couple months ago. We used the Behr paint with primer and it is AWFUL. I usually like Behr paint just fine, but this took several coats before the blue beneath it didn't show. What a total pain.

 

Looks great now, though. Finally!

[Lolly]

Two orange bedrooms here. One is orange orange. White sloping ceiling and lots of black shelving/furniture. Looks great! The other is a color called punch. (Sounds like it should be red, but is the most beautiful color that changes (pinkish to brownish) as the light changes.) I thought I was going to hate this room, but it is beautiful. My favorite room color ever. I let my kids pick out what to use in their rooms and just go with it. It's only paint and can easily be changed if it comes out hideous. I cannot tell anything about how it will look unless the whole thing is painted. Putting a bit on the walls just isn't enough.

[stripe]

I have an orangeish living room, and I love it!

[Kipling]

We just painted my son's room orange - he's wanted an orange room for four years, and we kept putting him off hoping he would change his mind. However, we just moved and promised all the kids they could choose their room colors in the new house, so he got his orange room. He wanted what he called "home depot orange." We went with a color from lowe's called caramel cream - it's much more orange than the name sounds, and there's no doubt that the room is orange. However, it's a dark/rich enough shade that it doesn't glow. It's a little darker than Home Depot orange, but my son is very happy with it. My husband wasn't sure about the color, but I think it looks good. We paired it with cream curtains and a blue/cream/orange quilt.