How many colors can you use in a house before too much is just too much?

[BlsdMama]

Let's say you like color but you aren't actually design gifted, kwim?

 

My mom believed in color... You had cream, off white, tan, brown, and if you wanted to go crazy, a nice light blue.  But everything blended nicely together!

 

I love color.  But I am clueless how to use it.

 

I decided to get experimental with my living room and I LOVE it - it is a pale vintage mauve that really passes as a neutral in my lighting paired with a dark plum with brown tones in it and cream.  My sofas are olive green.   It pulls off appearing neutral quite nicely.  (Or I really have zero sense of color - it's a possibility.)

 

And I have a bright, sunny yellow laundry room (Benjamin Moore Hawthorne)

 

I did pale neutrals in bedrooms (a caramel color, a pale gray, and one is light blue.)

 

My kitchen is a pale cappuccino with a blue trim on the soffit (Benjamin Moore Jamestown Blue.)

 

The dining room is the exact same cappuccino color but I'm aching to put in burnt orange drapes.   I tried a pale jalapeno green but it was very blah and washed out.

 

But my question is - because the kitchen is SO open to the dining room, would it be better to just go with a blue that matches the paint in the kitchen?

This remodeling stuff is hard when you're decor challenged.

[Arcadia]

I would just put the Orange drapes in the dining room :)

Growing up my aunts have colorful homes mainly in bright tones including bright curtains. The interior just looks cheerful even during rainy seasons. Helps lower cabin fever.

[nevergiveup]

I am color challenged, too.

I like to go to the paint stores and get the cards that have all the coordinating colors families on them.  Then I don't have to guess.

[applethyme]

If it makes you happy to have the orange drapes in the dinning room then why not put them up?  You are the one that lives there and sees it every day.  Some of the most fun houses I have visited have lost of color but more importantly their families are happy to be there.

[bettyandbob]

A friend gave me a book that explained colors by the mood you wanted to create in a room I also use those cards with color families not just to coordinate paint colors but to figure out furniture. I think individual rooms can be different colors, but if your home is an open design you may need to look at the rooms as a unit. My main floor is reallyone set of colors. There's a wall that goes from the main floor to the basement and to the upstairs. So, the colors in the basement do coordinate with that wall, but are not the exactly the same as the main floor. Upstairs we haven't really done anything, but since all the bedroom doors close, I think we could get awaywith wildly different color schemes. We sort of have...each bedroom has a very large window for which I made curtains. The kids have each chosen different fabrics for their curtains. I coordinate the bedding the the curtains. So really what you see in the bedrooms is the fabric colors not the walls.

 

ETA: the book I used was Color Your Home by Suzy Chiazzari. I'm sure your library has similar books. This book explains stuff and has as section where you can mix and match combinations as well as suggestions for the "best combinations". That said, the easy peasy no thinking tool that works is the color cards at the hardware store.

[DawnM]

Oh man, I just have to tell you about the house I saw yesterday.  We are just starting to house hunt and there was a house that had some very, very funky mixes, textures, etc.....I told my realtor that it was an assault on the senses!

 

Deep purples, yellows, maroon, dark green, light purple, yellow, blue, black, sea foam, and on an on it went, even some of it in the same room!

 

It was so busy I was exhausted when I walked out of the house!~

 

I agree that finding a book or person who knows about color would be the best.

 

Now, if you like it, and you don't mind repainting when you need to sell, go for it, whatever you want!

[EmilyGF]

Our house looks lovely. The people before use painted every room a different color. The trim is the same color throughout.

 

However, there are five different yellows. There are random, unlabeled cans of paint in the laundry room. Two of the yellows are missing and I'm desperately trying to find yellows to match the living room walls - there are two yellows in the living room.

 

If you want to use lots of colors, it can look great. However, I recommend a binder to keep track of all the colors!

 

ETA: the colors are all pastels. The main living spaces and halls are all shades of yellow. Other colors are in bathrooms and bedrooms.

[JFSinIL]

This post reminds me of a scene in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House ( with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy) in which the wife goes over her desired paint scheme for the new house with a contractor, something like "for this room I want yellow, not a bright yellow, but....have your assistant get a pound of the best fresh new butter from the dairy and match it and you can't go wrong. Now for this room, I have a spool of thread here just the extract shade of almost robin's egg blue...don't lose my spool it is my only one.....this room needs a green, not a hard green or a dark green, but a green like the underside of a two-day old leaf on a river birch..." Etc. etc. she had precise directions and samples for every color she wanted.

 

After she walked away, the contractor turned to his assistant and asked if he got all the instructions. "Yup - red, green, yellow, blue"

 

My house, the main downstairs are all a sort of "sun straw" ( think golden beige) with one accent wall in adobe ( think wet pumpkin pie filling when the sun hits it), the kitchen is a prairie green, and five bedrooms are black (hey, it is only paint) , dark brown, two shades of purple, Wedgewood blue, and teal blue. One bathroom is pale blue and one is pale mint green.

[Hikin' Mama]

I think your house sounds beautiful! I would go with the orange curtains. And when you do, post a pic. 😄

[PeterPan]

The worst that happens is you buy the drapes in the orange, hang them, and decide to return them.  Can't know till you try.  Go with your vision.  :)

[Alessandra]

I love color too. IMO, colors from different parts of the color wheel can go together beautifully, as long as they are similar moods. For example, a house full of light, airy pastels -- soft blues snd greens, pale pinks and creams. Or a house with deep, rich Victorian colors. Robert Adam, the late18th c English designer used a palette of bright, clear colors in rooms that opened off one another -- clear blue, radiant pink, and so on. I have seen similar colors in European palaces of the same period.

 

Btw, when I used to mix my own paint, I generally added something to tone down the intensity. Adding a little burnt umber, for example can make a red look rich, rather than reminding you of a fire engine. Or think burnt orange, rather than the blaze orange of hunting clothes. John Fowler, the British designer, used a distinctive bright yellow that always had a little black added to it. You don't have to mix yourself, obviously, just look for paints that are not like primary colors, lol.

[Alessandra]

This post reminds me of a scene in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House ( with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy) in which the wife goes over her desired paint scheme for the new house with a contractor, something like "for this room I want yellow, not a bright yellow, but....have your assistant get a pound of the best fresh new butter from the dairy and match it and you can't go wrong. Now for this room, I have a spool of thread here just the extract shade of almost robin's egg blue...don't lose my spool it is my only one.....this room needs a green, not a hard green or a dark green, but a green like the underside of a two-day old leaf on a river birch..." Etc. etc. she had precise directions and samples for every color she wanted.

 

After she walked away, the contractor turned to his assistant and asked if he got all the instructions. "Yup - red, green, yellow, blue"

 

My house, the main downstairs are all a sort of "sun straw" ( think golden beige) with one accent wall in adobe ( think wet pumpkin pie filling when the sun hits it), the kitchen is a prairie green, and five bedrooms are black (hey, it is only paint) , dark brown, two shades of purple, Wedgewood blue, and teal blue. One bathroom is pale blue and one is pale mint green.

Love this!

[ZeeMommy]

I've been trying to put a variety of colors in our house as we remodel in the different rooms.  I spent a lot of time having those paint color cards up on walls before I picked the one I liked.  The colors don't have to exactly match, but they can't really clash either.  Boys' room is blue, daughter's room is lavender, our bedroom is olive green (looks nicer than it sounds!), and hallway is pale yellow with light wood wainscoting.  Trying to figure out color for entryway right now - might get daring and paint the ceiling dark, or paint the trim instead of having wood.  Just have to match it to the new carpet we already put in. 

[The Girls' Mom]

Our house looks lovely. The people before use painted every room a different color. The trim is the same color throughout.

 

However, there are five different yellows. There are random, unlabeled cans of paint in the laundry room. Two of the yellows are missing and I'm desperately trying to find yellows to match the living room walls - there are two yellows in the living room.

 

If you want to use lots of colors, it can look great. However, I recommend a binder to keep track of all the colors!

 

ETA: the colors are all pastels. The main living spaces and halls are all shades of yellow. Other colors are in bathrooms and bedrooms.

 

This is why I write on every can what room it goes to! 

 

We have a lot of colors going on in our house, but I do try to make the rooms that are visible from one another coordinate.  Our dining and kitchen are shades of green, and the living room and stairwell are sunny yellow.  I have curtains with yellow, burnt orange and green in the dining room and green curtains in the living room.  

 

Upstairs, the main area is a pale teal that coordinates with the yellow stairwell, but would clash horribly with the greens downstairs. I have red accents and curtains upstairs.  Upstairs (where I spend the majority of my waking hours) is bright, cheerful and almost beachy.  Downstairs is calmer, more vintage country.  (It is where dh spends most of his time, and he prefers darker, calmer areas)

 

Anyway, I did what I wanted without worrying much about what other people thought.  I have to live here, not them.  Honestly, when we were building and painting, I had more than one person make faces when they heard my color choices.  But every one of them have changed their tune once they were actually in the house once it was painted.  

[kewb]

Are you painting for you? Then do whatever makes you happy. Rules be d@$d.

Painting to sell, go neutral.

[KungFuPanda]

I think as long as the room you're in doesn't clash with any room you can see standing there, you're fine.

[TwoEdgedSword]

Apryl, I would love to see a pic of the beachy colors if you could post them. This is what I want to do.

[merry gardens]

I'm of the opinion that the colors outside the house (predominately green grass, white snow, or rocky terrain?) affects how much color and what types of color one should chose for inside the home.  It's not just what you see inside the room or rooms if they open to each other---it's also what's seen through the windows. 

 

At this time of year, with colors changing and Thanksgiving approaching, burnt orange in the formal dining room sounds lovely.  I'd feel different about them in spring or summer. 

[Melinda in VT]

It's been a long time since I looked at a color wheel, but I remember blue and orange being complementary colors. I think they look good together.

 

So I wouldn't see any problem with having a line of sight between a cappuccino room with blue accents and a cappuccino room with orange accents. I think they would enhance each other.

[Garga]

My house is filled to the brim with colors. It's a bungalow from 1949 and the colors work in it. I have burnt orange and olive green and dark yellows. I love it. We stayed in my parent's white walled house for 2 weeks in the spring. I didn't realize how much I missed color until I walked into my own home and felt so relaxed. All those colors make a home so inviting.

 

Unless you're moving soon and want to change everything back to neutrals, go with what makes you happy. Sounds like you'd be happy with the orange, so go with the orange.

 

Whenever I'm stumped with a decorating issue, I think "What would Mrs. Weasly do" (from Harry Potter) and go with that. I want her house.

[kroe1]

I am a lover of color also. I only use Benjamin Moore paint. I take all the paint color strips that I use and staple them to a piece of paper. If I add more color by painting another room, I only choose colors that blend with what I already have. That way the entire home can follow a color theme.

 

The mainland home I have right now is a Tuscany pallet. There are golds, grays, purples, subtle aquas, and grayish greens.

 

The beach house is loud aquas, pinks, and lime.

 

The past home was Easter egg colors.

 

A colorful home is harder to sell, but if there is some sort of color harmony, then a house can sell easier than a scattered hodge podge of color.

 

Good luck in your choices.

[Elisabet1]

We bought our house from someone else. But, the builder had done the paint colors in this house. I think it has a lot of colors. The main living areas are a mustard color. The dining room is a deep red. The kitchen and study are a forest green. My bedroom is a coffee color. The guest bedroom is the mustard from the living areas. The one kids bedroom was a lime color and the other kids bedroom is a light blue. The media room is a rust color. The bathrooms are all different colors too. I thought it seemed colorful, but we get lots of compliments.

 

At our old house, where I picked the colors, I did all Restoration Hardware colors. It was much more sedate. My fave is silver sage. 

[Elisabet1]

I say get the Pottery Barn catalogs and imitate.

[celticmom]

Have you considered getting 1/4 yard of fabric in the color you want and taping it to the window to see how it looks?

[The Girls' Mom]

This was while we were still building, so all the trim isn't up yet.  The purple room in the girls' bathroom, the other two rooms are bedrooms.
 

 

This was after all my junk got moved in: 

 

 

And this is the same yellow downstairs, looking into the green dining room.  I don't have the dining room curtains up yet in this pic, but they are yellow with  burnt orange and green floral patterns. 

 

[Hikin' Mama]

Apryl, I love your colors!

[TwoEdgedSword]

Thanks Apryl for posting pics! Like it a lot.

Can you share what the light teal color is?

[The Girls' Mom]

Thanks Apryl for posting pics! Like it a lot.

Can you share what the light teal color is?

Sorry it took so long to reply. It is Valspar La Fonda Mirage

[Alessandra]

I haven't read all the posts, but I wanted to share a recent article in this month's Family Handyman. They strongly recommend using the color 'families' that paint companies put together, pointing out that tons of expert research goes into these selections. Looking at the samples, I see such disparate colors, but they all harmonize. HTH.