Need decorating ideas for new house.....update

[Ottakee]

I need to decide what, if anything to do at my new house before moving in.   Living room is deep sage/forest green and canyon red Rock with beige carpet.  Paint and carpet are in excellent condition.   Kitchen/dining is a cream yellow color and has almost new laminate flooring....again in excellent condition.

I like the green and I like the red but not sure I want them together.  I like the cream yellow color and I love the laminate flooring.   I am not sure on keeping the carpet.  Issue is if I put luxury vinyl plank flooring in the living  room I would really need to take up the almost brand new laminate.  I just don't really want the laminate through the living room as I know over time water/snow is an issue and I am not sure the floors would be level and that I could match what is there.

So do I paint living room (one or both colors), change floors, both, neither?  Black leather couch will stay as will print chair.  I might add in an electric fireplace.

UPDATE.....some dear friends decided to bless me with a professional painter for the living room.  I will most likely go with the cream that it in the dining room.  It is more the light cream you see to the left of the green living room wall va the more yellow color it appears like in the dining room area picture.

 

Edited October 9, 2018 by Ottakee

[itsheresomewhere]

Love the green.  

I would consider keeping it and painting the red walls a nice cream like ( BM butter or Man on the moon).  It would blend with the house.  

For the floors-  consider a water hog doormat inside.  They really keep the dirt/mud/snow to a minimum in the house. Plus, to clean them all you do is take it outside and hose it off.

Edited September 21, 2018 by itsheresomewhere

[Lady Marmalade]

With those high ceilings, I would keep the carpet- it would be so noisy in there if you put in a solid surface floor!  

I like the previous poster's suggestion to paint over the red.  The green and the yellow are both really nice, but I would paint over the red first and go from there.  

ETA: I would think carefully about painting before moving in.  We've been in our new home for just over a month now and I'm finally getting paint on the walls.  Had I painted what I had planned before moving in we would have a hot mess- none of the colors worked at all when I tested them- they really looked terrible with my things in place and with the lighting at various times.  It is making me very happy how it's coming out now, but it's not at all what I had originally been thinking.  I'm glad I didn't take the time to paint before moving in.  It's a little obnoxious working around furniture, but it's doable.  Now, flooring on the other hand, would obviously be easier to change beforehand.  ?

Edited September 21, 2018 by Lady Marmalade

[mmasc]

Congratulations on your new home! I agree with PPs; keep the green and paint over the red. I’d also keep the carpet, especially since it’s in great condition. When it’s not in nice condition anymore, then you can change it out. Until then, I’d keep the nice stuff!

[1GirlTwinBoys]

I would paint the red definitely. I just don't find red walls calming or inviting but of course I did a red kitchen with white cabinets 14 years ago when it was so trendy.

[WendyLady]

Can you re-stretch the carpet?  That would help it last longer and look nicer! I'd wait to figure out what I want in there for flooring for a year or two - no rush.

To echo everyone else, keep the green, ditch the red. I really like the yellow.  Such a cute house!!

[Garga]

I’m sitting here in my livingroom and looked up to see the exact same green on my walls.  ?   I have three green walls and one pale yellow wall in the living room, so I vote like eveyrone else—keep the green, change the red to yellow.  (Oh, and I have white carpet in here too!)

I think I’d keep the carpet for now and decide later after you’ve lived there for a bit, if you really want to change the carpet.  Or maybe, get a big rug with an interesting pattern to put in the center of the room—big enough that it stretched under the couch and chair and almost fills the room, with the white wall-to-wall sticking out from under it like a border.  Then you don’t have to worry about matching flooring with the kitchen, but you don’t have a big blank rectangle of white on the floor.  

(I’d love to redo my floor but I’d have to do 3 or 4 entire rooms as the living room bumps into 3 other rooms, each of which have different flooring.  I’d love to get an interesting rug for the center, but I have a cat who pees on any new rugs that come into the house.)

Edited September 21, 2018 by Garga

[flyingaway]

Since it’s in good condition, I would leave it for now unless you really hate it. I think it’s better to live in a house for a bit and see how it feels and how it wants to be. I know my thoughts on colors and materials in our new home have changed a lot over the months of being here and I’m glad now I didn’t go with my first inclinations which would have been a mistake. 

[Sneezyone]

Saturated greens and blues are very 'in' right now but I would lighten that one up a little and definitely paint over the red. The carpet is nice. It just needs re-stretching. Attaching a pic with a more updated take on your existing color scheme.

Edited September 21, 2018 by Sneezyone

[Ottakee]

I believe the owners would have the paint colors for me to match.  I actually love the red and had that color in my kitchen 15 years ago.....but not with the green.

If so, would you paint that red wall the green color or the cream yellow?

I had not thought about restretching the carpet but that is a good idea.

[Sneezyone]

4 hours ago, Ottakee said:

I believe the owners would have the paint colors for me to match.  I actually love the red and had that color in my kitchen 15 years ago.....but not with the green.

If so, would you paint that red wall the green color or the cream yellow?

I had not thought about restretching the carpet but that is a good idea.

 

I would paint the red wall a more neutral cream color, not the yellow (just because it’s less work) and use red/gold for accent pillows, maybe paint a piece of salvaged furniture, etc. Painting over red is kind of a pain. Echoing from above, red and green often scream Christmas.

Edited September 21, 2018 by Sneezyone

[Halftime Hope]

I'll be the lone dissenting voice.  I could not bear the green. I'd be painting over the green walls in a heartbeat, and if I felt they had to be a color instead of a pale cream, I'd think about barely-tan.  But that's because I cannot stand green paint.  Green plants are wonderful!

 

Edited September 21, 2018 by Halftime Hope

[Sneezyone]

1 hour ago, Halftime Hope said:

I'll be the lone dissenting voice.  I could not bear the green. I'd be painting over the green walls in a heartbeat, and if I felt they had to be a color instead of a pale cream, I'd think about barely-tan.  But that's because I cannot stand green paint.  Green plants are wonderful!

 

 

S'OK. My whole (new to me) house is painted, in it's entirety, 90s tan. It's both pleasantly neutral and overbearing in it's ubiquity. 

[Clemsondana]

I love color on walls, but wouldn't love the red and green together.  I'd consider picking one to leave and then either making the other the same cream as the kitchen or maybe a lighter shade of the color.  I'm not sure that you could do it with red, but a dark green wall with the others having a light green could be nice.  We've done a couple different shades of blue in our house, all from the same paint strip - and it looks great.  If you wanted to lighten up but keep a dark wall, you could add some decorative white trim (like a chair rail or wainscoating or something) or put some big decorative piece like a quilt, collage of framed photos, prints, or a mirror.  It depends on what you like - if you're a minimalist, you need a color that you want to look at.  Because we tend to have a more busy look - tall bookcases, pictures on the walls, etc - I can use more saturated wall colors because they get broken up by the painted white furniture.  

For the carpet, if you decide to keep it, definitely get it stretched.  It makes it look so much better!  If you decide to replace it, you might consider the tile that looks like wood planks, in a shade that is really different from your laminate.  We have wood floors throughout the house, and when we redid our bathroom we put in tile that looks like gray weathered wood.  We love it, and it's completely different from the wood.  Maybe a whitewashed look, or something like an 'almost black' if you decide to go with lighter walls?  

[Spryte]

One more dissenting voice.  I couldn’t live with the green.  I’d probably keep the read and go with a lighter color in place of the green.  It’s too dark for me.  

[Halftime Hope]

BTW, a lot of you are color experts.  I am not.  I paint as little as humanly possible.  But we've really, really, enjoyed the SW "marshmallow" color. 

When we moved into the house we're currently in, it had a lot of tan, like SneezyOne referenced above.  It was oppressing, moreso to dh than to me.  Walls were tan, carpet was tan, tiles were tan, the wall (no kidding) of kitchen cabinets was honey oak -- full on 90s.   We painted the entire downstairs in "marshmallow"  and the kids each chose their own bedroom colors.  The marshmallow has aged exceptionally well, and my accent wall in the living room never got painted, mainly because none of the walls lend themselves to it. 

Ah, well. It makes me doubly glad for the marshmallow.

[Sneezyone]

25 minutes ago, Halftime Hope said:

BTW, a lot of you are color experts.  I am not.  I paint as little as humanly possible.  But we've really, really, enjoyed the SW "marshmallow" color. 

When we moved into the house we're currently in, it had a lot of tan, like SneezyOne referenced above.  It was oppressing, moreso to dh than to me.  Walls were tan, carpet was tan, tiles were tan, the wall (no kidding) of kitchen cabinets was honey oak -- full on 90s.   We painted the entire downstairs in "marshmallow"  and the kids each chose their own bedroom colors.  The marshmallow has aged exceptionally well, and my accent wall in the living room never got painted, mainly because none of the walls lend themselves to it. 

Ah, well. It makes me doubly glad for the marshmallow.

 

Many of the 90s color schemes have aged well they just need a bit of tweaking. Hunter or Evergreen becomes Arugula or Kale. Tan becomes marshmallow, lol.  Our new house has honey oak flooring on the main floor, which is fine b/c I have and use area rugs, but the owner wisely painted the trim white so it's less oppressive. I do wish he (a bachelor keen on beige and brown) hadn't chosen dark cabinets with dark granite counters tho. Pick ONE to be dark and lighten up the other. Sheesh!

[Ottakee]

26 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

If you love the red and can get the paint colors to match, then why not repaint the green walls red?

Just because only one wall is red and 3 walls and the hall are green?

[KidsHappen]

I love the red. I would paint over the green with a yellow or cream that would blend with the rest of the house and keep the red as an accent wall. It seems to match some of your stuff.

[Lady Marmalade]

2 hours ago, Ottakee said:

Just because only one wall is red and 3 walls and the hall are green?

Hmmm.  I might change my thoughts then.  If you love the red and it makes you happy, consider keeping it because it may only be one wall, but it's RED.  It's going to take a lot of coats of paint to cover it up.  You could paint more walls red or go with a coordinating color that's not so Christmasy with the red.