I used to think that I wanted all my walls white.
When I look through magazines, white rooms are always the ones that captivate me the most.
But the longer I live with my white walls, the more I crave a little color.
My Kitchen recently got a coat of pale seaglass blue, my Dining Room has been warmed up with a soft, sandy color (Julie, you're the winner of my "guess the kitchen and dining room colors contest...contact me for more details!)
Once we get the beadboard fully installed, I'll be sharing updated Dining Room photos here on my blog.
Some days I crave yellow...
Some days it's green I'm drawn to...
Other days I just want to be surrounded by blue...
Country Living featured this orange room, painted Gliddens "Southern Tip":
Although, I don't think I could personally live with Orange in a main living area, I might look forward to seeing it make an unexpected appearance in a Guest Bathroom.
What do you think? Do you like every room to be a different color? Do you love living with all white walls? Do you only use neutrals? Are you okay with using different colors, as long as they're monochromatic? I'd love to hear your opinions on color.
I know I'll receive a variety of opinions here, and I'd like to draw inspiration from all the different view points. (I'd like to think of this as an online "study guide" for me to prepare for the Design Star competition!)
Ciao for now!
Layla :-)
PS...What is your current favorite paint color and who is is made by?
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46 comments:
When I was young, we lived in Navy housing and could never paint the walls. Now that I'm married and we have our own house, every single room is painted, and they're all different colors (unless it's not feasible because they're connected in a weird way). I don't think I have ANY neutral colors. Our living and dining rooms are "Mango Gold," and we have deep red furniture, the master bedroom is "Emperor Blue," yada yada. I believe that God gave us color so we could roll around in it, and I'm not afraid to splash it all over my walls! However, I prefer neutral colored furniture so I can change the walls and throw pillows and create a whole new look. I find a $30 can of paint is better than slipcovering or reupholstering furniture.
But then... I'm so very drawn to very simple design. Basic colors. White walls. I just don't think I could actually live in it. :)
I had white walls for over 10 years. One day I decided I needed some color and painted my living room Red. Since then, every room in my house is a color. I will never go back to white walls.
Wendy
None of the rooms in our house have white walls. I agree in the magazines I am drawn to the layouts that feature white walls but in my house I have color. We do have a lot of beadboard in the house so about 60% of the wall is a glossy white but the top half is painted. I used to really be into different shades of green but the last two rooms we painted where chocolate brown and a gorgeous smokey gray.
Thanks for the inspiration and I'm looking forward to seeing photos of the dining room.
I accidentally rejected this great comment by Johannah, and this was the only way I could figure out how to re-post it! Sorry Johannah!
Johannah said:
"My transformation was opposite to Wendy, above. I lived in SO MUCH colour all my life. My parents home was painted in Heritage colours: Deep green, Golden Yellow and Burgandy.
Then I got married and we moved to a crazy apartment with all sorts of weird angles and choppy rooms, so I indulged myself and went crazy: orange kitchen, red livingroom, green hallway, aubergine bathroom, yellow bedroom. It was super fun, and it had a bohemian feel.
But by the time we built our house two years ago I was coloured out. Now, the house is white, with black and silver fixtures and small splashes of fuschia and orange as accent. I love it. I don't know that I will be ready to paint colour onto a wall anytime soon."
I've had a color called Britney Beige on my walls for 5 years and I have gotten tired of it. It is actually more of a chamois color than beige. It goes with a lot, but I am finally thinking it has to go. Plus in some rooms it look smore fleshy than in others. ick!
But I know it will be a while unitl a total transformation takes place since the whole house is this color, every room, every ceiling, and with white trim.
I was thinking something daring like an orchid pink in my bathroom, but my husband might reject the idea. But neutral in the living areas, like a mousy grey maybe.
Personally I'm drawn to rooms that are subtle with color. I'm not into bold color choices and head right to the neutrals. I then attempt to liven it up a bit with accessories so not to completely bore my family. I wouldn't be able to live with white walls, we have some here from when we moved in and it is driving me nuts. I love to admire white rooms from afar though!
The public rooms we have done so far here are softly painted....pale yellow, tan, etc. In the kids' bath and rooms, we went for a little more fun. My younger daughter has a lavendar and their bathroom features green and white stripes.
The rooms I find online and in magazines that take my breath away are usually neutral and soothing.
I personally like a nice creamy, buttery neutral color on my main living area walls (Duron's Bone White is what I have now, and LOVE). I really crave peace in my home, and since I get headaches often I don't like a lot of bright colors. I DO like some color, however,(usually soft and muted earthy colors) and have really liked Ben Moore's Creekside Green as an accent wall, and am doing my sunroom in the cozy Duron's Plantation Beige. I just gravitate toward neutrals, and like cafe/mocha color for walls also.
I prefer to bring in more color with accent fabrics and accessories. :)
We live in a tiny cottage that we fell in love with as we thought it looks so Italian or Irish cottage. Now we have all the walls white...with lots of color splashed around throughout it. I can't imagine painting walls now...especially after painting paintings all day!!
Kathi
This question is right up my alley!
Up until 4 years ago, I always had color on my walls. I was bold and daring and you just never knew what to expect. Chocolate brown, sunflower yellow, deep red, perfect shades of periwinkle too. Then I realized that I love to change things around a lot. I love to mix it up, move things from one room to another, change things to match my moods or the seasons. Neutral colored walls allow me to have lime green in the summer, red at christmas, pink for valentine's day, burnt orange for autumn...
My favorite paint color was Smokey Taupe by BM now it is a sherwin williams color and I cannot recall the name.
I have Sherwin Williams "Latte" in most of my home. I like the way it looks in all sorts of light.
In our last house we used a lot of Ralph Lauren "Oatmeal" - but it looked different, and not good different, in this house so I had to give it up.
The Latte is a nice background for most furniture, light and dark. It is bold enough to give some depth to the walls but not so dark as to be overwhelming.
There is a challenge, I think, in finding the right color for a particular house or room as paint looks so different in every space.
The good thing about paint, it's inexpensive and if you don't like it, you just paint over it. I love it.
20 years ago when we first moved into our house, it was all painted pastels and wallpaper...yuck!! But that was the look then. The past few years we have remodeled removing the old worn out blue carpet and replaced it with hardwood floors which I absolutely love!! We also painted all of our walls darker colors using Eddie Bauer paints from Lowes and the trim is cream. More of a Southern look, I think. Very warm and inviting. The project I'm currently trying to finish is my office. It is a deep orange. Not orange orange, but a rusty orange. Sorry, I can't remember the name of the top of my head. But it looks great!!
I have recently posted some pictures of my house, so please stop by my blog and take a look. I will try to get the ones of my office online soon.
Have A Great Weekend!!
Kathy :)
I can't help but notice that with one exception (the green) the photos you chose had LOTS of white furnishings & trimmings. Interesting. I've been considering painting my dining room walls with a hint of color but that room has great light & "almost" white table & chairs.
I like the serenity & calmness & simplicity of white (or almost white). It feels clean & airy to me. In some rooms I use pale colors, in others there are bright splashes but all in all I am such a white wall girl. If I didn't have to compromise my home would likely be white, grey, pale blue & sand color with just a teeny bit of color.
Put me in a room with colored walls & I'll get real jumpy real fast :-)
For now, I have to live with all white walls...landlord rule. Colored walls are one thing I miss about being a home owner. I compensate by incorporating colors in the draperies, pillows, throws, and works of art.
I think soft colors are most relaxing, and brighter ones most energizing.
I change my colors (in home accesories) according to the seasons...warm colors in colder months, cooler ones in the summer time.
Karen
I'm currently running through a neutral phase with lightness in mind. I've done deep tones such as brick, forest green, etc in another house and while I loved it at the time, times change, and so did my house. It was time to decorate for 2009 and to suit my current house.
I painted all my walls a darker taupe when I first moved in to lose this strange green tone it had. Once it was renovated, I wanted light and fresh, yet warm. So I discovered Cloverdale Paint's Bamboo Beach. (may be just a Canadian company??)
This colour is amazing. (we spell coloUr different too LOL) The undertone is not green or pink. It's brown. It is the most amazing perfect shade of beige without it being boring. It's beautiful with both wood tones and whites. Outstanding against my stainless and black appliances, wood cabinets, and blackish countertops.
I chose this very light and airy colour beause I knew my my floors and cupboards would darken things up some. It was everything I hoped it would be.
It's my personal preference to add colours in unexpected places that can easily be changed back when I tire of them. For example, I ran bamboo beach throughout the entire house. When I got to my son's playroom, I found the perfect deeper toned RED for a fun accent wall behind his floor to ceiling natural pine toy storage with bins. It's fun, jumps at you, but it's not in your face dark.
It's my personal preference to have pretty much a colourless palette. To me less colour is calming. I have lots of woods, wickers, metal around for texture, and black and chocolate brown accents. I'm planning to add some deep toned throw pillows on my sofa to grab ahold of those accent walls I have here and there for some punch. But for the most part, when I look in my open floor plan upstairs, I see taupes, wood, stone, metal, black accents and it's calm and lovely.
I tried the perfect sage green for an accent wall going down my stairs. As lovely as it was, I was tired of the colour within the hour. LOL I guess I like wall colour where I don't have to see it all the time.
Textures and accessories (I tend to go rustic funk) add so much interest, you don't even think to look for coloured walls. Those that visit LOVE the wall colour because it enhances everything, not taking center stage. Two of my neighbours are now painting their houses the same tone so it must work well.. :)
I love the beadboard look and had alot in one other home I had. I nearly put it in this house as well, but when I saw the lovely tan against the somewhat plain but beefy white mouldings, the house just didn't ask for more detail. It was fresh, clean and perfect without!
Sometimes you have to make choices that are right for the house, and not going by necessarily everything you love.
Going through show homes have inspired my decorating big time. When I first viewed a house with 'no colour', meaning tones of taupes and mochas, not white walls, I had to have it.
Oh. I did get a taste for all white walls when I primed this place. LOL It sure was bright!
But brrrrr....!!!!!
Donna
I've always loved color and have made plenty of mistakes along the way testing out different looks. I currently have a light beige color in my dining and kitchen areas and a beautiful warm light shade of yellow in my livingroom and office. I ADORE the yellow and it is my favorite of all the colors I've tried. I do like muted shades so that most of the color comes from the accessories and furnishings. However, I LOVE the white, cottage looks I see in magazines. I just don't think I'm a good enough decorator to pull it off. And I hate the blandness of white if it isn't tied into a cottage theme.
Hi Layla, I'm with you... always drawn to white. But when it comes down to living with it I just don't know if I could. But then my mind constantly changes. I can't even pick a color of dish towel to stick with much less a wall color. I'm afraid if I did a green or orange wall it would be very short lived. Most of my walls now are brown or a taupe color. My kitchen walls are red, but there is very little wall in the kitchen so I don't think it is that noticeable, and that I have not tired of. Wish I could take credit, but I didn't paint one wall in this house. We have lived in here for over 2 years, and the previous owner picked all the colors. I haven't changed one, which is really odd for me.
I love color! However, after doing the last house (or two) in different shades from room to room, I reached the conclusion that I was taking what was an open floorplan and chopping it up with color. My current house, also, is very open and I've opted for neutral walls throughout. I haven't used the same exact color but chosen a page from one of my paint decks (happens to be Sherwin Williams though I use others) and used varying shades of the same color. In addition, I have POPPED other colors in here and there; for instance, my Master Bedroom has a sitting area with a chair rail only in that area of the room. I placed a deep color there (below the chair rail) and also placed an orange (similar to your inspiration color but darker) in the treyed ceiling). I like the subtleness of the color changes and feel that it doesn't "mess up" the flow of the architecture of the house. This is working for me now but, as is the case with us girls, it is subject to change (with the wind). I will say this, however....I don't think I could/would ever do all white. It just doesn't appeal to me at all.
After being an army wife and living in military housing for 20+ years I can't stand white walls. I did stencil walls while living in military housing and just painted over them when we moved.
Some of the kids rooms in the finished basement are yellow (Laura Ashley) so it really brightens it up. Otherwise we've gone with neutral colors (gingerbread, sabrina). Although I'm itching to paint our kitchen cabinets black or red (haven't decided yet).
I prefer neutrals...but color has crept into my home steadily. Having a teen who loves color helped.
My last house had color on every wall. We built it ourselves, so it was a true blank slate. I stole all the paint colors form a house of dreams tour in Atlanta and All the paint was from the Porter Paint store. The liv/dining/kitchen was all open and was all a golden yellow color called Spun Gold. The Master bed/bath was a deeper golden color called Ripe Cane. Our office was a green color called Bayou Bronze- my fav-, my Daughters room was a light green called Laurel Green I think, that may have been the basement color, but I know I used it somewhere in the hosue. My Son's room was called Lincoln Home Beige, the guest room was Awning Red ( from home depot but color matched at Porter) and my son's bathroom was dark navy blue with white bead board, actually, all the bathrooms had white bead board. The basement that was a greenish/beige color that may have been the Laurel, but I can't remember. The guest bed/bath in the basement was an orange color called Apricot stone. I got every color from the 2005 House of Dreams tour in Atlanta.
We sold that house in October and moved into another house that had been painted to sell. The Kitchen/Dining room & foyer are all very pale green color. It comes from the white chart, but is green tinted. I really love it. Every other wall in our house is builder beige. I thought I would paint by now, but I've grown to love it and do not plan on painting anytime soon.
I dunno...for me it is so driven by the house (style,light, region, age..) But have probably had most of it in this house. From a cobalt blue and aqua hand scraped wall to red to coral to warm white. I love it all. Can only LIVE with so much, though.
One of my most fave colors is a porter paint called chinese lantern. It is intense, full of life...it is in our current foyer, was in a past house dining room. It's me. Not most people. But me.
I've done it both ways...lots of color and neutrals. It depends on where I live, the type of home, and my age/decorating style at the time. Currently I do neutral walls in a color called Navajo white (which is actually more of a creamy yellow) and do the trim in Swiss Coffee (a soft white). I have one room with a different color...the guest bath is a blue with dark brown accents. All the rest of the color in my home comes from furnishing and accessories.
I love using monochromatic colors. In our last home it was all various shades of olive and now I have various shades of golden yellow. Not too sunny more like wheat. I found that using similar colors helps the spaces to remain cohesive while using bolder colors to break up each space so it doesn't look to matchy matchy.
I love what you've done with your home. I'm anxious to see what else you share.
Hi Layla...over the years I've gone through "stages" in decorating. Once we began owning our homes..I could paint and I loved it. These days I'm leaning toward more of the earthy colors,some black accessories ...and assorted whites and cremes. One thing that stayed the same is my love for natural items....come visit my Blog. I still like to move accessories (flowers, pillows, throws) around and that's how I fulfill my need for a pop of color now and then.
I am into color, I love to have a different color in each room but they must all flow together for a nice look. I love the Sage greens and a Lavender for my Bath, going black and white with a touch of Red in my kitchen.. My dinning room I am going to go with a nice yellow I think, some day I will get them all done, and show them off..lol
Hugs;
Alaura
My kitchen is a golden yellow, my den is a golden tan, the hallway is a Ralph Lauren Oatmeal, my son's room is green, the guest room is a pale gray with blue undertones, my dining room is red, and I just painted the downstairs bath Hubbel House Clayo by Valspar (a yummy chocolate brown). We have been slowly repainting rooms since we moved in. I like warmer neutrals. I want to redo the dining room next. The red is too much for me!!
So many colors, so little time!
My favorite paint is from Wal Mart!
Their Color Place brand is made by Sherwin Williams, so it's great quality for a good price. Sometimes I use a Kilz base with Color Place formulas, because I like the texture of how the paint goes on, and the nifty plastic jugs it comes in.
My favorite colors:
Buffalo (a great chocolate brown with gray tones)
Vintaqe Aqua (like a Tiffany box)
Gray Verbena (the perfect pale French gray-blue)
Studio Beige (the perfect neutral)
Late Tomato (a great red with coral tones)
Nacho Chip (a wonderful French mustard color)
Like Jane Seymour said in an old Clairol commercial: "it's just a little box of color!"
Paint the walls the color that you feel. When your feelings change, repaint, and repaint, and repaint! Paint is the best decor bang for the buck.
xo xo
Neutrals, and I like to add color with accessories. My favorite color lately, Island Sand, Ralph Lauren
I also love colour. My sister's house is all shades of white with black and a few hits of green. While I love her house (I helped her decorate it), it's not me. My fall back favourite is Guilford Green by Benjamin Moore. Recently though, I've been attracted to turquoise/teal-ish colours. My new favourite is Stratton Blue by Benjamin Moore. I'm painting my sideboard that colour. I also obsessed with accents of orange. I saw a great room in Better Homes and Gardens which featured an orange living/dining room with accents of chocolate brown and turquoise. It looked amazing.
Funny you should mention orange in a guest bathroom...my brother & his wife have been refurbishing a 76-year old house in Maryland for the last couple of years, and they chose a roasted pumpkin color for their tiny half bath off the main living area. Since they focus on staying true to style, that is the only space that goes a bit outside the lines. It is an unexpected surprise and gives such a fun, warm, cozy feeling to their guests who are just there for dinner or a visit and don't get a chance to see the rest of the traditional house. It's a nice touch!
I used to have an orange kitchen! I was newly divorced with two young girls- I went crazy with color in that apartment- and we loved it. It was bright tangerine orange, which I could probably never do again, but I do like that warm orange living area you have pictured.
I love the neutral white rooms too, but if you look around my house, there is color everywhere, so I guess I'd have to say that while I love the white/neutral look, I'm not sure I could live with it day to day. I'm very much what you described. Love greens, reds, golden yellows, and even those soft blues, so I'm all over the place! I 'think' my house flows pretty well, in spite of all the color.
My favorite color right now is my main living area, Sherwin Williams Whole Wheat, a really good neutral golden tan.
i dont do bold colors or white...but prefer soft neutrals, that soak a room in a suggested feeling. just visited my daughter who lives in a home w/ every wall a very soft yellow, it felt very nice!
I love colours and patterns - I guess my style is very eccentric though. Ostentation, wallpaper, antiques with a little bit of bad-taste kitsc thrown in.. so hardly the chic stylist :D
i like my rooms to have their own identity with color, but i must admit that i tend to stay with different shades of greens and yellows (although i'm really loving that suggestion of using orange in a bathroom!). when martha stewart's paint line came out, i used a color called "oolong" in my kitchen and family room...i absolutely can't get enough of it! :)
I too am infatuated with color! I spend countless hours staring at my contractor sample chips from Sherwin Williams. At the moment, which is odd for me because I love muted tones, I love...
SW7576 Damsel, which would be a lovely accent color to
SW7577 Blackberry...with black and white accessories.
SW7602 Indigo Batik would be cozy in a bedroom, or a bold accent wall.
Well, back to daydreaming!
P.S. My daughter's name is Layla, she is 5, and of course named after the song! You will have to check her out on my blog!!!
Growing up we always had white walls unless the room was painted when we got there. Once married, we lived in military housing or rented. Now that we own, I'm so excited to have COLOR! BUT now I'm afraid to commit! Haha! I have tons of ideas! My dining room and front living room conect. Was thinking black and apple green for the dining room and shades of grape/wine/purple and black for the living room. I'm thinking the black would tie them together but they're enough apart that the apple green and grape colors wouldn't clash. Was thinking black on the wall you see when you come in (it's a "short" wall) and some kind of wine on the left (also a short wall). You can see the black from both rooms but not the wine color....
But like I said, I'm afraid to commit! haha! Love reading your stuff, even though I've got more modern electic tastes, I still love a beautiful room!
I very much love a neutral background so that I can play with color seasonally! If you were to remove all the color from my home, you would find a palette of 60% cream/white, 30% taupe, 10% black/chocolate.
My "color mood" changes so often; having this palette allows me to easily transition from summery pops of greens and blues to comfy autumnal and wintery pomegranite reds, warm pumpkins, and golden tones.
My favorite paint company is hands down Sherwin Williams; however, my favorite AFFORDABLE paint companies are (in this order) Behr paint and Dutch Boy Grand Distinctions. Both offer great one-coat coverage (but two really makes me feel better about scrubbability... is that a word?).
Thanks for the awesome post!
P.S. this is naughty, but too funny NOT to share... my "word verification" for this post is dongs... yes, seriousely! I'm literally cracking up like a wee school girl :0D Thanks for the unintentional laugh!! Hope I didn't offend anyone! :0)
Hey Layla...I'm Tiffany..I'm the one who opened the photography studio on Main St. down from Kim's (lucky photography). I think you walked in one day with Kim. Anyway, don't know how I found your blog, but I just love it. Wanted to say that my dining room is orange and it's my favorite room in the house. I have black french country furniture and the curtains are a plaid dupioni silk with reds, golds, aquas and orange tones. I LOVE IT!! And I even painted the studio walls the same color!! Not a bright orange but a rusty orange. Anyway...proud to know you're from my hometown. Good job!
I have lived in rentals for almost 10 years and so all we had was white walls. We finally bought our first home this year and I am on a mission to paint every wall. In my livingroom I have the color Gourd from the Eddie Baurer collection. Its a warm yellow color and I love it. I will be painting my bedroom a dark brown and my kitchen a burgundy color. I love warm colors!
I am a color kind of girl. My walls are mainly builder grade khaki right now, but I have big plans for soft light browns, some suede effects on the fireplace wall, and for the dining room I have plans to paint Benjamin Moore Grand Canyon Red. Really a deep rusty orange, I am totally in love with this color. My black furniture and wooden wall treatment in cream will make the color really pop! Love white, but only if the entire house is white. One room in all white just looks like you forgot to finish!
~Misti
I like colored walls, but I don't like every room to have its own unique color scheme. We have a color scheme of turquoise, apple green, cream, and chocolate, and each room demonstrates the theme with different colors being dominate in different rooms.
I think that white walls can be fantastic, and allow for more flexibility. But I found after having white walls for so long, like you, I longed for color.
Great post Layla! I'm in your boat-I see pictures of great color and think "I want that!" but still have even stronger reactions to rooms in neutrals- "I really, REALLY, want that!" :)
The problem for me with color is being able finding the right one-it took me months of collecting paint chips and studying them in different lights before I found the right blue for my kitchen. I think that finding the right color and having it appear on your wall the way it appears in your mind is very difficult. For that reason, neutrals, in my opinion, are also easier.
I don't like WHITE walls necessarily-but off-white, cream, barely-beige, or barely-taupe is usually my preference; with bright pops of colors in flowers, throw pillows, accessories, etc.
Hi Layla!
Living in SO many houses I have "done" the color thing but my current grown-up house is primarily painted Benjamin Moore's "Gentle Cream" with BM "Navajo White" trim, including on the beadboard - it is a soothing and warm combination. For my mudroom and lower level, I did use my current favorite BM color "Hazy Skies" - it really reads gray/blue in my mudroom but also can look in the beige family in different light. I LOVE this color and so do many people that come in my house, as many of them have painted rooms in their house "Hazy Skies" after seeing it on the walls in my house. If using color in a mostly white house, I favor it being muted and not too shocking as you move from room to room. I think the overall "look" of a home should be cohesive. BTW -I am a new blogger, and was inspired in many ways by YOU. I love reading your blog and have my fingers crossed for you being on Design Star - they could definitely use you! Good luck
With so many wonderful colors in our world, why not enjoy whatever pleases you? My daughter's home has deep rich neutrals (dark olive, deep grays) that work wonderfully in her home. My open living space downstairs is shades of aqua: Surfer in the entry, Aqua Spray in the kitchen/dining area, a more muted Valley Mist in the living area. New visitors to my home always comment on how pretty it is! I sometimes forget since I'm here every day, but it really is pretty and happy.
My favorite "neutral" is Utterly Beige by Sherwin Williams. In my first and only new home, all of the walls were painted this with brilliant white trim. It was beautifully striking and the color changed so amazingly, depending upon which room and the amount/saturation of natural light that came in the windows. I am always drawn back to this color!
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