I am NOT a decorator! How do you decide on new colors in the house?

[lovemygoofy]

OKay, I know this is a stupid question. I have no idea how to pick new colors for the inside of my house. I know it helps to at least like the color but what about lots of windows and room shapes and blending of colors. Can you tell I'm way over my head here. I don't want to purchase new accessories, except maybe curtains, after painting.

Any good tips on deciding? What about a favorite brand? I'm more than a little over my head but have decided to take this on as a new hobby when my husband leaves and want my house to look outstanding for the new groups of visitors starting in a few months.

Thank you for any input that you can give. I'm totally out of my league here.

 

[SC Minnie]

I usually pick something I like to start-- a pillow, picture, piece of furniture. Then pull one color out of that piece to start.

I like to pick a neutral color for the main living area so I can trade out accents later without having to repaint. Our downstairs is fairly open. Our couch is plaid with burgundy, dark green, blue, and tan. The walls in the living area is tan, the kitchen is a moss green with a border with tan and green with some burgundy- I used a few burgundy accents in there like the kitchen towels. My dining room is a separate room but can be seen from the kitchen. It is kind of burgundy but almost looks brown in the evening.

Don't be afraid of color.

 

[java]

I'm no decorator either. But go first with the thought - it's only paint. easily changed if you hate it.

If you are trying to work with existing pieces- try to find a color that ties in with it.

Give me an example of the color of your couch and I'll give you an idea on colors.

And yes the blending can be a huge pain. I have one color in my dining room that I want to change- but I can't find the perfect blending color with my kitchen. It's driving me nuts too.

 

[lovemygoofy]

Ya'll make it seem easy lol. All I can think is that I have 12 feet ceilings with burnt orange on the walls right now and 10 windows in the eat in kitchen/ tv room. My kitchen can be seen from the tv room but doesn't share the same walls as my eat in kitchen if that makes sense.

Right now my tv room is burnt orange and the kitchen is mint green with all white floors, cabinents and glass doors on the cabinents. It is really BRIGHT in here in the mornings even with my curtains closed. I was thinking a darker color in my tv room/eat in kitchen but have dark wood tables and entertainment center and a faded brick fireplace.

I hate trying to make these decisions lol and I'm not afraid of color but married to a man that is happy with beige from one end of the house to the other. He looks around in shock at the orange every day lol.

 

[SpecialK]

My first floor has so many walls that run through more than one room it drives me crazy. I went through a few color choices before I was happy. I drew the colors from a piece of artwork that hangs in the foyer. Most of the walls are fairly neutral, but those that aren't don't look jarring because they all tie into that piece of artwork.

Go through magazines and pull out what you like. You'll find a pattern to your preferences pretty quickly.

 

[Tuffcookie]

I like to stick with neutral colors so you have a nice flow from room to room. You can always add color by accessorizing.

I love Benjamin Moore paint! It costs a little more but you end up using less!

TC

 

[suejai]

I'm usually pretty good at picking paint colours but I would have to be there. Another alternative is to go to your paint store and ask for a colour consultation. The Benjamin Moore store here does it, and would likely have the service available where you are as well. The cost is minimal, as compared with hiring a decorator, and worth it if you are feeling lost.

Other than that I would do as the pp's have said and start with an item in your house and pull colours from there. Scour magazines and watch decorating shows. Don't be afraid of colours, and don't feel you have to use a neutral if you really fall in love with a colour. As java said - it's only paint.

 

[MomNeedsVacay]

pull colors from home and decorating magazines--that really helped me...

 

[SC Minnie]

Ya'll make it seem easy lol. All I can think is that I have 12 feet ceilings with burnt orange on the walls right now and 10 windows in the eat in kitchen/ tv room. My kitchen can be seen from the tv room but doesn't share the same walls as my eat in kitchen if that makes sense.

Right now my tv room is burnt orange and the kitchen is mint green with all white floors, cabinents and glass doors on the cabinents. It is really BRIGHT in here in the mornings even with my curtains closed. I was thinking a darker color in my tv room/eat in kitchen but have dark wood tables and entertainment center and a faded brick fireplace.

I hate trying to make these decisions lol and I'm not afraid of color but married to a man that is happy with beige from one end of the house to the other. He looks around in shock at the orange every day lol.

Sounds like you have sooo much color going on it is hard to see what to do unlike starting with all white walls and a blank canvass.

Why not to start, paint the burnt orange walls a nice warm tan. It doesn't have to be a light beige, it can be a darker tan. This would help tone down the room and would go with the darker woods and the fire place.

For the kitchen you can do just about anything in there. Find some towels or something you like then pull a color from them and go for it. They sell little testers now so you don't have to buy a quart to try out the color at home.

 

[mickeyboat]

I am not going to be much help, sorry.

We planned our living and dining room color around pillows we had found first.

Congrats on your new home, Tina!

Denae

 

[java]

Are you painting all the rooms? Or do you just want to paint the tv room?

The mint in the kitchen is a hard one to blend. To go from WHITE in the kitchen to the living room in burnt orange(which I love by the way!) may be too stark a contrast. Mint to me seems florida- Then the orange seems New england.
Think of it in terms of states maybe??? If you have a "Florida" kitchen think of a "Georgia" family room- like maybe peachy colors.

But if you hate the Mint and want to work off the burnt orange- You could paint the kitchen a blue if you are looking to CONTRAST(but complementary. To blend you would pick a color like yellow.

Just look at the wheel. If you want to "blend" you for colors that are next to each other- If you want to "contrast" you pick the exact opposite side of the wheel. If you want to be in the middle of that go a quarter way around the wheel from your first color.

 

[Veronica Lodge]

For our dining room, I looked at the furniture and picked a color that would highlight it well. We have heavy, dark Jacobean furniture, and I was leaning toward a olor in teh green family, and we ended up choosing a light green - sort of a seafoam or mint.

For our family room, we decided on a "theme" and picked colors around that. We wanted a bright color b/c it is dark down there, and really liked the way canary yellow and bright white complemented each other.


If you can narrow it down to a few colors you are leaning toward, you can go to Home Depot and at the Behr display, there are little booklets that have coordinating colors in them - like a room with beech furniture, X color on wall and Y color in accents - so you can get an idea of how certain colors will look together.

 

[lovemygoofy]

Are you painting all the rooms? Or do you just want to paint the tv room?

The mint in the kitchen is a hard one to blend. To go from WHITE in the kitchen to the living room in burnt orange(which I love by the way!) may be too stark a contrast. Mint to me seems florida- Then the orange seems New england.
Think of it in terms of states maybe??? If you have a "Florida" kitchen think of a "Georgia" family room- like maybe peachy colors.

But if you hate the Mint and want to work off the burnt orange- You could paint the kitchen a blue if you are looking to CONTRAST(but complementary. To blend you would pick a color like yellow.

Just look at the wheel. If you want to "blend" you for colors that are next to each other- If you want to "contrast" you pick the exact opposite side of the wheel. If you want to be in the middle of that go a quarter way around the wheel from your first color.

Right now I'm finishing up the office. It was super easy and thankfully, hubby loves it. Now I'm going to start on the kitchen and the tv room. I think part of my issue of painting the tv room/ eat in kitchen a lighter color is that the room is so bright from the windows. The orange has to be repainted because whomever painted it did a crappy half tried job. My kitchen/eat in kitchen/ tv room is a L shaped room. The kitchen moves into the eat in kitchen, which shares the walls with the tv room. I'm trying to decide on painting all three rooms one color or the kitchen two or three shades lighter than the rest of the rooms.

I really am not talented at decorating lol. Right now I have color samples painted all over my walls trying to make a decision. I love the little bottles of paint you can buy to try out.

 

[3boymthr]

I agree with PP hire a color consultant they will be happy to give you recommendations on color. Tell them up front that you want to work with your existing pieces because while you can afford to paint you can't afford to totally redecorate. A friend did this and the results were amazing but she was also willing to replace everything but her furniture (she had dark brown furniture and a matching leather sofa so it pretty much went with any color).

Some other options:

If your husband is happy with tan but you want color paint all walls but one tan then add a dark accent color on one wall that can't be seen from your other room. This is especially good in a room that's really bright as the dark color will absorb the light. My younger two have the brighest room in the house (which is weird because they're in the northwest corner of the house ). It was blinding in there so I painted one wall a midnight blue and it totally brought the brightness level down but the color wasn't then overwhelming.

Do half the wall a neutural color (tan/white) and then bottom half the accent color and split it with a wallpaper border that picks up both colors. It did this in my kitchen as I found a red I loved (deep persian red ) for my kitchen but it was just too overpowering when on all the walls.

Paint the walls tan or white and then paint your trim the accent color. It's amazing how good it can look. I did this in my oldest DS' room. He has a red rug that was there when we moved it and it was new, too expensive to replace, so I worked with it. The walls are a bright white and the trim is denim blue. The bedding is a Flag Theme.

 

[tinatark]

I have 12 foot ceilings in my living room. We painted the walls a neutral khaki (actually, there is a chair rail painted white, under that is a darker khaki, then above a little lighter, but from the same color card. Our ceilings are navy. You could do the same in your room with tall ceilings - paint them a darker, accent color... warning, we were told the darker ceilings would bring them down, make them seem less tall, instead, our painter asked if he could bring white paint and make clouds on our ceilings!

 

[JCJRSmith]

Picking colors for the inside of the house is easy for me. She Who Must Be Obeyed tells me what color it is going to be, and I say, "yes dear".