Painting color advice needed....

[FreshTressa]

In the house we are buying, the builder will only paint one color in the house. This means the entire house, ceiling and all.

Now, I don't want to go through the expense and energy of painting when I first move in and don't want to have to live with white walls and white moulding and wainscotting (that will look weird, right?)

I was thinking of going with a cream color (ecru-ish) but that means the ceilings will be cream.

Will that look weird when I do go to paint rooms colors? Even if the colors are complimentary?

I thought about having the room cream, paint one wall a color (brown, dark beige, or moss, depending on the room). Now, I saw some of the builder models like that, but someone on another board told me that look was out???

What do I do?????

 

[ADisneygirl]

Our builder painted every room cream with white trim. Ceilings are white. I happen to like my boring beige! It isn't quite as bland as all white and it is so nuetral everything goes with it.

 

[FreshTressa]

I would have no problem if ceilings were white and walls were beige...that would be perfect!!

But....the ceilings and walls have to be the same color...so if I choose beige, the ceilings will be beige. They are 9 ft, so it won't be super obvious, but still!

 

[phyllis1966]

I have creamy-colored ceilings in my living room and dining room, because the walls are a warmish green color, and we thought the warmer color on the ceilings would look better than bright white. Well, it looks great - warm and inviting, not at all weird. Don't worry about it - the ecru ceilings will look great if you pick other warm colors for your walls.

 

[poohluvrs]

Bright White (trim) Linen WHite (walls)
standard colors

Why wont the builder get a paint contractor who'll finish the home the way the buyer wants?

 

[beattyfamily]

We picked everything in our new home. We had to pay $50 extra per room to have the colors we picked painted. I think it was worth the added expense. No beige walls for us this time around!!

 

[arminnie]

I was thinking of going with a cream color (ecru-ish) but that means the ceilings will be cream.

Will that look weird when I do go to paint rooms colors? Even if the colors are complimentary?

I thought about having the room cream, paint one wall a color (brown, dark beige, or moss, depending on the room). Now, I saw some of the builder models like that, but someone on another board told me that look was out???

I hired a "color designer" to pick out my paint colors in LR because I am SO bad at it. Actually it was free if I bought the paint from them. She suggested taupe ceilings in many places - including the dining room which is a dark red. She does not recommend white ceilings at all.

Another designer that I used before had me do the ceilings in a mix of 1/3 wall color and 2/3 ecru mix. The painters hated having to mix that combo.

I picked my own colors this last time. I was allowed 3 by the builder to use in any combo. I picked what I thought was a light gold, with a lighter version on the ceilings and white white trim. The gold turned out to be VERY yellow. Another reason why I should never be allowed to pick out colors for anything - even my own clothes.

 

[Disney Doll]

My entire hosue is white (walls and ceilings) except for the bathrooms. One is lilac and one is yellow.

I like white walls and ceilings because you can punch it up with color in the rooms, you can change your interiors more without worrying if the new curtains or whatever will go with the old paint job.

Plus I have medium brown stained wood trim and I love the contrast of the white with the trim!!!!!

 

[Tanuki]

My builder did a nice thing with my house - I picked a beige color for the walls so for the ceilings he would mix about 1/3 of the wall color with 2/3 white and use it on the ceilings. It picked up the tone of the walls without it being all one color

 

[golfgal]

If it were me, I would pay extra to have the walls painted the color I want them. Usually builders will charge $50 or so for a paint color change. I would do that in a heartbeat. The paint alone is worth that cost let alone the time involved to do that. I don't have any white ceilings in my house, they are all about 2 shades lighter then the wall color or a complimentary color like the pale yellow in our red kitchen. I LOVE how that looks. Even if you have to pay a bit extra NOT to have the ceiling the same color as the walls, which I don't like, it would be worth the cost.

 

[Kirby]

I personally wouldn't care what was "in". I'd just paint your home the way you want it to be.

When we built our home, we started with ecru walls and white ceilings. Now most of our walls are colored but we still have the white ceilings. My husband refuses to paint them a color.

 

[Hannathy]

My entire house has off white, cream, ivory what ever you want to call it! ceilings. Our entire house was painted the same color walls and ceilings and we have left the ceilings that color ( my DH was NOT going to repaint a newly painted ceiling) They look fine, in fact when you asked the question I had to look up and see if we had changed. We haven't.