I’m willing to admit, I’ve had enough of winter. I’m ready to go for a morning run without worrying that I’ll slip on ice and break my bum. I’m itching to go to the Hartford farmer’s market to get some new annuals and perennials and dig in the dirt. Oh, and it would be nice to be able to have houses photographed without giant snow mounds in front.
One of the things I’ve noticed recently is that it’s time to do some interior painting in our house. We’ve been here about 7 years now and it’s time for a refresh. When we first moved in I was on a kick about color. The living room was red. One bedroom was bright blue, another was a darker green. And who can forget about the back stairway…
Over time, the dark colors started to feel oppressive. We changed the living room to a light neutral color about 2 years after it was painted red because I felt the room was closing in on me whenever I was in it. Not good.
Since we’ve been stuck in the house so much this winter, I’ve been making a list of everything that I think needs repainting. Our master bedroom, the dark green bedroom, another bedroom I use as my closet and *gasp* the beloved back stairway. All of this painting means that there are a series of choices for new colors that need to be made.
That can only mean one thing, a fun trip to the paint store to pick out paint chips! I am sent on my own for this excursion, Kyle just asks that the options come back and I pitch them to him. He has no interest in the nitty gritty details of sorting through thousands of colors.
Since I’ve now moved to the opposite end of the color spectrum (read: boring neutrals), picking chips is pretty easy. Blues, greens, yellows, pinks, reds are all quickly passed by. I’m looking for Serenity Now! That means very light grays, beiges and whites. I can spice things up with fabrics for curtains, bedspreads and throw pillows.
After about 30 minutes I’ve grabbed my fistfuls of chips and make my way home. Each chip has three or four colors on it, with only one or maybe two being acceptable. I go through everything and mark the options, then lay them out for Kyle. He hems and haws. “These all look the same, off-white.” I say “Oh good, so then it doesn’t matter which I choose.” This then makes him make a decision.
We now have our four colors, found at Benjamin Moore- Misty Gray, Whitewater Bay, Swiss Coffee and China White. I will admit that there was a perfectly lovely color named Mayonaisse which I had to pass on, simply because of the name. Who wants to think about congealed fat spread on their walls? Not me.
So, over the next few months I will be busy in the late evenings. That’s when I paint. Usually starting at about 10:00pm and ending around 2:00am. I get a little obsessed about it once I start. But it gets done and everyone else is sleeping, so I can be more productive. Bring on the neutrals!
Readers, how do you feel about picking paint colors? Are you leaning more towards vibrant colors or neutrals these days? And do you usually have an inspiration piece that helps you choose a color or do you choose a color and then design around it?
I used to tend to dark colors, as I found them restful – brown was my favorite. Like you, however, I have also found that, aside from in the dining room ( which is used once a month, if that….), the darker hues have started to wear on me – particularly if there is not a ton of outside light coming into to balance it out, and in the New England winters.
I am currently taking down wallpaper (please people, think long and hard about wallpaper) and going with lighter more neutral shades in those areas, and then using artwork to really personalize it and make it beautiful. Style choices are so personal – but my general input to people thinking about really bold colors or wallpaper – would be to think about the possibilities of using artwork to add color, texture, and visual interest- its more flexible and often I think it “speaks” more effectively than a bold color on a flat wall. The most beautiful house I’ve seen recently had mostly neutral or subdued walls and very nicely placed and lighted artwork.
On the other hand, if you watch Color Splash on HGTV- they go in the opposite direction – very bold colors all over the place. Lots of fur, mirrors, and chrome. To me – its not a backdrop that would be peaceful to be in for long – but I don’t think the designer is going for that anyway – he’s going for the vibrant Miami action look — which is where the show takes place. It can be fun to watch though.
We like Benjamin Moore also. Good luck and follow your inspiration!
I have actually been going for fresh, clear color. I think of these colors as spring colors or tropical colors. Lots of fresh leaf greens, persimmon orange, pinks and reds, sunny yellow, aqua blues. I also have almost totally switched to only gloss or semi gloss finishes for paint these days, I find the smooth gloss luscious and vibrant. I match these strong colors up with lots of white, glass, neutral rugs and upholstery, mirror, etc.
I actually like wallpaper a lot. I have used large bold patterns in bathrooms and small hallways successfully. And I love grasscloth and barkcloth. If a room needs a neutral color I use grasscloth.
I love very clean, pure white.
Michael- we lucked out and had virtually no wall paper to remove in our house. I have no idea how that happened, but I’m not complaining about it. We will redo our half bath in the next few years and I think that will be wall papered, but that’s about it.
Josh- I do like grasscloth wall paper a lot. Although I have seen people paint over it because I guess they just don’t want to remove it and still want texture. That tends to look gross. 🙂 We can’t really do white in our house, it doesn’t stay white long between the kid and the dog…
My parents have burlap wallpaper in their living room, which they installed back in the early 80s. It was very very pale, almost ivory colored when it went up, but gradually darkened to a golden brown shade. They put it up initially to cover over badly damaged plaster walls. My mother had it painted pale yellow this summer to freshen up the room. It looks ok.
We have moved 3 times and have always had grasscloth in the living room. What I love most about it is that it complements any kind of architecture. It looked great in our very modern 1960s condo on Woodland Street and in our very traditional 1920s condo on Evergreen Avenue. I am planning to install it in our double parlor in our 1892 victorian where we live now. I will probably put some kind of large patterned wallpaper in the front hall, and paint the other rooms. We are still feeling this house out, decorating wise. I have learned that it is better to wait and let the house speak to you before throwing up colors and buying furniture.
Josh- I hadn’t thought about grasscloth changing color over time, but I guess that makes sense. Paint seems to darken over time too. I specifically remember a house I sold two years ago where the grasscloth had been painted several times and seemed to just be glopped on the last time. My buyers were wondering how long it was going to take them to chip through the layers of paint to get to the wall paper to eventually strip it off. Not a fun project.
Amy – you should post/solicit pictures when everyone is done later in the year – it would be fun to see everyone’s different styles taking form in redone rooms. As to wallpaper – it does have a very long and important history in decorating, which I learned from reading some resources a few months back – since I’m a novice on decorating stuff for the most part. Today I am feeling the effects of trying to get it down as much as anything else. One thing we found was the the prior owners of the house we bought painted multiple coats of paint over wallpaper in certain rooms we redid last year. I didn’t tackle that job – but the painters taking if off found it hard and doubled the job costs. I wish they hadn’t painted over wallpaper – but so be it – maybe they had their reasons. Live and learn. Next time, if there is a next time, I’ll know how to spot that and plan for it more effectively – i.e. knock another 5% off the price.
I think I’d have to go for the ‘mayonnaise,’ just to be able to say “yeah, I buy mayonnaise by the gallon,” which would only confirm what people already think.
Michael- I’ll try to get people to send in pictures of their work throughout the year. We’re obviously not ashamed of showing our house in various stages of disrepair throughout the year.
Tom- thanks, I just sprayed water all over my computer while reading and laughing. 🙂
This is a great post – we bought our home last May and every single surface was painted white (with the exception of two baths which were wallpapered). I am on a mission to restore the home to the original look, and actually hired a color consultant to come in and affirm my paint color choices. There are a lot of neutrals but our entryway/hallway will be a bold brown and the dining room a bold color as well. I am thinking of putting a very traditional English floral wallpaper in one bathroom (the baths are currently undergoing renovation right now, so this one is still up in the air). At our last place we intended to live there only 5-7 years, so we just put paint up and lived with it. Here, I am pickier, but still think we can repaint if we hate the color down the line (read: I refuse to buy those little sample jars and put swatches on the wall!) I would love to see your ‘after’ pics! Good luck.