Painting....repainting....and painting again.....the colors in our home....
By Msabu09
@Msabu09 (111)
United States
September 13, 2009 11:29am CST
LOL - it's funny already isn't it? This makes my family *a little bit* crazy....or perhaps it's me who's crazy?! What do you think?
It's important what colors are on the walls of my home....each room carries a different "vibe" to it. What I do/we do in the kitchen/breakfast area is different than how we interact in the great room or home office. Each room has to be created to represent the mood of it.
And then there's the consideration for how the colors play with one another. There has to be a synchronization of all these colors....a "blending"...."harmony" if you will. For me, there's no fear in painting it a color I believe in...only to change it a year or so later.
Recently we had new tile installed in the kitchen/breakfast room/hallway/bathroom area. The wall colors were a different tone, and so my first order of business was to recreate and redefine the ambiance of the kitchen/breakfast area. Chocolate brown is a color I have longed to have in my home....but the richness of it can darken the space. A white chair rail provided the perfect vibrant "separating point" for the darker chocolate brown from a more coffee type color used on the top portion of the wall. But it wasn't so simple to start with.
Rather than let my intuition and color desires guide me, I tried to get around using the coffee color I'd already chosen and purchased. Cream? No. Too dull. A more khaki/tan color? No, the shade was off. Alright, the coffee color....nope, seemed odd. I was engrossed in getting these colors right....but struggling to trust in the colors I knew would be perfect. Other people's concerns kept entering into the equation - "too dark" - "brighten it up" - "need something lighter." And then finally...I just went with it! And viola! It's beautiful, perfectly beautiful and exactly what I desired to create in this hub of our home. The mood is "cafe-like," warm and inviting. The perfect atmosphere in a kitchen/eating area, I think.
How about all of you.....have you had this same experience? It's not painting a canvas, and yet somehow it felt like it was. There was a bit of craziness and madness to the entire process. Can you relate?
As for me....it's time to repaint the office.....lol.
2 responses
@babs6219 (153)
• United States
8 Dec 09
Wow, your home sounds beautiful! I have almost always wound up going with some really generic colors....beige for our room, blue for the boys' room, yellow for a babies room, pink for the girls' room. I usually regret it...and the next time I paint, I'm using tons of advice from here.
http:/www.housepaintingtutorials.com/house-paint-colors.html
Hopefully, I won't regret the next paint job, lol, which will be in two weeks.
Good luck!
@kprofgames (3091)
• United States
13 Sep 09
I can and I do - LOL. I've really like colors, bold and soft ones togther. Like my dinningroom was dark panneling, would love to tear it off but instead painted the walls butter yellow and all my wood work black. It's a sharp room and blends into my living room of highly textured walls painted beige and then the 1/2 paneling is black also.
People looked at me like I was from mars when I first brought color samples home but now that it's all done the room is warm, cozy and very relaxing.
@Msabu09 (111)
• United States
13 Sep 09
That sounds gorgeous - the butter yellow with black woodwork! I bet the blend of the bold and soft, as you say, is stunning!
And there's something to be said for designing the space in our homes to suit our own tastes. I've also had people say something would be not quite right or "too dark" with some of my colors, but I love the boldness and the soft compliment as you say.
Thanks kprofgames for sharing your experience. I'm going to be thinking about that room with the yellow/black.....lol.
