Okay kids, thinking caps on please. Finally after months and months of living with white walls :hurl: I think it's time to paint. I got the new chair and think I will try and live with my sofa (if I can find the right colour for the walls).
I'm going to overload you here with pictures just because there is so much going on and possible. So you will see the room, the furniture, some of my stuff just in hopes you'll get a feel for the direction I like to go.
So here's the deal (explaination of the photos that will follow):
1) sofa...not happy with the colour which I have discovered is exactly the colour of a terracotta pot in daylight and brandy at night. Basically too warm a colour for me but I am hoping maybe the right wall colour will tone it down.
There are pictures of the sofa as well as three samples I tried with paint I happen to have. None of them seem to be working so you can see why I need help. The red is a mix of two Farrow & Ball colours, the brown is some paint I had left over from the last house, the purple is a F&B called brinjal which I had in the last house and really liked but it looks a little dull in the photo with the sofa.
2) The rug. You'll see one way it looks in the picture of the sofa and the other in the close up. It can look bright or dull depending on where you stand but it has nearly every colour you can think of in it. It goes pretty well with the sofa because the border is quite a rusty tone. There are also lots of colours in my stained glass panels.
3) The chair, new. Supposedly aubergine, but thousands would say it's brown and gold.
4) the woodwork and bricks and floor. All will remain, none will be painted although sometime in the future those bricks will be covered. They also suit the stupid sofa colour as the wood trim is kind of orangey red. The floor, well forget the floor, it's someone's idea of a match to the trim but it doesn't, it just isn't right and not much chance of that changing.
5) My office. This joins the LR through some divided light doors so it's a bit visible. It's three shades of deep red although my furniture covers all but two. My curtains are also a deep burgundy and are hanging in the office and they are okay. I don't mind the colours of the office at all and have no plans to paint it at the moment.
6) The curtains. I have the burgundy ones I mentioned which are velvet and there are plently more which I would like to use in the DR window. OR I have some green and gold drapes Imade in the last century and never hung. They could easily be put in the DR and the office as there are plenty of those too. I'd sure like to use one of these sets since I have lots and they are both new(ish).
7) I'll throw in pictures of my huge mirror as it will fill one wall. it's an ornate gold. Also a picture of my brass lamp as it's pretty typical of the look I'm after. My lamps have either black/gold shades or are stained glass.
Sorry the picture of the room is one a realtor took. Basically it's the dinning room but you can see another issue I have. It's that plaster cove type thing that cuts across to separate the LR from the DR. Now in my mind, whatever I paint will be dark (if I haven't said it a thousand times before, I don't do white, beige, or any colour that cold be confused with those). A dark stripe going across a light ceiling seems like a bad idea to me so I am trying to figure out how I should handle that.
BTW light comes through the office windows from the south. The DR window and two that are covered with glass panels are west facing.
This is an itty bitty room but I love dark rich colours and have even considered black so let your imagination go wild. I suspect a warm gold might go best but I really find I am not a happy person when surrounded by warm tones (and here I sit with a stupid orange sofa that suits the trim and rug...everything would be fine if not for me and my tastes). BTW I am assuming whatever I paint the LR will also be for DR but I am totally open to ideas.
So, ideas please as I am quite hopeless when it comes to figuring out what to do here.
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Love the dark blues and purples :)
Colours are all too dark for my taste but I guess #3.
dbd...you've mentioned many many many times that you aren't happy with your couch....is it just the colour you don't like....are there qualities about it that suit you...comfort..etc.
i'm might be off in saying this, and i certainly don't want to offend by any stretch...and this is just my humble opinion...but have you thought about having your couch recovered ? i know here you could get it done for about 400 bucks, plus fabric. if indigo was around she could help...but alas she's not.... you are working so hard....and have in the past...trying to work with this couch...you love the jeweled bright vibrant colours on you walls, they make you happy...and i'm thinking if we finially get a colour to work nicely with your couch in the long term you aren't going to like it....cuz the couch is always going to be the &*%$ing focal point in your mind.
it's just something to think about....but i know for me, in my attempts to make my house reflect who i am, it intales getting rid of pieces i'm not absolutely in love with.
Okay, I tried some more. These all have grey mixed in (as best that Photoshop can imitate paint mixing). I also adjusted the colour of the sofa a bit because the previous pictures seem a little flat (maybe it's me being oversensitive because to my eye the colour just vibrates in real life).
Again, see what you think.
Trynto, I haven't asked any stores for recommendations yet. Mabye tomorrow. The stager I had would be happy to as long as I handed her some money but I'd rather not do that at the moment.
I like number 4.
I don't like any of those colours but if I had to choose it will be no. 4....but still say soft brown will be better suited for all the colours you have in that room :D
I'm with the other votes -- I think the first three colours are all too bright and overpowering -- as I said earlier, the real jewel tones are just oo much for your room. They just scream for attention and do nothing to complement the other pieces. I think 4 and 5 are the best options, so narrow your search down to either muted grey greens, or grey purples...(Do you sense a trend with me?) I think Buckhorn is still a definite maybe, but I think might be too much a definite brown, and I'm not sure what that will do to you sofa -- it might make the orange pop even more. Looking at your mock ups (great idea BTW), you need to stay away from too much brown in your wall. Ultimately, you want your sofa to read more "brown" than "orange", and the "browner" the wall the more "orange" your sofa will look.
4 or 5 for me...the green really helps "pop" the couch color...not sure if you want that as you were saying you are not crazy about its color... and the purple brown seems to bring out the rug and lamp downplaying the couch color....but all colors are not really saying to me "yes" you have it....sorry.......did you ask a BM consultant what they would suggest...or how about that previous stager you had...any free suggestions from her?................
I feel the same way as cathie I'm not sold on any but if I had to choose it would be number 4.
hhhhhmmmmm....that's a tough call dbd....i'm not convinced on any of them....but if i had to pick one i'd go with door number...4. it seems the best suited....what colour is it....it looks brown...green??? are you leaning toward either of these???
Here's a pretty crappy picture of my sofa against one wall. I tried some colours (not specific paint colours, only approximations) to see if it would give any sense of which direction to head. Let me know what you think please.
Thanks Pearl. I like the dark one of course and it's a lot like the brinjal I had in my bedroom at the other house. When I did the sample board of it here it wasn't quite as rich as I remember but that may be the cardboard I used, who knows.
Okay, good idea about trying to match the sofa to a chip. Nothing is exact, but the close colours are cinnamon 2174 20 and pilgramage foliage (who thinks up these names? 2175-20. At night with lights on it's probably some other colour. AT the moment there isn't any sun shining on it either and that does bring out the bright orange.
Now that it's daylight the colour chips look totally different to me. Today the buckhorn is definitly brown, yet last night it looked green.
I guess that brings up a question. Given the difference between daylight and artificial, any advice as to which I should use while picking? Since I work at home it's not like I can just get comfy with artificial since that's the majority of time I'd be home, now I am home during daylight too.
I'm liking almost all the colours suggested and don't know how I am going to decide.
Dr. D I don't have a norfolk grey chip and it's not in the index. My HC100 is goucester sage.
for inspiration showing 2 shades of purple.
glad I am not the only one :D .......
dr. decor...gotta agree with u on the smoked oyster (called u decorguy earlier sorry get u mixed up)...I still like the look of the darker colour on that one wall and a similar lighter shade on the other walls and ceiling like the pic....I know the wood trim seems a shame to paint but I'm a die hard crisp white trim gal :biglol:
Liking the Smoked Oyster and Plum Royale alot...
Personally, I don't really like all of the really strong deep jewel colours. Sorry, I really like them (my son's bedroom is Van Dusen Blue) but not where it competes with everything else going on in that room.
More colours to consider...
HC 100 Norfolk Grey (more a brown grey)
HC 167 Amherst Grey (another grey with purply-undertones)
HC 160 Knoxville Gray (more a blue with grey undertones)
I just looked up that BM Smoked Oyster 2109-40 that Lasalle suggests and I like it alot.
Now that you have a fan deck, why not go to the oranges and pick out the closest chip to your couch so we can know the exact shade of it.
But I think that smoked Oyster is plenty dark without overpowering your lovely room.
I know everyone has given you a lot of paint colours but how about one more. A friend of mine has this colour in her home and Citylinre did a dining room in this colour also:
BM Smoked Oyster 2109-40 beautiful grey purple colour
- newburg green HC158 -- Looks teal to me.
- blue grotto CC964 -- Wow, very dark!! But nice!!
- super nova CC990 -- I painted the front door this colour -- like it a lot :)
- raintree green CC560 -- Kind of light for you, I think.
- midnight navy 2067-10 -- Similar to Blue Grotto, slightly more black looking.
- majestic violet 2068-10 -- You know me... LOVE purple!!
- carolina gull 2138-40 -- Again, on the light side for you.
Some suggestions:
2072-20 Black Raspberry
2073-10 Dark Purple
2064-10 Bold Blue
2068-10 Majestic Violet
2070-20 Plum Royale
CC-36 Peerage
CC-542 Willow
CC-870 Jet Blue
that's a good one, I wonder how it reads on a wall (whether it holds it's purple or goes black).
Oh Mrs. F, you need to know I'm a diehard old wood trim keeper type so I can't be doing any freshening. I couldn't get a brush near 80 year old wood. My arm just wouldn't do it.
Meanwhile, interesting you mentioned the console as I was at Costco (yet again) today and they had two new console type chests in. Either would have worked here and been good storage. I have to find someone in the store who took one out of the box to see if it comes in pieces because there is no way I could get it from the car into the house unless it is in pieces. Also, Costco bonus again...my rebate cheque came yesterday so that would pay for more than half of the cost.
I remember your floorplan from before. MY SIL thought it would work great as long as I could keep from putting stuff on my DR table (since it would be by the front door and office). I haven't decided if I can do that or not yet.
I am not liking the red-oranges for the wall colour at all. Now as some one posted before : a grey brown would set off the orangey wood tones and the furniture colours and some of the fireplace bricks. :)
what do you think about bm deep mulberry 2069-10...it's got that navy purple thing going on.
when you look at the fireplace, there's plum/purples in the brick....and the same colouring in the rug....and also on the new chair and the stained glass.....i really think that colour needs to be pulled. i still think it would be gorgeous on the walls. it would give the receding feeling that dustbunny likes. the purple family also goes well with orange shades. i still think there should be a different colour behind the couch....and i'm still leaning towards black.
dustbunny....were you able to get your paint chips? do share....what are you leaning towards???
Okay, I had a few minutes to grab my brand spanking new fan deck and check some of the colours out. Dr. D you have buckhorn don't you? With the light I have here (day light now gone until tomorrow) the chip looks more green than brown, and that would probably be better anyway. Actually the other three colours you mentioned also seemed to take on a green. How does it appear in real life? Green, brown, grey undertones? I actually quite like the tone I am seeing on the chip here.
If experience is any indicator, having a green undertone will work great with the wood, don't know about the stupid sofa although I suspect it would enhance the terricota.
Just quickly looking at the chips here are some that appeal also. Maybe you can tell me if I'm off base or not (and of course, I am using artifical light).
- newburg green HC158 (which doesn't look green at all to me at the moment)
- blue grotto CC964
- super nova CC990
- raintree green CC560
- midnight navy 2067-10
- majestic violet 2068-10
- carolina gull 2138-40
You may notice I have avoided all very dark greens. That's because I have already lived with that for 11 years so I'm not ready for it again. Same with dark wine/red. What I couldn't seem to find in the fan deck was the kind of aubergine I have in my head. There are a couple that are close but if I go that way I'd like it to be a colour where you can't quite decide if it's navy or purple.
Anyway, if you have the deck and can take a look, let me know what you think. Do I need to give my head a shake.
DBD - here is my contribution:
I would place sofa in front of the LCD TV (on the wall), but since I didn't have the picture of it (I mean back of it), I skipped it. Behind the sofa (as I wrote you in your previous post) - console table with your nice lamp. Color of the walls are picked from your curtains, just several shades lighter. I would use lighter trim to freshen up the whole room.
PS. I just realized that I forgot to put chandelier - I didn't find yet, or maybe you have a new already?
Maybe you're right cathie, the whitall browm migh not be right. But I can't see painting the strong colours that were posted earlier. I just think the colour will overpower all the other great qualities about that room.
I'm thinking of a deep warm charchoal/browish grey, maybe even pushing into the aubergine that was suggested earlier.
hey doc....can you really see that colour with dustbunnies orange wood tones??? from the colour is see on the monitor....i don't think it'll work.
Eys, I think the walls still need a deep tone, but something more in a receding tone. Here's a pic of Whitall Brown