Bold walls

I am helping a neighbor with their master bedroom decor and the walls are this completely saturated turquoise. The color is heading towards navy but has tons of green to it. 

They have hardwood floors and white plantation shutters also.

I am going to suggest a richly colored rug and white curtains with a trim on the leading edge.

 

I have even started a Pinterest board for them to help visualize my suggestions.

How would you work with this wall color?

Rethinking lavender

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have a strong aversion to purple. It's a joke in my family that when there is a choice of colors someone invariably jokingly asks if I would like the purple one.

 No, I would not.

 Lavender gets a suspicious side-eye from me for associating so closely with the purple but I recently found a color that has me rethink the whole lavender thing.

It's called Provence blue but it more closely resembles lavender. Not just any lavender but a divine grayish, pale blue lavender. Nevertheless it is very lavender and in possession of some kind of pixie magic that makes me like it and also hard to photograph.  I tried to find a Ben Moore or Sherwin-Williams color that matched but nothing was close. If I had to choose SW 6815 Awesome Violet is the closest but its still far too muddy and gray. It was not big deal deal to me until I began to notice that it looked great no matter what I put it next to, in fact other colors improved it every time according to my eye at first. The more I used it the more I noticed that the adjacent color not only improved the lavender but the lavender improved all of the other colors. I tried it with a different lavender of my own creation and the effect was not the same.

This got me thinking that this particular shade could find a spot in my house after some deep breathing exercises and plenty of reassurance that it isn't purple. Purple is still right out (I am talking to you, Mom) so don't get any ideas.

To paint or not to paint

The entryhall , with it's 18 foot ceiling, is now painted. Thanks to Mr. Designdumonde and his ladder bravery. As I put it back together I see flaws.

Those orange floors will just have to have another Oriental rug on them so that they are less, well, there and that fugly orange banister has a date with some white paint but it is my little desk that I wonder about.

I like painted furniture in small doses. I feel like they are fun accents but plan for the look to become dated so my favorite things likely won't ever be painted. I like this desk but its not a family heirloom.I am leaning towards painting it a glossy color. My first go-to is black but I have a bamboo chest painted black just steps away from this. There is always gray but I don't want to max out the gray in my house, if that is even possible. I really would only consider those two colors. Yes, me the color lover doesn't want a color on this. I just don't want to hate a year from now and I don't want it to be a problem in the new house.

So, help! What color do I paint it? Or do I paint it at all?

Those bits that look like inlay are what drew me to the piece but they are just applied either paint or stain.

P.S. We painted the walls SW Repose Gray at 50% and love it! The hallway, family room and kitchen are all getting painted the same color too.

Life lately-lessons on buying paint, etc.

I wish I could be typing that I am putting my house on the market next week but, alas, it is not so. We are still stuck on painting doors. Still left to go is painting vast expanses of wall, mini master bath redo, new kitchen counters, sink and floors and a dozen other tiny things not worth mention. Hopefully Mr. Designdumonde will get the position he just interviewed for that is 7 miles from home as opposed to the 50 he currently travels 6 or 7 days a week.

We are using this Valspar color for all of the interior doors in our house. It is the story of a lesson learned for the umpteenth time. Don't buy cheap paint! The Valspar type that we got is not all that cheap but it is not the greatest going on the doors. It, in fact, prompted my husband to make me promise that I would never, ever let him try to pinch a penny on paint. 

This week I plan to start painting or at least choose a color for the large, interconnected part of our house. I think SW Repose Gray will be right but I might have it mixed at 50%.

Working from home is a wonderful blessing and a challenge beyond what I thought it would be. The tug of household chores and choosing whether or not to make dinner at all is huge. I knew when my family started asking "if" I was making dinner and not "what" there had been a shift. 

My son went back to college but not until he ate us out of house and home (food bill more than doubles when he is here) and hit a car (at the DMV!) 

My youngest has her first loose tooth and I must say I was not expecting that just yet, so it made me a  little sad.

Spending enough time in the studio has been a challenge but I have spent time reshooting work that I was not happy with images of, like these ink and gouache prints on Hosho paper.

My hope this week is to begin painting walls, spend time in my studio and finish organizing my closet. Oh yeah and squeeze in a dinner or two.

4 ways to choose a color scheme

I think many people get stymied on choosing color schemes for their houses.
 The two easiest ways involve using the color wheel and choosing either complementary or analogous colors.When you search either term on Pinterest a vast collection of  "over-produced" rooms appear (thank you LPC for that delightful term).

I am also including the split-complementary method that is a bit more sophisticated and my color plus neutral method.

To avoid the "over-produced", it is advisable to add a healthy dose of neutrals so that the colors do not scream and to tint or tone the pure hue with white or gray.

Complementary colors are opposite on the color wheel but that does not mean that red and green won't look Christmas-y. To use this method you need to tone the colors with added gray or tint with white. Think light blue paired with orange. Notice the amount of white added alongside the color.

Analogous colors are next to one another on the wheel and the same toning or tinting are helpful.

I personally gravitate towards analogous color schemes in very pale or very dark tones. The mid-toned rooms are tempting to me though.

What on earth does a person do if they love both warm and cool shades but nothing in the combination of opposites is appealing?

A split complementary scheme is one that the colors on either side of the complimentary are used.

Here the coral is a tint (white added) of red-orange paired with tints of yellow and green.

I must add that I do none of these most of the time. I think about what I have to use in the room, what direction I want the room to take, and what I can afford to buy to make it all come together. 

This generally involves a dominant color paired with a combination of neutrals and colorful accents.

In my formal living room I used the ivory upholstered pieces that I had and chose a dusty, very pale coral on the walls. The art and accessories are varied colors in jewel tones and a bit of black that stands out.

I used this method in my son's room and chose a navy wall and charcoal, brown and grays with a colorful gallery wall. It is quite a lot but 99% of the items are a variation of blue, gray or brown which keeps the look cohesive but interesting.

Which method do you prefer?

Interior doors-a before and after

I know y'all love a good before and after. This is a small one that is part of a major undertaking that we have begun before we sell our house.

I see a white door and I want to paint it black

Our interior doors are white...yawn. A few years ago, I suggested to Mr. Designdumonde that a budget friendly upgrade might involve painting all 27 of these doors black. He politely told me that he was not on board. Well, actually not politely.

doors to my studio

Fast forward to "return on investment time" and we are adding touches to make our house stand out.
It sort of reminds me of the time I wanted to paint my dated kitchen cabinets white and Mr. D said something like, "Are you crazy, woman! I am not painting all that!!!" Then when it was time to sell, he had this great idea to paint the cabinets. So go our adventures.

The walls in all of the entry, kitchen, family room and upstairs hall will be painted a pale gray because it is a partially open plan house.

My studio doors are now black.

2 down. 25 to go.

House tour by paint color

One of the first things I was dying to do to my house when we first moved in was paint the walls. It is relatively cheap and I was aching to cover the "Swiss Coffee" or builder beige walls.

My initial instinct was to choose the same colors from my previous house that I loved. Luckily, my husband procrastinated long enough for me to come to my senses. The light is far better in this house and we have some different furniture in the rooms.

Although it wasn't the first room I tackled my living room is just inside the front door.

I used Sherwin-Williams Faint Coral. It is a pale pink that leans slightly towards peach and is a little muddy.

It might be my favorite paint color in the house. It is understated and sophisticated, not the least bit sweet.

Connected to this formal living room is my formal dining room and I wanted a foil for the feminine room on the other side of the archway. A masculine, cigar box was the intended look.

We used S-W Rugged Brown in a gloss for the walls.

Upstairs I used a color that was most like the color of my previous bedroom but far better.

S-W Wondrous Blue is one of those chameleon colors that changes dramatically with the light. It is blue most of the time but the lavender and gray undertones sometimes become the main event.

My son's room was fair game after he left for college and the very first One Room Challenge  linking event was the impetus to get me going.

I knew I wanted a moody, masculine color and S-W Naval was an easy decision.

My youngest daughter's room has been a decision problem for me. One day I just could not stand it any longer and ran out for paint samples.

I ended up using Benjamin Moore's Key Pearl which is as pale as my living room pink but a much cleaner color. It is not overly sweet or overly pink, just a barely there color that lets other items do the talking.

Read more about how I chose the pink HERE.

Confession: we have a vast open plan on the remainder of our first floor that we have not painted in the more than 3 years we have been here. Now that we have decided to move, it is on the must do list but while I look at paint I can't help but fantasize about the colors for the next house.

Do you love or loath choosing paint colors?