I love color. It makes me happy. When we bought this house (when my grandparents died), most of the rooms were painted beige. With flat paint, no less. There was a blue-and-pink Victorian bedroom. Another bedroom had black wall-paper with enormous pink and white flowers, and Pepto-Bismol-pink trim. (That is NOT the kind of color that makes me happy.) And the whole rest of the house was dull beige.
Depressing.
We did a lot of painting. Some of you noticed the deep turquoise bathroom. That was the boys' request, and I was happy to oblige. Given that they really wanted to paint that color on the outside, it was an especially happy compromise. And then I found this fabulous formica for the counters.
(I was tempted to use the coral version of if in the kitchen, but orange isn't my happy color and I wasn't sure I would love it long enough to commit. Good decision.)
For the rest of the house I chose three colors - a green like a green apple, a buttery yellow, and a periwinkle blue that all play very nicely together, and painted all the trim (doors, ceilings, etc) white.
All that to say, to each their own.
I realize not everyone finds this as wonderful as I do. I think it puts my in-laws (whose entire house is shades of brown) into some kind of visual overload when they come to visit, but they don't live here. And I don't live in your house, so do what makes you happy.
What I don't understand is the absence of color. Specifically, the popularity of gray. In this climate. I can't tell you how many blogs I've seen with people repainting their houses (interior) gray. It may have a swanky name, like Oyster Bay or Samovar Silver, but it's gray. And you know what I see when I look out my window, 19 days out of 20?
Gray.
All I can say is that you people are made of sterner stuff than I am. Because with all the gray outside, if I saw gray, gray, and more gray inside, every single day, I think I'd need Prozac.
What about you? What colors do you like? Are you bold in your homes? Or do you stick to neutrals?
13 comments:
I grew up in a house with white walls - Every.Single.Wall!! BORING!!
I LOVE colour, and I actually like different colours in different rooms. colours that blend and flow, generally, but I enjoy the changes from one room to the next. I do favour blues and greens (because they're my favourites), but I've learnt to like yellows as they're my husband's favourites.
Decorating trends here at the moment favour cream and beige - right through the house! And even though grey days aren't common here, I think it's a bit boring for my house. God filled his world with lots of colour, why shouldn't I fill my home with colour??
I have a mixture of sand, leather and cool blue...it makes me think of the ocean and all the fun times I've had in my life on the beach. I'm not a themed room person, except for Thomas' room which is done in retro cowboy...life's little pleasures that make your house your home...or at least until we sell this one and I get to start all over again!
Felicity, the whole-house-white (or off-white) is pretty common here too. We call it "Vanilla Box". *sigh*
Kat - I like the ocean colors too! But around here, I needed to add in more warmth - hence the yellow. Bright and cheery on gray days.
I like COLOR! My last house had 3-4 colors through out and I loved it.
I must admit, we painted the condo a neutral because we know it will be a rental again in only a few years. However, we did, at least, change it from 'industrial putty' to 'coffee with cream' color! :)
Can't wait to get to my next home and paint something wine-color.
I really like the 50s boomerang pattern! I need more color in my life! My parents are HUGE fans of beige and altough they say we can re-paint any color we want, time has not been my friend!
Well...I am your parents age...or closer to them than you. BUT my daughter was SHOCKED when she learned I wanted to paint my bathroom two shades of gray!!! I have always loved the light and hated the gray days. I am a true california girl ...living in Oregon. But livingroom is green, my diningroom and kitchen are a golden yellow. These are the rooms I need color in. We are almost done with the bathroom remodel and we went from peachy pink sink, toilet and tub to WHITE toilet and tub and a NEW double sink vanity with a granite top and dark cherry choc brown cupboards... I LOVE IT!! We are puting up a 'chair rail" with tiles... those new 'trendy' ones that are multicolored...but grays, whites, blues and greens! The shower curtain is white with a grey/greenish/blue-ish small square pattern around the bottom and a smaller one around the top. The rugs are white centers with two shades of gray around the edges. I LOVE IT! My towel are white with green ribbon around the top. ..and plain green, too. On my vanity I have a white vase with white flowers in them. I have always gone with color...but man am I enjoying this change!
Oh man..your turquoise pattern ...well we had a table when we first got married with that exact color and pattern. Talk about a trip down memory lane. I loved that table!!
Diane from Salem way!
I LOVE painting and I LOVE color. My favorite, (which I don't have in my current house) is green, and I had it in my kitchen since that's where we spent most of our time. Here, I tried a burnt reddish/orange with some off browns to meet up with it. All my decor is warm though and if I could ditch it all and start anew, I'd definitely go the blues and more greens. I love the colors you chose! Bet it looks cheery!
I'm not very bold...we do have color, but it is muted. I'm HORRIBLE at decorating, though (I missed that gene), so I'm nervous to experiment, lol!
I grew up in white and hated it, too. When we bought our house in Mississippi, every room was colorful! Blues and greens, mostly, with the girls getting the pink and purple room they'd always dreamed of. Now we're back to mostly white, except for a pretty neutral called camel or latte or something like that in the living room. I miss the color, but I hate to paint, so I'm living with it! :-)
I wonder if people use gray because it's a nice backdrop for bright accessories. A red vase against a neutral wall would really pop!
I'm all for colour too. My kitchen is flower pot red. I do have beige in the great room, but it doubles as our studio and needs to be neutral. It's also open to the kitchen, so I can enjoy the red/orange still anyways. Then there are some room in varying greens and also some purples. Oh goodness, there's colour almost everywhere. I sometime dream of going all white and then accenting everywhere with lots of colour.
By the way, our girls' bathroom is a very blue blue -- I'm not sure it's turquoise, but it's GORGEOUS regardless. I never thought blue could be cheery, but it is!
Blessings!
Deborah
AMEN Sara... exactly!!!
I love color... but I'm a little afraid of it, not really afraid - it's more about committing. Actually, I think I'm too frugal - I don't want something that's not going to match everything else. It's a problem, just ask my closet!
My closet has a lot of gray. I love gray. It seems so rich and deep and cool.
I haven't painted my walls since I bought my condo... it was painted a nice light tan - also known as beige... but at least it's not eggshell (which is all my mother ever did.)
When I think about painting my living room, I think about gray... because it's bolder than beige - but gives me enough leeway to to color in my decor... color I don't have to commit to.
Yes, I love gray. But I live in Denver, where we have more than 300 days of sunshine a year and blue skies all the time!
If I lived with gray skies, I would certainly feel as you do!
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