Painting Walls!

paigemichelle3

My husband and I bought our first house a month ago (which is being built and will be done by the end of this year) and we're having a hard time figuring out the paint situation. I don't want a plain white house, but when we told our salesperson how many rooms we wanted painted he was surprised. I know it's just paint and it can be changed but I'd like to attempt to not make a mistake the first time around and my husband wants to paint as little as possible. 

My questions:

How many rooms in your home are painted colours other than neutral ones?

Do you think there can be a home with too many different coloured rooms?  

MommyLiberty5013

A general decorating rule is to paint based off of an inspirational piece such as a rug, pillow, window fabric, vase, piece of artwork, etc.

Painting rooms various colors and then finding furniture/fabrics/artwork to match is difficult and very limiting.

Most people on this board would not advise painting rooms colors until you have lived in your spaces for a little while and have had the opportunity to see how the lighting is, both natural and electric.

To answer your questions, though:

1. In our previous house the only rooms that were white were our laundry room and the insides of our closets. All other rooms were non-neutrals. However, they coordinated.

2. Yes. Another design guideline is to have your color scheme flow from room to room. You don't have to have all the walls the same color, but they should coordinate.

You can get some basic color guidlines and help on www.hgtv.com .

claudiashaw

This is great. A wedding venue is an exciting and an important part of wedding planning. So its better to decide it first.

http://eventup.com/]event space
 

apugglesmom

Most of the regular posters have moved to this board: http://pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=homegarden

However, I would like to address your questions because I do not agree with the response you received. 

First of all, it is your house. Decorate it as you see fit. If you are planning to sell within a short amount of time, I would be more concerned about trying to neutralize it, but if you just bought the house, I doubt that is an issue. Also, if you are concerned with resale, make the large/non-changeable items more neutral. For instance, when you pick the fixtures/tile/etc. for the bathroom, don't pick the tile or the vanity to make a statement with.

MommyLiberty5013:

To answer your questions, though:

2. Yes. Another design guideline is to have your color scheme flow from room to room. You don't have to have all the walls the same color, but they should coordinate.

This does not have to be the case. I have many different colors in my house, some that coordinate with others and some that don't. It is all a matter of personal preference. I look at each room as it's own canvas. If I can see into a room from another room, I do consider making those room colors not clash with each other, but they do not necessarily "coordinate."

However, if your husband wants to paint as little as possible, then I would recommend going with neutral colors. However, I would verify the builders will use a decent quality paint and not just go with the builder flat paint, because ultimately you will have to end up painting some, if not all of the rooms with a better quality paint that holds up to the traffic in certain rooms.

As for "not making a mistake the first time around," I'm not sure this can always be avoided. My tastes change and the colors I picked when I first moved in are not what I like now. 

moonlight

1. All of them. I don't do white walls. The living room/dining room/foyer/hallway is painted a color called desert camel that is a yellowish-tan color and that is the most neutral I go. It's definitely not white or off white. The rest of the room have real color.

2. Nope, not as long as it's done right. When we were house hunting we'd see houses that had one hot pink room, one navy blue room, one room with green and orange stripes. That's just bad taste. Every room in my house is different, but the colors all compliment each other. If you have an idea of what is going in each room, I wouldn't hesitate to have them painted now. I am honestly surprised that the salesperson was surprised.

 This is my color theme:

TarHeels&Rebels

There's no such "general decorating rule" to base your room off an inspirational item.  I think she misspoke and meant tip or suggestion.  A "general decorating rule" is that items look best grouped in 3s and you should have lighting at 3 heights in a room (table, floor, ceiling).  There's no rule about how you should arrive at your paint choices.  Rarely do I use an item to inspire me.  Instead, I'm inspired by photos of entire rooms (check out houzz.com) and go from there. 

Here's why the salesperson was probably surprised: builders charge a FORTUNE to change paint colors.  Around here, it's $350-$450 each time you make the builder change the paint color.  So if you want to paint 6 rooms different colors, that's ~$2400.  Painting is easy and inexpensive - don't pay and arm and a leg for the builder to do a room you could easily do yourself.  (Exception: do have the builder do rooms you can't do easily yourself, like a 2 story foyer.)

I also want to agree with Puggles and say that builders use crap paint. They take the cheapest paint on the market and some then cut it with water to make it go farther.  And they use flat which just doesn't stand up to everyday living.

Here's what I would do: pick one nice shade of tan or beige or greige and have the builder paint the whole house that color.  That way there's something you like on the walls until you get around to deciding what you want on the other walls.

As for the questions, I haven't lived with white walls since a college apartment.  I know in other parts of the country, white walls are the norm, but here, builders always use a tan or a beige as their basic color.  I'd choose something off the Tans page of the paint bio in my siggy.  In my own home currently, there are only 4 colors; in previous homes, we've had as many as 8.

I agree with Moonlight about colors being a question of taste: you can have too many colors and be in poor taste.  Moonlight has used many colors, but they go together beautifully.

moonlight

TarHeels&Rebels:

Here's why the salesperson was probably surprised: builders charge a FORTUNE to change paint colors.  Around here, it's $350-$450 each time you make the builder change the paint color.  So if you want to paint 6 rooms different colors, that's ~$2400.  Painting is easy and inexpensive - don't pay and arm and a leg for the builder to do a room you could easily do yourself.  (Exception: do have the builder do rooms you can't do easily yourself, like a 2 story foyer.)

That's a really good point.

paigemichelle3

Thanks for all the advice!