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Painting the new house- advice?
So we got the house we wanted! Milo starts fixing it up soon, and even though the house itself is in really good shape,nearly every room needs to be repainted. There are 2 bedrooms (1 will be a nursery), 2 bathrooms, a living room, and entryway, and a kitchen/dining room. We're both big fans of big, bright colors, and we were thrilled that the original walls were bright colors and wallpapers, but we're not happy with quite a bit of it.
Entryway: Navy blue that's actually stayed pretty true to color. I really really like the color it is, so I'm probably going to keep it the way it was.
Living room: Of the 4 walls, 2 are a very faded light blue, and 2 are a very faded orange. I like blue/orange combination but they definitely need repainting. With the dark entryway, I like the idea of a sky/baby blue, but would it be better with a darker orange, a brighter orange, or a paler orange?
Kitchen- One one side of it is the counter and oven and stove, etc, and it has a really nice white tiled backsplash. The rest of it, however... well it's a very kitcheny wallpaper. It's beige with light pink and blue flower designs and repeating pictures of bowls of fruit with very prominent pineapples. I cannot live with that wallpaper. With the white tile and the dark wood of the cabinets, I think green would look really nice.
Master bedroom: The walls are dark purple, like an eggplant. Milo hates it. He thinks it's way too dark for a bedroom and I agree, even though it's a lovely color. He seems to be worried about repainting a lighter color over it because he thinks the purple will show through if we choose a lighter color that isn't on the purple spectrum. I don't know because I have no idea what I'm doing.
Bedroom 2/Nursery: Yellowy beige. Like an ecru. We know we want gender-neutral colors, probably yellow and green but we're not sure.
Bathroom 1: This one is completely covered in white tiles, and it looks nice so we're leaving it.
Master Bathroom: It's mostly white, but just once you get past the bath and shower it suddenly splits and has one of those panels that comes halfway up the wall (I'm sorry, I don't know what to call them!) and the bottom half is white, white the upper half has grandma-tier wallpaper. I think we're going to keep the white and just get rid of the wallpaper and paint it some color (maybe the same green as the kitchen!)
The front door: It's half and half. The inside half is white, and matches the entryway. The outside half is dark brown. The rest of the house is an orange-red color with white trim. The only other dark brown parts on the outside of the house are the shutters, and there are only shutters on the sides and back of the house, not the front. Should we just paint the shutters and door white?
Re: Painting the new house- advice?
Without seeing the layout and colors, it's a little hard to say, but here's my instinct:
Living room: If it opens to both the foyer, which you are keeping dark blue, and the kitchen (I think green is a good choice here), go with another blue, possibly the same color as the foyer, but lighter. If you paint the l.r. anything in the orange range, you will have too many transitions. But another element is your furniture -- what is it like or will you be buying all new to go with the colors you choose?
Kitchen: Green is a great choice. But choose one that goes well with the colors in the adjacent rooms. Maybe a sage, with the blues you have elsewhere.
Master bedroom: I just changed a navy blue room to light sage in just one coat, using Benjamin Moore Aura (primer and paint in one). Really impressive -- but also expensive. On the other hand, it saved me a lot of labor. I think Behr has a paint/primer in one that is rated a little higher than Aura, and Sherwin Williams also has one. It may take you two coats of a paint like this to totally block out the eggplant, but it's very doable. Just make sure you get very good paint.
Nursery: Either yellow or green would be nice, although since you have green elsewhere in the house, you might want the yellow for a change. But be careful -- it's a really tricky color. It's highly reflective, and it tends to intensify by reflecting off itself when four walls are painted in it. So go with a lighter, more muted yellow that you think you want. And make sure you paint a test swatch on all four walls.
Master bath: Coordinate with the master bedroom, maybe a lighter or darker tone of the same color. Or pull a color out of your bedroom draperies or bedspread, if you already have them.
White front doors are a nightmare. They get dirty and beat up and show everything, especially on the exterior.
We're getting mostly new stuff. We don't have much furniture, so far.We're going to be restoring a lot of thrift find I think, and going to Ikea, so I can match the new furniture to the walls. I have a futon that will be going in the living room and I have a killer orange cover for it that I love, and that's about all I have. I might be getting a kitchen table from my uncle.
Thank you for your fastidious reply!
I agree with PP on pretty much everything. I love sage green for the kitchen. I think if you do a navy entryway, perhaps do a lighter shade of blue in the living room. I personally am not an orange fan, so that may be coloring my opinion, but I agree that throwing orange in there may be too many colors going on.
We tend to like darker colors and eggplant sounds pretty, but if you find it too dark for your bedroom, I think the paint + primer mentioned will work, even if you need two coats. We've had good luck with Behr brand from Home Depot.
I would say to not paint the outer part of your front door white, but you could paint a different color than dark brown. You said your house is an orangey-red? Without seeing the actual color it's hard to offer suggestions, but I feel like a sage green on the door may be pretty. Again, it's hard to say without seeing it, but I would stay away from white.