Country Living Keith Scott Morton
I have lived with mostly white or pale walls with color in the accessories look for years and years now (my entire 23 years of married life, actually!). It has always been the look I felt comfortable with, I love the idea of the color in fabrics and accessories being in focus with neutral backdrops.
But, even so, in most of my houses I’ve had at least one room with colored walls. Even if the color is brown, I love it.
Mary Jane McCarty–Country Living
I particularly like white or neutral walls if the walls are wood or plaster so they have some existing texture for interest. We have always lived in older houses, so I guess I am used to walls having a little personality. I really miss a lot of the texture that our older homes had already built in.
Now that I am living in a new house with plain ol’ drywall, I am really tempted to add a cozy color to give them a little more “oomph.”
I’m thinking about painting my bedroom and bathroom a pretty color and maybe even papering my powder room walls (yes, wallpaper. Hush. Don’t hate me because I like wallpaper).
For sure, though, I can.not.keep the swine walls. I still dislike them. Really really dislike them. No one should have under belly of a pig walls if they don’t like them. I cannot stress that enough.
I have never felt totally comfortable making my own home VOID of color. Our life is lived in full color — I would have a hard time with all neutral because my kids backpacks and lunch boxes and sweatshirts laying around would always ruin my decor. Having color makes real life fit in to the decor, and that is important to me.
Other than knowing that I must have color in my home, I can be so all over the map as far as what I like. So much so that sometimes I have trouble deciding what to do in my own home. Never enough rooms in my own house to do everything I love. Now you know why I had to be a decorator…it was either that or buy six houses to play in.
How about you? Are you ever indecisive and easily confused by all the color options in decorating?
And let’s talk about colored walls, neutral walls and what everyone likes. Are you tired of neutral walls? Ready to see color? Or are you trying to get rid of your color and craving something neutral? Let’s chat. I’m curious about what you are thinking!
ooh, COLOR! My husband and I just bought our first house last April, and I am craving brighter colors for the spring. I have opted for warmer, richer colors in the main living area. I like the cozy feeling. But I think a splash of bright apple green in my laundry (closet) just might be what I’m looking for! The best advise I have gotten lately is that color is one of the easiest things you can do to refresh your home. I SO agree. I was also wondering if you do home consultations. I too live in Washington area, and I LOVE your blog so much, I check it every day without fail! If you have the time, please email me with your information!
I change my mind all the time {Hence the blog name Domestic Indecision} but lately I have been loving very neutral walls with the color in smaller things I can change out. When we bought our home we painted all the public rooms different shades of tan and brown (from the same paint card) and were more brave in private rooms. Over the holidays I removed all the color from the master bed and bath and went with more tan and light gray! It’s just so much easier that way for all my mind changing!
I’ve got some green walls here in one room, and deep plum walls in another room that are begging me to paint them a brown or neutral tan…. (but deep down inside, I know that I need to focus on getting the base of our house outside painted- the previous owner painted the concrete battle ship grey, and it’s got to go THIS YEAR.
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.-= leslie´s last blog ..too cute not to share… =-.
Hi sweet Melissa. This is one of my favorite posts of yours yet! How funny….we are all so troubled and yet moved deeply by color. Just by visiting other blogs you can tell where a woman stands with color….or the lack of it and all things are WHITE! Great pictures you showed…I honestly get drawn to all of them for one reason or another! HOpe you are doing well!
Blessings,
Debbie
.-= Debbie´s last blog ..Helping my parents remember…. =-.
We have a large front room that is actually a dining room and living room separated by a large archway. The dining room is medium olive green and the living room is lightish olive. The inside of the archway is the lightest color on the color chip that contains the living room and dining room colors. The olive is the perfect “neutral” paint. It adds a splash of color, but people never say so, “Oh! I love your green dining room!” They say things like, “You’re house feels some cozy and comfortable.” I’m happy to send pictures if you’d like.
I’m a color girl! I just painted my bedroom Hinting Blue by Sherwin Williams, the perfect barely there blue. It even looks white in the can!
Loooooove these photos – especially the pale blue from the This Old House pics. I especially love the little chair in the corner. Peaceful.
.-= Jocelyn Stott´s last blog ..An Open Letter to the Nincompoops =-.
I don’t hate you for loving wallpaper, unless I buy your house. Every house we have lived in, has had hideous wallpaper which for one reason or another has been hard to take down and get a nice smooth finish back to paint over. Even though I hated the previous owner’s stenciling in the kitchen, it was easy to paint over. Wallpaper is a nightmare.
Color is tricky! I had some color initially in our home, and not too long ago painted a soft neutral over it-but I’ve found that I’ve been adding punches of color in the accessories. I kind of like it that way-accessories are a lot easier to change than paint, and I hate to paint! I do have a few spots of color in a few different rooms, but in the main living area I’m drawn to neutral-it’s smallish and neutral seems to just “go” better. But I love your inspiration photos!
.-= Gina´s last blog ..Dear Saturday =-.
I lived with bland beige walls for years!
I painted the walls in my current home a variety of related warm colors. The house is shaded by mature trees and dark most of the time. I knew I would be using a lot of artificial light (which can look cold) I also knew that painting everything white would just make it all look dinghy (sp?).
I like to say that I “embraced the darkness”. I love my warm and cozy home. The colors reflect the personality of my family and it makes all oft he wood furniture look great!
.-= Jill: The Welcome Home´s last blog ..DIY Costruction Progress at the Beach House =-.
Melissa,
This blog post meant a lot to me. I love color in a room. I have a new challenge that I am dealing with though. My almost 7 yr old has a lot of special needs and we have to make sure that we have a calming environment at home. That doesn’t mean no color, by any means. It means that I have to be careful about using large amounts of strong colors. In addition we are getting ready to move into a new house as we get closer to our wedding. We will be renting. I would love any suggestions you may have for our situation. Thanks again for all of the inspiration. I “LOVE” the photographs in this blog. The rooms are gorgeous and inspiring as ever!
Mary Joy: Life Interrupted’s last blog… http://zoelog.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/a-peek-behind-the-scenes-in-our-wedding-plans/
.-= Mary Joy´s last blog ..A Peek Behind The Scenes In Our Wedding Plans =-.
Oh how I love Yellow. That is what I had my house painted when we built. The whole house is a pale butter yellow. It is neutral yet color at the same time. Now, slowly I’m adding different colors to different rooms, such as laundry, powder bath, and baby’s room….but the creamy yellow still runs through the house maintaining a livable neautral.
I also love green. Green can also be neutral as you now, I’ve seen you post some lovely greens here before.
Have fun. I know it can be difficult….I can sleep through a hurricaine, but paint choices keep me up at night!!!
melissa- i wish you were my neighbor and i could have you over to give me TIPS!!! i always love EVERY and i mean EVERY photo you post – it seems!
It is so easy for me to help friends with color because the decision is logical. When I am choosing for my own home it becomes very emotional! I end up with several sample colors on the wall and it takes for ever to decide. I love both colors and neutrals!!!!!!
I’m the same way with not having enough rooms to do everything I want to do. I love it all!
.-= ALVN of WhisperWood Cottage & Junkologie´s last blog ..Happy Just Because Day! =-.
That blue bedroom from This Old Home is my dream bedroom.
I mostly decorate in pastel colours as well, but have included a medium blue-gray colour in a feature wall in the front hall. We get so many compliments on it.
.-= Grace´s last blog ..Giveaway =-.
Melissa,
I love lots of color but have had to scale back on the brighter ones lately because of my son who gets over stimulated by large blocks of color. We are doing it is smaller bits to see if that will work ok. I so miss my deeply colored rooms but its worth it. Any suggestions for colors for a boy that are soothing but not feminine?
Thanks for your help!
I grew up in a home with winter white/navajo white/antique white walls. ALWAYS WHITE. It was easier to paint over, and besides, then there’s no trouble figuring out “what color” you want to put up, or risk getting the wrong shade, etc.
My “neutral”? A yellow shade from Valspar–YEARS ago…called “Ivory Castle”. I put it on the walls in our first house, back in 1997. Had it as the “cohesive” element in that tiny 1950s ranch, to try and make those rooms seem a bit less choppy, and a bit more connected…
Now, in our “new” house (a late 1970s rambler, 3 xs the size, praise God), I’m using that color again (still had the paint chip!). In my dining room and the open to it adjacent family room/back doorway area. Oh my. I love this color. Depending on the light coming in the windows, it can be bright yellow, or a more brownish parchment color. LOVE. IT! It worked with my cute cottage kitchen in NC, and its working with the country French ‘thang’ I’ve got going now. It works well with the red and white toile kitchen…and once I finnnalllly get the curtains ‘mistreated’, lol…that will completely ‘blend’ the look.
I have had green, and purple, master bedrooms (the purple was where I learned the “go at least two shades lighter than the one chip you think you want” adage). I’ve done all sorts of lovely faux painting treatments, and loved the look.
But I love color. LOVE IT. And am trying to gradually get rid of the ‘okay, blah” light tan nearly every wall in my new house was painted before we moved in…
My mother still has heart palpitations when she thinks about me having to repaint it. I don’t care. It’s called “primer”.
I’ve got a blue shade picked out for my bedroom, a pale green for my girls’ room (they are pushing for orange..ahhh, no), and the boys’ room will probably stay tan (because we’re going cowboy in there…). Not sure about the rest of the house, but the kitchen and dining rooms are done, and now it is time for the family room….
White has a place–as trim and an accent, but for me? That’s all…kind of like black. I’d not want a black room. A splash of black here, or there, but not the whole package.
.-= Rachel´s last blog ..Ever want to run screaming, into the streets? =-.
Ugh…this is such the question for me. I look at rooms with bold colors and sometimes I just WISH I could do it. I’m such a light, bright and airy type of girl as well as a monocromatic (sp?) gal. I’m just proud of the fact that green and purple are now my official favorite colors because before that title went to beige and taupe. lol
~melody~
P.S. I’m glad found your blog again…I used to come here often when I was blogging @ Pennies In My Pocket. LOVE your blog!
All of our bedrooms have color—pink, lavender, red/blue, blue, green. Our main floor uses colors off the same paint chip (I wish I knew what they are!). We used the darkest shade, a deep gold tan, in the living/dining room and on the ceiling too. I love the look! The middle shade is for the halls and family room while I marbelized the backsplash and one wall in the kitchen. I love how that pulls together the kitchen!
Our powder room is the big surprise—it has textured wallpaper and is painted “grape jelly”. I works great with the golden hues and is kind of fun!
.-= Sara´s last blog ..Happy Day! =-.
I LOVE color but not on the walls. I have to have neutral walls, but I have lots of color in my home. I have a RED sofa. My secondary bath is turquoise, orange and green. I decorate with turqouise and red pottery. Well, you get the idea…
I think I was turned off to color on walls when we moved into our home. Every room was a different color, it was nauseating. I think it ruined me.
.-= Janet´s last blog ..SPCA and Pets on Furniture =-.
I love color on my walls. I keep them in the cream to butter colors, sort of light to medium values. In my master I have always had a blue room, I had a color formulated by my tinter that I just love. Color can be hard for some so neutrals seem safe,but in my home my neutral is the ivory or butter color. I think it is important to reallllly know what you can live with. I remember when red walls were all the rage 7 yrs ago and I had clients wanting to paint their rooms red, I talked quite a few out of that choice after consulting with them and realizing it was not a color they could live with for long term. I like swatching on large poster board with minimum of 2 coats to get all the true color to come out,I find by moving it around the room throughout the day it really helps to make the decision. Great Post, as always!! Love your blog,Kathysue
.-= kathysue´s last blog ..Design Quirks or Sensibilities? =-.
Just chiming in because I really like the photos you selected! (Especially the first few.)
I’m also glad that you mentioned the personality older walls have. This ( http://tearinguphouses.blogspot.com/search/label/the%20historic%20house%20by%20the%20water ) is our first really old home — built in the late 1920s — and I didn’t realize that I was subconsciously selecting pale colors specifically because of how well they work with the idiosyncrasies of our old walls. I know so many people who prefer to smooth out the textures in older homes. While we’ve done that on the ceilings, there’s something sort of organic about it on the walls. I can’t really explain it. And all this time I’ve felt like I SHOULD dislike it — but I don’t!
Kelly
.-= Kelly@TearingUpHouses´s last blog ..Walk Away? =-.
Moved into our first non-off-white non-rental this summer! It’s a hundred-year-old house that is all wallpapered in flowers I don’t like.
So far I’ve removed the paper in two kids’ bedrooms and painted bright, deep pink and blue … and I LOVE it! I want a little more subdued, but still rich, deep colors for the living spaces. The deep, rich colors scare me a little, but we have 9 1/2 foot ceilings and big rooms – especially the dining and living rooms. So I don’t want a light colored neutral that would make the rooms look bigger with huge, blank spaces on the walls. So color it is.
Except I’m starting to lose my nerve as we near the next project! We’ll see what happens!
.-= Abbie´s last blog ..Chicken ‘n rice =-.
I am one of the colored wall girls. However, I am really loving the cream ans white look lately. I think the biggest reason why I have been so drawn to colors on the walls is the many years of rentals. During that time we had such limited funds and hand me down cream over stuffed leather furniture (yuck). I also had a fear of putting money into something until I owned a home.
.-= laurie´s last blog .. =-.
COLOR! When I see picture of all white rooms they make me think of a blank canvas that hasn’t been decorated yet. The furniture seems to sit on top of the white & I like things to feel warm & cozy. do like white cabinets though. I have been holding on to an inspiration picture since ’91 & in two more weeks they will finally be here! Really like wallpaper `just not the work involved in changing it. Don’t have a problem choosing paint. Usually just find some art work or window treatment or linens I like & the color comes from there. happy decorating!
I feel your pain about the “swine-colored” walls! When we moved into our house, The former owners must have picked up a 5 gallon bucket of clearance paint , that happened to be pale pink. EVERY room was this color! We have slowly been repainting all the rooms, and now that we are almost done, I feel like I picked a few wrong shades and now want to go back and repaint some rooms (my DH is not too happy about that!).
Thank you soooo much for all the great inspiration! I visit everyday, but this is the first time I felt compelled to share my dark secret….pale pink walls…..
ooohhh…so glad you understand my anguish over the swine walls. you must be so happy to have covered them up. even if you made a few mistakes along the way, nothing could be quite as sad as swine walls.
Now I want to paint my walls all of those colors.
I’ve noticed that walls look so much better with color when there is thick, magnificent millwork painted a nice cream or white. Our new house has hardly any molding and what it does have is wimpy. No window casing and barely one room of thin crown molding.
If you have thick, glorious millwork paint looks so SO good!
.-= The Nester´s last blog ..Elements of a Working Office :: A Giveaway =-.
We live in a house that was built in 1908, so it hasd plaster walls, and I love them. We had “band-aid” colored walls in our living room and dining room for years, and we finally repainted them. My daughter convinced me that they did NOT have to be the same color, and so the dining room is a soft sage and the living room is something called “wooden spoon” – it isn’t brown, its’s sort of cream with a hint of something that makes it go with the sage. We painted our entry a soft yellow, and all of this seems to go together well. When people walk in, they actually comment about how they like the colors, even people we have not met before, so I guess we got the choices right! All of our woodwork is white and that ties everything together throughout the house.
Although I love to see bold colors in other people’s homes, I cannot live with it. My favorite color is in our bedroom; it is a soft blue-sometimes-looks green color, and it is very vintage-looking. I would repaint every room this color if I could! It is lovely to wake up to in the morning.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you choose for your new home!
.-= Laurie ´s last blog ..Outdoor Wednesday – Bubble Bath =-.
We recently moved into our very own house, and I am anxious to paint a few of the rooms in color. I have always had white or cream walls, and so making the decision to add bright shades to the walls intimidates me!! These pictures helped me decide to just GO FOR IT!!
Thanks:)
I have a huge great room, all done up in beige (was that way when we moved in). I’d love to set apart the dining area a little by doing the wall next to it in blue…but I haven’t yet decided which blue. Right now it has a neutral wallpaper, which I despise but everyone else who visits think is okay.
.-= Minnesotamom´s last blog ..Markus, 2 weeks =-.
I like color on the walls. We’ve been renting for years now and haven’t been able to paint the walls. I can’t wait until we get some place where we can add some color.
Melissa thank you so much for this inspiring and gorgeous post!
I was starting to think I would be banished from the blog world for enjoying warm colors on on my walls and throughout our home. You rock my friend!
~Blessings, ~Melissa
Ha, good then! We’re a team. You stick with me girl, I’ll never banish you from blogworld!
xo & blessings!
I’m so glad you wrote this. My living room,dining room, and kitchen are all open to one another. When we moved in 5 years ago, I painted all the walls “Regal Red”. It’s a beautiful color. Recently, I’ve been drawn to lighter colors and have wanted to paint over the red. My husband, on the other hand, is insistent that the walls stay red. I’m planning on posting some pics soon of my red walls and I’d love some feed back.
Thanks