Scott and I have lived in our home for 2 years now, but the only room with a color on the wall is the master bedroom! We are FINALLY ready to start painting, but we cannot decide on a color!

Since our home is very open and continuous, we need to pick one color for the entire house. Then we can use our accents to define each room. I picked a taupe color, and Scott went with a lighter color called Almond Oil. Do you think taupe is too much for all over color in the house?

What color are your walls?

Holly

__________________
Forgiveness is love in its most noble form. -Anonymous

Picking a color is soooooo hard. I've found the best way is to start with an inspiration piece...like artwork and pull a color out of that.

My living room walls are all taupe and I'm so darn sick of it. But my carpet and furniture all blends into the walls so it's very drab. My kitchen is yellow, bathroom is a gray/blue, daughters room is bright pink, 1 sons room is blue, other sons is green and white, family room is green. I'm ready to paint almost every room again. I paint often. I've painted my own bedroom 4 times and now it's just off white because I got so sick of all the colors. I think I'm going to paint 4 walls beige and 1 wall red to pull the red from my new comforter.

See, my couch is beige, and I worry it might be too much. But I'm so afraid of bright color!! LOL

Holly

__________________
Forgiveness is love in its most noble form. -Anonymous

Don't be afraid!
It is only paint and can be painted again.
And it doesn't have to be a bright color, just a color.
Try it on one wall and see how you feel about it after a few days or weeks.
Get opinions from friends, the ones who will tell you the truth.
Take a picture and show us, we'll help ya!

__________________
Square dancing is friendship set to music!

Let me start off by saying that I completely agree that picking the right shade of paint is incredibly difficult. I have been agonizing over our main (LR, upper & lower hallways, entryway) color for 3 years. The main part of our home that everyone sees is still white and I hate it. However, I would not consider anything named "taupe" or "almond" or "beige" a color. Those are various shades of white. A "color" is red, green, yellow, terra-cotta, blue, etc. For me, the whole point of painting is so that people can tell you've painted. Slapping a different shade of white over another is what apartment complexes do in between tenants.

Your "color" doesn't have to be bright or deep, but it should be obvious that it's a color. I hope that makes sense.

Just remember that the color on the little color sample is darker when applied!!! I went to get some light blue and the light blue on the sample that I though would be nice would have been way too much blue. They showed me one that I thought was way to light but it's perfect. If you can trust your paint store person that would help.

After painting and repainting MANY times, I am of the opinion that white is best for the walls. I add in color through the use of throws, curtains, pillows, furniture, paintings, accessories, etc. etc. etc...

A lot of stores now sell small packets of paint that you can apply to an area of wall to "try out" and see if you like it. This may be an idea on what to try.

I had a huge living room and it was seafoam green, had a kerosene heater smoke out the entire room during an ice storm. THe insurance co. paid to have the house cleaned and painted. I could have cared less what color it was so I told the painter to pick out something neutral. It was gross and after about a year of that I decided that I needed COLOR. Went with "Roasted Peppers"- a dark red color and loved it. Even painted the living room in my new house the same color. Be daring- you can always repaint. You might surprise yourself. We picked the color out of the border I had decided on and loved it.

I enjoy the colors of my house-the previous owners picked them all-when you come in, the formal LR, is a really deep green olive color, and the formal dining room is two-toned beige-one under the chair rail, one over the chair rail. the kitchen is almost a mint green, and the family room next to it is a very soft yellow. It all seems to flow so well. Thhis is w/ some beautiful blonde hardwood floors throughout the whole downstairs.

Here's what I did -- go to Michaels, Jo Ann's, Hobby Lobby, AC Moore, etc. to the scrapbook paper aisle -- most stores have a whole aisle like this. See what paper catches your eye -- it will probably be a color you like. Buy a few sheets and take them home to see how they look with your furniture. Once you choose a color you like, go to the paint store and either pick out a paint color that is close of have them do a custom tint.

Even if your house is open concept -- mine is too -- there is probably a corner or trim or something where you could change colors. Think about painting one wall a different color than the rest. We've been in our house a year and except for the dining room (walls are red), one wall in DH's office (chocolate brown) and DS#1's room (slate blue), everything else is 'builder ivory'. I can't wait until we can paint!!!

Sarah........

This is a great idea! Thanks Sarah! (And thanks to everyone else who made a suggestion!)

We painted part of the living room last night, and today we are doing the foyer and hallway. I'm stuck on the kitchen and dining room though. The wall that is in the kitchen goes into is also in the living room. So whatever color I pick needs to be ok for both rooms. Plus, I wanted to do a light blue in the sunroom, so it needs to go together.

Here's the wall I'm talking about-- (This was taken on moving day, so please ignore the mess!) http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...4/DSC02051.jpg

Holly

__________________
Forgiveness is love in its most noble form. -Anonymous

Most of my house is beige or taupe - I do love the taupe but I have different accent colors to keep it from being too drab like reds and plums. My kitchen and my master bathroom is painted a green/grey/putty color and I also love it - I get many favorable comments on it and it looks beautiful with the oak cabinets.

I just wanted to let you know the coolest thing I found today. I'm fixing to repaint my dining room and kitchen. So we stopped by Home Depot for me to pick up some ideas/samples. I picked up a few color chips of the Behr paints plus a pamphlet. I was just looking at them now that I've had time to sit and relax and noticed on the back of the pamphlet their webstire Behr Paint and Wood Stain - House Paint and Wood Stains . On the site they have "Color Smart". You can input your photos or use generic and see what the colors look like. This is so handy!!

Laura

__________________
My MySpace Page

To Leave Me FeedBack Click HERE

You know, you could paint that wall a darker/deeper color of the color that you chose to paint the both rooms this way you still have a different color and it looks nice. I tend to like yellows and golds.

I really like the way it looks NOW -- white! ... heh.
LOL.