Picking Paint Colours!

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Okay arty people, I need help picking the new colours for my living room, hallway, and kitchen.

Currently they are mossy/sage green, white, and yellow, respectively. I would like to move towards something a little more natural, with some color to pop out and make it a little more dramatic (but not too high contrast). We have natural, stained wood trim, not painted, which makes me nervous about choosing a tan color!

Here are some of my thoughts, please post your own contributions to help me pick colors!

http://swf-agglomeration.net/hdesign/colorswatch1.jpg

This would be Living Room, Kitchen and Hallway, perhaps. I'm not sure about the Kitchen, the blue might be an accent color as my kitchen counter is white tile with a dark green accent (not a huge amount, but enough).


http://swf-agglomeration.net/hdesign/colorswatch4.jpg
I like this one a lot, but still don't know if it would work for what I want. :\

All of these areas I'm going to paint are fairly small, as well. The LR is going to have curtains as well, which I hope to use a nice accent color in.

[Zeke]

Our house has an off-white-ish color like the one at the far right of your pictures for the hallways and walls that don't matter (i.e, my room, which is covered in posters). For our living room, we've got a blue almost identical to what you're showing us there. I'd recommend you do something similar, because I don't think the blue will play nice with the green that's already in the kitchen. As for the kitchen itself? Play around with complementary colors, or different shades of green. That tannish color on the left might work well. Is there any other information you could give us? I'd like to actually see the tiles in the kitchen that you referenced.

[Ever Talbot]

I don't know if they have this in the states, but at the hardware store where I bought the chalkboard paint for my room (which, btw AWESOME), they have little samples of paint, so you can try different colors.

I prefer tans/beiges with accents of blues or reds/burgandy personally. My bedroom is a dark navy blue with white trim, and the area around my desk is a tan shade similar to the one you have on the left.

I'm not a big fan of greens, but maybe a darker green would go with the tile in the kitchen more? If the rooms are smaller though, a lighter color on the walls will make them look bigger. (Yes, I am a dork who watched home design shows and reads home design magazines ^_^).

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Yeah I watch those all the time too.

Ok here's our color pallette currently that won't be changing any time soon. I need to get paint on the walls that looks better than what I have (once I get batteries for my camera I can supplement with pics):

Living Room: natural wood molding, mossy green sofa and chair and a half.

Kitchen:Natural wood molding and cabinets, white countertops with foresty green tile stripe

Hallway: well, there's nothing in the hallway.

Our carpet is a dark brown, I believe the color is "rootbeer" :p

The LR is currently green (too much green with the walls and the sofa/chair), and the kitchen is light yellow, which is sort of blah and I'd like to change it.

I'm considering neutrals on the walls, darker in the living room with perhaps a bright accent color in the drapes - maybe orange? :eee Then a light creamy color for the hallway, and then the kitchen... I dunno. ^_^;

[Wyl Staedtler]

How much light do your rooms get?

Also, you spelled 'colour' the Canadian way, yay! Cookies pour you!

[Lilaena De'Ville]

It can get quite a bit, there's a large window that takes up most of one wall of the LR, and the kitchen has a big sliding glass door. You can walk right from the front door in the LR out the sliding glass door. We almost always keep the curtains closed and there is a white paper accordion blind underneath those, but there's still a lot of light that gets in.

Oh and we're planning on eventually replacing the couch and chair and a half with dark brown leather sofa and recliner :) We are open to slipcovering them both until then, though. :D The kitties have sort of done a number on them. ;)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

For the kitchen, since you've got a forest green type stripe in the tiles, maybe do it up kind of in a vineyard motif? That's what my mom is doing with her kitchen, and it looks fantastic so far.

Also, something that might be interesting is what Charley and I are eventually going to do; make different rooms in the house reflect different cultures. Like, Ancient Egypt/Arabia-esque in the bedroom, Roman in the living room, and Asian in the kitchen.