Monday, March 2, 2009

Need some help

Let's say you just bought a house. Let's say the current decor in the house is no where near anything you would like to live in. Let's say you have a painter on retainer and you can have the entire house painted - the inside at least. Would you just go neutral and pick a nice color to go just about everywhere? or would you mix it up?

The first house we bought (our last home in Mobile) we painted the bedrooms when we moved in and that was it. The living/dining area and hall were really fine. We later painted two bathrooms and the kitchen - after removing all the old wallpaper.

Now at first, I thought, let's just do a nice medium brown that will look great in the kitchen/den and also in the living room. Hey, bonus - the same shade of brown will look fine with your current bedspread. So - play it safe right? A classic shade throughout.

Well, what if you live in a house that is NOT girlie at all because you are the minority? What you really long for a girlie room somewhere in the mix? Seems like the logical thing to do would be pick a room like the bathroom, something that won't make your hubby cringe when he walks in (like an all pink master bedroom would do) - well, Cole always thinks the bathroom is an extension of his room. So that's out!

So that leads me to the guest room which has always been a little girlie since my furniture is my granny's antique stuff, which I love. I also have a great quilt that my great grandmother made - it's sage and purple - it's pretty. I've used it in the past, but then worried something would happen to it so I put it up. I think I want to get it back out. I think I would like to paint the room a sage green and maybe do a cute scallop around the top of the room, in the perfect shade of purple. My 'painter on retainer' would not want to paint the scallops - but I could do that. This wouldn't be a big change, since the furniture is the same and the color scheme is the same one I had on that furniture for about 10 years.

So here's where I need the help?

Would you do scallops? Would you just girlie-fy one room to save your womanhood? Even if it's a room that's rarely used? And what are your thoughts on a kitchen with pink counter tops??

Would you stick with the neutral or try to use a little more color?

I can't decide (and yes, this is a way to stall the packing I should be doing)!!
lisa

6 comments:

Andrea S. said...

I'd go with neutral throughout the house (unless you have specific color schemes in mind already for those rooms) just to get them all "good enough" for now.

Then I'd go ahead and pain the guest room however you want and make it your girlie decorating project! :)

Later you can always go back and repaint the rooms as you figure out how you want them done.

Amy Nabors said...

i'd stay neutral for the most part and i'd go with the green (of course) for the guest room, but for me i'd not do the scallops. just one of those things i wonder if you'd get tired of it a year from now.

oh and the pink counter tops? not so much. my sister lived in a town house that had pink everything, carpet, counters, tub, everything. it was awful. pinks and reds are not calming colors.

jackie said...

By all means go for the girlie guest room! But I think I would look at wallpaper borders rather than painting scallops onto the wall - I found some sweet ones at americanblinds.com - I'll email you the ones I think would go great with your sage green walls.

I think I'd go with creams or beiges on the rest of the walls for now.

As for the pink counter tops - cool! I'm thinking retro decor for the kitchen.

Best of luck on the packing and the move and crossing my fingers that there are hardwoods beneath the carpets! BTW, if not, you can always have the carpets dyed to a color that you like.

jackie

Michelle Johnson said...

I would stick with neutral colors for now, except for the guest room. And as for the pink counters, sounds fun and has to be better than that horrible blue counter in the bathroom where you are now. (And I can say that since it's my house. ;-) )

g said...

i agree- paint neutral throughout so at least everything has a fresh coat of paint & do the guestroom in sage --sounds lovely! wish i was there & could give you a hand packing! can't wait to see some photos!

Virginia said...

I can't really throw in my two cents here because I'm a girl who loves COLOR all throughout the house... I lived with white walls for too long. I have asparagus green, lemon yellow, baby blue, red, and brown paper bag colored walls. hehe BUT the common thread is that they are all colors that I LOVE- like passionately- so I know I'm not going to get sick of them for a while yet (and I haven't so far- it's been 3 years with them and I still love all of them).

Anyways, enough of my ramble- but here's that blog I was telling you about that you might like :

http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/

and also:

http://theinspiredroom.net/

Maybe you can find some good ideas there!

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin