Hello fellow stagers. I have a vacant 1926 bungalow that was a rental and in need of a lot of attention. I would love to hear your color suggestions for painting the living room walls and fireplace and mantle. The floors are pine with an oak inlay. The french doors and moulding is white. I am also including a picture of the dining room which is connected to the living room via french doors. Would you paint it the same color as the living room? THANKS!
How about a pale yellow? I read it was the "in" color. I painted my dining room pale yellow over the wainscoting and a dark sage green on the bottom (under the chair rail). It looked so good that we painted the kitchen the same color. .
Yellow is kind of a neutral without being white or tan. It would show off the molding with the contrast. And it would look great with the oak floors
Just my opinion. (I'll email pix if you want some!).
Thanks Linda. Would you just repaint the fireplace white? It seems like all the pictures of painted fireplaces I find on the internet are white (and a lot have beautiful yellow walls!).
Anita
Benjamin Moore Olive Branch, 2143-30.
Looks excellent with any coral.
I'd freshen the fireplace color too after a good scrubbing.
~Michelle
Hi Anita, Since you can't remove paint from the fireplace, I'd paint it a fresh coat of white to match all the trim.
I like Michelle's olive granch color too. Depends on how much natural light the room gets.
What a great job you have!
Thanks Michelle. I love that color too. I was thinking something in the "sage" family. What program do you use to try out colors? I would love to have that tool. I once posted a question to others asking if they used a computer program to experiment with wall colors, and if so, which programs worked best, but never received any responses.
Anita
Hi again Linda. Yes, it is a challenge, but the house has good bones. Your point about light is a good one. I'm not sure where you are in NC, but hopefully you are not in Hanna's path. We are experiencing her winds today in N. Florida, but not really anything different than a good Nor'easter.
Anita
I suggest hemp seed by ben moore. CC 578 It is a warm soft gold colour with a green undertone.
I have used it many times and it always gets rave reveiws.
I like the fireplace white as well. Try cloud white CC 40 with it. See what you think.
I think both the soft yellow or soft sage would be great. I would not go "white" on the fireplace, but a light off white, with the mantle a few shades darker -- sometimes the stark white fireplace looks dated and too stark to me.
Hi Anita,
I have been looking for a program that was fast and easy. There is no such thing.
I use several. I use Ben Moore Color Viewer for the easy stuff, like picking color. Then I save and close it and open it in Picture It, by Chief Architect, and edit other things. For super-rich saturation in color, however, like black, nothing beats re=opening it again in Paint and adding it from there. Everything else just pulls up a dark charcoal.
The painting over the mantle... is hand-drawn with Picture It.
The problem is that most all imaging programs for architecture & design is designed to be used in a 3-d format. Photos are 2-d, and unless you are willing to guess the dimensions and reconstruct, the are useless in the capacity I need... I don't design from the ground up...I alter 2-d pictures. Picture It has limiting features regarding color...can't search, strange color groupings not indicative of the manufacturer, not sorted by number, and so it is a stupid hunt, everytime, thru 4000 BM colors.
In Picture It, complex colors, such as a medium-light browny-gray, might be in BROWNS or GRAYS, GREENS or TAUPES, or SAGES, possibly even BLACKS. It drives me nuts! Most, but not all, Whites and Off-whites are under FRESCOS. BM has a catagory for off-whites, called OFF-WHITES. Why they got creative with the terms is beyond me, but as a former BM color consultant, the categorization is unnecessarily complex. Put them in number order!!!
I love Picture It for most everything except color. It is a versatile program and not too hard to learn, and the only truly versatile 2-d program I have found. It's just those darn colors. If I didn't know BM like the back of my hand, it would be much easier for me, because I wouldn't know where the color SHOULD be and be working backwards. I know exactly what colors I want, but I have to hunt them down.
Just always caution your clientele, a computer image is NOT a substitute for doing your homework...sampling color, placing it on the wall, watching how it plays with the light and the fixed elements. A computer program is a great place to play with shades to determine intensity, and an overall color family to aim for. Monitors are not reliable due to calibration issues.
I do not recommend buying Picture It, or any imaging program, unless you intend to spend a very long time learning them and building skill. You will waste your money. They are complex and nerve-wracking, and you have to really play around quite a bit to get a polished product result. But if you are willing to make the commitment, they are fantastic tools that, once you get the time down to a manageable and profitable level for the cost per project, can be of invaluable service to your clients.
I love computer imaging, and wish there were programs that were easier to learn and use. For now, Picture It will have to suffice, as it is designed to work on photos. For just altering wallcolors on photos, BM's Color Viewer is cheap, easy, and very cost-effective, and so is the Sherwin Williams program. They have a few serious glitches, but I relied on them for a LONG TIME, and had great success. I'd start there, see if I liked them. They are only about $15 bucks a pop, so it is no biggie if you decide they are not as user-friendly as you were hoping.
When I worked as a color consultant I used to encourage everyone to buy the BM program, and I sold quite a few dozen. But the phone calls from the frustrated customers who couldn't figure them out to their satisfaction was overwhelming. I think they thought they could load a pic, click a color choice, and have the perfect choice and get exactly what they expected. There is a fair amount of labor involved, even with a simple pic with the BM program. There is no instant result. And people would get really upset if the color on their monitor didn't match their paint chip in hand. A computer program cannot reproduce the lighting in a room, and factor in nuances between your room and your monitor's configuration. It is an impossible expectation, but people have it.
So in short, try BM first, but it is an IDEA of the color, not the actual color itself you will get.
Best of Luck,
Michelle
Holy cow Michelle. You sure do know alot about many things. I always am in awe of your depth and breadth of knowledge. :)
LOL. I only bother to learn about things that interest me or will make me money.
I am actually pretty lame at most stuff. My family marvels at how in the world I can tie my own shoes.
~Michelle
I like the yellow tones as well. This is Straw Hat, Benjamin Moore. Looks great with the white molding. And of course, Cloud White for the fireplace.......
I agree with Michelle. That green whould look great with the coral dining room. Good Luck!
Anita If it is a bungalow and most bungalows are small. I would pick a color and run with it throughout. Use accent colors in your accessories and add that needed color and drama to the space.
Hi all. I have been away from Active Rain for quite a while and feeling guilty that I haven't had a chance to thank all of you for your excellent advice and suggestions. I haven't made a final decision yet on colors but I am heading to the paint store tomorrow. In the meantime the owners are doing some major kitchen renovations and we are waiting for the dust to settle.
Anita
I love the green paint that is shown in the photo..and think that leaving the fireplace white is good idea
Blondewood 1067 Benjamin Moore for the LR
Linen White for all trim in both rooms and also for the fireplace
DR - a deeper tone of the Blondewood would be Golden Chenille 1116 also by Benjamin Moore. I have used these color pallettes quite a few times and they always receive RAVE reviews. It is both neutral, warm and inviting.
Hope that helps
Phyllis Pafumi
I'm going to agree with the suggestion of sage made by many others. If you like Sherwin Williams paint, one of my favorite colors in the "sage" palette is Svelte Sage.
I also wanted to suggest a program I've recently been introduced to... it is Minutes Matter at www.minutesmatter.com. The Minutes Matter program offers options for color, window treatments, surface finishes, furniture components and so much more. If you get a chance, check it out!
Mary Lou and Lisa, I too love the sage green and am leaning toward that. However, I am intrigued by the Blondewood and Golden Chenille suggested by Phyllis and need to check that out. I have SW color swatches and need to get some from Benjamin Moore because a lot of you staging experts suggest colors by BM. Color is tough for me and I really like to seek advice.
Phyllis, thanks so much for your suggestion. As you can see from my note above, I am going to have to get some color swatches from Benjamin Moore so I can check out all these additional fantastic colors being suggested to me.
Anita
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