Posted by
Ashley asks:
My boyfriend and I are building a new house here in Northern Wisconsin. My current home (that we are selling) has a turquoise bedroom and an orange kitchen. It’s an amazing color explosion. He always has said that he liked it and enjoyed living in it but he’s getting the new house painted in shades of very suburban taupe and tan. I might die a little inside with this lack of color!I’ve told him that I would love to do some colors on the walls but he’s really resistant. We have all new furniture that is also BROWN and hardwood floors in the new house. Basically, if this house was an analogy of a clown puking all over everything — which is a description I’ve heard — the new house would make that same clown drop dead from sadness.
What can I do to spiff up a brown home without scaring my conservative boy?
OMG its like you’ve been a fly on the wall at my place! My FH and I are moving in together next month and we’ve been battling over this exact issue. He loves neutral tones and the only color visible in his home, other than browns/beiges, is green.. from the plants. Blah. The artwork is charcoal or black/brown lined drawings or BW pictures of nature. Nature is nice, I love nature, but not on everything and not so blah. Ugh… My house is completely the opposite. I have color everywhere, from the ceilings to the floors. Every room is a different color! I collect a little bit of everything and display my own artwork to Nigel Sade pieces. I love my FH with all of my heart but he’s killing me with the “neutral everything” and “nothing un-natural”. He’s suggested that I have one room, in the basement, where I can not only work on my own pieces but “cover it in any color, etc I want. But this, so far, is his only offer of color compromise. I’m keeping a close eye on everyone’s suggestions in hopes I’ll find a solution to my own bland beige v. kaleidoscopic household meshing issues.
Great ideas. Taupe and beige sound boring, but my mom painted her living room a really nice color that I think of as “hazelnut latte”, and it is warm tone that makes the art hung on it look really nice.
I agree that grey is a hipper neutral but it can also be cold, so definitely find a shade you really like if you go that direction.
Bright laundry room sounds awesome, and so much nicer than a bland one–would help make laundry more appealing! 😉
GL!
learn to love your neutral walls!
I love colours, but i actually prefer a neutral paint pallette… it’s much easier to change up brightly coloured cushion covers and throw rugs than it is to repaint a whole room!
neutral coloured walls and flooring also lends continuity to your whole house, while allowing you to have feature colours in each room.
personally, all my walls are painted light grey, with darker grey feature walls in the lounge and bedroom. all our carpets are charcoal, and our floor boards are deep brown. our bedroom currently has a green bedspread, all ferns and rainforresty, the lounge is filled with varying shades of blue, in the forms of cushions, throw rugs, a beautiful vintage art-glass lamp, and a 50’s style chrome and vinyl kitchen chair, and the kitchen has red toaster, kettle, and knife-block, orange ceramic utencil pot, and orange art-glass dish on the dining table.
Neutral does not have to mean boring. People tend to confuse the two.
I’m lucky enough that my husband pretty much lets me do whatever I want. He trusts my judgement. I hate white walls, and I tend to go with colors that are a little toned down so as to be less in-your-face and more soothing. For the main living areas we have a neutral grey, and our bedroom is an apple green that has just enough olive in it to make it soothing while still being saturated, and our office is a moody blue-green-grey.
I really like fifties palettes, because they tended to have a good mix of colors that were slightly muted (and they happen to go really well with our vintage MCM furniture).
Oddly enough, I’m the one that wants the color AND I’m the one painting the main areas of the house bland. I’m doing a very pale blue/white/grey (Behr’s Polar White) on almost all the walls in the main living room, and a few walls are a much darker blue/grey (Behr’s River Rock). The darker walls are going to be very minimal and act more like accent walls to try to add depth.
Why am I choosing fairly bland colors for the main walls in my house? Because I love to decorate with color and change out decor frequently. I wanted to stick with neutral furniture and walls so that I could decorate however I wanted without having to worry about it clashing with my wall colors. We have a dark brown couch. But on the couch we have a bright red, emerald green, and yellow Mexican blanket, and lime green throw pillows. We have a phenomenally bright painting hanging above our fireplace (tons of bright colors, really pops against the neutral stone), and we have a series of 3 huge (6′ long by 3′ high) paintings on different walls throughout the house (also with tons of different colors in them). I am working with my mom to create an awesome frame collage to go up the stairs from the front door to the living area (which will have bright colored frames) and a huge wall in our living area is going to be a brightly colored National Geographic wall (I have Nat Geo magazines for almost every month since 1910 that I inherited).
I am painting our powder room a beautiful robin’s egg blue (Behr’s Nevada Sky) and the kitchen will be butter yellow. I’m not sure on the colors of the bedrooms or other bathrooms yet. And my plan is to make all of our closets a happy surprise with bright colors inside!
Instead of thinking of the house as bland and boring, think of it as a blank canvas for your decorating! And see if he’ll let you paint the insides of cabinets/closets if you really can’t stand a lack of painted on color.
I feel for you as my own house is very brightly painted inside and out, and I cannot imagine living with white walls ever again. Can you agree to binding arbitration? Hire a color consultant to advise you. You get professional design advice and can be steered clear of making huge mistakes. A good designer can figure out how to make you both happy and it’s a lot less stress than going to a couples counselor!
I love the idea of adding pops of color with pillows, art, throw rugs, curtains, and other accessories. I also LOVE painted walls. I would google some pictures or go to the paint place and look at their color swatches that show color pallets in a room. My last place I had a turquoise kitchen with lime green and white accents. My living room was Caribbean Blue, my entry way was bright orange and my dining room was this deep purple-ish brown. When I tell people about it they all have this weird look on their face. When they see pictures (of when they came by) they all seemed surprised by how good it looked. I really like painted doors too. Sometimes doing one or two walls vs a whole room works really well too.
Or break up with him and keep your house. It might be a red flag going up. But you should talk to him first or look did he choose the color without any in put from you?
I’m curious how this goes down. You are building a house together, but somehow he’s made the paint color and furniture decisions on his own? There could be a good reason for that….but I’m balking a little at someone making a unilateral decision on the house, when it’s clear that it’s wildly different from what the other partner is used to/prefers. Usually if you’re building, you’re going for “dream house” or permanent house, so I would think it would be important for both of you to be involved in decision making.
Others have touched on it, but is he worried about resale value? About what others think? Does he think turquoise is fine for a single person, but not to a family or “adult” house? Or was he always just meh on the color, and now wants things his (neutral) way? Try and get at the reasoning behind it, and take this as an opportunity to let him know how important it is for the house to feel like it belongs to both of you.
Then work on a compromise, if needed. White walls setting off rainbow art. A neutral kitchen, but a wild bedroom. Whatever gets you there.