any interior designers out there?

[Mom to Brandon and 2 cats]

I would love to paint my combination living/dining room. Right now, all the walls in the house except for DS's room are the off-white that came with the house. After 5 years, it's time for some color!

BUT, how do you paint in a house that's an "open" floor plan? Each of my rooms downstairs shares a wall with another room, and even up the stairwell. I've been racking my brain over how to paint without making the whole downstairs and stairwell one solid color.

Does anybody else have this problem? What did you do?

Sick of the white walls,
Jennifer

[cuca_]

I am far from an interior designer, but here's what I suggest. Maybe you can paint the common walls a neutral color, and add color to the walls that are not shared. Hopefully there are some interior designers here that can give you other ideas or detailed suggestions as to the colors that you can use/mix.

Carmen

[Jeanne]

I have the same problem. I opted to paint the great room in a soft earth color wash and bring it up the stairs and down the hall. It actually worked out really well. To break it up, I added a Lincrusta chair rail and painted the lower portion to the floor in a soft olive only in the great room. All the woodwork in the house is a very soft cream (including the Lincrusta) so it has tied together well.
The biggest challenge that I'm facing now is color in the room. The room has hardwood floors and the area rugs we have now compete with the printed fabric of the living room pieces. The upholstered dining room chairs no longer look good either. Any suggestions?

[NEVE and TRISTAN]

My house is very open,

I have a two story great room that connects to the kitchen and on the opposite side of that is my master (though door usually closed)...but the two story great room has a cat walk above it and thus you can see the wall of the upstairs behind the catwalk. ALSO my stairs leading up the second floor actually come down the back of the house SO the stairs are a curved stair case that put you out right there in a space between the great room and the kitchen.

I try to describe this so that I can share with you that I have several paint colors that you can see from one area.

My walls are called "cotswold" and they are a light beige, rice (off white trim).
My back wall to the great room is in a hall and it is yellow, the upstairs wall behind the cat walk is about to be painted a sage color...

I've yet to pick the kitchen color but am about to paint that too...

As long as the paints complement each other I think you'll be fine...I painted my master chocolate and used the excuse of a huge painted picutre of Venice leading into the room to allow me to do that :)...

On my web site are a few pics of the colors if you check that out...
My powder room is the greatest "chinese red"...and my dining room an "Azur blue"...and all of these rooms are exposed to a degree...

HTH...
Neve
http://home.nc.rr.com/ourbabytristan
AKA "mama2be"-forgot password
and Baby Boy Tristan born @UNC
Feb 25, 2003
Brother to 3 pups "gees" and 2 kitties

[marinkitty]

Our house is very open too, but we have color everywhere (and are about the repaint the main floor to have even bolder color). Our main floor is an open LR/DR that is divided from the kitchen/open den (these are basically one big room) by an open stair that comes down the middle of the house (so that you can see the upstairs hall wall and the downstairs hall wall). Our kitchen/den is painted a light gray (and we are going darker - to a very deep bluish gray), the LR/DR is painted a tan color (and we are taking this a bit darker too - at least on two of the walls), the upstairs hall is an alfalfa sprout green and the downstairs hall is a yellowish/beigey color called Pear Tint. In addition to being able to see all the colors depending on where you are standing - the point on the stairs where the front LR/DR and back kitchen/den join is on one wall and we just stopped one paint color and started another where the stair stopped so there is essentially an imaginary line up the wall. It sounds like it would look bad and we were very worried about it when we initially did it, but it is fine - hardly noticable actually.

So, I say go for it! As long as the colors don't clash I think it will look great.
Holly
Mom to Mia (3.17.03)

[ncmommy]

Ohhhhhh....could I use and interior designer! Too bad we could never afford one..at least I don't think we can...anybody out there ever use one? What did you have to pay??

We've been in our home for almost three years now, and I still have those silly temporary paper shades over my windows. We finally took the plunge and painted our great room (kitchen/family room) all one color - just a simple tan color. But I'm still totally stuck. I've been through every Better Homes and Gardens magazine, and I spend hours gazing at Pottery Barn catalogs hoping for a breakthrough. The trouble is, I just can't commit to anything...I'm worried I wont like what I choose and then I'll be stuck with it. TO make matters worse, we're on a budget so I have to work with the furniture I have. I am seriously having trouble with this....I hate having people over because I'm ashamed of our lack of decor. Uggghhhh!

[barbarhow]

Go to Kmart and get some of the Martha Stewart paint swatches. You don't have to use her paint but she does combination swatches so that you can see what colors are complimentary.
Also try the Benjamin Moore website. They have stock rooms that you can test colors out on. They also have a way that you can download your own picture of a room and test out different colors. Try crazy combinations and have fun with it.
Barbara-mom to Jack 3/27/03