Help me! I need to know what paint colors for my kids' bedrooms by next week!

[gatorsmom]

I hate our builder with the fire of a thousand suns. He never gives me any warning about anything. Everything is an emergency and must be done immediately. I was told we wouldn't be painting for a month. Now I need to have paint colors for my kids rooms by next week. I was told we needed the mainfloor painted first. I can't wait for this effing house to be done so I never have to see that idiot of a builder again.

I am working with a designer who can tell me what colors would be best but first I need bedding. I live in a small town with a teensy mall and not much other than Macy's, Kohl's, and JcPenny. No Bed, Bath and beyond, no Pottery Barn, nothing else.

How can I find my beddings for 4 bedrooms by next Wednesday? I haven't even given my Master bedroom a bit of consideration. At least Greanbeans's bedroom will be easy. He's getting hand-me down bedding from his brothers.

What would you do???

[KLD313]

Why do you need bedding first? I usually pick colors I like for paint and then find bedding to match.

[gatorsmom]

Why do you need bedding first? I usually pick colors I like for paint and then find bedding to match.

in my experience it's much easier to match the millions of options of paint to the bedding you like versus the other way around.

[boolady]

Do you have themes or basic ideas in mind that we could work from and try to help?

[KpbS]

I love these quilts for older guys from PB Kids http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/madras-quilted-bedding/?pkey=dboys-quilts
Several color options, lots of available accent colors. Very classic and non-juvenile.

ETA will your older two be sharing a room?

What are your DD's favorite colors/themes?

[boolady]

I love these quilts for older guys from PB Kids http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/madras-quilted-bedding/?pkey=dboys-quilts
Several color options, lots of available accent colors. Very classic and non-juvenile.

Love these.

[BabbyO]

Frankly, if it were me I'd ask the kids (if you want) or decide what color family I want the walls to be - blues, greens, yellows, etc. Pick a neutral-ish tone in that color family then pull out the color you want with accents. This gives you flexibility in your bedding, too.

For example, DH and I painted our "office" a blue/green wall color. Based on the furniture and window treatments it looked like a very neutral blue/green color.

After Stachio was born, we moved half the office furniture out and combined the office and spare bedroom. The bed spread was more green heavy and the walls took on more of the green color.

When Peanut was born and we moved Stachio to the room, we redid the window coverings and all of the accents are red, navy and beige along with other primary colors. The room looks to be painted a totally different color and has taken on more of the blue.

We've had people ask how many times we painted that room...and the answer is once!

I think you can pick a blue-grey, or green-grey, etc and then pull the color you want with accents.

Alternately you can go totally neutral with the wall color (grey, tan, beige, etc) and just use the accents to put color in the room.

[boolady]

What are the furniture colors you're working with?

[ourbabygirl]

Yeah, and how about trim color?
If it's white/ off-white enameled, I think you can do just about anything (lucky ducks, I'm jealous of those of you who have this! :ROTFLMAO:).
If it's more of a golden/ honey-oak (like our yucky builder-basic late 90's house), you're more limited. You don't want a blue/ green/ yellow/ purple/ pink/ whatever to be too bold/ bright/ flourescent-looking against that trim.
Of course, if you have dark wood trim, you wouldn't want to do too dark of a color (like dark red in a dining room with dark wood trim).

Our DD is 4 and she has a pretty light green on the walls- we had to find something that would work o.k. with the wood trim, so that eliminated a bunch of greens. We painted it before she moved into the room, and luckily her favorite color is green.
DS has a pretty yellow, but we painted the trim white to make it look more like a nursery for the kiddos.
Our bedroom is a dark cream, and the main floor bedroom (used to be a guest room; now it's DH's office) is kind of a blueish-green (Roaring Mountain by Ralph Lauren; we like it so much that we've used it in 3 different houses now :)).
The rest of the house is a pretty beigy-cream (Clair de Lune by Behr, I think).

ETA I really like the look of a beige/ tan wall with red and navy blue accents for a boys' room. Something nautical or slightly patriotic/ Americana (you could do a vintage baseball or train theme with this, or whatever).

I would get the kids' opinions on a color, then you go & choose about 3 colors you'd be happy with among those (like 3 blues or whatever), and let them choose from those. And yeah, I would pick bedding based on the paint colors. I love PB for bedding (though it's a bit pricey for my taste) or TJ Maxx Homegoods. Or even Target. :)

Good luck!

[kwc]

You might start by Googling Pottery Barn Kids (or PBTeen) and Benjamin Moore... they pick a selection each season they use in their catalog photos that are really nice and age-appropriate.

We have a lot of color in our house... but the kids' bedroom colors are a bit lighter with more gray to have a bit more flexibility as we picked bedding afterwards.

For our DD... she wanted pink but she has so much pink (light, dark, bright, etc) that I went with a pale purple with some gray in it (BM Aura Sanctuary)... Bedding is fuchsia on the fitted sheet but duvet is white with a pink/ purple/ lime green print (butterflies bedding from Garnet Hill)... the purple walls offset the lime green and fuchsia and paler pink really nicely.

For DS, he has a pale blue with a tiny bit of gray in it as well (BM Aura Serenata). It looks good with dark wood, white, navy, lime green accents and orange (he loves orange and navy, I love green). The gray in the wall color means it also would look good with dark red and dark blue (when we were thinking we'd go that way).

If you like turquoise, Wythe Blue is a very popular somewhat lighter/ more muted turquoise. It looks great with white trim/ wainscoting, with orange and tan accents. I've also seen it with white wood and bright red accents to make it pop. It is probably better for an older kid or an adult. Or maybe a baby. Not really a lego-fiend kind of color.

We have a buttery yellow as our main hall color... BM Desert Tan. It would also go well with sage green, dark red, or navy or more muted darker blue. However, I know yellow is not for everyone. I have very little yellow in my life other than wall paint. Joe's O's and post-it notes.

[OKKiddo]

Love these.

Me too!

[gatorsmom]

Do you have themes or basic ideas in mind that we could work from and try to help?


I love these quilts for older guys from PB Kids http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/madras-quilted-bedding/?pkey=dboys-quilts
Several color options, lots of available accent colors. Very classic and non-juvenile.

ETA will your older two be sharing a room?

What are your DD's favorite colors/themes?

Thanks, ladies for helping with this! I've spent the last hour on line looking at different bedding sets. I've narrowed it down to Pottery Barn for Sisi's room. She looked at the different sets and said, "I want something pink, Mom, you pick which one. But I really want that pretty pink canopy." :love5: So, I've chosen the Lily duvet and sham set with the pink minidot sheets shown here: http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/girls-lily-duvet-cover/?pkey=e%7Clily%2Bduvet%2Bcover%7C1%7Cbest%7C0%7Cvi ewall%7C24%7C%7C1&cm_src=PRODUCTSEARCH||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_-NoMerchRules-_- I"m thinking I can have the designer find the pink paint color that will match either the paler or darker pink in the darker, 2-tone pink flowers. Sisi is getting my old bedroom set (headboard, footboard, triple dresser, tall dresser, and night stand) and they are in a cream color. I think the bedroom set is from the fifties. Feminine and curvy but not too frilly.

What do you think? Would that look good? I'm considering getting the brigette pink quilt to go with it but I"m afraid that might be too much pink so I"m holding off on that.

Greenbean's room needs a paint color to match his race car beds. I think that will be pretty easy since I already have the bedding and comforters.

I LOVE the madras quilted sets for the other 2 boys rooms. Gator's bedroom set is DH's bachelor set from 15 years ago. It's in a pale pine. Cha Cha's set is my parents old bedroom set. It's dark cherry, very basic, with no real adornment on it. It actually is coming back in style. Do you think I can do the madras set for both the boys? Maybe the same comforter but different sheets and different wall colors? Would that work?

[elbenn]

I think Pottery Barn has paint colors on their website that coordinate with the bedding.

[crl]

Sounds like a good plan and I agree to check to see if Pottery Barn has paint colors already coordinated.

Catherine

[elbenn]

I just searched to see if Land of Nod has coordinating paint colors on their website. This section seems like it would be helpful for paint colors if you like any of their bedding.

http://answers.landofnod.com/answers/6329/category/7/category.htm

[sste]

Are the rooms carpeted or area rug? I usually try to match to the area rug in a room if it is unique and non-neutral (most of our rugs are). It is a b*tch to match alot of rugs to the wall after the fact.

Is Sisi old enough to choose? Or others? I have extremely opinionated kids and there is no way I could choose for DS after age 3 and DD after age, uh, 16 months!

My only hesitation with what you linked to is the white background. My kids do better with darker backgrounds on quilts and duvet covers.

For your boys with car beds, I no longer see the etsy seller but we have the wood costo lightning bed and gas station dresser (craiglist) and then there was an etsy seller who made me valences very cheaply - - I think it was $16 each in racing check. This is the fabric: http://www.etsy.com/listing/74885472/check-throw-pillow-racing-check-black?ref=sr_gallery_4&ga_search_query=racing+checks&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all

If you are interested valences are super-easy to make or have made and the black and white check fabric is widely available. It looks awesome on the wall - - much better than I expected. We also have the tire toy box to complete the look!

Last but not least, I love pale blue ceilings and accent walls, esp in kids rooms.

ETA: If you go with that bedding I would def. pick up the lavender for the walls - - that sort of saturated light orchid purple shade. It is going to look better and I think girls often turn on pink whereas purple she can age with better.

[flashy09]

My DD's room is Purple Veil by Behr. I love it so much. It's a perfect lavender and really a peaceful, pretty color.

[gatorsmom]

These are all great ideas. The rooms will be carpeted so no problems with matching rugs.

Thank you for the suggestions. I'm going to ask PBK for the coordinating paint colors for Sisi's room and the Madras quilts which Michael said he loved (I'm going to surprise him with some skateboard figures painted on the walls in blackboard chalk like this: http://www.houzz.com/boys-rooms-skateboarder or like this: http://www.houzz.com/boys-rooms-skateboarder . I think he'll really like that. I can do that next fall when they are all back in school all day.

ChaCha is turning out to be much harder. The only thing he likes is this: http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/boys-safari-canopy/?lineid=7&cm_src=E:PRODUCTSEARCH||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_-NoMerchRules-_- But he hates the bedding, the color on the walls, the decals and the story. Hmph. I'm going to have to do some research. He never was an easy kid.

[Globetrotter]

I would just go through all the online catalogs (garnet hill, company kids, pbk, land of nod.. what am I missing?) and find the bedding first, as tedious as it will be to do it that way. If you can at least narrow it down to a few, then you can have an idea of what colors will work, even if you don't make the final decision on the bedding.