Today’s color dilemma:
I have a question regarding brick. I have a two story house. Red school house brick on the bottom half, shakers on the top. Dark grey roof. I am thinking of a grey with green undertones. The motar in my brick is grey. How deep a color can I make the grey without being top heavy. I am thinking of doing shutters and door in a chimney color (dark, grey). Will this make my house too dull. The trim will be a french white, outling window and bay window. could I please get some feed back.
Barbara suggests:
You have raised a good question. Because your brick is on the lower portion of the house, I am imagining is is a deeper color.
You can probably use a gray of the hue you described, and when you go to the paint store to select the color ask them to show you a color that is on the deeper side of “base 2″ or the lighter side of “base 3.” The “base” designation refers to the depth or saturation level of colors that are possible within a specific range, with “base 1″ being the very lightest. How they are set up will depend on the brand you choose.
RE: dullness - how about a beautiful accent color for the shutters, and a brighter or more vivid color for your front door—something like a deep pumpkin, just for example. Your shutters might then be a rusty color. But, this is just a non-visual guess since I have no idea from your description of what you mean by .”RED brick.” There’s so much variation in actual colors of brick and color names, too, for that matter. Often, if you look closely at brick, what looks “red” also includes hues of rusty orange/brown, mauve/ lilac, deep purple-gray. You can use those colors as a cue for your accent colors for shutters and doors.
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Today’s color dilemma:
I am really struggling with this - trapped by brick around the lower half of my house (yellow-beige with almost no variation in the brick) and dark brown vinyl window frames. Currently the siding, doors and trim around the windows is painted dark brown as well. We would like to go lighter on the siding but are really stuck about what might fit with the two “set” colors. Most of the neighborhood is 1960’s muted - whites, taupes, grays. Both of our neighbors have mostly white houses. Any ideas?
Barbara suggests:
Try something earthy but not of the same color family as what you currently have that can’t be changed. Perhaps a gray-green-something mossy or sage type. Maybe it could be just a little deeper in color than the brick. It’s hard to say exactly, but this could be a color direction you might try.
Another idea in a different direction: Rust type. But as I often say, it’s hard to make a recommendation without seeing even a picture, so you will have to test,test,test, on large areas, and view the colors at different times of day on different areas of the house - to see what looks good.
Suggestion: Use Tru-Hue test boards or poster boards, at least two of each color and at least 24 inches square for your testing.
If you use poster board prepare them just as if they were the actual siding by starting with a coat of prime. If you use the Tru-Hue test boards they are already prepped so you can skip the Prime. Then roll two or three coats of your color.
You will be able to move them around, tape them to the siding, etc. Do NOT do little brush strokes of colors on the side of your house, it won’t give you a true idea of the color and just leads to being more confused.
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Today’s color dilemma…
Hi Kate. We are in the process of finishing our basement. It is about 2100 feet and will have a main living area (pool table, air hockey, TV area, and a large bar/kitchen), exercise room (the wall that connects to the main living area will be half glass with glass doors), a bedroom and a bath.
The bar and pool table will be a medium oak. Our house is decorated in warm earth tones throughout, and we would like to carry this down to the basement. However, we don’t want to simply replicate the upstairs. I would like it to be a little bit more lively and fun.
We have no direct light from windows, so we are concerned about the space feeling too dark. If you have any color suggestions, we would love to hear them! FYI, our contractor includes Behr or Benjamin Moore paint. Many thanks, Francie
Note from Kate–
Hi Francie, I am out of town presenting at the House Beautiful Color Institute in Chicago but your in luck because the very talented Barbara Jacobs will be responding to your question. Take it away Barbara.
Barbara suggests…
You are thinking in the right direction to want to make your more active space have a more energetic and lively ambiance. Not only will it create variety of design in your home, but it is really more effective from the ‘color psychology’ perspective to create a more high-energy feeling in the kind of social area you’ve described. (more…)
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Today’s color dilemma…
We have a rather large bedroom which includes a fireplace with standard, red/pinkish brick surrounded by a medium cherry/maple color mantle. There is also a bay window, also surrounded by cherry/maple trim. We have medium cherry stained furniture, dresser and panel bed, from Restoration Hardware more of an arts and crafts style.
The walls are currently a mauve color, probably to pick up the color in the brick. There is also a master bath (very small) off the bedroom, also in the mauve/pink paint. We plan to completely re-do the bathroom, but have not tackled that project yet.. Please suggest a paint color scheme for both the bath and bedroom, as I am stuck! Thanks,
Monique
Barbara suggests…
I understand your dilemma, and the desire to arrive at a decision for a color scheme for your bedroom and master bathroom.
Your description indicates a dominance of red-based colors, from the fireplace to the mantel, to the furniture. My thought is that rather than “pick up the color in the brick,” I’d recommend that you use colors that complement the brick and not try to replicate its color. (more…)
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Today’s color dilemma…
I have more of a question than a comment. I have an open floor plan with all white walls that are making me crazy. I NEED color!
I want the rooms to flow, but be distinct. The front room gets a lot of sun and has oak colored bookcases, and a little darker piano. I would like to do a sage(ish) green, pale yellowish and raspberry-reddish colors. It flows into the kitchen with one wall that connects via a vaulted ceiling. The kitchen has med. wood cabinets, black countertops, and stainless steel appliances.
The current decor is sort of country(ish) with black, red and goldish yellow. The living room shares the same wall as the front room and kitchen, and currently has a reddish leather couch that will have to stay and is sporting and “Americana theme” which could stay or go.
Most Pictures that will stay as part of the decor are framed in black. All rooms receive a good amount of natural light Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance! -Mindi
Barbara suggests…
Your preference is for sage green, pale yellow and raspberry-red colors, although you did not indicate where you would like these colors to be used. However, colors of the type you mention that could do well together, depending on their location, combination and proportion. I’m going to propose a couple of ways to do this:
From Benjamin Moore: (more…)
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19th Mar. '08
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Tags: decorating, design-studio
Authored by Barbara Jacobs
There’s nothing like Spring cleaning to get a sense of what is important. What I’m referring to at this point is a major re-organization of my studio, and I’m embarrassed to say how long it has been since I last did this! So, I’m not going to tell you that piece of information.
So, you might be asking, What has this to do with color? (more…)
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