February
5
2-hour Designing Solutions
Dear Designing Solutions,
I have a very open space between my kitchen, family room and morning room. It’s really like one big room. The morning room has French doors and palladium windows. It sits to the back of the kitchen area. The kitchen opens into the family room. My dilemma is how to paint them. I want to add color but don’t really want all 3 rooms to be the same color. I’m sort of leaning towards earth tones. Any suggestions as to how I can bring all 3 of these rooms together to compliment one another? Hope this makes some sense.- Color-challenged Linda
Dear Linda,
Start by choosing three complementary colors- like a sage green, golden yellow and pale terracotta- that look good together and give you the effect that you want. The most simple thing you can do is to paint each of the three spaces in one of the three colors. Use a creamy white on all the trim throughout the space and paint the ceilings the same color- try “Cumulus Cotton” from Benjamin Moore. By matching the ceiling and trim colors, the three spaces will flow together and complement each other.
Another option is to choose an accent area in each room- perhaps there’s a niche, or a fireplace or simply a wall that stands alone. Choose your accent color and use it to paint the kitchen and the accent walls in the other two rooms. Then paint the remaining two rooms with the remaining two colors you haven’t already used. For example, if you use the pale terracotta in the kitchen and on an accent wall in each of the other two rooms, paint one room in golden yellow and one in sage green. Paint all the trim and the ceilings as above.
Yet another fun option is to do some simple decorative painting. Use your accent walls to do some striping in all three colors. This can be as simple as dividing the wall into thirds, horizontally, and painting each third in one of the three colors. You can make it more complex, depending on your skill and confidence, and add thin stripes that rotate between colors. Got a fireplace or built-ins in one of these three rooms? Paint the mantel or the inside of the bookcases in a contrast color. If the wall is golden yellow, paint the mantel or bookcases in the terracotta or sage green.
Finally, if using three colors is more than you bargained for and what you really want is a more serene look, choose one color in three different intensities. This is easy to do, as paint manufacturers often provide color samples in five or six intensities on the same sample card. Use one intensity in each of the three rooms, saving the boldest color for the brightest room. To make it more interesting, you can follow the all of the advice above using the three intensities of the same color. If you divide an accent wall into thirds for horizontal striping, use the boldest color on the bottom. Or an accent wall in each room can have a different intensity of the same color. Mix up the intensities as you would three completely different colors. Use the same trim and ceiling color, just as recommended above, to keep the space unified.
With Love,
Debbie
Interior Designer to the Slobs
