No advice just want to compliment you on your beautiful home!

Oh, gosh, thank you! That is so nice.

I had advice from my best friend when I was picking colors for my new house - she said that I should pick colors for adjacent rooms from the same color card. That way, you are in the same family of colors but you don't use the same color for all the rooms. So I've ended up with a light grey with a gentle green undertone for the kitchen, but then a good strong khaki for the family room - all related in color but not identical.

I don't have the BM color cards, so I can't advise specifically, but you might try that approach.

Kimmarie, you're welcome! All that trim makes me swoon! LOL

Pussuskattus~ Which light gray with a gentle green undertone did you choose, thanks!

Sorry to jack, kim!

I agree about not making it all the same. Life is too short to pick one color when you can pick 3 ;) I agree about going on the same card lighter or darker, or going for an equal value by going sideways into other colors (such as green and yellow).
Personally, I'd do the other 2 lighter. That will make this color more dramatic.

Catkin -
My builder uses Sherwin-Williams, so I went with their Anew Grey to go with my golden-green quartzite floors. I moved two spaces down the same color card and I'm using Warm Stone in the game room (ok, I fibbed a little and called it family room in the first post). Warm Stone is a great dark khaki - you know, the dark greenish-brownish khaki, not the light khaki.

Does anyone think that using 3 colors , visible from the entrance is a bad thing? Or are you saying using 3 colors all in the same strip is what is best.

Gosh, I hope not! I have a golden tan in the foyer and straight ahead into the great room, but from the front door there is the eggplant dining room to the right and the rich moss green in the study to the left. Everyone here gave me permission to use COLOR(s). Our last house had soft gray in every room. I liked it (sometimes miss it), but it did seem boring after awhile.

Eggplant dining room! I hadn't thought of that color. How beautiful that must be. Any pictures?

beautiful house kimmarie and I'd love to see the eggplant dining room as well!

Thanks, Angel. Ok, stay with me folks. How about eggplant, or some variation of that for dining room , and green in foyer?

LOL eggplant! I love it that you're so open!

Thanks Pussus~I've checked my SW fan deck they're both great colors!

LOL I will also admit and support many colors verses one (I love the life is too short for one color line!) You enter my hall (which will be a soft gold...not done yet) and look into the emerald phone nook, denim (not really but hard to explain the color...it was custom mixed to match the ocean in a picture) parlor, which flows into the celery and umbergene dining room. On the other side I'm going to do a rich pumpkin or clove tone with gold highlights.

Two steps down the fan sounds kinda boring to me LOL

I love the idea of the eggplant. It would look great with the grey!

I agree with those who say to stay on the same color card for the foyer. I do think, green, gray and eggplant would be too much. My SIL (designer) also uses and advised me to use variations of the same color card in my home. It works beautifully. You can, of course, throw in some other colors (like the eggplant). I just think it would tie it all together and look very professional to use that lighter gray in the foyer.

I was going to say the same thing as dawnp...eggplant in the dining room and light gray in the foyer.

Laurie

I love color, too, but since I am not really good with decorating, I have to start with neutral walls - adding in a wall color to all the other colors I have to coordinate in a room would be one too many!

But I did not tell you that I am using Behr's "Fresco Cream" in the dining room - it's a color that reminds me of peaches, orange sherbet, apricots, etc - so it looks good enough to eat - perfect for a dining room, to me. (So I did not follow the rules precisely, I confess)

What a beautiful home! I do it both ways at different times..(everything was on the same strip but changed about a year ago).....right now I have raspberry red LR, with foyer in SW ivorie and DR in SW restrained gold & FR in SW ivorie. So the Ivorie and Restrained gold are on the same strip . The raspberry red walls in LR are complemented in the DR by alot of red in the rug and big gold & red silk check drapes with red in accessories. So LR and DR are tied together in color scheme........LR has gold silk drapes against red walls. It is called a complementary color scheme I think they say....what you do in one room, just do the opposite in the other.......ha! Good luck with your decorating! YOu have a lovely home!!! Bonnie

I simply must see Tracey's eggplant in action now! I am doing a den wall and dining room wall in a dark purple, but have not picked a final shade.
I also love the sound of the moss green. We will have a green on an adjacent wall and a pale lavender on the other (very open floor plan, 4 rooms, 3 colors).

Beautiful home kimmarie. May I ask what color trim that is? Very pretty!

I was driving myself crazy looking for the "perfect" color for adjoining rooms.......I have decided on using the same color, just mixed at 50%. I have lots of color now,and I am ready for some serenenity! :-) Painters come in a few weeks, and DH has forbidden me to look at any more paint samples!

In my last house, if you stood in the foyer just so you could see six different colors, not including ceilings.

My point is that this is a very personal choice and there are no rules to live by. Plenty of people need to have every wall in an open space the same color. Some of us are most comfortable living with colors from one strip on the fandeck. Take a look at some of Sandyponder's pics. I dare say she'd get apoplectic if we told her she had to use only the colors on one strip.

Mixing warm and cool, deep and pale, neutrals, pastels and brights -- it can all be done, but it is tricky and it only works if you like it. There is no one-size-fits-all with color.

The beauty of your home kimmarie is that you have all that millwork to delineate the spaces. It is tougher to make big color changes on very simple walls without those clear transitions. What worked for me was to use Ellen Kennon Classic Cream in my foyer and hallway. It kind of acted as the "peacekeeper" between all those other colors.

Yes, amysrq, I am glad to have the columns and the varied heights. It helps. I do have rounded corners on the walls, which dictates how far to paint! At least I don't have that choice to make! ha! You wouldn't believe how long it took me to pull the trigger on the gray, but I'm glad I did.

Here are some more pictures from other angles, to demonstrate that. I also have the Southern tray ceiling that I have no idea what to do with. I say "southern" because we just moved from NY to Alabama and I'm pretty sure every single house we looked at had this type of ceiling in at least 2 rooms.

I appreciate all of your comments, everyone, and am now wishing you'd show me pics of your lovely homes with color combinations!

Sorry, yellowdog2, don't know the color. Came with the house, but I will find out, because I need to know, too!

Oh, and Super Hero tent is compliments of Santa, and, of course, temporary.

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Someone here painted their DR the most beautiful shade of eggplant. I'll have to look at my fandeck when I get home. I always remember it when I see it.

My Entry Hall, Office and LR all open to eachother and I went w/ 2 colors off of the same strip for the office and hall and love it. I am thinking about having the lightest color on that same stripped mixed at 50% or even 75% because I just love how seamlessly the rooms flow but yet look different. I can see my DR from the hallway and there is a swatch of MS Thunderhead (SW line) on the wall that I've been staring at for umpteen months now. It's not off the same strip as the other colors but the undertone must be very similar because it just looks like it was meant to be.

I have been on the sherwin williams site, trying different colors. My pics are too large to upload, so until I can figure that out, I'm using their rooms and trying different colors. There's a pic where you see 3 rooms at once and so I'm trying a similar gray to what I have, then 2 other colors and as I work with the eggplant color, I am wanting brighter. It's approaching fuschia, without really being fuschia, if you know what I mean. Maybe "blackberry" is what I'm leaning toward now. The site is helpful, though.

I'll try and take a good DR pic ("eggplant"). In some lighting (and with flash) it can look "crayola" purple, but most the time it's what I was looking for. I might try and use some glaze on it to get the "depth" I'm looking for, though. It's SW Soulmate.

Okay, here's a quick pic. Ignore what's on the table, please. I guess this (on my monitor, anyway) is fairly true-to-life (SW Soulmate). I do want to tweak the color a bit since it aged more crayon-ish than I'd have liked, but we still like it. I have yet to accessorize the room, etc. I have my MIL's antique walnut buffet and china cabinet in there, but we're using our (red oak) breakfast table instead of the dining table (it's in sad shape and very unsteady after years of daily (ab)use). Anyway, in this view, you can see past the SW Blonde foyer into the study across the way which is Valspar (I think) Tree Moss.

Here's the study:

I think the color is much "richer" IRL than this pic, though. The ceiling (between coffer beams) is the same color.

Wow. It really look pretty and fresh in there. I love the antique walnut buffet, btw. Did you use the SW Blonde in the dining room on the tray ceiling?

The 3 colors you've chosen are beautiful together, anddon't look a thing like that online on the SW visualizer.

Very pretty colors! The eggplant is lighter than I am shooting for here, but is very lovely. The green has a lot of soul to it. I love how they look against the fresh white trim.

Purple and green are my 2 favorite colors, so no wonder I love how your look! Thanks for sharing ;)

Dianalo, SW Expressive Plum or Raisin might be a bit deeper.

Thanks. Yes, Blonde is used in the highest part of the trey, the lower part is Ivoire. I thought they'd be darker than they are, so I need to go further down the strip to get a GOLD on the ceiling. The trim color is a creamy white: SW Dover White.

My other "color" in the house is a pumpkin-y color called Basque Brown (old Duron color). None of my pics of it show it well, so I didn't post it. I'll try again under different lighting conditions. These colors: eggplant, earthy green, and "pumpkin" were all accent colors in my last house with was entirely a soft gray. This time we decided to use the Blonde as the over-all color and then paint individual rooms too (we were too afraid of multi-colors in the last house...then I found this forum).

I'd like the eggplant to be a bit darker, too, but we were also afraid the Walnut wouldn't show up as well when we were first picking colors. There's someone on the forum who painted a room (or wall; I think in the basement) in the next color down from Soulmate and posted a pic of it.

I have Baltic Gray in the foyer, and a color that is NOT Baltic Gray in the Family Room/Kitchen, which is straight ahead when entering the front door, but it looks like Baltic Gray, so essentially those 2 spaces are the same.

The Living Room is to the right, and I used BM Wasabi, and the Dining Room is to the left, top is painted BM Chocolate Candy Brown. All the colors work together (miraculously). Here are some photos, hard to see dining room from the foyer photo so I'll post a separate one for you too.

Looking towards the Living Room
{{!gwi}}

close look of living room:
{{!gwi}}

Looking from foyer into dining room (sort of)
{{!gwi}}

Another photo of the dining room:
{{!gwi}}

Yes, it absolutely all goes together. Great pic of your living room close up. Vibrant.
I am happy to have done the gray as a backdrop to everything else. I am now motivated to do the dining room next in some form of eggplant/purple/raisin whatever color! And then I think I will do the foyer last, trying many different colors, but probably in the yellow-green family. I really appreciate people posting their ideas for me, especially with the pictures. Really helps to SEE it!

While I've got some attention, can anyone find me some very tall, white table lamps like these that do not cost a fortune? I realize that alabaster can really be expensive. Any ideas?
http://www.decorpad.com/photo.htm?photoId=8461&index=0amp;searchQuery=alabaster&searchType=photos

bee - I was in awe of your kitchen and now I love your house too! I love your photos and the setup you have by the stairs with the mirror and chest. Your dining room is so sophisticated. Everything looks like an interior decorator did it, yet it is warm and inviting too.

I have a bunch of flower photos I plan on putting up in our bedroom, matted just like yours. I have owned them for a few months now, but if I hadn't, I'd have tried to get ones after seeing yours!

BEE,
I just looked up your kitchen and was wondering if I could come over and just stand in it? I mean, I'd love to cook, eat, anything in it! It's absolutely beautiful.
Love it.

Aaaah! Finally a taste of Wasabi! :-)

It was BM Black Raspberry 2072-20. I think the person who used it had an adjacent room or hallway in BM Revere Pewter. It was very pretty.

Thanks, ttodd. VERY pretty.
Because of your suggestion, I found this:

They said it was tough to photograph. I have tons of light in the room, so I bet it doesn't end up looking as dark.

Here is a link that might be useful: BM Black Rasp. Dining Room