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kterlep

Need help with interior color selection for a victorian

kterlep
13 years ago

Hi-

I don't know why finishing wide pine flooring doesn't scare me but pulling the PO's "perfectly good" wallpaper and trying to paint bare plaster scares me to bits...

I thought that since we had all the furniture out of our front and back parlors (which we use for a music room and a library (think several heavy large instruments and lots of bookcases and books , not easily moved on a whim) that this would be the only opportunity we would have to paint.

Currently our downstairs (four rooms square plus "addition" of kitchen+bath+butler's pantry/laundry) is dominated by dark green and shades of pink to burgundy. I have some pictures on facebook but not on here, but the PO wasn't that imaginative, so I can just describe...

The parlors have a big double door between them (so big that they really are one room).

The library has a "harvest gold"/mustard trent tile surround on the fireplace (which I like and would like to contrast/emphasize. This room is currently wallpapered in beige with drapes of burgundy ribbon (very busy pattern)

The front parlor (music room) has a "avacado green" trent tile surround on the fireplace and a double mantle with mirror and a large plate glass window (I think they call it a cottage window?) with a large (upper pane, like a transom?) stained glass with shades of gold in a fleur-de-lys theme.

This room is currently wallpapered in a pink floral on white (with a border, yaaay!)

The front parlor has another large set of pocket doors that goes to the entry hall. The entry hall is wallpapered in pink floral on dark green (which reads "burgundy on green with pink" to me)...this also goes up the stairwell (what is that, 20 feet high?) and upstairs. I would have pulled this down already but I'm afraid of the 20 ft...This wallpaper will need to go eventually, it's 21 years old (according to the date on the matching carpet) and it's beat up on the stairs).

We have removed the coordinating green floral carpet that was in all four rooms downstairs (it was cool but it smelled bad and had stains all over it, plus it was kinda weird to have the same green carpet with flowers in every room, and it smelled bad.)...in a week, all four rooms will be stained to match the woodwork (a dark but warm unidentified oak-ish looking wood with beautiful cross-grains, someone said it could be chestnut...)

So, anyway, if you have some ideas on color schemes, maybe you can cajole me to tear down the wallpaper... :)

There isn't any painted woodwork in these two rooms, a high finished baseboard, and there is no crown molding. I am up for doing some fancy painting/stenciling but it needs to be something I can finish in a reasonable amount of hours. I would probably WANT to add a picture rail in the music room but not in the library (it has tall shelves).

I know wallpaper is the "right" thing to do, but I simply can't afford it, and after seeing the PO's handiwork with the wrong materials, I don't want to go...

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