I didn't know yellow greens were in either although I have tired of sage for some reason. I do look at lots of pictures. Maybe the greens have changed and brainwashed me.

I think wall colors are considered flattering in terms of affecting people's complexion, just as clothes do. With walls, the light bounces around. It's a backdrop too. I think a house done in "your" colors could definitely make a person look better just as clothing does. A lot of people with greasy hair and dandruff might actually look better in the right pink or blue than a chartreuse, orange or black, lol.

P.S. I like chartreuses and oranges, lol. But they are not typically flattering colors.

This post was edited by snookums2 on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 20:43

Any color can look bad if it's not used right or if it's with colors that make it look ugly. I think Band-aid color is just fine, unless it really reminds you of band-aids in the room. Then there must be a lighting problem or the trim is the wrong color, or maybe the carpeting has a different undertone that makes it look funny. I had that happen with carpeting called "mushroom" or "realtor beige." It was hard to work with for such a benign looking color, because it had a pink undertone.
Chartreuse has always been my favorite color. I didn't know it was popular. All I can seem to find in yellow green are pillows and plastic drinking cups. I'd love some glass vases in chartreuse and lime green. And some upholstered furniture that is not modern in design.

I just don't like pink based colors for paint, and that includes (European) flesh tones! My taste in colors hasn't changed over the years, I have always loved blues, greys, greens (not yellow greens) and rich reds and purples. I have never liked pinks, yellows and oranges!

Actually, I believe the most on trend greens lean more towards blue than yellow undertones.

Sure, if people embrace Pantone's color of the year...but the last several don't seem to have been all that predictive.

If you look at Crate and Barrel, though, for example. most of the green pillows are yellow based greens or earthy greens, with a few blue greens starting to show up.

In any case I was using yellow greens as a sample "color du jour" --I don't pay much attention until I can't find something or find "too much" of some color.

This post was edited by palimpsest on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 22:38

I did not realize flesh tones were "out," but it's about time. I've loathed them all my life. We were in a short term rental once that had a flesh-toned kitchen and I literally could not cook in it. Just thinking about that color---not peach, or pink, or salmon, but a brownish peachy color.... ick.

I thought perhaps there was something inherently wrong with flesh tones and I didn't get the memo. To preface this, it all started when I was so happy with a new paint color in my last house, and a friend came over and told me it looked like a Band-Aid. I didn't think of it that way, and never thought Band-Aids were an offensive color. I recently saw a blog post in which someone discussed "horrible beige with a pink undertone," and several posts here along the same lines of these colors being undesirable. Even back when I used to discuss babycarriers online, a salmon color wrap was considered to be very iffy-- people loved or hated the color.

I happen to adore coral and flamingo pink. I think pinks and peaches are warm and friendly. Orange tones remind me of warmth in general-- so welcoming.

I am trying to pick out a wall color for my new curtains, and they are brown with a very orange undertone, but every midtone brings me back to a more fleshy color, or even peach (and so many seem to dislike peach, too, which I don't get).

As for being dated, that is not my concern, because everything is dated. I can't keep up with things being OUTdated because that is too $. I thought perhaps there was just something distasteful in those tones, but I guess I should remember their popularity in the '80s.

Kitchen, yes, I agree that the use of "fleshtones" tends to refer only to light ones. Not sure why.

Roorah, if you have any pics, I'd love to see.

Snookums, those colors are taboo everywhere, or just the bathroom? Interesting about colors being used because they are flattering. I sort of get that. This is weird, but I see my house as the background of the movie of my life, and I like to see people (esp my kids) enjoying the space and looking good in it. NOt like model good, just not in a color that makes me feel uncomfortable . . .like florescent lighting.

Pal, I would love to see a pic if you have one. I didn't know the yellow-green was in ATM. I have a yellow wall with very green undertones and I hate it (PO color). In fact, that is exactly why I am picking a new color, and maybe a flesh tone!

Bumble, blue not popular? How? How could a whole color get thrown out?

Prickly, I have heard that, too. Interesting theory to be applied to home colors.

Chispa, that is awesome. I happened upon a site claiming to have all of the "no fail" colors and I thought it would be impossible to compile such a list, as so much plays into how a color reads!

Patty, I do like them! I am not sure it is so hard if you like them. These are not flesh tones, but definitely have an orange quality:
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I have many more saved, LOL!

Lynxe, I will ignore the voices. I feel much better now thanks to this thread!

Hose, very true. There are so many components!

Tinan, I would love to know why people are drawn to certain tones or avoid others. I avoid green undertones for sure, though I am OK with an actual sage green.

I prefer to call it band-aid as not everyone's flesh is the same color...some people's flesh is gorgeous from cafe au lait to magnificent mahogany to milky cream and so many lovely shades in between. Other peoples flesh, like my legs in winter, are closer to dead mackerel.

It's a hard color to like as it's reference is so strong and to me, it is so often neither here nor there....too beige to be pink, too pink to be beige.

I like all those pictures posted above, not a flesh color or undertone in the bunch! I didn't appreciate orange until I was in my forties, when I fell in love with that deep pumpkin color. Never did use it in a house, but was able to enjoy it in other's settings, like purple and other colors I did not care for when I was younger. Despite the "with age comes wisdom" newfound appreciation of a wider color palette, that flesh/ bandaid color still makes me shudder. Maybe everyone has a color or colors to which they react viscerally and negatively.

Annie, your legs...we're going for the same look! Farrow & Ball makes a color called Dead Salmon, right?

I have the perfect example of flesh tone/band aid right in my own living & dining rooms! Close your eyes, Kswl!

Stinky, your rooms are a beautiful blush color that is gorgeous! To be a horrid flesh tone your walls would need a brown undertone and a dull feel...imagine your room taken over by a set designer for a zombie movie and browned out for that "dead" look.

I love your LR and DR, they are fresh and pretty and inviting....don't you dare call them bandaid, lol!

SG that room is so lovely I want to sit and chat with a cuppa all day in that warm beautiful room!
Anele, I only have pics of people in the previous living room If I come across one of just the room I will post but I am uncomfortable posting people online. My paint was more of a peanut butter peach than S_G's .
I love all the inspiration pics you have posted!

Contextually, I don't think these are too bad. Not my favorite but they still work. This is Dead Salmon and I think it looks different in each room.

Awww...thanks Kswl! You're a sweetie.

Roarah, thanks! Let me know when you'll be in VA!

Wow, the famous Dead Salmon! The first bedroom appears more than a tad muddy, while the second is very soft. Nice with the bedding & the dark, distressed floor.

I used Dapper tan once in a room. I think you could call it a bandaid color, but I liked it. :)

I really wanted to do a dark teal color but DH thought that was nuts!

This is the only picture i have....

I don't dislike any of the colors shown here as the context is what counts. Any color can work beautifully if everything else is chosen to work with it. Love the last photo and the floor color with it.

I looked for blue pillows for ten years, cobalt hued, not cerulean, and found nothing unless I bought fabric and had something made. In the lower end, like Pottery Barn, they had nothing for a decade. Now, the blue is back in a big way and I can find blue linens and pillows everywhere. Along with other blue things. It's nice. I could even find a blue rug now....

Cerulean/Prussian tones were always around in a small way but not cobalt/ultramarine hues. I don't know what other colors people call them but I think in terms of paint tubes.

They definitely are tricky colors.

I covered something that looked an awful lot like Dead Salmon in a client's house, because it looked bad in that house--with the rugs, in the light, etc. We called it Diahann Carroll's Foundation. because it looked like her heavy makeup on Dynasty.

My client is also very Irish looking with a tendency toward ruddiness and although a lot of people say it doesn't make much difference, I think it made her skin look like a boiled red potato and her hair look greenish.

So, I think a lot of people avoid them because they can be difficult to work with.

"Boiled red potato."

I do believe we have a candidate for a new Farrow and Ball color name.

Thanks for saying that annie- you are so right. Always a pet peeve of mine. Flesh comes in shades from alabaster to ebony, must be an old eurocentric thing.
remember when they stopped calling the crayola "flesh" and introduced other skin tones? Maybe in the seventies?

Excellent, Nance & Annie!

Now that I've seen "Dead Salmon" I realize it really doesn't echo the hue on my legs. Probably Ben Moore's Bright White is more like it. Grab your sunglasses!

I will be back for more paint color discussion, but Annie and Nancy-- PLEASE do not imply that I am ethnocentric. I am not. If you'll notice in my first post, I specifically said, "or just the lighter ones?"

I didn't even know I was white until I was 5; I cried when I was told I was not Mexican. College was the first time I went to school with mostly white people, as I was in the minority until then. My husband isn't white. I am very well aware that skin colors vary greatly.

Back to paint colors!

" I cried when I was told I was not Mexican"

lol. That's so cute!!

It's funny, "flesh tones" is a handy old term that never raised a brow years ago but it is very vague if you think about it these days in our melting pot, isn't it! Ever watch the innocuous Golden Girls? What year was that? It's interesting to hear things on it that would be viewed as offensive today!

Oh anele, I am so, so sorry! I didn't mean anything about you personally, and I can see how you took my post that way!

I just meant the term in general, and I did notice what you specifically said about "just the lighter shades"!
ugh, I feel pretty bad about my post, anele :(

Yes, I read both Nance & Annie's comments as simply making an observation...we all grew up with that Crayola crayon! You were just using the standard Crayola "shorthand" Anele...no offense intended or taken, I believe.

thanks stinky--

btw, your room is so beautiful! Very serene and calming.

Here's you're "flesh tone" at least a la Annie D....I couldn't resist taking this shot as this is what I saw on vacation...the lovely Atlantic as seen beyond my thighs as I propped myself up on my elbows on the beach in FL. Is it any wonder this is not a popular color??? And no, those are not my boobs, and no I'm not an amputee...just the weird angle, but hey...that's what I saw....

Snookums, it does sound funny, doesn't it! It was actually pretty traumatizing at the time!

Nancy, I understand. Thank you!

Stinky, but, I was not using shorthand. My curtains in question, are in fact, DARK curtains that could be considered flesh tones.

I have yet to meet anyone who has had a childhood like mine, but I'd like to. :) My sister and I were raised to be ashamed to be white. Maybe this is why I cried! I learned to read Spanish before English. My school was co-founded by my mom, and its goal was to help us be bilingual and bicultural. I was one of the only white people there, but I was accepted. I did things like perform with a Bolivian dance troupe outside of school. My absolute best friends were my neighbors, who were 2 boys w/parents from the Philippines. I knew very few white people growing up.

I am told by my friends who are not white that I am not really white because of my experiences. People who are native Spanish speakers always ask where I am from, and assume Argentina. I don't see the world the way other people of my skin color might. But, I am FULLY aware (had it drilled into me) that I have white privilege, so while I may have a different point of view than others who look like I do, it is not one of someone who is actually a minority. I have never experienced racism, and I don't care who your friends are, who you are married to, what books you read, etc., but I think it is one of those, "you can't understand" unless it happens to you, and I am "immune" from it. I am sort of in this weird, trapped world. Sort of one foot in each.

I have no idea what experiences any of you have had, what you look like, or what your cultures are, but I DO know that I don't assume everyone is white. That I know.

This post was edited by anele on Tue, Feb 12, 13 at 15:55

Those are your thighs? wow. Show off, lol. Yes, very odd shot indeed! I thought it was some odd internet shot of a mannequin or something.

Anele, it sounds as if you have experienced racism! I can't blame people for feeling that way but being raised to be ashamed of being white or drilled about it in that way is the same thing, just from the other side. So sad! Children should be children, unaware of grownup problems!

Sorry about the misunderstanding, Anele. Again, I don't think anyone meant anything sinister or negative.

Interesting shot, Annie! I'd rather walk over hot coals in my bare feet than post a pic of my thighs on the internet! You go girl!

Just saw your kind words about my living room, Nance! "Serene & calming"...thank you!

Stinky, I have a similar color in our master bedroom and I love it so much that I am going to use it in the family room too. It is not a muddy color at all so I do not consider it flesh toned. Although it is close to the color of Annie D's thighs!!!
Diane

I avoid those colors because I personally don't like them. I also avoid the green/yellow shades. Actually, I do not have green inside our home other than some deep aqua. (Still working on bringing in some turquoise!!). I also avoid earth tones. Why? It's not because of what is popular, but because these are all colors I don't care for. I wouldn't wear these colors either. To me it's just a personal choice - nothing from "the voices". Anele, if you like those colors go for it! I'm a firm believer in having what you love around you. I have seen some beautiful rooms in the peachy tones but they are just not for me.

tina

Thank you anele, and stinky, you are welcome.

I stopped thinking about why I didn't like the term and started wondering about your question... it's really an interesting one! WHY do many people not like this color? (and it's not the color of your LR, stinky).

I was waiting in an office today and a door was this color, and I was thinking, wow I really don't like that color... but why? I don't have a clue. Weird.

I associate it with the "dead Caucasian" color of the 1950s: that pinkish beige that was all over the place.

Powermuffin, nice to see you! Would you share the name of the paint color you are using? I am intrigued! Mine is Queen Anne Pink...BM. I'm fairly certain that Sheraton Beige on the same strip is situated squarely in the zone of utter blah-ness that "band-aid" is usually used to describe. (I'm so glad that most here don't see QAP that way!)

Stinky, What a lovely room, and dare I sy "timeless".

I think the reason people avoid brownish pinks and peaches is they can veer off on you in unexpected directions. Of course a talented professional and a juicy budget can make almost any one element work. But for people doing their own decorating, copy cat is easiest. And if you are copying (ok, being inspired by) what you see in the media, it's not pink/peachy browns.

Thank you very much, Mtn! I will definitely take "timeless" as a compliment.

Stinkygardener, your room is beautiful and a wonderful shade of pink! Can I ask what sheen you prefer?

I like the examples of band aid colored walls! Very calm and sophisticated color schemes.

I have been meaning to come back to this!

Boop-- I love it too!

Pal, I agree. They are not necessarily the feeling I crave, but they are lovely in their own right.

Stinky, that is one gorgeous room! Did you share the paint color? I need to re-read! Beautiful!

Annie-- looking good! And what a beautiful view! I love those blues!

Nancy, yes! I have been thinking that,too. I know I do NOT like all of the flesh tones, but why? I also do not like green undertones, but again-- why? Hmm.

I am trying to decide on paint . . .not sure what direction to take. I may even just stick with an actual pink for the living room. Crazy!

I remembered a house I love. Plain white walls. Bandaid trim, lol. It is magnificent!!!

Lots of architectural detail, however. Don't think you could go wrong, lol.

I'll hazard a guess why contemporary folks dislike that band-aid color: it doesn't work well with white-painted trim, which seems to be the overwhelming choice in American housing in the past 30 years.

It is also difficult to use with natural wood trim because of the competing undertones.

Here's my old kitchen, as purchased, with a whole panoply of objectionable flesh-salmon-brown shades, every one hideous with both the white trim and the wooden cabs:

I think that we often associate those Caucasian fleshy tones with institutional walls, and as several of you have said, it's all in the context.

I, like Annie, am a very white white girl! So here's a off-topic story ... One of my favorite photographs was taken many years ago in Boston, in an AIDS organization where I worked for several years. It was snapped by a Boston Globe photographer who was in our offices for another purpose, and it's a happy, huggy triple head shot of Heriberto, who was honeyed cafe au lait brown, Michael from New Orleans who was deep chocolate, and in the middle, me, looking in contrast rather like a skinny blonde marshmallow. The original rainbow coalition ....

I think that we often associate those Caucasian fleshy tones with institutional walls, and as several of you have said, it's all in the context.

I, like Annie, am a very white white girl! So here's a off-topic story ... One of my favorite photographs was taken many years ago in Boston, in an AIDS organization where I worked for several years. It was snapped by a Boston Globe photographer who was in our offices for another purpose, and it's a happy, huggy triple head shot of Heriberto, who was honeyed cafe au lait brown, Michael from New Orleans who was deep chocolate, and in the middle, me, looking in contrast rather like a skinny blonde marshmallow. The original rainbow coalition ....

Whoops - sorry about the twofer ...

Snookums-- that sounds awesome. And I know what you mean . . .some homes could have just a sack of dirt in them and look amazing!

Circus, I must have bad taste, because I like the color of those walls + the white trim. A lot! Countertop does not work . ..but I don't mind the cabinets, either! Pretty house! And you are right-- white trim is everywhere. Mine is not. It is dark, house is from the late '20s. I look on Houzz for inspiration pics and most have white trim (and I will never paint mine).

Bronwynsmom: Interesting-- I had not thought that. I guess I think of institutional walls more with green undertones. And LOL about the Rainbow Coalition!

Oh wow, Dead Salmon! Actually it looks like the brownish salmon meat that is under the skin vs. the actual flesh meat.

dead mackerel...not salmon....
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I was at Home Depot yesterday to buy something else, and found a gallon of paint on the oops rack that I'm pretty sure is is a match to Behr's "Winsome Beige." I have no idea what I'm going to paint, but I love this color. It's sort of a greige with a shot of salmon. Definitely falls in the "bandaid/flesh" range, but it's very pale.

We haven't done anything in that entryway yet, and I may stick with a more "neutral" but at least the coat closet could be painted this color. Or maybe even the walls...

Interesting, Anele -- the peachy brown walls were honestly not very lovely with the white trim; perhaps my photo enhances the look unrealistically? (I may be biased as I dislike white trim in general.) After we bought the house, we completely stripped all the original 1921 trim and redid the entire kitchen to this, actually: