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Paint color to adjoin Blonde and Restrained Gold?

RNmomof2 zone 5

15 years ago

My dining room has had the same wallpaper for 15 years or so. I think it is time for an update since I have the dreaded graduation open house coming up in May!

My dining room has 8 foot ceilings and is on the north side of the house. These both make it darker and more closed in feeling that the other rooms in our house. We have 2 story ceilings in the GR. The GR is painted Restrained Gold at 150% and the kitchen is Blonde. The DR currently has chair rail but that is coming down. I was young when we built and thought every DR needed chair rail!

Our furniture is Queen Anne style in oak. The carpet is off white and needs replaced as a previous pet preferred the DR to outdoors in bad weather. I would like to do hardwood but with a kid off to college it will probably get carpet again!

I have thought about doing tone on tone stripes to help elevate the ceiling. The DR has a large opening to the entry way and a doorway to the GR. These openings are cased in stained woodwork. The room also has three windows in it. My colors in the kitchen and GR are golds, olivey greens, burgundy reds.

Any thoughts from the great paint color gurus? This will be a big job moving furniture and I really want to get it right the first time. (Or I may have to live with it for another 15 years!)

Thanks!

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Comments (4)

amysrq
15 years ago
How often do you use the DR? Is it for more formal entertaining? What kind of feeling do you want in there? If you replace the carpet, do you have an idea of what color you want? White again or darker?

I tend to run with whatever the room is inherently. If it's small and dark, I would just embrace that and go with a deep, dramatic color. Make it into a small jewel box, sparkled with your dishes and crystal. I love your idea of the stripes. I'd keep them wide and do the same color but in different sheens (flat and eggshell) for a subtle look.

If OTOH, you use the room all the time, more for family meals, then I might go with a soft green, something to connect to the outside which will help make the room feel more open.
RNmomof2 zone 5
Original Author
15 years ago
The room is a "look purty" room inside the front door. That said it also is the dumping ground for packages when you come home from shopping.

It really only gets used for meals a few times a year. It currently has a maroon tone on tone paper below the chair rail and a creme background viney floral on the top. We have a large china cabinet, highboy server, and table that opens out BIG. The room is 12 by 15 I think. We are all tall and I get this claustrophobic or closed in feeling. While a darker color sounds nice, it scares me! You are right though Amysrq, it would look pretty with the lights on in the china cabinet and crystal glistening.

Any other thoughts or specific color that are winners?
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IMO it makes sense that you'd have green in there, because northern exposures tend to bring out blues (I'm meaning in colors here, not in people, although that applies too! I know because the entire back of our house, the area in which we live most, is north facing and I get greens in colors you'd never expect to see green in, when I put them up on the wall). The orangey tones in your oak cabs might bring out the complement, too, which would be blue (the same way the paint is bringing out the rusty/golds in the laminate). And painting over Olive Branch without a primer might very well also be contributing, as you note. If you really don't want any green in there, you might want to look for paints that read more orange in the store than you like. But so you really don't want green in there? It's obviously a natural partner of the colors you've got going...
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Thank you all so much for your feedback/opinions. Judithva, that's a really lovely room and thanks so much for sharing it. It's nice to know that Blonde would look so good in a room with a similar window situation to mine. After looking at my paint chips all day today and reading everyone's thoughts, I think I've decided on Blonde. It'll be a little bit of a stretch color wise for me but I think it's one that I can be happy with. And yes, I do think simple is best as a backdrop for my stuff. Goldengirl, when my mom moved to a retirement condo two years ago I sold my cherry table and chairs so that I could take her set and keep it in the family. I know the table is a Harden but I really don't know if she got the chairs in the same place. I think she did but I'm not certain.
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In most of my rms. RG showed up very gold & was quickly discounted. In the rm. that I've finally found to use it in it shows up very warm mid-tone tan W/ just barely a hint of gold. which is what I wanted.
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Thanks everyone! Rob333 - nice palette. I'm going to show this to my daughter - she'll likely love it. Bestyears - I was looking at that SW strip. I had been thinking about Meditative, but Sleepy Blue might be better since the room has no natural light. I might get a tester of it. ttodd - nice. I'll show the kids this color also.
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randita
15 years ago
I think Blonde goes great with greens. Try Clary Sage or Svelte Sage.
teacats
15 years ago
How about Ivoire by SW? A very very pale ivory with a touch of gold that would work so well with your other colors!

Jan

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