Hi, Karen, good luck with your resale & move. I have never painted a house based on thoughts of resale, so with that in mind, I'll tell you that I would not recomend just painting first without taking into considering your fabrics in each room. For me, I've always had to work with existing furniture & fabrics, as well as adding new things in the mix, so I always consider those things first and foremost. I usually have 3 dominant colors in my house & I use them in different rooms of the house. I have one main color (a golden tan called Whole Wheat by SW) in all the main areas of my house & then in the kitchen, DR, master bedroom/bath & all other bedrooms, there are different colors. I think they all flow pretty well, as I have used green, red, black & blue as accent colors all the way around too. So, I guess you could say that golden tan is my main color in each area, with lots of those accent colors used liberally throughout. My DR is a brick red, my kitchen is a mossy green & all the other rooms have blues, greens, reds also. That's what has worked for me, choosing 3 or 4 main colors & mixing those in different ratios around the house. But, I don't ever pick the paint color first. I let the fabrics dictate first & go from there.

Hi Georgiagal, I have admired your home and your decorating style since the first time I viewed your pictures. I don't have the fabrics to dictate my color palliate. My decorating skills is very limited. It frustrates me so much to not be able to see color and how to apply it. Thanks for your suggestions.

Karen

Karen, if you must paint first, then I'd suggest something very neutral, one of the paint colors recommended on here that might possibly go with a lot of things. If you get too many undertones you'll run into problems when you do start bringing in fabrics. You just may have to carry around your paint chips when you are looking at fabrics & I've found that to be limiting, so that's why I always let the fabric dictate paint color.

Thanks so much for the compliments! I do enjoy the whole process.

Hi, skeet. I agree with Georgiagal's advice, and something especially important that she said in her most recent post was about the undertones. If you choose different paints that have a mishmash of undertones (some warm, some cool), some clear colors, some muted, some muddy...your eye/brain can't organize the connection between the various planes of color, and that's one of the ways a home ends up feel disjointed.

Another potential problem is having equal amounts of different colors. Again, it comes down to our eyes and brain, and how they need to organize multiple colors in some orderly way. (More about that later.)

You have a special situation. Your ultimate goal isn't to create a color scheme in which *you'd* like to live long-term. Your objective in this case is to create a pleasing, non-controversial, welcoming color scheme that appeals to *the broadest possible range of potential buyers who come to view your house*. You want to create a setting in which the greatest number of prospects possible can imagine living in those colors, long-term if they don't want/can't afford the expense of repainting, or even for the short-term while they decide how to redecorate.

So,for most people, that's going to mean clear, pure, colors, not too dark (somewhere lighter than mid-tones), suitable as a neutral, but with some personality.

In part, the "magic palette" depends on the house's contents, its natural exposure and artifical lighting, and the climate. I live in a cold, often grey climate in New England, for example. The house faces northwest, and sunlight to the southern facing rooms is obstructed in the winter by a small mountain on which the house is built. So, generally speaking, I need a palette of a clear, warm colors that give light, rather than absorb it, to uplift the mood of the house and counteract the chilly or grey skies that are prevalent here often for seven or eight months of the year. Taupe would be horrible in my particular house, very dreary and like living in a molehole.

On the other hand, a house in a bright, warm climate needs to use color as a cooling sanctuary. Hence all the tropical cool-based colors--pinks, greens and turquoises-- one sees in places like Florida. Or the darker earthtones in Arizona or New Mexico, to absorb harsh sunlight.

The good news is that since you have until 2009 to accomplish this, you have plenty of time to observe how climate, your artificial lighting, and the structure of the house itself act upon light, in order to choose the best types of colors. Once you know that, you can either draw some colors from fabrics, as you and Georgiagal discussed, or a prominent piece of painted furniture, or artwork--a painting or print whose colors make you feel good in the home. Or, vice versa, if you prefer to choose the paint palette first and then find contents to suit that. (Though, as Georgia said, it's usually easier to find paint colors that coordinate with fabric than it is to find the precise fabrics you need for your wall colors.)

Generally, designers I've read or heard recommend a basic palette of either three or five colors, but for DIYers like us, they recommend three as being easier for the nonprofessional to work with.

So I've usually followed the rule of three when doing my homes. And, actually, I think of it as "three plus one". I account for my floor color, and I've always had hardwood floors, usually darker. The floor will comprise a significant percentage of the color our eyes will see.

Maybe, since you talked about replacing your carpet, you'll start with that as the first color in your palette. That's another option for you, if you don't care to start with fabric or the wall colors.

Since you have time, it's a good idea to take your "semi-finalists" and paint generous test patches in different areas of the room. That way you can see how they behave during different times of the day, or with sunlight versus lamplight, etc. I'm doing that with my kitchen right now, and it looks like Mardi Gras in here. Disconcerting! But I'm not going to skip this step, because I've ended up with far too many walls previously that resemble not at all what I loved on the chip or in my girlfriend's house. ;-)

Eventually, you'll choose three colors to serve as your foundational palette. Remember that part earlier about not using them in equal amounts? One recommendation interior designers make is the 60/30/10 rule. Pick one color to "star" in a room. Sixty percent of what the eye sees in that room should be in that color. Then pick a second color from your three-color palette to serve a "supporting role". That should comprise 30 percent of what you see. The third, and final, color from your foundational palette is your accent color. Ten percent of the room, visually, should be in that color.

So here's how you can handle it to make the house feel like one, organic, but visually interesting, whole.

Let's say you've chosen for your 60/30/10 foundational palette celery green, cream and peach.

Living room:

60 percent green--walls, curtain fabric if solid or curtain fabric background if a pattern, upholstery on largest pieces of furniture

30 percent cream--carpet plus ceiling or trim color

10 percent peach--in pillows on seating; chair cushion on side chair, contained in artwork, etc.

Then you're going to have little touches of virtually every other color in the spectrum to liven the space. That's just naturally going to be composed of little things you have in the room--e.g., book covers and bindings; doorknobs and hardware; firewood and fireplace tools; lamp shades; kitchen utensils you have sitting on the counter, a vase of sunflowers, etc.

Now move to your next room--let's say, a dining room.

60 percent peach: wall color, contained in curtain fabrics, maybe featured as one color in displayed China
30 percent green: table linens, predominant color in area rug,featured in artwork, etc.
10 percent cream: back of shelves in large china cabinet painted in cream enamel, cream silk shades on chandelier and sconces, cream tapers on table and sideboard

And now your powder room:

60 percent peach: wall color
30 percent cream: ceiling, area rug
10 percent green: patinaed copper frame around mirror, guest towels, wastebasket, guest soaps arranged in dish, wastebasket

So...what you've done is place some of each color in each room. Seeing the same color leads the eye from room to room without abrupt interruption. It's psychologically and even physically comfortable because you've made available a seamless visual connection.

You can choose to make the wall colors all the same throughout a floor, although you don't have to, at all, and JMO but I think it's more interesting if you don't. You can choose to run the same carpet throughout the house, with an accent or area rug in a particular room if you need a way to bring in one of your other palette colors.

And...you don't always have to use *exactly* the same value of celery green or peach or cream. In a particular room, you could go a step or two up or down the paint color cards, to make things more varied or interesting, but you're using the same basic hue, so it connects visually to the other rooms in the area.

Sorry the post is so long, but that's essentially the crash course I was given when I was learning to handle color in my homes. Decide on a palette for your house, or at least for a floor, rather than deciding on a palette for each room, and that should set you off on a good course. Best wishes! Post pics when it's done ;-).

wow! I can only say thanks! Thanks to skeet for asking and thanks to georgiagal and maggiersn for such informative answers. I'm copying & saving this info so I have it to reference when I find my inspiration fabric, painting, or whatever it is to be. :) I have learned so much here in my almost daily lurking. One day soon I hope to take the plunge to start making my home actually look the way I picture it in my mind. Good Luck skeet with all your future endeavors.

I understand the ratios for three colors. Does anyone know the ratios for five colors?

Skeet, I'll attempt to answer since we recently built a house and I had to pick out all the paint colors. That was the most difficult decision I had to make for our entire build! You can easily paint over it if it doesn't work out, but I knew we would have so many other things to do that we'd never get around to it (plus it is so expensive to have painted), so I wanted it to be final. Our colors is one of the things we get the most compliments on, and a real estate agent told us that it looked like a professional designer chose them.

I didn't use any particular formula, but I bought the paint deck from our paint store, then just kept looking at the colors until I found 20 or 25 paint colors that I liked. I got the individual paint samples of those colors and took them to the house and played with them. I held them on the walls and next to the floor at all times of the day and night to see how they appeared in different lighting and how some of them worked together. Then from those, I gradually pared it down to a few colors that I thought went well together. I used two different colors from one paint strip for the open areas. The kitchen/nook is a shade lighter than the color in the adjoining family room and the powder room is a shade darker than the color in the mudroom.

Since we also have green in our kitchen, I'll link to some photos with the hope that they will help you. I went with golds in the hall/stairway areas. And I chose deeper colors for the LR & DR for more drama. The main thing I'd suggest is just getting a paint deck (or a bunch of samples) and playing with the colors. Hope that helps, and good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: new home pics

To mry193--YW, mry. Go ahead, take the plunge! Easy for me to commit you to all this agony, eh? :-) It is hard,sometimes, but it's fun, too, and so gratifying when you get something right. But that's the thing, as in cooking or buying a blouse we think is going to be absolutely perfect with "those" slacks...no matter how much practice we have, we all make mistakes now and then. We get "it" home and it doesn't look right, even if we have years of practice and have successfully executed color schemes before. So I say, don't be intimidated, jump in and when you mess things up, you can do what I still have to do often enough (even after thirty years, two apartments, one rental, five owned homes and probably, counting renos, a couple dozen color schemes): repaint or change the shower curtain. :-D

What are you picturing in your mind's eye? What kind of colors do you see in your dream scheme?

To hoosiergirl: Ditto your agent; you built a beautiful home, and I love the way you put everything together.

[For skeet, if you see this and look at hoosier's pics, the very first photo I saw had a good example of the visual linking. Look at the way the finish on the door on the left side relates well to the floor color on the right, even though the wall colors are different and there's a different (carpet? rug?) color between the door and the other room's floor. So, even though the two areas are different, they're tied together with the same undertones and similar finishes.]

To hoosier, again--That's a lovely kitchen, and you seem to have done a much better job than I have in using what look to be almost the exact same colors/tones (as nearly as I can tell from pics) in our kitchens. Aghhhh! Help me, hoosier! LOL I agree with you. We built this house not quite four years ago. The hardest part was picking the paint.

I'm happy with a lot of the house, but so far I've repainted the kitchen twice, and as I noted above, I'm having to do it again. I hope I get it "right" this time!

I was happy to see your cabinet color used with black appliances. That's what I have, except for the cooktop and fan (SS). I am struggling to get some cheer/energy in this room. The main difference is that I have the wooden cabinets on the perimeter of the room and the (soft) white cabinetry on the island.

Do you have decent natural light in that kitchen? Mine's okay until about 2 p.m., then it gets dreary. There's a LOT of wood in here, with the cabs, the plank floors (a little darker than your tile, but the same reddish undertone), and a farmhouse table. There's a lot of warm painted furniture (chairs, pie keep, a linen chest), but it's still a heavy room. The walls were originally some kind of off-white (maybe...BM Ballet?). I thought it would be nice, because of all the (Early American) colors in the furniture, but, no. I think the white had too grey a base. Then I hand-mixed a soft green that looks close to the same hue as yours, except a bit lighter. I thought I liked it, but it became draggy as the weather got greyer. I also used matte, and maybe that was a problem.

So...now I'm going to try a warm white (something like BM Navajo or Calming Cream) in *eggshell* on the walls) and a lighter, warm gold (like Marblehead Gold or Dorset Gold) on all the doors and trim. Like your house, there's a lot of trim/millwork. The palette on this floor mostly comes off of BM Philadelphia Cream/Guilford Green/Palladian Blue/Goldfinch.

That's a beautiful fan hood, btw. Maybe warmer metal finishes would help around my kitchen.

Anyway, nicely done!

Hoosiergirl...I adore your home, and love your colors. Please share the gold/yellow that is in your foyer. I also have an open downstairs, similar staircase, and am really drawn to golds. Oh, and I'm married to a man afraid of color. I think he would like that as much as I do.
Thanks!!

Thanks for the compliments, Maggiersn! (And thanks again, Laceykenzie!)

Maggie, I used the darker cabinetry on the island mainly for functionality -- we have two little ones that I knew would kick the heck out of it while seated at the bar area! This way, at least the dirt doesn't show quite so much ;-)

As far as natural light, we don't have as much as I'd like. We have three windows mulled together in the nook and three more mulled together in the family room. In the kitchen itself, it's "borrowing" light from those two rooms (plus all the windows in the sunroom across from it, but that's a long way off). So, no, I suppose we don't have much natural light. But we have two chandeliers, quite a few recessed cans, undercabinet lighting as well as lighting on top of the cabinets, so it's well lit, although not naturally. (My eyes aren't what they used to be, and I wanted GOOD light in the kitchen.)

You might try posting some pics, and maybe we can all help you cheer it up a bit! Paint can be *so* frustrating!!! Good luck with your new colors! (And thank you again for the kind words!)

beautiful home, HOosiergirl. I love pouring over your pic's. I've admired your color choosing skills.... we should all be so blessed! :O)

maggie~ Thank you so much for sharing "the rules". I've never heard that, and always have wondered how some people get such "pulled together" homes. I'm going to use that "rule" with our new house and see if mine looks a little more "designer" this time around.

Georgiagal~ I recall seeing your photos about a year ago. LOVE, love your home! I wished at the time that you would come over and decorate my home!! :O)

Great thread.... so much to learn here at GW. Love that!

Wow! What a great thread - thanks very much for the 60/30/10 guideline, Maggiersn! I think you just saved me from making some expensive mistakes.

I don't have enough time to keep up with the board right now, which is a shame because I could learn so much! I really appreciate all who post their triumphs, troubles, and pictures! Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Hoosiergirl--You're very welcome. Such a big job to custom build a house and then pull it all together (omg, and that's not even counting the landscaping...).

I think my situation is like yours, having to borrow ambient light from other rooms. It's not an open floor *at all, anywhere*; it's a center hall Georgian, but I was careful to line up windows and doorways and include six-foot-wide openings between rooms, French doors to the outside, whatever I could to help light travel. But it's a woodsy setting, so floorplanning could only achieve so much.

You were smart to put the wood in the center. My stepchildren are older, but the pets mean I'm cleaning the lower island constantly. Especially come Mud Season.

Alas, the only digital camera I have is still packed in the basement, but the pics are poor quality, anyway. Maybe I'll ask for one for Christmas so you can all help me solve the parts of the house I haven't yet.

blessedgirl--You're welcome. Some rooms are tougher than others, because so many things besides color--e.g., scale, balance, function--go into decorating them. But, once I put into practice what I've heard about the 60/30/10 rule, and thinking of the house (or a floor) as a unit, things began to fall into place.

Yet, as with many other things, once you get the fundamentals down, you need to *break the rules* now and then, to keep things fresh. I.e., in one room, use a color outside of your palette, but one which a compatible undertone, as your ten percent accent color. So maybe one room would be green and cream with terra cotta or strawberry as the 10 percent accent.

Incidentally, I've heard/read often that every room should have a small touch each of yellow, red and black, if they're not in your basic palette. Red warms a space, yellow cheers it and black grounds it. A bowl of lemons, a lacquered red box, wrought iron candle stands, etc. I've tried this, and I love the effect.

Thanks, Totallyblessed! How's your build coming? It is going to be SPECTACULAR!!! We could live in your master bath area, LOL! Got any new pics? ;-)