Different strokes...

There are people who use one color strip and paint different rooms in all the colors on that strip. Then people who don't want to paint a room as dark as the rest because of a northern orientation.

I like (though can't always do) using the same value. It bugs the heck out of me when I look at our master bath from the bedroom. The bath is in a nice, dark terra cotta and the bedroom is in SW Blonde, which just doesn't hold its weight, IMO. Love it in the kitchen, though.

I agree w/ Parma. Different people like different looks.

Like Parma I too prefer the same color value. Downstairs 3 of our 4 rms. are painted in mid-tone values (3rd & 4th colors on the various color strips). The central hall that runs between them all is cream. That cream hall leads to the back where our kitchen is and is the same cream color. Both the hall & the kitchen have a sky blue ceiling.

Upstairs the rms. are a bit 'softer' looking in color and are the same color value. They are the 1st & 2nd. colors on color strips. The hall is crisp white w/ the same sky blue ceiling as downstairs.

ttodd, I see you have a room done in flowering herbs, which I learned is the same color as what I just put up in our main area, Richmond Gray (sounds so much more 'historical' with that name LOL) -- do you have the sky blue ceiling in that room?

And to the OP: We have Richmond Gray, a 50% of Pleasant Valley, and (if they will match it for me today) a personal mix of Coastal Fog, Pleasant Valley, and Brandon Beige all visible near each other, with Titanium peeking through a doorway. All shades of gray, essentially. I love that they're similar but not the same--creates a flow, but also not screamingly different at one point or another so as to stop you in your tracks/be choppy, as you say -- the 50% Pleasant Valley used to be a dried-blood color (a Devine color) that I hated and have taken 6 years to figure out what to do with! The flow is *so* much nicer now -- DH loves it, and he doesn't usually have responses to paint that much, but he says the house feels softer and "nicer" now. That's what I call a successful paint job :)

HTH.

fly, those colors sound wonderful. Hope you will be happy with your choices, you've put so much thought into them.

My previous homes had good color flow, which made an expansive feel that we loved. Now I'm trying to overwhelm a too-orange wood floor in my LR with a vibrant color (dried blood! Hey, it works with orange floors), but I can't get that wall color to work with the rest of the house yet. Greens and blues work well, but after 10 years of those colors, I want to try something different. Just not finding color nirvana yet.

Ha--yes, the dried blood would tone down the orange LOL...

Another thought about those floors: could it be aged polyurethane that's causing the "too-orange" look? We had a too-orange white oak floor that turned that delicious natural white oak color when we had it sanded/refinished with Bona Kemi Satin--just an idea to address the floor in and of itself.

and toning down from the dried blood look -- what would a reddish gray look like, I wonder? Have tried any of those?

Meant to add that you're *not kidding* about putting so much thought into them...it's been *years* since we've had walls that aren't covered with sample paint squares (a girl has only so much space under her wall art LOL)! I just couldn't figure out what to do until the color consultant freed us of the dried-blood wall. Just changing that one element made the whole house fall into place like dominoes. Feels odd painting over the "mosaic walls", as I've come to call them. The end of an era. :)

So that's how you got rid of your dried blood dilemma: you sent it to my house :P

Partly orange poly problem and partly PO's choice of Minwax Golden Oak for the floor stain. I'd rather just rip 'em out and put down wide plank flooring, but we just spent a lot on a much needed exterior renovation. No more $$$ for a long while.

Mosaic walls -- I'm putting color samples on poster board, and they have kinda the Helen Frankenthaler look going. I'm beginning to think they'd look good framed! I have an irrational fear, though, of my old college buddy, the art museum curator, walking in and saying something withering.

Fly,

I repainted over the FH W/ the next darker color Baby Turtle. I still love it after 2 yrs.! To answer your question: no I do not have the sky blue ceiling in any room that has obvious color on the walls. Personally I do not care for colored ceilings in rms. w/ colored walls UNLESS there is substantial crown moulding around the ceiling. Especially if the moulding is a white or lighter version of another color. My eye just needs a place to 'rest' between colors. The blue ceiling also serves to tie together all of the downstairs rms. as they all have robin's egg blue accents in them.

If there is no substantial moulding or none at all then I like white or cream walls w/ a colored ceiling.

I am thinking about painting my DR ceiling (wall color is F&B Green Blue) a nice goldish/tan shade & installing thicker crown moulding. Also considering doing the same thing in our MBR but w/ reversed colors of the DR.

It really depends on the rooms and on your taste. If you look at my thread "small changes" you'll see that the red in the DR is darker than the sage green in the front room (at the back of the picture) and much darker than the cream color of the living room. I think it works because the rooms have definite separations. It seems to me that it's more important that the colors are compatible and pleasing to you. We don't always have to follow the "rules". Sometimes deviations can be very exciting and pleasing.

Ingrid

After being "color-flow obsessed" for quite some time & not achieving that (sometimes our things & houses just have other plans) have decided that for me the real essential "flow" is stylistic.

I don't want to have a sleekly modern living room, next to the an asian-temple-inspired den that leads to the Parisian apartment boudoir which is situated conveniently near the Tuscan-inspired kitchen!

My style throughout my house I've decided is "loosened-up Federal." I'm a Virginia girl & the images I've seen all my life have stuck w/ me. I grew up in a neighborhood that has one of the largest collections of antique houses in the country.

My color schemes may vary from room to room, but the style is consistent, so I *think* I've still achieved a sense of "flow." Your house may possess more cohesion than you realize, regardless of varying color palettes.

I did look at your thread, Ingrid, and yes, it was reassuring to see that dramatic color changes can work well. Lovely house -- you've done a beautiful job.

stinky-g, my style's been loosened-up Federal too (comes from years of reading Colonial Homes -- boy, was I traumatized when that magazine folded). I'm going a bit more rustic now. You're right about consistent style creates the flow, having seen this in my former houses. Every room reflected my tastes, and that's what pulled it all together. So maybe I should just relax about the color choices.

"Sometimes deviations can be very exciting and pleasing"

words to live by ;)

Awm03, I missed Colonial Homes magazine when it vanished too! Your style sounds delightful. Would love to see pics of your favorite rooms sometime.

Flyleft, I second that emotion. Wise words, Ingrid!

Awm03, I decided to check your page for pics, & what did I find? Glorious rooms! You have absolutely beautiful things...love your style!

Btw, your b-day is the same as my DH's! No one thinks of you as a *perfectionist* by any chance, do they? LOL!

Oh stinky, I'll bet what you saw were the pictures of a house my sister was buying from two former antique dealers. THEY had lovely things, not me! That home is to die for. The POs left those fabulous chandeliers. My sister's painted the house top to bottom in Farrow & Ball -- gorgeous. It's the first time she's ever owned a home.

Not a perfectionist, but I have been known to sweat the details :) Is your husband the same way?

Awm03, I don't know whose house it was, but I did a copy & paste of the link you provided into my browser, & voila, all these great pics came up! One house was being renovated, the other was complete. Both were very pretty.

As for the perfectionist thing, yes, my DH cares a lot about doing things right. At work he has always been a check it not once, not twice, but three times kind of guy. If he needs to stay until midnight to get things done right, then so be it. In the zodiac, he (& you) are goats. I can see him as a little goat always striving to get to the top of the mountain, no matter how rocky the terrain. There's no such thing as an obstacle to him!

So, when I saw that you are a January 9th baby, I thought, "Awm must be another little goat w/ high standards & lots of tenacity!"

OH, and ttodd (hope you don't mind, awm, since the conversation has spread out a bit :)), thanks for your update. Oh well, we're not Richmond Gray/FH twins anymore :) Your room has a nice amount of light so I can see the baby turtle working in there.

Interesting set of preferences -- if no molding, then white or cream with a colored *ceiling*. Fascinating!