Of course ask them-offer to pay-or at least tip them generously. All they can do is say no... So sorry this happened but at least it can be fixed...

OK, grab a paper bag and breathe into it regularly, deeply, and rhythmically. Or, "do some drug of choice" to mellow out.

You can't change anything right now. So get a grip on your emotions. Can you show us a picture of the offending color?

I'm thinking it may not be quite as bad as you think it is (but I'm not in your home right now, am I?). What color was the room before?

I'm not trying to make light of what, FOR YOU, is a big deal, but the wrong color on walls IS NOT the end of the world. It can be frustrating, inconvenient, but at least you have heat, utilities, and a HOUSE. You may well have the beginnings of great room, or, at the very least, a very funny "family" story.

I think you need to just settle back, wince, and give yourself some time to adjust to the color and think about it.

Have a glass of wine and take a deep breath. You're frustrated, freaked out, but this isn't that big a deal in the big picture.

I have to agree with Noodles. You can certainly tell them the color is making you sick, and you wonder if they can repaint it at your expense. May as well do that now while everything is being painted than to leave it for a later inconvenience.

I don't think it's a matter of being ungrateful, it's just that you should present it in a way so they know that you don't expect them to work for free based on your mistake. If they say they'll paint it again for free, you really lucked out!

Also, make a mental note reminding you that your hubby is not allowed to pick out paint color ever ever again. ;-)

Aw, don't be so hard on your husband. :-) Color choice mistakes are so easy to make--I've made a bunch of them.

Post a photo soon so we can let you know if it is as bad as you think it is.

Remember, there will be furniture, curtains, rugs, linens, and tons of other stuff. It is difficult sometime to give a wall color a chance when it's an empty room. Then again, it may be horrible as you say. Let us see.

shiba, If worse came to worse, could YOU paint it again?

Ask the painters if they will repaint it.

Tell them it reminds you of the flames from the fire and it's making you very sad.

It'll help if you can cry a little...

Seriously.

Priceless, mclarke. ;^)

I love it mclarke!
I'm going to ask, the worst they can say is no or I'll have to pay for it.

Yes, I could repaint it, but I'm so lousy at painting.

Funny, the name of the color is actually "Glowing Firelight" and when you are on the stairwell, it does kinda glow like fire on the ceiling!

I'm going to try to get a pic, we are not currently living in the house until it's finished. I'll go over later and snap some pics.

I like Mclarke's suggestion! :)

And I feel your orange pain. In our last home we selected an extortionately expensive Donald Kaufman color for our dining room that was a beautiful nuanced gold-orange-sunlight color, like the flesh of a ripe nectarine. Our painter had taken our other DK selections to his supplier and got custom blended Benjamin Moore paints to match, at about 1/4 the price, so we let him loose on the nectarine color. OH BOY. EVERY single color that came back was orange - sometimes the color of a pumpkin, sometimes more like a traffic cone. The painter would paint three-foot sample swaths of color, we'd flinch, and he'd go, "uh, not quite it, huh?" Nothing like a REALLY LOUD ORANGE to make you feel pain! In the end, we splurged and did that one room with the DK color.

Mclarke - you're too funny!

Jboling, you've got that right; I've repainted my bedroom I dunno... 4-5 times in two years and I'm still not happy.

Shibababy, orange is energetic and bedrooms are supposed to be restful. You know how you get better at painting, don't you? Practice! lol. I've had a lot of practice because apparently I'm not as good at picking colors as you are. Hug your DH -- thank goodness he's at least interested in the decor. That's a plus in a man, IMO. I'm sure whatever you do you'll get it worked out to where you end up loving it. Mostly, I'm so sorry about your fire. My son is upset today because some neighbors a few doors away had their entire upper floor burned out this morning. He's invited them to a party tonight and to stay at his house for as long as they want. Paint is plentiful, but great sons and great DHs are not.

My master is a very deep peach; painted that color when I moved in. I originally thought "Yup, thats gotta go!" But since the painter wasn't available for several months, we had to move the furniture in. I gotta tell you, I now love it.

The dark browns of my bedroom furniture and the deep peach on the walls are a wonderful combination. My prints have chocolate matting and my drapes are chocolate velvet from Pottery Barn. IMHO, it is bordering on decadent.

Don't panic. Live with a bit. Then if you really hate it, we'll give you tips on painting ;)

Get it done now!!!!!! While you still can and don't have to move things around. If your not happy with it change it! You could always tell them "it doesn't look like the sample" and it might get done for nothing but if not pay for it ............ you'll be happier in the end.

Mzdee, can you post a picture? Sounds lovely. I've lived with pale peach walls in the bedroom and loved them.

My goodness! There would be absolutely no thinking on this one for me. Get it repainted this week while your painters are busy in the house anyway. It's the simplest solution, and it may not be very expensive for them to just redo it now anyway. I don't know what shade you had in mind, but even a soft neutral like SW Macadamia, or Ivoire.........Ben Moore's Shaker Beige or something of that nature--would at least allow you to move furniture in, decorate, and get your house back together.
I don't think your DH is stupid and I don't think you do either. Choosing colors can be remarkably hard. The one time I listened to mine and he insisted that I just pick something and be done with it, I just couldn't live with it even for two days. He's great at tons of stuff. That wasn't part of the stuff he's great at. Give yours a break, tell him he gets an A for effort and get your room painted now.

Sincerely, Red

here are the pics of the room. The paint is sherwin williams. It was matched to Behr's Glowing Firelight. The chip reads as burnt orange, but on the wall, it's actually pretty durn close to red.

This is the mannered gold in my son's room that I love. I would redo my room in this color. I couldn't get a good pic of the true color though.

I like the color, but not for a bedroom. I prefer more calm colors in a bedroom and maybe since you are just coming out of the beigy trying color phase that is probably what is hitting you with the really strong color. I would just ask how much to repaint as you feel the color is just too strong in the bedroom and not as you'd expected.

I couldn't have the color for a bedroom.. office maybe, but not a bedroom where I need calm.

What does your bedding / carpet look like? I painted a room without doing the bedding 1st, what a mistake, we ended up repainting.

I recently had my house painted. It's brick so it was just the trim but it has 46 windows and it cost a fortune.

The painter painted one window for us to approve before he picked up the rest of the paint. It was dusk before we saw it and it seemed to look okay. So, we called him and told him to go ahead.

Anyway, the next morning I walked outside to take a look at the color once more and IT LOOKED PINK! I was mortified and in tears. Hubby called the painter. They were already on their way at 7:30 and the paint had been purchased! The painter couldn't have been nicer. He sent the crew to another house and met me at the paint store so we could figure out why my beige looked pink. We picked another color and he came back to the house with me. It looked great, and we went on from there.

It ended up costing us an extra $200 for the already purchased pink paint. It was SO worth the extra hassle. Get the color you love. If you don't it will drive you crazy.

Shibababy --

AGGGGGGHHHHH! I feel your pain! (Actually, I'm feeling my OWN pain, because it hurts my eyes to see that color on my monitor.)

No debate on this. Get it repainted.

You have an adorable husband. Give him a big hug and tell him it's a lovely color but he'll never be able to sleep in any room painted that color. Then go buy him an orange bathrobe for Christmas.

I LOVE the color! Way more interesting than the Mannered Gold (sorry). If you have dark furniture and pick bedding to work with the color, it could be fabulous.

Maybe your DH is just wanting to add some passion to the boudoir? LOL

However, if you don't love i and are confident you won't change your mind once furnishings are in, then now is the time to get it fixed while the painters are there. Likely it will cost something extra because they may have to prime over that before they can paint it a color like Mannered Gold, but it will still be cheaper to get them to do it now while they are there, then to call them back.

I like the color but if you do not then, it is your choice. I am assuming since you had a house fire, you have no furniture or softgoods for the room, in which case, you have a blank palette. It is a passionate color, and I think after seeing red bedrooms in some fine homes in my area, it is very nice. You would just need the right furnishings. Now, if that was in an office or study where one has to contemplate quietly, not sure I would want it, but while sleeping, what is the big deal? It's beautiful to awaken to.

Maybe your DH is just wanting to add some passion to the boudoir?

Did you happen to watch Fun Shui last week? That was exactly the idea, and they painted the walls orange.

Well, everyone responds to color differently, and in her first post, she said that she thinks the color is "AWFUL."

Speaking as someone whose basement is overflowing with "sample quarts" of rejected colors, I understand the emotional response to color.

Maybe she'll decide to keep it, but I doubt it.

Shibababy? Can you give us an update?

I know EXACTLY what you are going through!

I had the Master bedroom in our last new house painted a coral (more orange than your color). After we moved in, I was going to put a glaze on the walls to make it look Old World (Terracotta looking). I never got the chance.

The day we were moving from our rental house to the new house, the rental house caught on fire. I walked in on it and was injured slightly, but the worse was seeing the house destroyed, along with what was left of our belongings (the rest had already been moved to the new house). On the first night in our new house, I could not sleep very well. The light from the street lanterns would bounce off our coral walls and I would wake up thinking our house was on fire. I tried to live with the walls for about a week, and then asked our painters to repaint to a soothing SW Khaki Shade. I was much happier!

I cannot understand how your DH could pick that color AFTER you had a fire. It is pretty though!

My guess is she's either at the paint store or painting.

It is a pretty color but not for a bedroom that to me should have peaceful colors on the wall so you can sleep. Let us know what you decide but I know I would take pictures for memories of the pretty color but NOT for a bedroom wall and I would choose a new color quickly and repaint.

That is a fabulous color, in fact if I'd seen it when I was shopping for my perfect orange-red, I'd have given it serious consideration...and I know it's being done a lot recently in bedrooms--but me? I couldn't relax in there. It's way too energizing. Great job, great color, wrong placement.

Here's a thought: would DH want to keep one wall of it (in a not very obvious place) as an accent wall, maybe, so as to help him understand about using vibrant colors in the bedroom? That's actually what we're doing in DD's room--she wanted a red room, I said she could have it on an accent wall (it's recessed slightly and not visible from the door), but the rest has to be a more restful color. We have since painted our bedroom EK Pumice and she loves it, and is convinced of the significance of restful color in a bedroom now.

thank you all for your honest opinions. We are still not in the house yet, contractors are still working. No furnishings, or bedding. Pretty much a blank canvas. New cabinets went in today. YEah!

The flooring will be a light beigey-brown color. I have dark furniture in storage that will probably look really nice if I just leave the wall behind the headboard as an accent wall.

I won't be doing any painting until we are back in the house in January.
I had the master bathroom in maroon, black and beige and it was soooo soothing in there. White walls. I would love to redo that look, but it would clash with the new bedroom paint color.

I'll live with it for a couple of weeks and then decide what to do. More than likely, it will be repainted with a much lighter color.

I actually have some bedding that has a mixture of oranges and cream that would match the walls nicely, so maybe do two walls that color orange and repaint two walls (walls that I would I see while laying in bed)white or cream.

Add me to the people who like the colour - very nice shade of red! Then again, I sleep in a deep eggplant bedroom, so no problems with deep colours in bedrooms here!

This whole "no energizing colours in the bedroom" thing sort of mystifies me though...I understand wanting light colours in a room where you would want to feel restful, but I need my bedroom to be dark so that I can sleep. I find it easier to feel restful (with the lights off) in our dark bedroom now than in our old white room, where any little bit of light coming in reflected off the walls so much more and it always looked "light". Maybe it's just me...?

On one of the decorating shows on HGTV (maybe Color Correction?) the couple was having a dispute about the colors in their house. One room was a vivid deep red similar to your bedroom and a gold similar to the Mannered Gold.

The decorator "adjusted" the colors - they painted the gold walls a slightly lighter, less yellow sandy color. And they used a brown glaze over the deep red to tone down the impact.

I've got to say I am not a warm color person - every room in my house is painted a cool coler - but the look when they were done was wonderful in that house. Although they used an almost coffee brown glaze over the red, the walls did not turn out looking dark but very rich with a dimension that a flat red color did not give them.

So maybe that would help - knock back the impact with a glaze.

Aha! Here is the episode - it was on Get It Together. This is the "Before":

This is the "After" picture:

Here is a link that might be useful: Lively Dining Room

Woodswell, I love the remarkable difference in the little bit of changes to the brightness of both the gold and red and the accessores. Both rooms are gorgeous now whereas before I found both too loud. I also love the decorative curtain rod and the beautiful drapes.

I wish I had more wall space round my windows in my bedroom since I really would love drapery panels or sheers in my bedroom. I am still thinking of trying it anyway but will not be able to go with large finials.

I love the gold color. I sure wish HGTV would let us know what is the name of each color they use. Even the red looks beautiful and the two rooms look wonderful complimenting each other.

ONE red wall in my master bedroom made my ex angry and argumentative in the bedroom. I painted it baby blue and he calmed down. Some people can handle it and some can't, and not a lot of people can handle a whole room in red that they live in a lot.

Interesting point, oceanna...so shiba, keep that paintcan around in case you unleash a monster with that accent wall!

While I like red and I also like orange, I admit to finding that room (on my monitor) extremely bright. I guess because it is a bedroom.

I really love the idea of the glaze over the color. I just did that to my laundry room that was brighter than a school bus yellow (ooops!). The glaze really toned it down, and now I like it. It's not a perfect color for my cabinets that will be coming, so the color may eventually change, but at least for now it is tolerable (and my original golden/mustard just was NOT!). LOL!

I can definitely see that color left in it's current state, and used on an accent wall. With dark furnishings and maybe some greenery, that could be a very gorgeous "designer" space.

If you did the "accent" on the wall where your headboard will rest, you'd never see the color at night when in your bed and supposed to be resting. And of course if you needed to kick up the passion, you and dh could just crank your necks around and glance at that bright wall. :o) LOL!

Congratulations on your new cabinetry arriving. Happy for you that it sounds like you are on the home stretch!! ;o)

On one of the decorating shows on HGTV (maybe Color Correction?) the couple was having a dispute about the colors in their house. One room was a vivid deep red similar to your bedroom and a gold similar to the Mannered Gold.

The decorator "adjusted" the colors - they painted the gold walls a slightly lighter, less yellow sandy color. And they used a brown glaze over the deep red to tone down the impact.

I've got to say I am not a warm color person - every room in my house is painted a cool coler - but the look when they were done was wonderful in that house. Although they used an almost coffee brown glaze over the red, the walls did not turn out looking dark but very rich with a dimension that a flat red color did not give them.

So maybe that would help - knock back the impact with a glaze.

Aha! Here is the episode - it was on Get It Together. This is the "Before":

We saw that the other night. I was coming back to post about it. I'm not into those colors either but they did a really good job.

I sure wish HGTV listed the gold color they used? I think something like that would be beautiful in Shibababy's bedroom. I think the toned down red would also be pretty in a bedroom, but I'm not crazy about the bright orange.

Laurie

We have a master suite that is the color of a very ripe tomato. The helpmeet selected it, and I LOVE IT. It's warm, rich, comforting, and is a beautiful foil to handsome furniture. I say, "baloney" to all the gobbledy-gook about the hot colors being "too intense" for a bedroom, as if you notice it when it's dark? C'mon. I LIKE the color in the shot you posted. And I have a workroom that is in the tones of a ripe Canteloupe... it's beautiful, too!

I think "Mannered Gold" is nothing special. Frankly, it's strikes me as boring. But that's MY opinion and please don't be offended.

Even though I don't like dark or bright colors, I like the "before" picture better than the "after" picture. The curtains make it look too cluttered and hide the beautiful arch.

You don't like it! It doesn't matter what everybody else has in their homes. If you can have it repainted before you get everything back into the room, for heavens sake just do it now. Even if YOU have to do it now. But even better if the contractors do it -- just ask them. No tears necessary.