STRESSED over paint color & how to decorate.

4 years ago

Please help! My husband & I just purchased our first home & I’m overwhelmed with indecision!
My husband is active duty & for the past 17 years we’ve lived in over a dozen rental homes, never worrying too much about how to “fix it up.” Now that we have our own home, I am at a complete loss of how to choose paint colors, decorate, & renovate it. We are currently living in Germany. European house are VERY different than American homes (especially the kitchens, they’re tiny!). When I first saw the kitchen in our new house, I fell in love.
I love the open concept but it’s so open , that I’m confused about paint color.
The walls of the kitchen, continue into the dining room, & living room. Do you pick one color for the entire area? & what color wouldn’t clash with the very brown kitchen?
Also the stair railings! Ugh. Any suggestions on what to replace those with?
Lastly, there’s a small niche in the entryway wall. What would you put there? A entryway table? A bench?
Thank you for any & all suggestions! I never knew this process would be so stressful.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

christinejones1
Original Author
4 years ago
More pictures
tartanmeup
4 years ago
First of all, congrats on your new home. Second of all, don't stress. My advice to you is take your time to plan. You don't have to decide on everything in one go.

How do you want your home to feel? What colours evoke this feeling to you? How are you furnishing it? Wall colour should be the last element chosen because it can be matched to anything. Finding curtains, carpets and sofas to match a wall colour is less easy. Your budget will determine if you can change some of the hard finishes and elements you don't love (e.g. railing). I'm not sure what you mean by a very brown kitchen? I'm seeing white cabinets and walls. As for the niche in the entryway, it really depends on you and your lifestyle. Would you sit there to remove shoes, for example? Or would it make more sense to have a table for keys and sunglasses? There's no law that says these decisions will be permanent and while it's usually more convenient to paint before moving in, something it makes more sense to live in a home for a bit to determine how you really want it to look and flow.
Related Discussions
Stressing over shingles...Does anyone know DrJoann's Roof Color??
Q
Comments (1)
I don't know if you've chosen your shingle color yet, but I know how you feel. I felt very apprehensive when picking out my shingle color. I had the look of our home in my head, and it had a dark roof, not black, but dark. When picking my brick and mortar color, NOBODY agreed with my selection except for my husband. The supply company even told my builder that it was NOT a color of mortar that was ever used with my brick color. After that was over, then there was the shingle selection. Apparently noone agreed with that either, except my husband. Everytime I picked a dark color, someone from my building team would hesitate. Finally the project lead suggested Autumn Brown by Tamko at www.tamko.com. It has a combination of browns with a chocolate brown, which is the color of our mortar. The shingles went up on the house today, and will be completed tomorrow, and the color is perfect for the house. I was concerned, even after we ordered a sample and set it next to the brick and mortar samples. I also used www.colorplan.com to give me a clue as to what colors might look good on the roof. I hope you are pleased with your choice. Here is a link that might be useful: My home build blog
...See More
Stressing over WTs for Ladies Parlor. Please help!
Q
Comments (10)
Thanks Les and igloochic. Les, I thought about buying four of the panels and then getting another fabric for the rest of the panel but I don't think the weight, though I'm not certain, of the osnaburg would work with the Canyon Leaves. igloochic, sorry I confused you. I'm just extremely eclectic, I guess. I love the layout and bones of a farm house style Victorian. The rich stained wide woodwork, lots of rooms and long turning hallways. I've just never lost my love for the wonders of the mid-century home furnishings and decor either. We'll see if I can pull this off. I called my hubby earlier and in our conversation the cost of the Canyon Leaves panels came up. He thought that each window was going to be forty dollars over the whole budget. No wonder he didn't say go ahead and get them. Not that he said much of anything. News flash, never talk to a man when he's doing anything else even if you think you have his attention. You probably don't. So now what I need to do is decide for sure what color to get. I'm starting from scratch on this room other than the furniture of course. I'm talking color wise. The furniture will be stained a dark walnut though. That I'm sure about. I do need help in what of the color choices below do you think looks most MCM? What colors do you see in the Evening Sage panels?
...See More
Stressed out over Corain measure - seams
Q
Comments (12)
this_old_1969_ranch: Your fabricator is running the seams the wrong way. He's going to have 170" of seam and he only needs 102 3/4", plus the direction will be much more noticeable and the selection of material is severely limited by his method. I've drawn his method on the left and mine on the right and the cut sheet. Notice how my method leaves 101" of unused material that can be "shopped" for better seam match. You've got a 2 sheet job no matter how you cut it. I would rough out the "L" wide, seam it together, and rip the drop edges off the sides so they'd match perfectly. Yes, I know DuPont doesn't recommend a drop edge, but those specs are written by engineers whose paychecks cash no matter. My specs are written by a guy who doesn't get paid unless the lady is happy. Although I've never fabricated this material, I'm certain that a drop edge laminated into a 7/16" x1/2" rabbet will look every bit as good or better than a miter with a lot less work and no need for a V-groover. I couldn't read your dimensions so I just scaled and guessed, but nothing will change substantially anyway. This post was edited by Trebruchet on Thu, Sep 18, 14 at 22:49
...See More
Stressed over Hardwood ( colour) decisions for tomorrow!
Q
Comments (8)
I would go brown... we had spice colored hardwoods (gunstock actually) on our main floors and went with a darker and browner, but similar color, when we refinished to sortof match the staircase which we didn't refinish. I added hardwoods to the upstairs hallway and chose an even browner stain, tho not as dark as I would have chosen if it weren't for the stairs. if you will redo the steps, I would choose as deep and as brown as you want- more impt the steps 'match' the main floor than the upper floors. imo, a darker stain would look better with what you currently have than a light one. (if you can mismatch furniture pieces, lamps, etc and paint rooms different colors, you certainly can have different stain colors between floors!)
...See More
deegw
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Congrats on your new home! My only advice would be to let the permanent elements of the home guide your color palette. We often get posts from people who have beige walls and warm wood floors and gray furniture and can't understand why their space looks off.

You can decorate with grays and beiges but it is hard to pull off. Neutrals like whites, beiges and greys often clash because of color undertones. It's much easier to decorate successfully if you understand that your choices should blend well with each other and also blend well with existing elements that you can't or don't want to change.
Yayagal
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
I would use BM Smokey taupe which is a perfect greige. My friend did her whole house with it and it looks so nice. I never tire of looking at it when I visit. I plan on having three rooms done in the above color when we are free again. Just my opinion.
7ca3f18c76d75783ec1fa2829571ab10.jpg (JPEG Image, 736 × 491 pixels) · More Info

9a74f18bf208be753589bf08f041d364.jpg (JPEG Image, 680 × 1024 pixels) - Scaled (6 · More Info

STRESSED over paint color & how to decorate.

Comments (4)

christinejones1
Original Author

tartanmeup

Related Discussions

deegw

Yayagal

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

STRESSED over paint color & how to decorate.

Comments (4)

christinejones1Original Author

tartanmeup

Related Discussions

deegw

Yayagal

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

christinejones1
Original Author