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Did I screw myself over with my wall sconce placement?

Sarah
2 years ago

We're building a house that will be finished in mid November. Way back in January, I had to choose the locations of wall sconce wiring for the living room. I had done some research on how to create good lighting and I knew I wanted wall sconces, but not exactly where, so I just made the best choices I could for the wiring locations. You can see them below with the orange arrows. More about the other lines in a moment.



Below is how it looks without any annotations so you can get a better feel for the space. (Side note: the reason the sconces are not an even distance from the doorways is a long story not worth going into here, but I can't change it until after the house is done – on our dime.)



I now realize that this wall is going to be the main place for wall art in this room. (The opposite wall will have the TV on it.) So here's the dilemma: everything I read says that for a big room like this, I want big wall art. But with that sconce placement, I'm not sure how to place the art. As I see it, I have two options: center the art between the two doorways (blue line in first image), or center the art between the left sconce and the right doorway (pink line in first image). Here's how that looks:



So that's the first question: which centering is the right one? If it matters, I also plan to put wall art of some sort on the right, like this:



But then the bigger question is: are these sconce placements terrible? Is it going to look weird to have a sconce to the left of a big piece of wall art? Did I just pick a bad placement and I should pretend the sconce wiring isn't even there and get an electrician to put them in other places after the house is finished? That wouldn't buy me much extra space in terms of the placement of the wall art, because the light switches next to the left door still limit the placement, but I think a painting could be much closer to the light switches than it could be to a sconce.


I have given only slightly more than zero thought to what kind of wall sconce we'll get, but I imagine something vertical with diffuse light. Maybe like this:




So if I put two of these up next to the big wall art, it might look like this:



Does this look stupid? I am just barely getting my feet wet with learning about interior design, and I feel like this looks stupid, but also I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe it's fine. I hate to "waste" the money replacing the sconces, and I definitely want a couple of sconces somewhere in this room, but maybe I screwed myself with these choices? And if not, which centering is the right one?


Please help. :(


Comments (36)

  • PRO
    RL Relocation LLC
    2 years ago

    yes, its a mistake. and the builder or electrician should have said something about placing the sconce to the right of the door that low, it makes no sense. you dont want a sconce at eye level next to a door. why didnt you just flank the wall? also those sconces will not give you any real light, and also not help in lighting the artwork? I am very curious why you wanted a sconce beside the door like that .

  • PRO
    RL Relocation LLC
    2 years ago



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  • KW PNW Z8
    2 years ago

    A conundrum for sure & I understand the challenges of choosing any electrical outlet placements with no walls or furniture - think - where should those floor outlets be placed!😱 But, to your question, my initial reaction is this - why aren’t those sconces on the same wall ( not separated by doorway)? I’ll admit I like symmetry. I like ”big art” on that wall but if I had sconces I would want the art centered between the two sconces. I think having them on same wall gives more flexibility say for having a console table on that wall nicely centered between two sconces.

  • PRO
    RL Relocation LLC
    2 years ago

    or remove them altogether. in a room this large sconces would be nothing but amb light.

    "Before selecting and installing your lighting fixtures, consider the activities that will take place in the room, how you want it to feel, which elements you want to showcase and which you’d like to hide. Track and recessed lighting can work as any layer of lighting, depending on how they’re installed and where the light is directed. Chandeliers and wall sconces can double as accent lighting if they’re installed with a dimmer switch. Layer the different types of lighting so that it suits your family’s needs, and control each type of lighting independently so that you can quickly adapt the individual light sources to suit your needs."


    https://www.lampsusa.com/blogs/how-to-and-tips/20-powerful-ways-to-improve-your-living-room-lighting

  • Sarah
    Original Author
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    @RL Relocation LLC There are a few reasons I put the lighting beside the door. First, we have tons of lighting from above in the form of can lights and the ceiling fan light. It's very bright in there. Everything I read about lighting "layers" said that one layer should be diffuse sconces on the wall. When I spent some time researching recommended sconce height, I was surprised to see that literally everything I read placed it around five feet high. That seemed low to me, and I compromised by making it a little higher than that since our ceiling are so high, even though five feet was the recommended height I read for rooms with high ceilings. (I believe they're 14') The circles are centered around 66".

    Re: lighting the artwork, at the time I had to choose wiring I had no idea what kind of artwork we might have or where. It was always our plan to add artwork-specific lighting at some time in the future once we knew what our needs were there.

    The reason the sconces are next to the doors is that there's really not another great place (that I could figure out) to put the sconces. Here's the room from another angle with the wall in question on the right edge:



    (The chandelier on the right is in the wrong place and will be moved closer to the front door, so pretend it isn't there.)

    Those pendants by the kitchen will help with lighting that isn't overhead, but the wall on the left will have the TV arrangement, and it didn't feel right to put sconces so close to the TV. And the other wall (to the photographer's back above) is all windows. So as far as I could tell, the only place for the sconces was somewhere on that wall. So putting them next to the doorways seemed like the most out-of-the-way arrangement.

    @KW PNW Z8 to answer your question, I didn't put them both between the doorways because I thought they'd be too close together to accomplish the goal of covering the room with eye-level diffuse light effectively.

    Just to be clear, I'm not saying you guys are wrong; just saying that this was my rationale that led me to where we are now. I'm still not sure what to do, though. :(

  • rrah
    2 years ago

    It doesn't look the painting has been done yet. Can you work with your builder to get the electrician back out and fix them? I'd put the second one to the left of the door, not the right.

  • Sarah
    Original Author
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    @rrah I'd have to do that after the house is done. They've been very accommodating in making a lot of changes for us that we requested even after we knew that no more changes would be allowed, but I don't think we can get them back out with the electrician. They've done us a lot of favors already. Just to clarify, do you mean that you agree with KW that both sconces should be between the two doorways?

  • lizziesma
    2 years ago

    I would scrap the sconces altogether.


  • Olychick
    2 years ago

    It's so disappointing when your vision doesn't come together properly. I think the sconces are causing more angst than any benefit they will provide. You have a very large room and it will be easy to provide enough ambient light with lamps, both table and floor lamps (to supplement any overhead light on dimmers). Because of the wall switch placement, you already have some restrictions on centering and the size of art for that wall. Perhaps think about a console under your art with lamps place where the sconces would have been (had they been both placed between the doorways).

    Or, if you really must have the sconces and will have to pay for re-siting them, I would offer to pay the builder's cost for moving them now. it will be much easier than waiting until the home is finished.


  • flopsycat1
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    I agree, deleting the sconces is the best option:

    1) No more dilemma regarding their placement.

    2) Increased freedom for art size and location on the wall.

    3) No indecision while navigating the endless sconce options on the internet.

    4) $$$ saved from omitting sconce purchase.

    Easy!

  • ashtonchic
    2 years ago

    I agree that the sconces aren't needed on that wall.

  • PRO
    RL Relocation LLC
    2 years ago

    perhaps 5 feet is a good thing but not 12" from the door frame and 3" from the light switch. scrap them. Table and floor lamps in here.

  • maddielee
    2 years ago

    Sorry to say, those placements just won’t work.


    (your drawings for your art placement also look a little low?)

  • cawaps
    2 years ago

    Remodeling requires you to make a ton of decisions about things you've never thought about and don't really know anything about. And somehow the contractors expect you to be able to make a decision on the spot rather than give you advance warning so you can research and think about it. So I get how the mistake was made, but I still think the sconce placement was a mistake.


    I don't think the sconces are necessary, and drywalling over the junction boxes is probably your best option. You can compensate with a combination picture lights as RL Relocation suggested and/or floor and table lamps.



  • Sarah
    Original Author
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    @maddielee Those are 8' doors, so they may look lower than they actually are. In the wall art placement I've drawn, I probably wouldn't be able to reach the top of the painting. (It's hard to "see" the true height of the doors from the photos without a person for a scale, and I don't seem to have a photo of that.) The sconce caps are slightly above the height of my head, and I'm a pretty average height for a girl. Given that, I think it's not too low?

    @cawaps I know, right?! I flew in for this design meeting with the builder that was supposed to be 4 hours, and we worked straight through lunch and took about six hours, and we still didn't have time to finish everything. The designer who assisted was great and accommodating and friendly and helpful, but you just can't cover all the decisions that were needed in that time. And of course they won't tell you what the options are before you come because they're very protective of their brand and design options. And I prepared like crazy! But it still wasn't enough.

    Well, i was really hoping that like 50% of the people responding to this post would say "I think it's fine and I wouldn't have noticed it looking weird if you hadn't pointed it out." So that's a bummer!

    Regarding putting a table along the wall with the big wall art, I'm planning to have a console table very near to that area along the back of the couch, so my feeling is that another table there would look weird. Here's a render I did with Foyr to consider my furniture layout, though all the specific pieces of furniture and colors/textures are just placeholders from what Foyr had available.



    But with that console table along the back of the couch, I fear that more tables along the wall would look too cluttered. But again, I don't know what I'm doing, so maybe not!

  • calidesign
    2 years ago

    I'd do away with the sconces. You can always add a light over the artwork, or sconces on the walls later if you feel you need it - maybe higher sconces flanking the tv, like this example. Or an interesting floor lamp near your chaise in the corner. Give yourself some credit for the furniture arrangment though. It looks like a good plan. I might move the one console table to the wall under the large artwork. Do you have floor outlets for your table lamps?

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  • cawaps
    2 years ago

    I would do a table behind the sofa or a console table on the art wall, but not both.

  • shirlpp
    2 years ago

    Move in! Get the art on that wall! Then....decide about sconces - an electrician can always move a few wires.

  • PRO
    RL Relocation LLC
    2 years ago

    i love your layout and I think you have a great eye, the sconces will come if needed you can even use battery operated picture lights if you really want them later.

  • kpyeatt
    2 years ago

    My first vote is scrap the sconces. They aren't needed. Second vote is to place them on the same wall. Being on separate walls does not work.

  • Sarah
    Original Author
    2 years ago

    So here is the problem with putting both sconces on the "inside" of the two doorways. I forgot about this detail until I was explaining this to my husband just now when we were looking at the floor plan, but this was part of my thinking way back in January when I had to pick the locations. The problem is that the sconces are now centered between the doors but misaligned with the TV and the rest of the room. My train of thought goes like this:

    1. The TV and TV stand need to be centered on the TV wall or it'll look weird.
    2. The sectional should be centered around the TV to be maximally convenient for watching TV.
    3. If the sconces are not centered around that same line, they will look bad.

    Here's a diagram:


    My thinking was that putting one sconce to the other side of the door covered the room in a more even way that would be imperfect but would look less misaligned. Like so:



    And with the render I did, I don't feel like the sconce placement looks weird, but maybe it does? I'll post it again here so you don't have to scroll to see it.



    On the other hand, it does seem like it's weird to have a bright light on one side of wall art but not the other.


    Regarding moving the sconce before the house is completed, the issue isn't a fee – we would gladly play a change fee to get it right. The builders are having trouble with tradesman availability, so at some point a few months ago they basically said they aren't allowing any changes because it'll just take too much time and mess up their schedule.

  • anj_p
    2 years ago

    Not a pro. Unfortunately I think the placement of the sconces with respect to the wall they are on is more important to how they relate to either your TV or your sectional. Having a pair of sconces separated by a door and not evenly spaced on a wall will look disjointed IMO. Almost like you're trying to light the door, not provide accent lighting on the wall (like an exterior door). SORRY. If you want them, I think they should be equally distant from the two doors on the same wall to frame your art.

    Sarah thanked anj_p
  • KW PNW Z8
    2 years ago

    I’m with what @anj_p said. That was my thought - when looking at sconce wall, won’t be looking at TV & FP wall etc. Each wall needs to be set up & arranged individually. That is too bad about the shortage of skilled trades - that is currently a challenge everywhere in US.

    Sarah thanked KW PNW Z8
  • PRO
    RL Relocation LLC
    2 years ago

    you cannot look at both spaces at the same time ................... as someone who worked in lighting for many years, I was forever explaining, the details seems so important right now, however in 6 months you will not be nearly as overwelmed, nor will you "think" about them as much. one of those is not being able to look at to opposite walls at the same time. people look where they walk or look at the artwork, or look at the tv, don't sweat the if they line up with the opposite wall or doorways, its a classic case of overthinking.

    Sarah thanked RL Relocation LLC
  • Sarah
    Original Author
    2 years ago

    Okay, guys, I have a follow-up question. I thought about making a new thread, but there's so much context here that I thought it would be better to post in this thread. Unless nobody answers and then I'll make a new one. :)


    My thinking now, thanks to everybody here, is that we'll probably remove the sconces and/or bring the right sconce to the other side of the door, but since I can't do either of those things until after we close, I can decide later. But either way, that means that the art I'm going to put in that space should be centered between the two doorways and not too close to the light switches on the left. Like so:



    But here's my question: is this weird? I'm looking at Houzz and Pinterest, and I'm not seeing ANY living rooms that just have a photo on the wall like this. Above couches? Yes! But on a wall by itself? I literally haven't seen any. Zero. I've read all the guides about how big your art should be for walls of certain dimensions, and this art seems to be the right size according to those, but how come I can't find any photos of rooms with art on a wall by itself like this? I know we are fortunate to have a big living room, but there are much larger ones on Pinterest and Houzz and they don't have anything like this. All their walls are gallery walls or complex arrangements of furniture and lighting and a small piece of art.


    As I mentioned earlier in this thread, here is the furniture layout we're planning, which I know you guys were generally complimentary of:



    But is a single giant piece of wall art (sans sconces) weird? Recall that the doorways are 8 feet tall, so the art would be pretttty big. Like 50x100ish or maybe 75x100ish. Here are some measurements:



    Is this weird? If we go this route, it will for sure be the most costly piece of art I've ever bought based on its size alone, so I want to make sure this is the right path before we do it. (Side note: I just discovered paintru.com and I think I'm going to use that to get a custom painting of a photo that I like.) I would very much appreciate any opinions people have on this topic.

  • KW PNW Z8
    2 years ago

    @Sarah Hi Sarah, good for you on making decision about sconces. Feels good to check that off your list, yes? So moving on to art - I understand you have not yet purchased this piece, correct? While it makes sense to mentally plan & visualize where furniture & art will be placed in a new home, art is almost always the very last thing to be put in its permanent place. We want to make sure furniture fits exactly as we planned & we don't like putting holes in brand new walls! My very strong opinion is that you WAIT on buying this art until your furniture is in its permanent place. Do shop & make preliminary art choices but don't pull the trigger until ready to hang it. Hanging one large scale piece on a wall with no furniture under it & nothing else on the wall is perfectly fine & I agree will look fab in your arrangement. But, in order to determine exact placement on wall & then, determine size needed to fit that placement, the furniture needs to be in place first. You'll need to determine placement on wall by height of furniture in front of it even though furniture is several feet away - the vantage / view points of looking at the art need to be determined. My fear on buying art too soon would be finding out the piece should've been larger, smaller or whatever but not the size I spent lots of $$ to buy!

    Sarah thanked KW PNW Z8
  • chispa
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    Plenty of people have large art placed alone on a wall. You are way overthinking these things. Many people can't afford large art or want to commit to such a large piece, but there are also many who do.

    Also many open plan houses these days don't have enough walls!

    Stop being a slave to "rules" that are only supposed to be guidelines for the inexperienced!

    Not sure where you looked on Houzz, but I found these by searching "large art" in Photos.


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    Sarah thanked chispa
  • shirlpp
    2 years ago

    Search - large artwork on wall.



    Sarah thanked shirlpp
  • Sarah
    Original Author
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    @chispa @shirlpp Thank you for those examples! It seems like everything I found just took me to large art above couches, but I really appreciate you posting those! That makes me feel better!

    @chispa You sound like my husband who was saying "who cares if other people do it? If it's what you want to do, do that!" The problem with that is that I have basically lived my life completely oblivious to the principles of good interior design, and it shows. I've never had a room that I really tried to make look nice, and now that I'm actually trying to do it, I don't really know how. Historically, I've found that my intuition seems to lead me to a place that makes a room that isn't how I want it to look. So making those decisions locally, based on what I think, is already proven to be untrustworthy and doesn't give me the result I want. So since our house is taking forever to be completed, I'm really taking this time to try to understand the principles of what makes a space nice. I'm a lot further along than I was, but I definitely still have a lot of gaps! I've been reading a lot of Maria Killam, and her framework for thinking about design and color and decor has really helped me get some intuition that I consider trustworthy. But I'm really having to lean on places like Houzz and Pinterest where I can look at a lot of photos that I like and don't like and really think about why I feel that way. (It's a fun problem to have, don't get me wrong!) But that's why the rules and guidelines have a perhaps outsized importance in my mind. I just don't know enough to know when I can confidently ignore them.

    @KW PNW Z8 Thank you for your perspective on that! My main motivation in choosing the art first is that I want to build the color and decor around the art. Not like super matchy-matchy, but maybe like this (from https://mariakillam.com/charcoal-sofa-before-after/):



    I like how the yellow, red, black, and gray from the art feels like part of the rest of the room, and together it makes one big whole. (A well-meaning friend once described this aesthetic to me as "too matchy-matchy," but I like it a lot, so c'est la vie.) It has proven to be quite difficult to find art that I like, at the price I like, of a subject I like, in the right size, and featuring the colors I want in my room. So my plan was to get the art first and build the rest of the room around that. We are going to be buying a lot of furniture in the next year or so because everything we already own is various non-matching shades of beige and really too small for this room anyway. So since we're doing that, I thought I'd start with the art and then find furniture that works harmoniously with that color scheme.

    Having said that, we are planning to get a white couch (perhaps inadvisably...) so there's no reason that the couch couldn't be placed before the art is. But I'm not sure how much that'll actually tell us that might affect the art purchase. The cost in waiting on the art is that then we can't start shopping for furniture until later. We're expecting to order our sectional over Black Friday and hopefully have it before Christmas (I know, I know, but Lovesac is saying they're still on 2-3 weeks lead time). So if we wait for that to arrive and then buy the art, the art will take a month or two, and that means we can't start shopping for anything with color until February. I guess that wouldn't be the end of the world, but if I incur that delay, I would want to make sure it's for a good reason. So that's my motivation there.

  • rrah
    2 years ago

    With your furniture placement and the doors, that wall and the area behind the sectional will function like a hall. Plenty of people have art hanging in halls or walk ways. I'm looking up into my family room right now. There's art hanging on the wall nearest a walk way. It would look bare without it.


    Sarah thanked rrah
  • ashtonchic
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    I think you're heading in the right direction. Center of large art should be at 60 inches, or eye level. I'd check Great Big Canvas to see some nice artwork. Or Art.com I think a large art piece would look great on that wall!

  • annoulaxeni
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    Such an interesting discussion and I so get your logic @Sarah! Here are my thoughts:

    1. IMHO rooms that work best don't try too obviously, that is, there's a subtle logic to the organization and alignment of elements within. For example, if you were to keep the sconces, align their tops with the tops of the doors symmetrically placed or not in terms of the doors. I'd love to see uplighter-only sconces (often painted the wall color) to emphasize the height and architecture of the room.
    2. I note you have no lighting on the TV wall which overall looks a bit too blank to me. You could add another wall sconce, centered and aligned with other sconces in the room. However instead I'd probably opt for a pair -- to continue the symmetry already happening on that wall -- of dimmable uplighters to sit either on the floor or on the TV table. Or, alternatively, some LED lighting (warm white please!) behind the TV itself. Placing tiny uplighters in front of vases of twigs or foliage would result in a wonderful play of pattern on that wall.
    3. Ambient lighting in a room should be balanced enough not to leave oddly dark areas (unless that's desired to disguise something). But sconces aren't the only solution and by far they're the most difficult to get right when you haven't lived for a while in the space. I see you have put in floor outlets and clearly on the artwork wall you have electrical supplies present, so why not move in, deal with the more significant pieces first, and by using flexible/moveable lighting for a bit, slowly progress toward confirming if you desire fixed wall lighting, and if so, where.
    4. I don't see the purpose of the second console. It doesn't hold a light (the table and floor lamps in the seating area are enough) so at least for now, I'd prefer to see that console on the artwork wall, with a single small light on the right to visually balance the collection of switches on the left. I wouldn't do anything else on that wall because this way you've created a very desirable single focal point, and you need surrounding 'white' space to enhance it.
    5. What do those gorgeous windows covering the one wall look out on? If it's city lights you're all set, but if not, do you have the ability to light something outside the windows? Big expanses of glass at night can be unpleasantly chilling.

    That's it for what I'd like to see in the room. I look forward to hearing about those windows :-).

    Oh, also, while Maria Killam's a good source for color guidance, for lighting guidance I'd go to John Cullen's website. As well as super-inspirational photos, they have a FABULOUS series of guidance videos well worth your time.

    Sarah thanked annoulaxeni
  • annoulaxeni
    2 years ago

    And before I leave the computer for the day ... my thoughts on color:

    1. Keep your major pieces ($$$) neutral, Add in your accents and the colors that will link various elements in the smaller, less-expensive pieces. That's why Maria Killam linked to the artwork via throw pillows.
    2. A white sofa can be gorgeous. It WILL get dirty quickly, even without dogs and kids (if you have either, personally I wouldn't) so make sure the cushions are reversible, and the covers are removable and washable.
    3. Choosing paint to go with other elements is easy because there are a zillion colors so it can happen last.
    4. Same logic for choosing a plain carpet.
    5. If, however, you're opting for a patterned area rug, that needs to be in the mix sooner rather than later, with it leading the other decisions -- includingthe sofa fabric decision, most likely, as there are any number of "whites."
    6. Wherever your house is open-plan, or even simply where one room is visable from another, your wall colors must in some way relate for a pleasing flow. The easiest route is white everywhere, the second easiest is a neutral everywhere, and the third easiest would be a group of carefully coordinated and curated but slightly different neutral. For different more saturated colors all over the place, hire a pro after carefully reviewing their work.
    7. And, finally, both in terms of color AND lighting, pay careful attention to the color temperature of all your lights!
    Sarah thanked annoulaxeni
  • Sarah
    Original Author
    2 years ago

    @annoulaxeni Thank you very much for your comments! I wanted to wait to reply until I had time to respond to your many points!


    Uplights: I love that idea. For a long time I've wanted tray lighting, and I was thinking about doing something at the base of the slopey part of our ceiling, like this:





    It would be down the line, but it's something I've been thinking about.


    > I see you have put in floor outlets and clearly on the artwork wall you have electrical supplies present, so why not move in, deal with the more significant pieces first, and by using flexible/moveable lighting for a bit, slowly progress toward confirming if you desire fixed wall lighting, and if so, where.


    I think this is what we will do. I believe everybody that the sconce placement is not the best, but since the builder won't move it anyway, this is a plan I can deal with. :)


    > I don't see the purpose of the second console.


    The primary purpose is to have a place to put drinks if you're sitting in the middle of the couch that isn't in the way if you want to stretch about. We're not only a TV family, but an eating-in-front-of-the-TV family, so it will be nice to have a place to put plates to keep them out of the way after we finish eating. (Since the ottoman will have our feet on it!) I've never had a big sectional before, so I'm just guessing here, but that's the motivation.


    > What do those gorgeous windows covering the one wall look out on?


    Right outside the windows is our back porch, which you can see a couple of pictures of here: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6146979/where-should-we-put-the-stairs-off-our-back-porch We also have a view of some trees, sky, and a few houses. The porch has a ceiling as high as the living room and we have can lights out there as well as a lighted ceiling fan. I'm not sure I entirely understand what you were getting at with your question there, but it sounded interesting and I would love to understand it!


    > Keep your major pieces ($$$) neutral, Add in your accents and the colors that will link various elements in the smaller, less-expensive pieces.


    This is what I'm going to try to do! Hopefully I am able to create the look I want.


    > A white sofa can be gorgeous. It WILL get dirty...


    Yes, for sure! We're going to get a Lovesac sectional where all the covers for seats/backs/cushions can be individually washed in the washing machine. The fabric we want ("coastal white weave") is recommended to line dry, so we may get one extra of each type so we always have a clean one to put on. I'm a little nervous to have a white couch, but browsing on Houzz it seems that people who want one usually find it to be worth the inconvenience of occasional washing. And having the covers be modular certainly minimizes the inconvenience.


    > Choosing paint to go with other elements is easy because there are a zillion colors so it can happen last.


    My plan is to leave the living room the neutral we've picked (SW Agreeable Gray) because of how open that area of the house is. If we changed the color in here, it would have to flow into a lot of other adjacent rooms. But we're okay with that, and I like this neutral a lot. I'm planning to put other colors in one or two other rooms later (that are not connected to the living room).


    > Same logic for choosing a plain carpet.


    If I can, I was going to try to find a rug that has 1-2 colors from the wall art in it. If I can't, I'll just get something neutral. I had read that indoor/outdoor rugs are much cheaper, and it seems Amazon has many large rug options that are relatively inexpensive (compared to a fancy real indoor rug), so I'm going to try that route first. We can't let the rug influence the couch color because we don't have many white options with Lovesac. One is a color I don't care for, another is pretty but in a fabric that apparently catches pet hair in a way that is hard to clean, and the others are microfibers and my husband can't stand to touch microfiber. So there's really only the one option for us, and we'll just have to find a rug somewhere that can work with that. I made my own Maria Killam undertone color wheel with Sherwin Williams paint samples (from the info at https://mariakillam.com/colourwheel/), so I'm hopeful that that will be enough to ensure I get a rug that is compatible. Fingers crossed.


    > And, finally, both in terms of color AND lighting, pay careful attention to the color temperature of all your lights!


    I have a feeling this is going to be an annoying thing to get right since we have high ceilings and can lights, but it drives me nuts when the lights in a room aren't the same color. So definitely I'm going to do this!


    Thank you very much for all your thoughtful comments!




  • Aidan Casey
    2 years ago

    Hey Sarah! I work for Paintru and we would love to help you with your custom piece of artwork. Please reach out to hello@paintru.com referencing this conversation with a link to it :)


    Cheers,

    Aidan & Team Paintru