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Design Dilemma Home Decorating

what color curtains would help to tone down/offset a knotty pine ceili

last year

last modified: last year

We have painted our walls Sherwin Williams alabaster white and are using an urbane bronze as accent inside the window wells. We have new luxury vinyl flooring that has a light oak pattern. Other colors range from taupe to beige for a neutral wall to hang quilts, artwork etc.

Wondering what color curtains and or area rugs might tone down the yellow orange knotty pine ceiling?

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Comments (15)

claire larece
last year
last modified: last year
can you post a pic for the houzzers to see. You can do a Dark Flax, a soft Olive grey green, black in cotton or linen.
Denise Marchand
last year
I recently saw an amazing Berkshires NY home in all knotty pine. Here are a few rooms with colors I would have never thought of:
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I think I'd get wood fatigue also and might try a white-wash technique in some rooms. Perhaps a bedroom or even just on a ceiling. The link Chris11895 posted shows Sarah's bunkie at her cottage. This is Sarah's answer to the treatment they did on the pine walls: Sarah Richardson says, "In order to get the effect we achieved with the whitewashing we simply rolled semi-transparent oil-based stain tinted in a variety of shades (see the source guides) and then brushed the joints to ensure an even application. Be sure to test an area first and perfect your technique before rolling away! We did not wipe off the stain as recommended because I wanted greater coverage, but the effect was achieved with a single coat. Note: You cannot apply a whitewash stain over panelling which has a urethane coating - it won't penetrate (the only solution here is to paint it in a solid stain)." IMO if the walls have a urethane coating you could do another urethane coat with the addition of some paint. Test it on a scrap of wood or in an inconspicuous place like inside a closet to see if the proportions of paint and urethane gives you the finish you want. You should still see the wood grain but the overall effect will be lighter if white paint is used, and a faint tint of color if a colored paint is used. Always use the same type of paint and stir carefully and frequently as it settles. If you don't want to paint the walls you might use window treatments outside the edge of the windows so they cover part of the walls. Using lots of art or hangings on the walls will give more interest and cover more wood. Use either lots of neutrals or lots of color in WT and furniture, whichever your preference. I would probably use lots of colored/patterned area rugs such as Oriental or southwestern styles. Or seagrass if you go for a neutral look. Alternatively you could just embrace the wood look and use wood furniture in different tones and lots of dark fabrics in WT and upholstery. Cozy cabin style.
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I have yellowed knotty pine on the walls of my late 40s/early 50s beach cottage with oak flooring. Works for me (primarily because I got a great deal on the oak when I was looking to replace the skanky and probably original early 50s carpet), but I was really intrigued by the possibility of using cork or real linoleum flooring in the room. I think it would have looked great - it was just a bit pricey in my situation. Both are supposed to hold up to pet traffic very well and happen to be more or less era appropriate with a room full of knotty pine.
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Great improvement so far! I would leave the fireplace hearth as is since it blends into your hardwood floors. For pillows, you can either remove the bolster pillows to use two large pillows on each end of the sofa, or just have covers made for the bolster pillows in another fabric. I would use navy blue or fluffy white for pillows. I like the teak chairs in the room, but an armchair could also work. Try to find a simple, short enclosed shelf to use under your window to block the outlet, cords, and equipment rather than the tall end table that is there currently. If you have to keep the tv there, you can get white cord concealers to run the cords down the side of the fireplace so they aren't so noticeable.
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Is your husband an expert in color or interior design or an artist? Does he really believe he knows better than all the experts and designers? There are a dozen blog sites written by people who spend their lives learning about paint color and they all say the same thing about white in a room without really good lighting. ------------------------------------ "This is a great question and the answer is, if you don’t have enough light streaming in your house for most parts of the day, then white is not the best idea. What will happen instead is your walls will look gray and dingy because the shadows all on their own will simply cause your white walls to appear gray." Maria Killam ---------------------------------------- "Why Can’t I Paint a Dark Room Bright White? The most counter-intuitive tip is that you need lots of light for white paint to look good. If you have a dark room, white gets shaded in the corners and turns into a dingy gray." Color Concierge --------------------------------------------- "Design Mistake #3: Painting a Small, Dark Room White" - Emily Henderson ------------------------------------------- I have been painting for over 50 years and studying interior paint colors for the past 20 years. I say do not paint the room white with great confidence. I understand how white works and when it works well. I often share the following information when someone wants white and it is a bad idea. . . HOW WHITE WORKS White needs light to look good
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PRO
JAN MOYER
last year
last modified: last year
Paint the darn ceiling ! Why would you want orange knotty pine up there? It's not a sin to paint it. Doesn't even have to be white. : )

No matter the curtains, nothing else will change the orange/yellow knotty pine.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
I agree and BTW not an easy job but well worth the effort . Those pics of "Knotty pine " sure do not look like the knotty pine I know I do not see one knot let alone hundreds .
Connie Stackhouse
last year
Painting knotty pine is a nightmare with all those knots. Embrace it and design around it.
tracefloyd
last year
We have a knotty pine ceiling and accent wall in our bedroom. The walls are white. We have leafy/olivy solid green drapes on the french doors and two windows and it looks fantastic. They are all to the floor with black rods and quite dramatic...really the only decor in the room, just a few b/w photos in black frames.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
A nice green cetainly is a choice . To paint you will need to clean well, 2 coats of shellac based primer and 2 coats of paint . It is entierly up to you . But please post pics of the space to get any real help.
tracefloyd
last year
last modified: last year
No, we didn't paint the knotty pine ceiling and knotty pine accent wall. I need to clarify that the three sheetrock walls in our bedroom are white.
palimpsest
last year
last modified: last year
It would not be a bad choice to have the curtains or drapery almost match the wall color to create an even band of color around the walls as a sort of background for everything else in the room.

My third floor has an exposed rafter, sheathing and collar tie ceiling that is stained very dark brown. I guarantee that if I posted it in here most people would hate it and would say to paint it or drywall over it. Two of the neighboring houses have insulated it and drywalled over it and those rooms went from at least interesting straight to "upstairs bedroom in a Levittown Cape Cod" overnight. Totally generic.

We have all walls, doors, trim and curtains white in that room to offset the ceiling. You would not have to use all white, but all one color, whatever you choose, would be a nice counterpoint to the ceiling instead of a bunch of color changes around the walls.
tracefloyd
last year
@palimpsest That ceiling sounds very nice. We have something similar in our living room but of course in knotty pine as in the rest of the house. I would never paint it. Please Kyle, don't paint!!!

I forgot about the colorful quilts and artwork...forget the green. I like that idea of curtains and rug in a similar shade as the walls for this room as you are using colorful decor. What about matching the pine ceiling? Bring that color down into the room, it's a thought.

It depends of the shade of pine. A darker camel or lighter rust color, an antique gold or a rich brown, all would be stunning. I don't think you need to "tone down" the ceiling. These hues would bring that wood color down into the room and would go with your neutral scheme.
tracefloyd
last year
Wait a sec...you already have wood floors, Go with cream or ivory neutral carpet and window treatments. Perfect monochrome backdrop for your art.

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Kyle Walker
Original Author
last year
I would like to paint the pine but every male member of the family votes no! Here are pics of our base palette to date. Trying for a modern rustic vibe. Still contemplating what color molding and curtain/area rug colors to offset the yellow cast of the ceiling. Natural light does flood the room via a large patio sliding door. Thanks all.
elcieg
last year
Lovely, Denise, but those walls and ceiling are not knotty pine.
elcieg
last year
last modified: last year
Why would all those males vote no? "Cause they may have to paint it.

Paint it and do Alabaster in flat finish. If the floors were wood and in the same tone of the ceiling, I could see keeping the ceiling, but the floors are LVF (I have no idea why they call it "luxury") and that has changed the whole vibe of the room.

With your base palette, and your modern/rustic theme, I hope the quilts are modern/rustic and you can pull from them the colors of your furniture. I would only hang plain fabric at the windows. You don't want to compete with the quilts.
palimpsest
last year
last modified: last year
Why would all those males vote no?

Maybe because they are allowed to have an opinion about what the inside of the house looks like too, it's not just females who get to pick everything inside?

If the final vote is to not paint it, I think you are going to have to work With it rather than trying to ignore it.

Right now your proposed color palette is going to look a little pinkish with that ceiling and it's going to highlight the orangey yellow color of it.

I frequently see people trying to work with an existing finish by picking out everything else to go with the finish they Wish it Was instead of the finish it actually Is. Ignoring it and hoping it will go away is not going to work, and I see people trying to do that all the time.

Of course that is one way to force someone who doesn't want to paint it to paint it, by picking things that look better if you went ahead and painted it after all.

I don't really have a strong opinion either way. Looking at one picture like this I might be tempted to paint it too. I have no context really. But if you are Not going to paint it you have to work with it.

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