Home & Garden one more decorating question (painting)

How to paint the stairway/entryway/dining/living area - they flow in into each other

  • Paint the stairway/entryway one color, the dining/living another

  • Paint the stairway one color and the entryway/dining/living another

  • Paint them all the same color


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Sep 30, 2007
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OK, bathroom looks gorgeous (i'll take pics as soon as the touchups are done and accessories are hung), but now we are moving to painting our bedroom, hall/stairway and dining/living room.

But now I'm torn on what to do for painting the stairway and upstairs hallway, our connecting entryway and the dining/living which all 'touch' the stairway.

If you have different suggestions from the poll, please explain.
 
I think the walls need to be a different color, no matter what your color choice is, but I truly believe you need to take a few same colored objects from one room to the other, be it in your accessories i, or curtains, or whatever, into a print or painting or vase or other object into the hall and dining. It's up to you, of course, but I think the walls need to be different.
 
I agree with some color flow between rooms (and they do)... I'm thinking they need to be different too... Now in what way?

The one color I have picked already is a sagey green, medium tone with some olive undertones. I could go two up on the chip, or go a totally different color for the stairway. The adjoining kitchen will be a cranberry/cherry red.

maybe something in the brown family?
 
That would look great! I know what you mean about in the "brown" family.....I was thinking of something like putty or something. But going monochromatic is very attractive, too.
 
This is so tough, right now EVERYTHING is offwhite - top to bottom (it was like this when we bought it). Now that I've convinced my husband that color is our friend, I think he's warming up to it, but he's SLOW to committing and is basically putting his trust in me.

My contractor (who is painting the stairway for me - I'll be doing the rest) says the sage green seems dark for the hallway, but then again, this is the man who was unsure of my tile choice and now he loves it and was unsure of my paint choice and made me waffle to turn it ORANGE (OK, apricot) and I hated that and now he likes it, even the plumber was like, "Oh, nice color" And he had seen the orangish one the day before and didn't comment! LOL



This is tough because I don't want to have to redo it for a LONG, LONG time.

I'm also thinking this - those stairways get rubbed against and handprints - same with the entryway, so going too light wouldn't be good, but then light color you wouldn't see a dent or a gash because the drywall is similar color to the lighter colored paint.

But all I know is that every home that has medium/dark tones in it are WARM feeling and not so 'chill" of white or off white. Decisions, decisions.
 
I think a light tan would be great for the stairway and would compliment the sage. You have to be careful with stairwells because they can look really dark with dark paint. So pick something that's got some brown, but is still a light color.
 
you should typically have only 3 colors (excluding bedrooms) in your house. I would do the halls/entry one color and the living room dining one color ... BUT if your house is very open I might do it all one color with just an accent wall. What color is your kitchen ?

Are you able to post pic's of what this space looks like?
 
I don't have pics and it would be really hard to try to show it, but think townhouse with three distinct levels, but the one going up is open to the dining room/entryway.

My kitchen (i'm priming now) is a dark red (think cranberry/cherry color), and then I have the dining room and living room in one color and essentially these two rooms are one room, only separated by a bulkhead and a couple of rectangular "pillars". I really think I want the stairway and entryway one color and the living dining another with the kitchen being red.

Now WHICH color is the question. The contractor is painting our room now and it is such a LIGHT green that it barely looks like there's color which is fine for our bedroom, but I want more color for our living/dining and entryway - especially to be more harmonious with such a dark kitchen.

I definitely want the living room/dining a green color as it will go so well with EVERYTHING... I was thinking of going lighter in the hallway, but then it will be way light. If I go darker in the living room, I think my husband will die. Let me see if I can get pictures of my colors a bit.
 
BBB, bravo to you for using color! So many people are afraid of it but once done, a deep color can look so rich and inviting! What people may not realize is that saturated paint color does not always "close" a room down but instead can make it look bigger. I've done a few rooms in our house a deep, saturated color (e.g. a deep jungle green in the "Man Cave") and it somehow makes the room more spacious-looking than it is.

We just painted every room, hallway, staircase, you name it in our house and we used the same paint color for every hallway and staircase - kind of as a "theme" of them not being rooms. My point was to connect all rooms by this single color (a warm cream with pinkish undertones) and then delineate enclosed or open rooms by using color - e.g. a rich orangey-red-spice color for the living room (LOVE IT), gray-blue-foggy color for our bedroom, etc.

What you might want to do is use a complimentary color for the living/dining room adjacent to your kitchen. So the red/cranberry might look nice by a sea green with a bit of turquoise in the living/dining room - and that color can be of a different tint than your more saturated red/cranberry.

I love playing around with color wheels and suspect you do too (?)

http://www.interior-design-it-yourself.com/decorating-color-schemes.html
 
When we lived in Michigan all of our walls were white and we had beige carpeting throughout with dark wood. When we moved to Florida, we made the decision to use color on the walls and we went for monochromatic browns.....like coffee with cream and peanut butter looking.....gee, like food.......and we did one bath in a soft green. I love the look. I am so glad that we have color, and I am glad that berryblondeboys is having so much fun with her decisions, too!
 
Ok, here are some pics. Remember, we are in the middle of painting the kitchen, remodeling a bathroom and switching rooms, so LOTS of stuff is out.

First is our picture of our sofa (just got it). The wood piece beside it actually belongs in my husband's study (which is moving), so disregard that wood) Other woods in that room are dark walnut (piano and table/china cabinet) and midtone oak.
IMG_3293.jpg


Second is the color of the kitchen (chips show actual color, the wall color is now just primer), cabinets are oak, with a black island and black granite with brown on the counters.
IMG_3298.jpg

Then I show the curtain in the living room with the sage paint chip
IMG_3299.jpg


and then I show the entryway into the living area and the living area into the entryway.

IMG_3302.jpg


IMG_3303.jpg
 
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Thanks for the pics, BBB (your DS is so cute btw!!). I LOVE the sage color for the living room - it looks really nice against your curtains and think it would compliment your sofa too. :tup:
 
It sounds like you are having fun with the decorating but there is stress added because you want to get it right the first time. I love to decorate and paint. Right now I am still painting our house. I think a beautiful/dark tan color would look stunning in the hallway/stairs. I am in the process of doing mine too. My entrance opens to my formal living room/dining room. I painted the front room a medium pottery barn green color/it is kind of like your green paint chip.
It has white trim and plantation shutters. I am using benjamin moore acapulco sand #2105/60 for my entrance and stairs. It is a very pretty color. I like their colors. The other two I also thought of was soft sand #2106-60 and bermuda sands #2100-60. I personally would go a bit towards these colors versus a light color in my entrance/stairs. It was first painted a very light beige and even though I wash the walls when I sit on the steps and really look one can see how dirty they get from the kids running up and down stairs. Same with the entrance. I do have some light in the entrance, there is a big window above the front door and it is a 2 story entrance. I myself did not think darker colors would work in this area until I started to see other people's homes. One painted a deep red with stunning art on the wall in black frames and a large black entrance table and it is so beautiful. Another painted medium blue and it is really pretty. I love pottery barn colors and how they decorate in their magazines and if you go to the pottery barn website you can check out their colors and they even go back a year or two. I have been very inspired in some of their colors and how they are put togeter with two to a room. I want to do a accent wall that my fireplace is on in a deep color with lighter colors in the rest of my family room. Now that I have started to use deeper colors my light florida pastel colors seem boring......I painte my bedrooom light green and I wish I went darker now. I have been thinking of a red with a tint of burgundy for my eat in kitchen. I am really drawn to that color in kitchens.
Good luck.
 
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Thanks for the pics, BBB (your DS is so cute btw!!). I LOVE the sage color for the living room - it looks really nice against your curtains and think it would compliment your sofa too. :tup:

Ah, thanks, we think he's cute too... I just put a coat of "cherry cobbler" on my walls in the kitchen and it goes on a dark hot pink, I was so worried, but almost instantly it darkens - weird. Now, to go from WHITE in the kitchen to deep red will take some getting used to, but I did a sketch up and played with colors and the red is what looked best, so we'll see!