Artistic opinions please

stickywicket

We are about to paint our quite large living room which has two recesses either side of the chimney breast. For years the walls have been white and the recesses terracotta (suite, curtains and carpet in neutrals).

Mr SW, strangely for him, wants the walls in very pale pink and the recesses in pale green. To me this sounds very 'Monet' and, although I love Monet and think I'd like it in, maybe, a bedroom, I'm not sure I want it in the living room. Would you?

I'm thinking more of very pale grey walls with either the pink or a deep blue in the recesses.

The walls will be in Dulux's light & space range which is a bit limited on colour. Most are yellowy shades but we already have a yellow dining room, cream and white kitchen and an oatmeal bathroom.

barbara12

Do they do a bluey grey or pale blue its goes lovely with pink..or cream but suppose that is boring like my living room :roll:

Susiesoo

I wouldn't want Monet in a living room. I'd go for the pale grey and a blue. I think I'd rather see pink in a bedroom, but probably not mine. And while cream is always nice, it is a bit safe. You could always have white again with nice blue recesses. But then blue is my favourite colour! Good luck...it is such a big decision.

Susie

bubbadog

Rather than paint walls colours we keep the walls cream and put painting/pictures up of the colours we fancy that way we can change the colours when we want. At the moment we are going for light in the lounge seating area and dark at the top of the lounge leading to conservatory because we have dark settee's now.

theresak

Duck-egg blue seems very popular these days. We`ve just painted our living room, but bought a very pale eau-de-nil, which I`m quite pleased with. Your room sounds similar to ours, with the recesses - we did all the walls the same, and have pictures/photos up.

tkachev

pink is very cold in a lounge and doesn't go with many other colours so I would stay away from it. One tip is to paint lining paper with tester pots and carry it around the room to see how each colour looks in different places and at different times of the day.

The grey and blue sound lovely and maybe make the fireplace wall more of a feature with a darker colour?

Having said that my walls are boring magnolia but like bubbadog I'm planning on putting up artwork.

Whatever colour you use try to pick it out with throws, cushion covers or a vase.

Elizabeth

LignumVitae

I'm going to be the odd one out here and side with Mr SW. I think the green and pink could work. They have a bit of a 1950s flavour but pale enough they won't look kitch and will look fresh- also has a bit of sand dune marram grass and seashells colours going on. That said, it a depends on the character of your house, it might look odd in something distinctly modernist or post modernist...it all beats my current issue, Mr LV wants to paint our chimney breast bright pink to brighten up our front room. I just think 9 year old girls bedroom

villier

I like the sound of the grey and the blue in the recesses, this is from some one that has magnolia everywhere :shock: like some of the others I put a splash of colour with art work xx

stickywicket

Thanks for your very interesting and useful input, everyone.

The goalposts have just shifted somewhat as yesterday we bought a rather nice second hand (so no colour choice) dark green leather armchair to replace a tatty, ancient beige one.

Elizabeth, I'm intrigued by your 'pink' statement. Is that so? I'd have thought pink was a warm colour though I accept it would be difficult to match up with another colour. (I am talking pale, soft pinks. I dislike the harsher, deeper ones.) I hadn't thought about the chimney breast thing but it sounds a definite possibility. Thanks.

Have I heard somewhere that blue sucks light out of a room or am I imagining that? I'm intrigued by these light-enhancing paints as most are shades of pale yellow or off-whites. There are three greens a pink and a grey but no blues at all.

tkachev

I'm a bit frightened of pink and I do find it cold! I painted my first lounge pink and hated it but could not afford to repaint it. I have pink and pale green print on curtains in a bedroom and they look lost against the magnolia walls. They would be better suited in a small bedroom. And now I have a very pale pink on my bedroom wall and I do find it cold. I compensate with red bedding.

Then again now you have a dark green sofa Mr SW might like the coolness of a pale colour combination of pink/green.



Elizabeth

stickywicket

Given the dark green chair we have now bought very pale green for the main walls. When they're done we shall take stock and decide what to do with the recesses and chimney breast

LignumVitae

You can now get glittery paint, just thought I would add that to the mix it does lots for light and space! I used the light and space range from Dulux in my lounge for ages, I can't say that I massively noticed the difference but that may be because it spent most of it's time under cobwebs and dust.

tkachev

Dare I say a bit of orange will look nice with the green, a hint in the curtains, a rug, throw or cushions.


Elizabeth x

stickywicket

Ah yes, the cobweb / dust decorations :roll: We do them too.

I've tried hard to think of Mr SW and 'sparkly' at the same time. I always end up with him in his Widow Twnky outfit at a work's panto aeons ago. He looked very scary. I don't think I want to re-live that

Well, three walls are now Nordic something or other ie such pale green it looks white most of the time. The skirting boards, window sills and radiators will shortly be a very slightly deeper green because he wanted to do them right now and we couldn't really decide what we wanted individually let alone together. The fourth wall will probably get done 12 months on The cushions are still red until I know where we're going.