It’s getting nervous up in here. I love to make decisions for other people, but when it comes to myself I will waffle endlessly if given the chance. So, on one hand it’s probably a good thing that the baby is theoretically coming in four months. On the other hand, I’m starting to panic that we’re going to end up with a patchwork quilt of insanity because I have to make too many choices too quickly.
Mostly I’m freaking about all the colors I’m slathering all over the walls. Teal, coral, peach, navy, oh probably some green while I’m at it… how many colors can one house reasonably (gracefully) hold?
I’m kind of a colorphobe. My downstairs closet is full of gray and black and navy. But my secret upstairs closet (the going out closet) is full of orange and pink and gold and turquoise and acid green. It seems that I almost always chicken out at the 11th hour when deciding if I should slip into something more colorful — I pretty much have to be hitting the bars at midnight to fluff my peacock feathers.
But I know that while there’s definitely an allure to cool and aloof, everyone wants to party with the crazy girl in color.
Am I right?
Still, I don’t want to go berserk in here. Crazy should not equal slutty. I just don’t think I’d be comfortable most of the time dealing with that much stimulation… from color. Duh.
I will admit to loving just a restrained shot of color — that perfect foil for an otherwise neutral and serene palette.
But I don’t know… once I get going I kind of can’t stop myself.
And then things get interesting.
I’d like to know what you think about “the rules” regarding color in decor. How many colors can you balance in one room? Three? Five? Infinity?
What about in a whole house?
I mean, we’re definitely going beyond light beige, medium beige, and dark beige here.
But can every room be a different color?
Please discuss.
[Pinterest, Porter wallpapers/fabrics, AD, Jeffrey Bilhuber, Pinterest, World of Interiors, Luxe Interiors]
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Of course every room can be a different color! Our little Central Austin 3/2 has 7 colors + our dining room is white. When we renovated, our contractors commented that they had never painted so many colors in one house before – and none of them were beige or tan. My husband was nervous, but what’s a little paint?
My sister’s first house had 11 different paint colors – including metallic silver, blood red, and a Tide detergent orange laundry room. (It sold in 4 days, so it couldn’t have been that bad!)
I have no choice but to return to see what the experts say about this. I, too, am a total color whore that questions the decision to dive in head first. Part of me thinks that it’s such an art to be able to make all of that gloriousness work together seamlessly, and that I should just embrace it (that part of me wants to tell you to do the same). And then part of me thinks that I need to calm the hell down (but I probably wouldn’t tell you to do the same because I want so badly to listen to my colorful side, and you’re quite good a color, my friend).
I reread that and I sound crazy, but I don’t have it in me to reword it. You get what I’m saying, right?
Yes — more is more!
And if you hate it, you can just re-paint it. Or paper over it.
I am no color expert. In fact, I am shy with color and relegate it to decorative accessories and art. However, my feeling has always been if you really love something, be it a sofa, a lamp, wallpaper, a certain color…its use will only serve to personalize your space and make it grand. I believe you addressed this phenomenon in a long-ago post about eclecticism. If you have plans for teal, coral, peach and navy, follow through! It’s not like you haven’t thought about it enough…the results will undoubtedly be beautiful. My two cents.
Oh you minxy maximalist pushers!
I love you all.
I think one room can have tons of colors, no limit really…print on print action and all that. But I have trouble when I walk through a front door and I can see multiple rooms in different colors and different intensities that are displeasing together. I want each viewpoint to look…harmonious. And that is hard to do if you don’t play it safe. The colors you listed seem like they would go well together. I always imagine all the wall colors as a striped fabric–Would you ever buy that stripe, or is it ghastly?
But those more expert than I just remind you to have a place your eyes. Whatever that means.
A place to rest your eyes.
I shouldn’t do this while on conference calls, should I?
I’m a big fan of a whole house palette, but each room should definitely have its own identity. While some rooms may be more like an acoustic guitar and a single voice, others might be a rock band sporting several guitars, keyboards, backing vocals, etc. You can choose to do a symphony of colors as long as they all play well together. What the rooms that open to each other should share is harmony, but each space can have its own melodies, its own bright spots, loud spots, crazy spots, cool spots. My favorite kind of music has a surprise – using violins in modern rock, or adding pianos and horns to electronica – so make your house delight and surprise you. Safe only gets you so far.
Just me – but I really respond to the jolt of color in an otherwise calmed palette. I’ve had rooms in wild color combinations and also all white/beigy/bleach but in the end you get bored with either and just start over. Go with your personality of the moment – tho for now you are a raging mass of prenatal hormones so maybe take a raincheck on that. I know, no help at all.
I have various thoughts on this.
(1) My taste is relatively specific (though sometimes I think that it is also in flux). You have a decor/MCM/regency vibe running through your choices. I love that you do that, but it’s not what I do. I like antiques. So, consider the source and all that.
(2) I hate white walls. Also, I hate when people have white walls and go on about their “pops of color” as if they are brave and adventuresome. It’s a pillow. Get a grip.
(3) I hate beige walls even more. And some beiges are worse than others, and the worst beige ever invented was the one painted in EVERY ROOM of our prior rental, which was largely redeemed by its irrepressible cuteness. But that beige was still an abomination unto the Lord. I may not be capable of fairness on this issue.
(4) I have never had an “open-floor-plan” house and (see above about antiques) I don’t expect I ever will. So things might be different if I did. But I think every room should be a different color. The alternative seems like a wasted opportunity.
(5) It seems to me that all the colors in the rooms should cohere, at least in the abstract. So a psychedelic room and a black room with silver molding and rooms with grandma pastel wallpaper don’t necessarily belong in the same house, though they could all be cool.
(6) I love the idea of picturing the colors in a striped multi to imagine the palette. Your colors (we’ve only seen pictures of a few, but from their descriptions) sound like they would make a lovely patterned fabric.
(7) Which palette you pick has to depend on psychology at some level. I love the idea of deep, bold color and SERIOUSLY antique wallpaper. Someday (in a house with foot-wide crown moldings that I can picture in my mind) I will do this. Right now, we live in an urban area and we’re both country people, so it wears us down. My husband is truly depressed, and I sometimes veer that way myself. We both work during most of the sunlight. So my color palette dove right into luminous and aggressively cheerful without me realizing it. I’m very happy with that. But you live in a place where the sunshine can be near oppressive, and you don’t seem at all depressed. Your colors may be ruled by a different ethos.
Also, you have awesome taste. I don’t really see a strong possibility of you going wrong. And I can’t WAIT to see that wallpaper in place.
So, my house has a palette of navy, raspberry, teal, blush pink, green, charteuse, orange, yellow, brown, black, gold, and white. (Sorry, purple, you seem to be the only guy left out here.) But I only put strong color on the walls in a couple of rooms, and they aren’t next to each other. To make it all work, colors repeat throughout the house. So the raspberry on the guest room curtains picks up in the living room art. Know what I mean? (Of course you do-I’m pretty sure you do this.) If a color doesn’t relate to something already in the house, I don’t use it. (Though there are exceptions to that, too!) Recently, I’ve also found that one throughline can make it all work–in this case, there are somehow yellow accents in every room, mostly in very tiny doses. So, I say use all those colors–just make sure some walls give you breathing room.
go for it Erin! do what makes you happy right now. lord knows, we all change things eventually anyway (too often in my case!). it seems like the rooms in my house where i really committed are my favorites (wallpaper, paint or lots of prints). as a matter of fact, i am wishing my newish gray sofa were pink! also, since your main living room area is a nice neutral color (like mine)-go with what you want in the other rooms! just my two (totally unprofessional) cents.
so I just recently found your blog and I really love it. I had to see the comments and had to put in my two cents. I have found that as I get older I am painting my places with far less color…I have had every color room imaginable other than beige. I STILL don’t do beige. I think its great to do a fabulous bright room or two, I mean go NUTS with tiny rooms, its so much fun…but I do find I prefer a quieter color in the bigger room particularly if I’m going to be hanging a lot of art, it can be tough to make your favorite paintings work on bright aqua etc…but grays w a bit of color are always lovely. Just do your tests because I can’t tell you how many times I assumed I would be able to figure out the color with out testing and honey, I was DEAD WRONG. I’m a textile designer/painter so I guess maybe its easy for me to scoff at the idea of a house wide color palette as I may already be a bit “bohemian”…but really truly you should not. I always consider what colors you see from each room but if you have coral in the kitchen and kelly green in the upstairs bath who cares if they aren’t perfect together…but grayed lilac in the living room and a fabulous true red in the adjoining hall = sublime. Have fun…do your thing…and please for god’s sake don’t do an accent wall.
I don’t really have anything to add that hasn’t already been said, but I’m dying to see this closet of yours!
i say there is no rule. i say its what you won’t get sick of that will work for you.
i am a color phobe though so i’m the worst for your needs.
oh! i will say this- trust yourself. you have great taste…you won’t fuck up your house.
I stick with pops of color and shy away from wacky colors…but only because it’s easier to pair the “pops” with my steady neutrals. Usually the color comes from art.
There really isn’t a rule though…if youre comfortable with it, then go for as many as you want!
i just found this blog and HAD to comment because i love it! i have now spent an hour combing through this blog and avoiding work. stalked on erin on flickr and i am pining for the couches in your living room. saw one at an antique market just like the tan one and then was googling chesterfields and came across YOUR room which had both! amazing. that’s how i found you. thanks for writing!
I’m one of those with a blood red living room — the entire room, not an accent wall. For a touch more excitement, every room in my little house is a different color . . . and none of them are white or any kind of neutral.
Though I like to think that my lovely, green bedroom is a kind of ‘natural neutral’.
I blame this on growing up in rental houses where we were never allowed to paint.
Or, maybe it’s just how I roll.
There are no rules.
And like Jenny said, you are amazing. I don’t believe for a second that you will fuck up your house. Take a deep breath and dive in…I think you’ll surprise yourself.
For years, I dreamed of an all flax-colored oatmeal-hued house. All variations on taupey-gray. It was because things were cah-razy town at work and my mind and emotions were on fire. Now, the idea of an all-taupe or all-gray house makes me sad. I love color and need it. My boldest colors are in our living room. Honestly, we just don’t use that room that much — but you pass through it going to either end of our stretched-out ranch house. I love the oranges and red and purples. Love it. If I can get my crap together I’ll be painting our hallway chinese red. I guess my only rule is to ground all that color with a huge amount of neutral. Like wood tones, sisal rugs, white walls, black walls, etc. It settles everything down. I also like analogous colors. Again it all seems settled down, easy. Erin! You are brilliant with decor. Anything you do will be stunning. Go for it. Have fun. Be wild. Do it.
Edited color. It’s not like you are talking about just color for walls, right? You mean color in various forms. Stand in those corners where you can see multiple areas and stare for awhile to make sure things jive. (I’m sure you already have.)
You are already on a great pace with your wallpaper choices. I think if you keep throwing in those sames hues into the various spaces it will all work great. And just mix in a healthy dose of white or wood whenever you feel color overload.
Your main living area (great room) will read lighter since you have those massive walls so the space you are in the most wont overwhelm your sensitive color senses.
It’ll be so gorgeous and you will no doubt continue to tinker and edit even after the babe arrives. It’s in our nature!
In my living room, which I am currently redecorating, I have almost every color of the rainbow. But they are pastels, so it reads as very colorful but somewhat neutral. (promise that it looks better than it sounds) And as far as the rest of my house….every room is different. Though I do try and bring cohesiveness to the spaces when they are open to one another.
I do think that rules are not set in stone, and I love the chance of starting fresh in every room.
Love your posts-btw-they are super hilarious. I don’t know why I haven’t followed you sooner.