I'd take too deep/bright/loud colors over boring any day of the week.

But then, I have eight different colors of paint in the six rooms that are almost remodeled. Two more rooms, and three or four more colors, and I'll be finished...except for the basement that really needs color.

I am neither a high-style maven nor in the least concerned with "what's in" so you have to take my suggestions with a grain of salt...or the whole Margarita!

I'd stay safe/neutral with "boring" and go bold w/ accessories that you can easily switch out~

While your house is being built, get a bunch of posterboard or something, and small samples of paint to give you an idea of what the colors may look like in various lights.

Then you'll have some of the colors narrowed down. Meanwhile, look at a ton of mags and books!

Definitely boring causes more anxiety. I have different colors in every room. I get depressed without some pizzaz. But then again, everyone has their own opinions. The great thing about paint is that it is fairly easy to change. What helped me most in deciding colors, was to buy the foam poster boards and paint samples on them. Then I could carry the boards around to different areas and see them in different lights. It helped enormously with figuring out color flow.

I was in the same situation two years ago. I elected to use a full spectrum paint for my "builder beige" and I am just not a beige person! I had most of my home painted in EK Amy's Sarasota Sand and, while I have very slowly been adding color since we moved in, the Sarasota Sand continues to be very pleasing in a variety of rooms and light conditions.

The beauty of a full spectrum paint is that it is never boring. Even a relatively tame neutral will have a certain liveliness that you wouldn't get with a "regular" paint. I am currently working on my basement TV room and the color looks great down there with very little natural light and fluorescents (ick!). Even I am surprised at how accommodating my beige has turned out to be.

I repainted my MB not long after moving in, did a faux technique that turned out to look like worn leather (loved how it turned out) the colors were bold and rich, I was pleased with my work.

The best compliment I ever received on it was from my DH (a born and raised southern boy, who lived in a monochromatic house (ok all white walls) all his life, who by the way was perfectly content with ALL the walls IN EVERY ROOM, being the same color...ugh)

When I was finished, I asked him how he liked it, his reluctant response to me was, well it's fine.... if you lived in a house in NYC. HA, well mission accomplished then, I turned a drab room in pale yellowy/white contractors paint into something that would be in a designer mag (ok, well maybe not, but it did have some pizzaz) YE HA

And yes, you CAN always repaint it...good luck, the poster board samples are a great idea since you are uncertain what you want. do up a bunch of them in bold and less bold, walk in and out of the room numerous times and recored your initial and repeated responses to them. Do you have access to the house as it's being worked on?

Don't be afraid of color! It's fun and alive. You can still have calm and/or warm with a vibrant color palette, just pick colors that remind you of things you love and you can't go wrong.

Why can't you redo your paint? I just love color. It's the happy factor for me. It's also cheaper than a therapist. ha. I use neutral furniture and color on the walls. It's cheaper to change paint color down the road than recover furniture. I have to preface anything I say with the statement that I've always loved color...and have used it liberally my whole life. Maybe it's because I'm from New Orleans and am used to the rich French/Carribbean/Spanish influence that is so very colorful. My previous home was a 1930s era raised Acadian and I used yellow, green, periwinkle, shrimp, turquoise and other happy colors. I grounded things with lots of white trim a few pops of black here and there. Currently, I'm remodeling the downstairs of my 1981 home that was built in the style of MCM. I'd have never chosen the home, but here I am...and I decided to make the best of it. This house was a builder's grade special back in 1981 with zero upkeep over the years. Since it really has no architectural charm (at least none to my taste) and there is little natural light, I decided bold color was the way to go. I am using black and white fabrics (some solid, some patterns) with turquoise walls (LR, DR) and apple green walls (Kitchen). I thought it would end up looking great, but it's looking so much better than I ever imagined. When I'm finished I'll post photos. So many people on this forum have been so helpful along the way. Good luck with your decision.

I'd pick a neutral tone -- and then add color with accessories like fabrics, artworks, rugs etc.

THEN -- after letting the house tell me what it needs -- I would change to deeper richer tones on the walls.

Jan at Rosemary Cottage

Do you have any short walls or walls that are broken up with large doorways or openings? Those are good candidates for accent walls where you can use a bolder color. We have a 'safe' color in the great room and mudroom, which are viewable from the kitchen. The kitchen is then bolder with a baked clay color on a big wall that has 2 openings, and a short wall next to the opening to the dining room (also a bit out there: a purple/gray color.) (The rest of the kitchen is mostly cabinets and backsplash so we didn't need much paint on the other kitchen walls.)

Here's the "baked clay" kitchen wall looking toward the great room and the mudroom hall in the 2nd pic; great room and mudroom are same color:
{{!gwi}}

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and perpendicular to that wall is a short wall separating the kitchen and dining room. There are some weird reflections in this picture but I think you get the idea. I love having a few bold or quirky colors, and they're balanced by some calm colors in adjoining spaces.

{{!gwi}}

The contrast is nice, and since I went bold on accent walls, there will be less to change if I ever want to. (Also did accent walls in master bedroom and bath. It's interesting and breaks up big spaces.)

I agree with Teacats, pick a neutral for your opening act and then let the house and how you use it dictate changes. I love bold colors, but I just don't think that trying to pick out everything ahead of time is going to work for the long run. Just expect that you will repaint some rooms. Same with furniture and accessories - I would wait until you have spent some time in the house and you see how the light is and what the traffic patterns are, before you buy new stuff.
Diane

I've lived with regrets both ways. I spent 6 years living in a home we couldn't really add wall color to, and I've added color to homes since then that I later wished I could whisk away. Of course, since our homes have been small and I could repaint them myself, when I want a color gone, it is gone.

My advice would echo Jan's--start with a shade you feel "safe" with and wait until after you've been living there a while to see what the rooms seem to call out for.

Well, I was going to immediately say don't go with boring ... but then I remembered that's exactly what I did.

When I bought my current house/farm 13 years ago, I bought the property for the land, and knew the house was fixable ..

It was painted/wallpaper in a country design that I can't stand, so before I even moved in I had the entire inside painted white. Then I started doing construction and adding color.

I'm also not sure why you can't re-paint at some point ... most of us do.

We are building also and it's really hard to pick paint colors first. In the past, I have chosen many rich colors that I love individually but the home didn't really have great flow. For our new home, I've chosen 8 different colors. I would choose a nice neutral as a default color. But if you have a certain vision for some of the spaces then so ahead and choose a bolder color for that space.

I'm hoping the paint is going up today. I'll post pics soon. I did order larger sample cards from benajmin moore. I didn't do samples on the wall b/c none of the light fixtures are in yet and the flooring isn't in which will affect the appearance of the final color.

I'd be much more upset with the wrong neutral than the wrong color! A color you love -- even if it's not the perfect shade of that color -- is still a color you love.

Which causes more regret? Depends on your personality, and your particular need for altering your environment.

Some people can be quite happy and prefer to be in a fairly neutral environment with splashes of color that they can rotate and change. Some people would find that a slow (or maybe not so slow!) death and want large expanses of color from day one on walls, colors that please them visually and emotionally.

What are you like with color and how quickly do you feel the need to alter your decor? If for financial reasons or time reasons you know you'll have to live with what you choose for some period of time, be honest with yourself about what your color personality is like and don't allow yourself to be influenced by beautiful rooms you see here and elsewhere whether they are colorful or neutral.

I love color and have color on many walls but unlike many here, I don't find it easy to just re-paint at the drop of a hat. For me, color is a commitment for quite a bit of time so I could never choose *color* without living within the walls first. It's far easier for me to live with an off-white and let the colors evolve. I can always throw a vase of flowers in a room for color.

I have never built a new home (just done lots of remodeling/renovation), but I do not think I could commit to strong, bold colors to start with nor would I want to deal with that stress/fear until I had lived in the house for some time. There are so many beautiful neutrals today (and I don't mean white and boring beige) that seem to "match" or "go with" just about anything. Colors that come to mind are Relaxed Khaki, Believable Buff (actually a lot of different buffs. SW Blonde and Ivoire. So many of the tans, golden tans, golds, and sagey family colors seem to just blend and flow with so many styles and color schemes. And don't forget the soft grays - the new "neutral".

Obviously, there are those who already have a house full of furnishings and accessories and they know specifically what direction they want their colors to go in - then, they would be safe in choosing specific colors.

Having said all that, about three years ago I had to choose a color for my bedroom. We basically had the house tore upside down and were camping in one spare bedroom with no kitchen. I was not ready to shop for bedding and accessories and was not going to use my old worn out stuff. I chose a neutral tan, Valspar Dessert Fortress, by holding the little sample with a variety of fabrics and it looked good with everything! I knew I could make it work and still love it.

Used the same paint in my LR because I was faced with the same delima - was going to have to replace my worn out sofa, loveseat, and recliner AFTER repairing sheetrock, installing trim, laying new HW floor, finishing said floor, etc etc. It has been 3 years now, and I finally have new furniture and drapes (it took me that long to make up my mind). The paint is not perfect with the furnishings, but has sufficed up to this point, and allowed me to take my time with the major purchases. Now, I am searching for the PERFECT paint color for my LR.

Tuesday

Before we moved into our current home, we had most of the walls repainted in a soothing light khaki shade that I thought I'd want to live with forever. And it is a nice color - it still graces the hallway and I don't plan to change it there. But over the past 6 years that we've been in the house, I've turned almost every other room a different jewel-box hue because I reached a point where I craved bold colors on my walls. I wouldn't say I've regretted any of my paint choices -- not even the dark olive green that my dining room used to be (after the initial khaki shade) before I repainted with a deep turquoise.

If you can't re-do the paint - not even a room at a time - then I think I'd err on the side of caution and go with something nice and neutral. You can still get a lot of color impact from shades that most people consider more on the neutral side, and I think even shades like certain greens can be considered neutral.

I would go with the neutral color only because you can jazz it up with interior design. And neutral is classic, lets be honest.

We just put on an addition of three rooms. I had the painters just put on a primer coat. I wanted to get the furniture in and see the room in light and dark before I committed to a color. I started playing with the paint boards and I am finding that I was way off in the color I wanted and way off in the intensity of whatever color I did choose. I found I needed to just kick it down a notch. Yes I have about 20 swatches all over and I know I will have to move furniture and all but I just have a very hard time picking colors until I see the whole package put together.

it also depends on where you want your color to be coming from. I can come from art work. It can come from a sofa. Or your floor.

I tried saturated colors on my walls but didn't like any of them with my brazillian cherry flooring. We went with a light yellow on the beige side. I picked it before I moved in. You can get samples of your flooring, your fabrics, etc and figure it out to a degree from that.

What is going on the floors? Hardwood, tile or carpet? Do you plan to use area rugs? What about WTs? Do you have existing furniture or artworks that you will be incorporating or do you have a fresh slate? What type of light do you have in the different rooms? Answers to the above questions can help dictate what direction you wish to go. When we remodeled I satisfied my wish for color by creating a mossy green accent wall in my LR. While it was lovely, it did make choosing the furniture, WTs and area rug much more difficult than if I had started with fabrics or a rug. Even though your home is not built yet, if you are able to think about the fabrics, rugs, and artwork you wish to include, it will help to narrow down your choices. Also, consider consulting with a designer to help choose colors that will flow from room to room as well as be work well in the natural/artifical lighting. Many paint stores sell paint samples which you can use for sample boards and/or paint small sections of wall.

I recently repainted my DD's room a vibrant turquoise because the compromise color we had chosen, a soft apricot, turned out to be a terrible choice. It looked terrible in the strong afternoon light which fills her room and reflected off of the oak flooring. It made her room feel like a furnace in summer. In her case, the more saturated color is much more cooling and calming than the so-called "safe" color I thought I had selected the first time. Luckily, it was only a single room.

If I was doing it over, I think I would work with the Historic Colors by Benjamin Moore, which have stood the test of time, though the full spectrum paints that Amy recommends also sound intriguing.

Painted everything in a beautiful neutral when we moved in 2 years ago. Everyone loved & a few copied it. Butttt....so far I've repainted 2 rooms, moving on to the 3rd. I'm a serial painter. I just can't help myself. Farrow & Ball calls to me...at night while I'm reading decorating mags. Listen it's just a little paint, if you don't like it just paint over it! So hubby rolls his eyes when he has to help move furniture, he'll love the results! :)

In our last new build 13 yrs ago, we went to a safe neutral through the whole house--a very light, warm smokey gray. I really grew to love it. We'd always planned on changing some rooms here and there, but only ever painted 1 room a light sage green after I stopped being scared of painting--because I'd never done it before until we finished the basement and I learned down there by doing all the priming and painting myself.

Fast forward to our second newly built house. We were determined to be bold this go-round. We got 4 colors included in our painting allowance with only $200 per color change after that. Figured it was worth it, so I got to color-shopping. Now I'm scared. I'm not used to so much COLOR! I love most the individual rooms when I take them one at a time, but walking into the foyer, I'm a bit overwhelmed. I used SW Blonde for the 2-story foyer, great room, kitchen, and up the stairs. I wish I'd gone one lighter. Hubby, however, says he loves it (but sometimes he tells white lies to keep me from changing things). I used SW Avenue Tan (light sage green in my light) in the master bedroom / bath / 2 rooms upstairs / garage and LOVE it. It's so soothing; I'm really wishing I'd used that as my main color (foyer / upstairs / great room).

Anyway....it really is all about the individual's personality. Only you will know what YOU will find more "peaceful" in the end. I was just looking at pics of my last house and really missing it (and the look / color). HOWEVER, while living there, I remember regreting sometimes that I didn't have some colorful rooms. Ha. I guess there's no pleasing some people (like me!).

My builder's wife said to me, when I was worried about the flooring color--"....but then, you like contrast." WHAT? That's news to me. I've always played on the safe side of the street.

It's only paint (except to tight-wad me who would have to pay someone to repaint the foyer because it's 19' tall).

When we moved in here 10 yrs ago, every room was painted off-white. I thought that was great, and have been adding color one room at a time as my tastes and decor have evolved. The only rooms that MUST be changed are the ones I painted, and then changed my mind. So, if I had a choice now, I would paint a neutral "color" first. Painting is the cheapest (well, except 19' walls!) thing to change, for the most impact.

I think it depends a lot on your personality. If you're risk-averse, I'd go neutral; if you're more open to risk, try to pick 3 or 4 colors that flow and go with those.

In our last home (a builder's model home), we had neutral throughout. I did love the color, but longed for more color. We knew we'd be moving sooner than later, so we never did repaint in another color. When we built this house, I chose basically two main colors, then went bolder in the living room and dining rooms since I wanted them to have a little more panache. I love our colors!