Oh yes, I totally agree with your decorator. But since you have already painted, don't let that hold you back. If you find furniture/drapes/rugs that don't match your walls, you can always repaint your room.

I'm am just curious what style of room are you going with? Is your entire house going to be done by a decorator or just one room? I'm a nosey one, huh? lol

.....Jane

I am working with a designer and she chose the rugs first. I had already purchased the bedding, so we chose a rug to go with that and then the paint color. She did say that the painting should be done before choosing the window treatments.

If you have the painting done, it shouldn't be a problem to work with the color you chose. She did say that we should choose the focus piece of the room and plan around that. Interseting that on HGTV, they always choose the paint color first.

Because on TV, paint has to dry by the time the shooting's over. In real life, they've selected everything long in advance.

I've heard as a general rule you go rug, then sofa/chairs, and last paint. The logic is that you are moving toward what is easiest to control the color of--in other words, if you like the rug, you can pull out any of the colors and easily match the paint (whereas it would be hard to find a rug to match a paint color).

I totally agree. Chose your paint color last but do the painting first (i.e. before all the furniture you order arrives so there are less obstacles to move out of the way).

This is conventional wisdom and it makes a lot of sense because almost everything else in the room is so much more expensive than paint. Plus, as some have mentioned, it's much easier to buy a rug you love, then, find a paint shade based on the rug's colors to finish out the room.

But........

I almost always choose my paint color first. Partly because I already own furniture I like. So I know what will work with what I've got and what won't. I do it partly because I lean towards the same general colors all the time anyway, so things I buy like antiques, paintings, lamps, and other items are all bought with the same feeling. I like muted greens.....those that lean to sage or a yellowy green....a green with lots of brown in it. I like reds, but they are always warm reds but not orange-reds. The bricks, the deep mellow reds, the reds that read a little lighter on the walls, not deep burgundys or blue-reds. I enjoy soft golds, those that warm a room and look good with the dark woods I favor. Since these colors are constant in my decorating, even if I have to compare 30 chips to get just the one I want, they work with my furniture, my fabrics, and my flooring. And last but not least, I almost always have a color 'feeling' in mind for a room and look at fabric and furniture that work with that. When we first moved into this house, I painted much of it in a soft muted butter color. I knew it would be good with walnut and mahogany, and set off my deep moss sofa very well. The red I picked for the kitchen worked so well with the cabinets and fabrics I wanted, that I left it when we did a kitchen remodel 2 years later. I already knew the granites I liked would work with red, and same for the tile floors.
The way I figure it, Nothing really sets the stage for a room like the mass of color on the walls. It's a big area. Get it right. And while you're at it, work on the floors. Another expanse of square footage that will make or break a room.

Red

Everyone has a different take on the order in which things should be done.

Because I'm building a new house and have absolutely no furnishings and don't know when I will, I had to decide on paint without specifics. What I did was order some fabric samples and formed some ideas in my head of how I wanted the house to look and made some paint choices. Of course the people on this forum are an invaluable asset and I couldn't have made my choices without their help.

Christopher Lowell, well known TV personality, always paints first, then choses what he calls "big ticket items", then goes down the line in selecting drapes, floor covering, accessories, etc. He calls it his 7 Layers of Design.

Do you have a sense of what you want your rooms to look like? Did you, when you picked out the paint color? It's not really difficult to chose items after the paint color unless you chose a very off color of paint and want things to match it exactly.

Can you post some photo's for us to see your colors and rooms?

I've done it both ways and for me it's *much* easier to paint last. Find rugs or plan out the upholstered pieces completely, then finding the paint afterwards is a lot easier than finding rugs or upholstery to match paint. Paint is cheaper and it can be mixed to basically any color.

Very interesting info, well, now I know. I painted DD room pink, DS room blue, office a light beige I think, and BR a little darker tan color. And of course those mashed potatoes ceilings! Can't forget that!

Maybe I can post photos of the rooms here and get feedback on what kind of tile to use for the BR floor, what to paint the BR vanities, and what color countertop to use. Thanks.

Paint color does not have to be last. Painting last is not realistic for everyone. Decorators and designers gravitate towards that because they are usually doing entire spaces.

Let me be clear, I'm not saying that paint can be first. Paint can never be first and the reasons why not has nothing to do with what is conventionaly understood about color in our environments.

It is more correct to say that wall color does not have to be the absolutely last thing done. I've met with many people who have dismissed decorators and designers because they felt like they were trying to hard-sell them something -- window treatments, rugs, furniture. They were expecting help with "just a wall color" but instead were told they *needed* to purchase something so there was something to work with in regard to wall color.

I explain that maybe the designer/decorator IS trying to sell them something and offering color consulting was indeed just a ploy to get in the door to push their wares.

What's more likely, however, is that without window treatments, a rug, furniture, etc. the designer/decorator doesn't have one fat clue what to do. Redirecting the focus away from what is to what could be or should be is what is familiar. Without some kind of sample that can be hot glued to a mood board or an inspiration piece, they're lost.

You can not force someone to see and understand the non physical aspects inherent to a space to be colored. You either get it or ya don't. In order to get it, you have to be willing to look at color differently and move past mood boards, color flow plans - the conventional. That's very difficult for some people for many reasons. Fear of color is a biggie. Ego is another big one and ultimately is what gets in the way of people being able to move past the conventional. The ego so needs to be "right" about color. The notion that there is a "right" way to do color is ridiculous and sadly limiting. There are only options and possibilities and those options and possibilities are very fair and diplomatic. They are there and available to all who choose to look for them, embrace them, and use them to weave visual bridges between the physical and the non physical. That's where the magic happens. The cohesiveness that everyone strives for isn't necessarily something that you can put your finger on or hold in your hand.

funcolors: You seem like an interesting person with definite deep feelings about color, but I have no idea what you are really saying in your last paragraph. I suppose I "don't get it". I do, however, agree with what you said about designers needing "something" to get direction from. That makes sense to me. I don't think you should have to buy something first, though. Inspirational photos from magazines or catalogs should be enough to give a good designer direction.

I frequently enjoy reading funcolors, but I was unclear about the direction of some of that too. Sometimes when I post, the thought is very true and specific in my mind, but my words don't flow from my fingers fast enough to keep up.

More specifically than my last comment on this one........sometimes what we are striving for in our homes and spaces is something akin to what Candace Olsen does in Divine Design. (I just started catching the HGTV shows a few months ago for the very first time...) Her rooms are usually beautiful, but she most definitely does not start with Ben Moore's Windham Cream or SW Practical Beige. The rooms evoke a certain feeling or ambiance and color of the walls is only a part of that. A lot of us would love to have that sense of rightness in our homes.

But for many, just finding a starting point can be most important. And, it can work just as well when that starting point is wall color, depending on your wants and needs. My daughter wanted a deep blue room. She had cream carpet and a window. No furniture of interest, no fabrics. She had a color in her mind that she wanted to see on her walls. Not too navy, not pastel. Not too light but not 'night sky'. She borrowed some leftover gallons from a good friend who had just done a deep blue dining room in an open plan home. She bought some test quarts. She splotched. She found a Ben Moore deep blue that satisfied her need for this color. She painted it herself and spilled about a quart on the carpet. (Oh. Sorry. That's supposed to be a secret.) Then, we went shopping through newspaper ads and craigslist for some bedroom furniture. A nice vintage mahogany bedroom set, a few silk pillows in reds and blues and moss, some red velvet drapes and a white bedcover later.........she's happy. Her room looks coordinated and feels good to her. I have to live with a blue room in my "Very Much Not Blue" house, but that's doable.

This won't work most of the time because to most of us, having everything in our rooms work together to set a mood or create a sense of contentment and satisfaction, is pretty important. But to some people....they are absolutely willing to work everything else around the wonderful feeling they get when the biggest space in the room feels "right" to them.

Red

LOL! I was scolded by my mom when I chose the paint for our living/dining areas before the LR furniture, but, like funcolors was saying, she just didn't get it. I had the big picture in my mind...

I knew THE neutral color I wanted on the walls, and tested with 4 qts to get it, LOL! Everything else, I knew could be worked in. And it did work out perfectly. I will most likely never repaint those areas again - I love them!

The last room I redecorated, however, I knew I wanted one wall a shade of red, so I chose the area rug prior to selecting paint color.

I think sometimes it depends on how bold you're going to go.

Uh-oh, funcolors, you've been inhaling that low-VOC paint--I *knew* it wasn't as harmless as they claim :)

No, seriously, I *think* I can somewhat follow what you're saying in that paragraph, but I don't get how it's relating to the rest of the post. Please say more, with more *verbal* bridges between the physical and non-physical, for us mere client-folk :)

What I am talking about is most certainly a different level of working with color. Not better. Not harder or more advanced, so hope no one takes it that way. It is just different.

Before the contents, there are the inherent qualities and features of a room. There are also the people. So you have stucture, light and humans. From those three core things it is most certainly possible, and by some standards desirable, to choose wall color. That's not what architects, designers/decorators are taught - in general. When people say that you have to have something to draw a color scheme from, I know exactly where they are in their color journey or color exploration. Where ever one happens to be in their color journey is perfectly fine. It's what is right for them. My pushing new thoughts about color sometimes can nudge someone on. Sometimes it just confuses. That's okay.

I have a link to share. This is not easy reading, but it's not rocket science either. I think the article in the link does a good job of explaining the deficit that I've long griped about in how we work to color our environments. Boils down to dimension. We have nothing that addresses color in 3D. The best tool to address color in 3D is a human eyeball and a brain. If the eyeballs and brain are stuck on inspiration pieces and mood boards, nothing is going to change. And change is indeed needed. So I push and speak to color in bigger terms that most people are used to hearing or reading.

I have long been a proponent of steering away from stuff, the contents, the physical things in a room. Going for an inspiration piece, pulling color from something is, IMO, the backwards way to do it because it almost completely ignores or drowns out the nonphysical considerations like light and human expectations and tolerances of color. I realize my thoughts about color are directly, completely and fully in contrast to the conventional notions of how to work color. Not saying you do not need to consider the contents because, of course, you do. They just do not carry as much importance as some methods like to give them.

For every one person who thinks that the tradtional methods of color are *correct* there are two more for whom those methods are failing horribly -- people struggle with color. Why? If mood boards and inspiration pieces were so darn wonderful and foolproof, why do so many people stuggle? Look how many color posts hit just these forums. Are all these people stoopid? Do they all have bad taste? Are all these people just talentless and completely unituitive when it comes to color? I think not.

It's not the people that are lacking. It's the processes. It's the thinking instead of seeing.

There's more, lots and lots more, but the link below is a good start for those who are curious about a different way.

Here is a link that might be useful: Color forming architectural spaces

I was taught to begin with the drapery and upholstery fabrics, using their palette(s) as the basis for deciding on the color(s) of the walls. I was also taught to take into consideration the geographic orientation of the room and what time of day it will be most used to give a clue as to the basic palette (warm or cool) that will be most effective and "liveable".

It's very "old-fashioned" advice but it works all the time and while it can be confusing and maybe a little intimidating for someone unfamiliar with the "color wheel" it really IS very easy. I think you were given excellent advice.