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marilyn_showalter

Using multiple colors on multiple walls



Marilyn

Comments (8)

  • PRO
    4 years ago

    Really tough to answer this question theoretically without seeing the wallpaper and paint choices you have in mind.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    I'm not one to paint my whole house the same color, but I also don't like when a room gets broken up with different finishes on different walls of the same room. Of the options you list, I would personally only really consider #3.

  • 4 years ago

    If you want to try out mixing wall finishes, start with a powder room then wait and see how that works out for you.


    In my home, rooms with a door have their own color, but consistent within the room, as I find that peaceful. In the continuous areas, I actually have two shades of the same color - darker in the living room and dining room, lighter in the foyer, stairs and halls. The upstairs bath you see from the hall is a third slightly darker shade of the same.

  • 4 years ago

    Are you seriously thinking of putting wallpaper on only 1 or 2 walls in every room?

  • 4 years ago

    It sounds busy and something very difficult to do well. Remember that when you get tired of wallpaper you have to remove it, and when you go to sell the house a lot of wallpaper will turn off potential buyers. I think achieving something light and warm is at odds with your proposal. Sometimes it's not possible for all of our good ideas to fit into one house, or in this case, one room. I would think about this some more and see if you can come up with a way to make your home interesting to you without creating something that will look inconsistent and disjointed. Have you compiled an Ideabook in Houzz of pictures you like to give you some other ideas?

  • 4 years ago

    It’s customary to use a palette of coordinated colors for most of the house, with different colors sometimes used in different rooms or areas. Although the open concept usually leads to using the same wall color throughout the open area. If you don’t have a decorator helping you, I would pick one wallpaper and develop a palette from the colors in that wallpaper. You could even find another wallpaper that uses some of the same colors to use in another area. However, I would not use different colors and different wallpapers just for the sake of it. Every room doesn’t have to scream UNIQUE.

  • 4 years ago

    I had to be brief with my previous response because I had to get to an appointment. I want to add a couple things.


    First, you say about #3, "I would like to keep the feeling light, so with this option having color on 3 walls, would it feel closed in?" What colors are you talking about? I could see you having this concern with, say, navy blue, but why would it be a concern for pink, or spring green, or a mid-tone blue? All my rooms have all four walls painted a non-white, non-neutral color, and other than my deep teal green bedroom which is arguably cozy, they all feel pretty airy. My living room is robin's egg blue, my daughter's bedroom is pink, the bathroom is aqua, the kitchen is pear green/yellow. The dining room is chocolate brown, but it has tall board-and-batten paneling in white, so there's really not a lot of wall area. But I find dark colors cozy or intimate (positive words) not "closed in." Maybe that's just point of view. But there are a zillion light and mid-tone colors to choose from; if you don't like dark, don't choose dark.


    ShadyWillowFarm talked about choosing a palette of coordinated colors for the house, and despite how the list above may look, that's what I did (in my mind, bedrooms don't count, especially kids' bedrooms). My palette for the public rooms of my house was robin's egg blue, spring green, and chocolate brown, with white trim and ceilings throughout. Curtains in the brown DR pick up the blue and green. In the blue LR, I have a green sofa and dark brown wood tables. So there is continuity between the rooms even though the walls are different colors. Since the bath and kitchen are separated from everything else by a hallway, I used brighter versions of the blue and green in those spaces. It's good to be mindful of sightlines between rooms.

  • 4 years ago

    Using your example above: A bedroom: wallpaper 1 wall (wall #4) and put the bed on that wall. Paint the 3 remaining walls to complement the wallpaper. Each bedroom can be different. No way would I paint 2 and paper 2. In main rooms (LR, DR, FR) unless there is a wall without interruption (doors, windows) I would not do different wall colors or treatments. It might be nice to paint LR because there are usually lots of textiles of different colors, patterns, etc and the DR wallpaper because it is mostly wood furniture of 1 color. Also in main living area it depends on how the rooms connect. In my Cape Cod style home my LR and DR are separate rooms. LR is F&B Bone and DR is BM Abyss which coordinate beautifully

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