Paint colors in great room with many walls

10 years ago

Our great room includes the entry way with vaulted ceilings up to the 2nd floor, living room, dining area, kitchen and a stand alone closet off into the hallway. Living room-kitchen-dining has 4 walls and a half wall. the entry has 5 plus stair rails that are drywall. How do you determine what to do about paint colors with so many walls visible. Some have obvious beginning and endings, the ones into the stairwell and hallway not so much. It is currently all the original contractor light beige but that needs to go, it is showing age. Is there a standard logic to picking walls for accent colors? How do you determine where to start and stop colors when you have walls that seem to continue on forever? All of the wall turns are rounded to boot. I would love to do something with this room without making it look overwhelming and disjointed or having to repaint the entire house.

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JudyG Designs

10 years ago

My home is somewhat like yours, one room runs into the other and I can also see up to the second floor.

I solved the problem by choosing a paint color I love and painting all the rooms which I can see at one time the same color. It actually is quite dramatic when you pick an outstanding

You don’t say what colors are in your fabrics, but neutral need not be just gray, beige or white. Neutral really means impartial.

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Comments (7)

PRO
Dytecture
10 years ago
Can you provide some photos of the great room?
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freyafoust
Original Author
10 years ago
Most of the furnishings and drapery etc are shades of beige or tan. We are putting in wood floors next spring.
PRO
User
10 years ago
Hello freyafoust,

iamjudy is correct in her thoughts of advice on neutral.... impartial is a great way to say it! Find a color that you love, preferably on the lighter end of the spectrum, and paint it all the same color, beginning and ending with the obvious corners. We just painted a main stair hall with Ben Moore's Wood Violet and it is a wonderful neutral even though it is a rich dark color. Keep your ceiling white, which will define that plane clearly.

With so many newer construction homes (meaning not of the four over four box construction) there are issues with walls running into adjoining room walls and where to begin and end paint colors. It is so site specific that there is no 'etiquette' and must be determined per home. Pictures would be helpful in assisting you with those specifics.

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/woodviolet

Elizabeth Cabell, ASID, CID
Cabell Design Studio
freyafoust
Original Author
10 years ago
How do you deal with the rounded corner walls? We have those in every room transition except the bedrooms & baths due to the open floorplan
felixgrantham
10 years ago
On a rounded corner, both sides must be painted the same color. Anything else would be an enormous distraction.
mathomson5
8 years ago
This question remains relevant-- no one suggested Benjamin Moore (or better) paints. The better the paint, the more different it will look on any surface, given the light, the time of day, and related colors, the size of the space, the floor covering, etc. Even though I live in a traditional house, my upstairs center hall (1/6 of top floor, and in the middle) is a room without much daylight that blends into my relatively large foyer with bright, filtered light, and of almost the same size, (relatively large given the size of my house) and then folds into the entire back half of my main floor including my kitchen, family eating area, ad family room with plasma.

I am partial to Benny Moore's Natura paints for their low/no VOC and their ease of application for the amateur, in addition to ease of clean up -- after painting and later as the little droplets settle on to surfaces.

In addition, any Base 1 color in Benny Moore combines beautifully with any color of white that is used for a trim paint. If in doubt, choose your trim paint and mix 1/4 of your favorite color into the trim -- works! If you want a dark wall, reverse -- add a bit of the wall color (not much) to the trim. Keep the ceilings light -- I was using an ice white (very sparely tinted gray) for years -- and it was too blue for this large space -- going back to a much whiter ceiling. The icy white worked in the living room and dining room, but not in this large space with 8 foot ceilings and a partially open staircase.

Resigned to Navajo White -- it is a magic white with wood floors.