Home decor questions

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

**So, for all of you who love to decorate I have some ideas and questions I need to bounce around.

Does anyone know what a good color for a bathroom would be? I remember hearing somewhere long ago that there is a color or colors that are more flattering to skin tones… right now my main bathroom is a nice medium green tone (same as my living/dining room) but it does awful things to my face when i need to use the mirror. I’ve tried applying make up in there and it was a hideous experience, lol.

Now, about my kitchen… I have green counter tops that came with the house. It is not a nice green (to me) but we can’t afford to change them. Right now my walls are a pale sunshine yellow which I really love (makes me feel happy)…but a few years ago we put in new floors and they are a light maple laminate. It doesn’t look good with the yellow walls so I will eventually repaint. But I am not sure what color. My cabinets and appliances are white so no problem there…as for kitchen accessories, I LOVE orange. Not rust, not pumpkin…but bright orange. So I need a wall pain that will compliment both the orange and the green…

Feel free to add your own questions…we can keep this thread running as a place to get our fix for home decor stuff. It was something I really enjoyed before I no longer had time to even think about it much less do anything**

 

[Em_in_FL]

Hmmm… for the bathroom… what about a light green? Or a light blue?.. something just lighter that will brighten up the room? Light always seems to help with skin tone issues…

As for the kitchen… green and orange… hmmm… what about a taupe? Or a brown tone?.. something very subtle that would let the brighter colors stand out?

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

Hmmm… for the bathroom… what about a light green? Or a light blue?.. something just lighter that will brighten up the room? Light always seems to help with skin tone issues…

I tried to find a color swatch online but I can’t… the paint now is by Ralph Lauren and it’s called “green rosette”. It is pretty light already, but not pale, if that makes any sense. I’m just think green may not be a good choice at all. From what I remember it may have been a peach tone that was recommended but I’m not sure. I don’t usually like peach colors but right now I want warm and flattering… I have toyed with the idea of doing the bathroom a deep chocolate brown. I used to have it a super dark purple and it was amazing…you wouldn’t think a dark color would work in such a tiny space but it did…

As for the kitchen… green and orange… hmmm… what about a taupe? Or a brown tone?.. something very subtle that would let the brighter colors stand out?

**I’m just not the subtle kind of girl, lol… hubby hates painting so when the job is done I want to see the results… and the kitchen isn’t drenched in orange things…just things like pot holders, mixing bowls…nothing that is or has to be out all of the time, you know?

I wonder what lavender would look like? I know it would look great with the counters but not sure about the pops of orange…

maybe I’ll do the deep chocolate in the kitchen?
**

 

[sanctareparata]

**I’m just not the subtle kind of girl, lol… hubby hates painting so when the job is done I want to see the results… and the kitchen isn’t drenched in orange things…just things like pot holders, mixing bowls…nothing that is or has to be out all of the time, you know?

I wonder what lavender would look like? I know it would look great with the counters but not sure about the pops of orange…

maybe I’ll do the deep chocolate in the kitchen?
**

I think lavender would look awful.

What is the color of your countertops? Can you find a color online that resembles them?

If it works with your countertops, I would go for something in a brown - chocolate would be nice if your kitchen is big enough for it, or if it’s smaller it’ll work so long as there isn’t much wall space (you don’t want to feel like you’re in a cave, you know. ) Or, if brown won’t work, find the same color in a paint as your countertops but a darker shade of that color.

I’d for SURE, whatever color you choose, do a rusty orange or dark orange accent wall somewhere. Your brighter orange accent things would pop out nicely that way without looking like they were just randomly dropped there.

 

[DebChris]

**So, for all of you who love to decorate I have some ideas and questions I need to bounce around.

Does anyone know what a good color for a bathroom would be? I remember hearing somewhere long ago that there is a color or colors that are more flattering to skin tones… right now my main bathroom is a nice medium green tone (same as my living/dining room) but it does awful things to my face when i need to use the mirror. I’ve tried applying make up in there and it was a hideous experience, lol.

Now, about my kitchen… I have green counter tops that came with the house. It is not a nice green (to me) but we can’t afford to change them. Right now my walls are a pale sunshine yellow which I really love (makes me feel happy)…but a few years ago we put in new floors and they are a light maple laminate. It doesn’t look good with the yellow walls so I will eventually repaint. But I am not sure what color. My cabinets and appliances are white so no problem there…as for kitchen accessories, I LOVE orange. Not rust, not pumpkin…but bright orange. So I need a wall pain that will compliment both the orange and the green…

Feel free to add your own questions…we can keep this thread running as a place to get our fix for home decor stuff. It was something I really enjoyed before I no longer had time to even think about it much less do anything**

I used to like the idea of lavender bathrooms. I could put anything in it from green to pink.
Then I bought a house. The bathroom had rust colored wall paper and green counter tops. The cabinet was natural wood. When I bought the house, I thought I would change the color scheme, but I never did. I bought peach colored accessories. It had a very natural feel, like being in the woods (yes, I know the jokes when I say this). It was very relaxing and restful.
Without going into the pros and cons of Feng Shui, the recommendation is to not use blue or similar colors, The bathroom already has lots of water. Sand colors on the other hand create a balance to the room. It can feel like being at the beach, or desert where water is welcome.
Again, when I owned my house, I knew nothing about the principles of Feng Shui. I still see many of these principles as superstition. I just know how comfortable I was with the decor of that particular room. Natural colors like sand, peach and rust with small touches of green (like a plant) work very well.

My living room had rust colored carpet and yellow wallpaper that brought in the sunlight. The kitchen, when I bought the house needed new wallpaper and linoleum. I like blue. I found coordinating wallpaper. In the back entry, I used the blue wallpaper. For the kitchen, I used a white wallpaper. The print was blue with a wheat print. The kitchen cabinets were already white, as was the countertop. I used a blue linoleum in the kitchen in a similar style to the light brown I used in both the main bathroom (already described) and the downstairs half bath. I kept the yellow wallpaper in the half bath that coordinated with the yellow paper of the living room and dining room. I did not mention that the living room had paneling. I like paneling, which can unfortunately make a room dark. Only two walls in the living room were paneled and these were on the same side as the windows. The small wall between the dining room and living room was also paneled. I extended the wheat motif from the kitchen into the dining room with a wall hanging from Home Interiors. I have a special attachment to wheat as a decorating element because my mother’s house, before she died had wheat on the diniing room wall.

I have a “summer” complexion so green makes me look shallow so I understand where you are coming from:wink: As you can see, I like blue and yellow together. Anyway, that is what works for me.
When I had my kitchen wallpapered, I followed the decorating idea that the previous owner had. I wallpapered the cabinets leaving just the just the part that is not recessed white.

 

[DebChris]

When I lived in CA, I painted my apartment kitchen a bright gold. It could be seen from the living room which we painted a lighter yellow-gold.
A tip that I read somewhere was to paint door frames white if you change color schemes from room to room.

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

I think lavender would look awful.
**
LOL, I knew someone would**

What is the color of your countertops? Can you find a color online that resembles them?
**
I tried…no luck… if I get the energy maybe I’ll just take a pic of my kitchen…but it’s a total mess right now**

If it works with your countertops, I would go for something in a brown - chocolate would be nice if your kitchen is big enough for it, or if it’s smaller it’ll work so long as there isn’t much wall space (you don’t want to feel like you’re in a cave, you know. ) Or, if brown won’t work, find the same color in a paint as your countertops but a darker shade of that color.

**I really love green and would do a green in the kitchen but already have green on the rest of the main floor. Plus, the only color of green I don’t care for is my countertops…I’d rather play it down than accent it.

Now that I think about it more, I would prefer to save the dark brown for new countertops, lol… so I’ll keep that in mind when thinking about the paint color…

not like ANYTHING is going to be done anytime soon with hubby away. I just like to think and plan and dream about this kind of stuff:shrug:
**
I’d for SURE, whatever color you choose, do a rusty orange or dark orange accent wall somewhere. Your brighter orange accent things would pop out nicely that way without looking like they were just randomly dropped there.

That’s a definitely possibility. But the kitchen has tons of windows so none of the walls screams “I’m the feature wall!!!”, lol… I’ll have to think about it

 

[Nanny_PK]

What kind of countertops do you have? I was watching one of the decorating shows on HGTV a couple of weeks ago and the family had laminate countertops and there’s a product out there that you can paint the laminate – just have to sand them first. So could that be an option, painting your countertops? You could paint them white and then you’d have a blank canvas in which to do your kitchen.

If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll look on the website for the show I was watching to see if they mention the product – I remember the show, just can’t remember the name

 

[Shiann]

So put the yellow in your bathroom, and the green in your kitchen?

I actually like a real light mocha color for rooms. It’s warm but neutral. Not uninviting and bland like white or standard off white of rooms.

If it were me (and I’m not afraid of color) depending on the setup of your kitchen I’d paint most the light mocha color and one wall RED.

red orange green

(I’d still paint the bathroom yellow)

 

[sanctareparata]

What kind of countertops do you have? I was watching one of the decorating shows on HGTV a couple of weeks ago and the family had laminate countertops and there’s a product out there that you can paint the laminate – just have to sand them first. So could that be an option, painting your countertops? You could paint them white and then you’d have a blank canvas in which to do your kitchen.

If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll look on the website for the show I was watching to see if they mention the product – I remember the show, just can’t remember the name

I wouldn’t do this. My dad is a professional painter, people have asked him before, and he tells them it’s never going to hold up - a year or two, max. We even did it way-back-when in his business (the countertops were laminate and nothing special, but were filthy with spilled paint so we painted them) and it held up for a bit, but then gouges and scratches started appearing. It’s a good short term solution, I guess, if your’e desperate enough, but I would never, ever do it for a long term solution. They just won’t hold up.

essortment.com/articles/paint-countertops-laminate_1949.htm

 

[Nanny_PK]

I wouldn’t do this. My dad is a professional painter, people have asked him before, and he tells them it’s never going to hold up - a year or two, max. We even did it way-back-when in his business (the countertops were laminate and nothing special, but were filthy with spilled paint so we painted them) and it held up for a bit, but then gouges and scratches started appearing. It’s a good short term solution, I guess, if your’e desperate enough, but I would never, ever do it for a long term solution. They just won’t hold up.

Makes perfect sense – I think the show I was watching was one of those shows about staging your house for sale. So it was a short-term fix. But if you want to totally redo your kitchen and just don’t have the funds to replace the countertops right away, this could be an option until you can replace the coutertops.

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

If the kitchen has a lot of windows, how about orange curtains, or cream and orange flowered curtains, and then you could do matching placemats and napkins, and perhaps seat cushions?

 

[sanctareparata]

Oh for Pete’s sake, just take a picture of your kitchen, will ya?

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

If the kitchen has a lot of windows, how about orange curtains, or cream and orange flowered curtains, and then you could do matching placemats and napkins, and perhaps seat cushions?

Forgot to mention it is not an eat-in kitchen. It was supposedly designed to have a table but tried that and we couldn’t use our back door easily…with a dog and a toddler we are constantly using the door to the yard so we just don’t have a table in here… plus, for now it is the dog’s domain…

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

Oh for Pete’s sake, just take a picture of your kitchen, will ya?

LOL, i did…now I just need to download them and get them up…might not be until after Lily goes to sleep though…

 

[bpbasilphx]

Somehow, a color to make one look good in the bathroom mirror sounds like an odd desideratum.

 

[sanctareparata]

Somehow, a color to make one look good in the bathroom mirror sounds like an odd desideratum.

No, it’s so one looks good OUTSIDE the bathroom. Paint your bath a bright red, all that red reflects on your face, making your makeup look redder than it is so you don’t apply too much blush, and you walk outside pale as a ghost. Or paint it green, and all that green reflects off your face and makeup (which sucks the life out of flesh colors), making you think you need to overcompensate with your blush to put the color back in your cheeks, and you walk out looking like Rudolph.

Makes perfect sense. Just like how some colors make you hyper or subdued and calm, and how others can make you hungry or lose your appetite.

 

[KarenElissa]

What about a blue for your kitchen? Kind of like the pillow here. It looks nice with the green and blue and orange go nicely.

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

No, it’s so one looks good OUTSIDE the bathroom. Paint your bath a bright red, all that red reflects on your face, making your makeup look redder than it is so you don’t apply too much blush, and you walk outside pale as a ghost. Or paint it green, and all that green reflects off your face and makeup (which sucks the life out of flesh colors), making you think you need to overcompensate with your blush to put the color back in your cheeks, and you walk out looking like Rudolph.

Makes perfect sense. Just like how some colors make you hyper or subdued and calm, and how others can make you hungry or lose your appetite.

**Right, it’s not so much about looking good as it is about preventing looking bad, lol.

And honestly it’s more about house guests… I can just use the bathroom upstairs that has better light and color. But if guests are over and use the bathroom I don’t want them to think they look odd just because my bathroom is an unflattering color:shrug:

Or maybe I am just looking for excuses to paint, lol… I am sure that’s what hubby would accuse me of
**

 

[sanctareparata]

**Right, it’s not so much about looking good as it is about preventing looking bad, lol.

And honestly it’s more about house guests… I can just use the bathroom upstairs that has better light and color. But if guests are over and use the bathroom I don’t want them to think they look odd just because my bathroom is an unflattering color:shrug:

Or maybe I am just looking for excuses to paint, lol… I am sure that’s what hubby would accuse me of
**

I just read that decorators encourage salon owners and hairdressers to paint their spaces in salmon or coral colors, because they always flatter the face and makeup job. Would that be an option?