Monday, February 8, 2010

Room painting choices

Our house has four bedrooms upstairs--the master and three others. Of those three, one is our guest room and the other two serve as Torsten's and my offices. Eventually, we plan to convert the rooms currently serving as our offices into kid rooms. If we're both still working from home at that point, either we'll both set up office in different parts of the basement, or we'll set up the guest room to double as an office for one of us. But of course the hope is that by the time we need two rooms for kids, Torsten's company will be big enough to require an actual office in an office building somewhere nearby.

The point in all this is that Torsten has decided he wants to go ahead and move his office into the basement. This has nothing to do with future kid rooms or anything--he just wants a new space to work from, rather than a space that he associates with his old job.

This actually works out great--he wants to move, he has to sort through all the crap in his office now while he's changing jobs anyway, he has a lot of new stuff to set up so he might as well do it in a new space--and plus, as I may have mentioned here before, we're hoping to have a baby sometime in the nearish future, which means that one of us would have to be moving an office to the basement anyway. So, he'll move down there now, and the room that currently houses his office will stand empty for awhile.

And... well, while it's standing empty would be a good time to paint it, no? I feel bizarrely superstitious about doing anything to a planned nursery before there's an actual baby on the way, you know? But at the same time, it would make sense to do it now, and also, I would love to do something concrete and baby-related. It would make me feel slightly better about having to wait to actually have the baby.

Also, we've decided that we want to do the future nursery in turquoise and yellow. I love that color combination, and it's nicely unisex without being boring yellow and green. Behold a couple examples of yellow and turquoise nurseries (source and source--and more pics of both nurseries at the links):



So, if we paint the room, it will be turquoise. And honestly, if something happens and the baby-having is delayed or somehow never ends up happening? I have zero problem with having at least one colorful room in our house. Every room right now is painted a lovely neutral beige, and while it works quite well, I wouldn't mind having a bit more color in our lives, you know?

So, we're thinking we'll paint it, assuming the paint and various other equipment we'll need doesn't cost too insanely much (considering the spending freeze and all). And that's where you come in.

Here are a couple crappy pictures of the room. Please ignore the heinous mess. Torsten has yet to clean it out.



See how there's that white molding thing around the middle of the walls? What do we do with it? If we paint the walls turquoise, should we leave the molding white? Or should we paint it a pale, buttery sort of yellow? Not anything too blinding, but something that would contribute to the eventual planned color scheme of the room? But then if we did that, would that look weird with the closet door in the second photo and the baseboards and the molding around the nook and the shelves in the nook in the first picture? Would we have to paint all of those things yellow too, and if we did that, would it be overkill? Maybe we should just leave it all white and then get a white crib to match?

Also, what do you think of the color scheme, in general? Are we crazy for liking this?

30 comments:

  1. I love the colour combination (more the first one, with punches of yellow in the accessories than the second one with the yellow crib).

    With your chair rail, I would probably paint the turquoise above it and white (same as the trim) below it. Make some simple mitred squares in the lower portion to give a wainscoting effect.

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  2. That's a great color combination. I think the chair rail could go either way, depending on how much yellow you do end up with. A lot of people will pain the main color (turquoise) on the top half of the room and leave the chair rail and lower half white, but I could see it just being a white accent (along with your baseboards and door trim, as well.
    Happy taping off and painting! :)

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  3. I love the turquoise color - it's one of my favorite colors.

    For the chair rail, you could go one shade lighter with it and the space below it. That's what the previous owners of our house did with our kitchen and it looks really cool.

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  4. What if you paint a slightly darker turquoise (from the same family of colors) below the chair rail and leave it white? I think that'd be really gorgeous (and might better hide scuffs a future child is likely to make on walls!).

    Also, there's nothing wrong with yellow and green. I grew up with those colors and like them quite a bit.

    Should we ever have a kid, our second bedroom is currently a lime green (painted by the previous owner) and I'm pretty sure we'll leave that color and use orange and yellow as accents.

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  5. I would leave the chair rail and trim and stuff white - you can always paint it yellow later if you decide you want it painted. Of course, this would be my answer because I'm lazy, not because I have any actual design sense, so feel free to ignore me. :)

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  6. I love the color combination. A lot. I would keep all moldings/the door and the ceiling white. I might be tempted to do a lighter turqoise on top and darker below. But I really love the chair rail and hope you keep it.

    Very, very cute. And the turqoise would be a great guest room/den color in the meantime.

    We just moved too, and I am very tempted to go nuts with painting since we have all beige all the time, but really, I'm just too lazy to do it right now. I'm thinking once I get a good couple of scuffs on the wall, I'll revisit the idea.

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  7. Oh I just LOVE that color. I'd leave the accent white, what with the beautiful molding and the closet doors and everything. You might look around on Craigslist or ask neighbors and see if you can get supplies like rollers and trays for cheap/free. Lots of people buy that stuff and only need it once or twice.

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  8. I would leave the chair rail and all the other trim white - I like the suggested idea of 2 shades of turquoise above and below. Trim is a PITA to paint (I know this well - we are in the process of painting it all 3 of our bedrooms) so if you don't like the yellow it's a ton of work to fix.

    Also, if you love the yellow crib, it doesn't have to be all matchy-matchy with the trim - it can be a stand-alone statement piece. It will only be in the room for about 2 years, anyway.

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  9. This is SO not my forte, but I LOVE the color combo and I also LOVE white trim. White goes with everything! I would paint it turquoise (and I would use the same color for top and bottom, but that is because I am Lazy and Color Stupid) and throw in yellow accents when it's done.

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  10. LOOVE that yellow crib in a turquoise room! You know how I feel about this color scheme, so I'm all for it, even as another guest room for awhile!

    I'd leave the chair rail white for now. I'd actually remove the chair rail altogether if you want a cohesive, one color on the walls look.

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  11. I love that color combination! If it were me I think I would leave the trim white for now, figuring I could always paint it yellow later on if I really wanted to. But I also like turquoise and white together too, bringing in pops of other color with other elements in the room -- pillows, picture frames, even painting a bookshelf. I love that your color choices can easily be incorporated to multiple uses of a room (office, guest room, nursery).

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  12. Oh, I LOOOOOVE IT! those pictures just have to be from design*sponge, yes?

    The Before and After section of design*sponge is my FAVORITE thing on the internet.

    I say go for it.

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  13. I like it!! I would paint the chair rail and the shelves a buttery yellow and leave the baseboards and doors white.

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  14. I really like the color scheme. I would leave your trim colors white otherwise it could turn out to be too much yellow. Much like the first picture they left white trim but then brought the yellow accents in other places which look great.

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  15. I love love LOVE the color scheme. I think you should absolutely do it! As for the molding - I would skip the yellow as that would like kinda weird but what about a darker shade of the turquoise? Then you would have a lot more options for how to incorporate the yellow into the room and it will look stylin in the meantime.

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  16. leave the chair rail white! I think it will look great with that turquoise, which looks fabulous by the way.

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  17. I really like the color combo. It's different, yet still neutral like you said.

    I think the chair rail question depends on what you're going to do with the rest of the room. What color furniture are you planning to have? If you had white furniture as lots of nurseries do now, I think that rail would tie it all together.

    Also, one smidgen of advice if you're open to it? Make sure when you're going neutral that you leave some room to personalize for the baby when it arrives (I don't know if you're planning to know the gender or not). I did an entire room for "the baby" who became Madeline and now I can't WAIT to do her big-girl room for HER, not the mysterious baby. I should have left some room for personalization.

    That said, we'll still wait to learn gender next time as well - it's too fun!

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  18. I would leave the chair rail white. You can always do a two-tone turquoise above and below the rail, or white above and turquoise below, or just leave the chair rail white. I think it looks nice with the color and with the baseboards and the door being white also!

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  19. I agree with the comments about leaving all the trim, baseboards, door, and chair rail white. I think it could be really cool to do two colors above/below the chair rail too. Honestly, it kind of makes me imagine my eyes going cross-eyed to think of looking at a bright turquoise room with yellow (even buttery, soft yellow) molding/doors/etc. White will help keep the colors fresher looking, too.

    Big fan of the first photo you posted, I think you can't go wrong duplicating/appropriating that scheme.

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  20. I love the turquoise and the color combination is fantastic!

    ~Kellie

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  21. I love the color scheme and another commenter's suggestion of painting the wall two colors of turquoise, one darker and one lighter, leaving the chair rail white. SO CUTE!

    Like this: http://www.lazygun.com/babyblog/index.php?/archives/13-Nursery-Update.html

    or this: http://melissajackson-initialdesigns.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-had-to-take-matters-into-my-own-hands.html

    in your own colors of course!

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  22. I love the molding and keeping it white. I also think turquoise and yellow is a perfect color combo. Great choice!

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  23. 1) I vote for keeping the chair rail white.
    2) I like Nilsa's idea of the darker turquoise below and paler shade above.
    3) You've probably already thought of this, but definitely use low-VOC or zero-VOC paint. Especially for a nursery or if you plan to become pregnant soon.
    4) If you lived here, I could provide a few options for free because we have leftovers from exhibitions that have come down.

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  24. I love turquoise! I would also keep the rail white... I think turquoise-yellow-white could also work really well. Anyway, great colors!

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  25. Love that combo. I say leave the moulding white, as well as any other millwork, doors, etc. I think too much yellow would be overkill, and moulding generally doesn't look as good painted a color as it does when it's just white. And no matter what, it will be a really nice, fresh, bright room with the turquoise!

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  26. I love the color combination, and I love what other people have suggested about doing white or a lighter shade of turquoise above or below the chair rail. My only recommendation would be to leave the chair rail white - even if you paint the walls turquoise both above and below it. They are a huge pain to paint, and it adds a nice pop of color and some visual interest.

    Plus, you're right about it being a little awkward unless you paint the rest of the trim it bumps into yellow. Which is fine if that's what you want - I just think the white adds some nice freshness to balance the rest of the turquoise and yellow. Also, you can totally leave it white and still get a yellow crib if that's what you want. It's nice to add some neutrals to your color scheme for balance and layers.

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  27. clarification; painting chair rails and/or molding are a huge pain...in my opinion! You have to tape off or cut in twice the amount (first the walls, then the rail, or vice versa)

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  28. I know I'm late to the game. Anyway: turquoise sounds beautiful in theory but make sure you way lighter than you think. I painted my bedroom turquoise as a kid. It looks fine on the little square, but over a whole wall? It gets to be too much, very quickly. Do you read fiveblondes? I love Kate's new nursery... finding pic...
    http://fiveblondes.com/decorating/raspbabys-nursery/

    I think its the most beautiful baby room ever. BUT I love your design taste and can't wait to see your nursery, too!

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  29. Thank you for sharing this interesting and informative article, painting with airless spray gun will be faster and more interesting!

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