Any paint ideas????
xraymom
Hi, I need help deciding what color to paint my hallway. All of my rooms lead off of this hallway. When we built our home 10 years ago, everything was painted white or linen. Now I am starting to add color into my humble abode. Currently, it goes like this: Kitchen and dining room are separated by a wall, painted red on the dining room side, sponged with gold highlights (It is gorgeous). The kitchen is painted white, as is the dining room, decorated with red and green. There is hardwood floor in the kitchen and dining room. My living room is a linen color, decorated with cream, sage green, and burgundy. My 12 year old's room is painted red 2 walls and white 2 walls, with navy blue carpet. My 10 year old's room is cocoa brown and confederate blue (3 blue walls, 1 cocoa), with navy blue carpet. My and my husband's bedroom is painted yellow, with one wall wallpapered. We have laminate for the flooring. I have blue and yellow and white accessories carried over into the master bath. The main bathroom in our home is painted a light yellow with sage green, burgundy, black and yellow accessories. The floor is vinyl, as is my bathroom. Our foyer is hardwood with linen walls that are sponged with gold highlights. We are putting regular hardwood into our living room and hallway, but I can't put it down until I paint the hallway. However this hallway is 26 feet long by 4 feet wide and dark. I can't paint the hall a dark color, but I am sick of the white that has been there for so long. Can someone please give me some ideas????
Astonished Foreigner
I love the sound of your home!!! The colors sound gorgeous. I think that the hallway sounds like its dark ie. no windows. How about deep yellow - almost orange shade? If that sounds too dark, maybe a super pale yellow? I'm saying yellow coz that's bound to make it lighter. Also, considering the rest of the house, tan wouldn't be nice. I currently have this very pale green on the walls in one of the baths in my rented house. It also looks very nice. Ummmm... You could also go for stripes of yellow or green. (dark n light) I guess that's a lot of confusing suggestions. Hope it helps.
xraymom
That sounds great. I'm not a wallpaper person, but what about a pale color and a darker color on the bottom separated by chair rail or a border? I'm am so sick of this hallway being so dark, I can't stand it much longer. I love light colors, like you suggested, pale yellow and green. You know how they tell you to make your rooms flow.... I don't know if my rooms flow or not, and it's really not that important to me. All ideas are welcome. Thanks.
ju-ju
I would think that matching the hallway to your foyer paint colors would be a nice choice. The neutral shade might bring a little continuity to your space since each room in your home is a different color, and it is only a hallway, not technically a room. Also, if the hallway is dark, you could bring more light into the space with a new track-type lighting fixture which could brighten the space all the way to the end. I'm not sure if it is true, but, I remember hearing once that the hallway color should flow continuously from the room that the hallway derives from. So, which room is the dominant room from where you would enter into the hallway? If it is the foyer, match that, if it is the living room match that. You mentioned considering a horizontal half dark, half light painted walls...I did this in my kids play room, and to my surprise, the room actually looks bigger!
xraymom
Thanks ju-ju for your input. I was afraid the half and half would make the hallway seem narrow, but you say it added to the room. What colors did you use and did you use chair rail or border? I just love paint and I love to decorate. I sell Home Interior and my house is full of it. Except my hallway, which is bare, bare, bare. I want to do a family wall, with pictures of my family in different sizes, especially since I just got a daughter-in-law a month ago. What do you think, or anyone reading this think? Also, tell me about this track lighting? All we have in the hallway is one lonely light in the middle. I have a 60 watt bulb and it lights the hallway up, but it's not homey. That is one thing I want is my house to be homey, inviting, come in, have a seat and chill, you know what I mean? I'm at such a loss, and with the hallway being so long, it feels like it is another room.
ju-ju
I would definitely visit a lighting store. I have seen modern versions of the old fashioned track lighting that can be installed using the one light box you have in your ceiling now. Or, you could have an electrician install some pot lights recessed into your ceiling. I think that adding more light might be just what you need. Have you considered making your hallway a lighter neutral shade (perhaos the linen?) with the farthest wall being an accent color? This might add the drama and color you crave, while keeping the hallway bright and light, and allow your photos to stand out and take center stage.I did paint my kids play room in two colors: a color called "nantucket blue" on the bottom half, and an off white shade called "soft chamois" on the upper half (both colors I had lying around from other projects). My intention was to get creative with some horizontal bands of different sizes and different colors around the room...but...I never did get that far. To me, the room does looks bigger with the 2 colors than it did before being all white. I did not use a chair rail, just a very precise line from using a good painters tape. If you did your hallway with this style, I would probably say it might be good to use 2 colors in the same color family (a taupe shade and a linen like shade). For more interest, you could take the darker shade, and bring it up higher than the 1/2 way mark...and put the lighter shade above that, so that it would appear as a wide band of a lighter color behind your photos down either side of the hallway.
Astonished Foreigner
I like ju-ju's suggestions. If you're thinking of doing the horizontal divide, why not do a neutral white or offwhite on top with a slightly deeper shade in the lower half. Of course a lot depends on the color you choose for the rail. Are you planning to color it or keep it wood? I still like the idea of yellow especially in the bottom half because you said your foyer was white with gold highlights and I think yellow will blend in very well with that. I'm now going to give you my favourite and most often repeated advice: if you don't like the blandness of neutral color but need to keep the walls like that, add warmth by yellow light. And get some color in by the way of the frames or mount cards on the artwork. You mentioned photographs - the hallway would be great for them. You could either take one color card to mount them on or you could take b&w printouts and mount them on different shades of the same color. This adds color without darkening up the place. Also, please avoid any lighting in white light as it will end up flattening the place (esp considering that you might be using white walls). Yellow light brings warmth into closed spaces.
Astonished Foreigner
Oh! by the way, my first suggestion about the stripes in the hallway was either yellow or green. Not yellow and green. You could paint it a pale yellow throughout and then add broad stripes of only slightly deeper yellow. Or now, in this case, white with pale yellow stripes (or thin gold stripes). If you're going to paint it yourself, its easy - just takes a lot of painter's tape.
haroldswife
Ok, girls, give me your thoughts on this. How about a very pale yellow on top with a border halfway up or so, and below the border, two different colors of yellow, one the same color as the top, and the other, a deeper, almost cornmeal color or something along those lines. That would tie in with the foyer, as well as the bathroom. The only concern I have is the yellow wall would meet my red wall in the dining room. And I'm not sure about the border. Maybe some type of chair rail???? I can't wait to get the photographs up. It's in my head and I want it out. I just want them in different sizes, in random order. Kind of like chaos, but not at all. What do you all think????
Astonished Foreigner
The colors sound like they should work with all the rooms that the hallway is connecting. I agree the meeting of the two colors might be a little awkward. I'm not so sure about a chair rail; you could hold it up there and see if it works. Do you think you could pick up some artwork that's really long and vertical - this would divide it pretty well. It could be a long piece of embroidered or painted fabric, a long piece of wood - carved or etched, a long frame crammed with photographs, notes from friends, greeting cards... just stuff to make it nice, colorful and a good way to blend in the two colors. The two different colors on either side would look nice and you'd have fun making this piece of art. If you don't find a frame, a long piece of cork with all this memorabilia pinned on it can also look really nice. The photograph idea - are you planning to do them in the hallway? It would make an otherwise neglected part of the house pretty engaging and cozy. I'd say, go for it!
haroldswife
Yes, I'm planning on putting all my family pictures in the hallway. It's the only place that is not decorated with anything. So, in comparison to the White House, I won't have a green room, but a family wall. I'm so excited, I can't wait to get started.
merryhousemaid
Listen guys, color is great but if you are trying to or are wanting to in the near future sell your homes try to refrain from over coloring and use neutral colors, which include rusts(orangey reds), yellow, browns some greens, grays, tans.. never purple and stay away from pink and over bearing childish primary colors. Color is individual specific, and should be used in accessorizing the home. Throw pillows, curtains, rugs and knickknacks are a good way to change the look of the home inexpensively and often. Remember if you paint small areas dark colors they will be claustrophobic, I suggest you use use frames that contain multiple pictures, and are hung in a portrait style as opposed to a landscape style to make the hallway feel uncluttered, and taller vs longer. To many different frames and sizes have a tendency to be busy and cause disinterest, and confusion. I to agree with haroldswife, don't use chair rail it will make the hall way feel longer and more narrow, as well as add unwanted clutter! Really, I do believe that you should choose one of the colors you already have(probably yellow) and if need be go a couple shade lighter, add a nice runner that contain the colors you have, yet again, two shades lighter and add a picture or mirror at that end that gives you a focal point, capture your attention, light it up if need be, that way you will be less inclined to obsess over the length and darkness of the hallway and focus on the end!
norseskye
Sounds like you have no problem with color, I would choose a lighter tone of sage green if the living room goes directly into the hall...
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