I need some help/ideas for painting the interior of my house.

[Chicabee19]

wow Kodiakchicken, your walls are very similar to mine!

I took two colors of glaze and sponged my walls by hand - they are a beautiful golden color. Everyone says they look like suede.

Glaze is SO much better than straight paint imho - I'll never use anything else.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

I'd suggest spending a lot of time on the Internet researching looks you like and want to recreate before you decide on anything. A home is always an ongoing project, but it helps to have a final goal in mind so that you can work toward it piece by piece.

Start a folder of "inspiration pictures" on your computer. This can include paint colors, furniture, accessories, anything that inspires you. You may find a color you like in a picture of a piece of furniture or in a painting.

Here's a site I like for historical paint colors: http://www.artsparx.com/historic_colors.asp

 

[MandyH]

Kodiakchicken yours walls are BEAUTIFUL!! The crackle idea wasn't my favorite either. I would love to do the faux wood look in a dark color at least for the baseboards. Let me tell you that my living room furniture is RUST!! Yes you heard me right, rust and gold. It sounds horrible, but works perfectly with the house. Now my DH's Grandmother has the suit I really want, but she's making me wait until she dies before I can have it. And she doesn't even use it!! I told her I was gonna have to knock her in the head pretty soon if she didn't hurry up and just let me have it. It is rust and teal. I will try to get a picture of the living room so you can see how awful it is, but I have dial up and I dread even trying to post a picture. Kodiak, I just need something that will go with rust, but it would kill me to do a 20x24 livingroom with 12 foot ceilings like yours. I want to put the old tin tiles on the ceilings now that we have a new roof and it's not leaking anymore!!

 

[MandyH]

http://www.sherwin-williams.com/do_it_yourself/paint_colors/paint_color_palette/color_themes/interior/int_victorian/index.jsp

The second color swatch is the one I really like with the red, gold and sage.

 

[miss_thenorth]

While my house is only 14 years old, when we moved here, we knew we were going to be here for a while. So I too, wanted to get away form the neutrals. ( for the most part) I wanted a designer look, without having to pay a designer.

I went to home depot, and talked to one of their staff that worked at the paint department. She had taken some classes in interior decorating, and she helped me pick out a whole colour scheme for the main floor of my house (sans bedrooms)
We discussed tones, shades, colours etc, and it looks really good. Usually places like home depot have experienced ppl working in their departments, so I would try there is you have one accessible to you.

 

[kodiakchicken]

Kristen,

Sorry for bailing on out the conversation yesterday. The sun was shining here (finally!) so the bosses closed the office at 1pm for sunshine liberty. It was great!

I love the color pallete that you like at Sherwin Williams! It's very, very similar to what mine is. My living room is done in gold, rust/red, green and dark purple (I have to have purple somewhere!). Believe it or not, our living room is 16x26 with a 14' vaulted ceiling, so I understand the hesitation in doing that much space. I thought my arm would drop off after washing the brown over all those walls! Needless to say, it took me awhile!

How about this? Use the sage green color on the walls and then the gold, or a lighter gold with the same tones, as the trim? I know the SW swatch shows the walls in the red/rust ciolor, but since your furniture is that color, you can use that as your accent color. If you click on their color planner (might take awhile with dial-up) and search for the sage color, it will show you a color pallete with green walls, a tannish/gold trim and teal furniture (planning ahead for your MIL's stuff!). That sage green is a really relaxing color - you'll be surprised at how warm it makes your room. And the gold will look beautiful around the window trim with all that light shining on it.

If you aren't sure, you can always do what I did. Buy quart sizes of the colors you like and try them out in small patches. You would not believe the array of colors splotches I had painted on my walls!!!! I thought my husband was going to throw in the towel.

The one other hint I'll give you is this: Trust your instincts. If you are being drawn toward a color, even if it's a color you never thought you'd like, try it. I am not a fan of yellow and I could not have imagined having gold walls. I don't even wear gold jewelry! However, I kept going back to that color time and again and when I finally bought some and put it on the wall it was perfect.

I hope this helps! Keep me posted!

 

[tomstephens]

yay color! Don't be afraid of color. Also don't fight white for trim, sometimes it's great on a strong wall color.

Don't be afraid to experiment with colors that you are a little scared of. I convinced my wife to use pink for our den and now it's one of her favorite rooms

If you want to work with your antique furniture you might want to use more muted colors. Unless you want to be a little victorian at which point you can try some really fun pastels.

 

[MandyH]

Thanks Kodiak, I am not too afraid of color, it's just that I don't want to do it more than once!!! The first time it was a quick job, but the carpet and all had not been laid yet and the spills and such got covered up. Now, I have carpet and wood floors and all to be careful of. My DH wouldn't say much even if I painted it pee yellow, he knows better by now. He DID ask me what in the cr@p was wrong with the new furniture we had when I asked him how he liked the antique set I bought while he was at work!!LOL! I told him there wasn't anything wrong with it, in fact the people that stopped and bought it loved it!!!!

 

[maplesky7]

http://www.interior-design-it-yourself.com/victorian-interior-design.html


above is a link that may be helpful...


My aunt has toile wallpaper and I love it, her home is on the historical list and is toured in Md.,...here's one from a wholesaler...notice the rooster....this swatch is in amber but they also have the red...

http://www.wallpaperwholesaler.com/...7541E0132&book=3610&proddisplay=0&currpage1=1

I've seen a home with the inexpensive tin on the ceilings from one of the chains? lowes, home depot, menards??? i can't remember which...and it looks cheap.

Forget the ceiling and go with a nice patterned wall...victorian brings alot of patterns together and with a little bit of homework can look magnificent.

me,
g

 

[kodiakchicken]

Quote:
Hee! Hee!

It's good to know there are other husbands out there that have learned NOT to mess with a woman and her decorating!

I'd go with the colors you picked out on the Sherwin Williams swatch - they're gorgeous. And since you can't get all the paint off the trim, play it up with a beautiful color.

Just be sure to post pictures when you're done!