Scared of Color
Things are moving along in our kitchen/dining room remodel. The walls have been textured to match as closely as possible and they have been painted. Painted twice thus far. We are now in the process of putting in the hard wood flooring. I am loving what we are doing with our house and everything that we have picked out except that I am so nervous about our kitchen colors. I have been from the very beginning. Now I do love color but I think I am bit scared of color! Maybe I have just lived in too many houses with plain white walls. After all white walls will go with anything right? Neutrals are easy to handle too. Most of our house is now in a neutral color with an accent wall here or there and I really like that! Then comes the kitchen. I was actually not sleeping well because I was so stressed about what color to choose, PATHETIC! I think it is partially because we have spent so much cash on this remodel that I do not want to waste a penny!
Hubby and I were on one of our many romantic walks through Lowe’s, well okay, romantic is NOT the word, hehe. I saw a really great set of curtains! I asked hubby what he thought and he said he really liked them, so we took the colors in the curtains and tried to imagine our kitchen matching them. Hubby said he thought it was a great idea and so we went with it. After all, on all of those great home shows, how often do designers plan their designs after one great piece?!
Well, the color finally went up over the weekend and well……let us just say we found that they mistinted the paint, it did not work. So a new coat of retinted paint (a few shades difference) went up the other day. It works so much better with the accented pony wall we built and the neighbor LOVES it! I am still just so nervous about it! Hubby is a little bit too.
If we were to see this in someone else’s home we would think it was great! We are just not sure about it being in our home. We are more neutral and earthy in our color scheme and these new colors just see so bold!
Is it just me or are there others of you with this same color fear? So, why am I so afraid of color? OR is it that some people just have certain colors that match their personalities? Do we stick with out plan and see if it grows on us? OR do we change again? If so, well we are so uncertain about what to try next. I bet you are wondering what the colors are, huh? Well, I will be posting photos once it is all put together. So you will have to come back and see if I am over reacting or not.
Posted in house
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:11 pm
You were right I would enjoy this post, because I LOVE color, but I have some of the same fears too.
One thing I have found to work at times is to swap out one color, either for a little more colorful tint or more neutral, that will surprisingly make the rest of the colors work together. I’m looking forward to seeing the pictures.
And, yes, I do think the personalities involved make a difference. For example, my hero loves to use outdoorsy colors, like brown and green. And I like subtle, sophisticated color combinations, such as monochromatic or analogous color schemes.
There is no harm in waiting until you are really sure you know what you want before making another change.
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I’m totally not afraid of color, I have a quirky theory that if it doesn’t work out, you either turn it into a faux finish wall (with a better shade) or you paint over it.
I grew up with white walls, white furniture, and white carpet, so when I see plain walls I feel they need life jazzed into them, I have been known to paint furniture too.
Hubs never knows what color he will come home too, but he enjoys seeing how his crazy wife gets such grins and giggles out of it. Now it seems I have passed the color gene off to my oldest, who feels we need “rainbow colors” in her room.
BTY, I am loving the green shades, brown, blues and the red. I have lots of those hues throughout the house.
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Ah, right down my alley. My kitchen is red, my living room is beige, and my bedrooms are a pale coffee or green.
Love color. Go for it!!!
Valerie
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I love color but I never get it right! If only the color chips appear on my wall the way they look in my head.
And so I usually end up with a new shade of off-white because if it’s wrong, at least it will only be slightly wrong. Sigh.
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Kim- that is my problem exactly!
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:51 pm
I have been through this too…We chose a Plum to cover up a RED wall in our bedroom. All the rest of the walls were one of those greens on your swatches. It bothered me for about 6 months…finally Ds painted the Plum wall the green. like the rest of the walls…and I felt PEACE once again! Crazy! I think it does have something to do with our personalities! I have a friend that chooses in my opinion, weird combos of colors…looks great in her quilts but she is always disapointed in her home decor when she tries it. LOL!
October 25th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
One of the best interior painting tips I ever got was to not simply choose a color for a room; rather, you should choose something from the room that you love (like something decorative, a pillow, a picture, etc.) and find a color therein that would be a nice color for the walls.
Having the walls and something that you love about the room matching is great; it brings out the beauty of the item!
Katie in Philly
October 26th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Oh, I remember those romantic walks through the very same Lowes.
Mike has a fear of color. I love color – the bolder the better.
In AK we even put “crackle” on our room’s walls. COOL….deep, deep blue under and white crackle on top to get a weathered board look. Mike thought he’d die but came to enjoy it – or at least showing others. LOL
One thing I did when trying to decide what to do in AK was to pait some posterboard and tack it to the wall…..then I lived with and saw what the color looked like in our light with a bigger sample…..
I went with a leather look – golden brown, rolled with rags in the living room – such a nice warm room…
Now we have white…because see…..even though you get to OWN a home and do whatever you want…..in our military lives the time to move comes oh so quickly and most folks seem to want white when they are looking to buy. LOL