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My wife and I love the contrast of the new paint scheme that we have chosen. All the trim, doors, molding, is a gloss white. Our floors are white ceramic tile. Ceiling is all white. We are deciding on a color scheme with each room and hall areas a differant color or shade. All hardware is nickel, cover plates nickel, door handles nickel, plumbing nickel. Our picture frames are either black or silver. We recently finished a bathroom and the color is a dark grey, almost charcoal gray with a white ceiling and the white tile floor. The tub, toilet, and sink are all white. Cabinets are white for now.
We also plan on painting the other walls a darker tone of either gray, tan, or a rust. I will have to send pictures at some point but not ready for that just yet. Just wondering, can the colors be too dark for a home?
My wife picked the colors at our old home, and it took me a long time to get her to admit it - but it ended up being too dark in some places. Our kitchen had a nice dark red on the walls and that worked well because there was plenty of light. But she used a dark sage green in our living room and up the stairs into the 2nd floor hallway. The problem was the hallway had no natural light. Even thought the ceilings were bright white and all the trim was bright white, it was like a black hole in the center of the house. We would have ended up repainting it had we stayed there.
Now, we are doing it all over again at our new place. I had to fight the good fight to prevent the same thing from happening again, but after reminding her enough times and breaking out some pictures of the old house she relented and we worked it all out. She's getting what she wants - warm, earthy colors but I got her to go with some brighter choices than she originally selected. The new house has lots of beautiful woodwork in every room that is stained and not painted - all of the baseboard/door/window trim, ceiling beams in a few rooms, and each bedroom has a corner with tongue-and-groove paneling and shelves for books, a tv, etc. It really was nicely done, by a true craftsman. So, with all that it's even more important this time to pick some brighter colors as there's no white trim to balance out darker choices.
I think a color can be too dark on walls especially if:
-Everything in the room is dark (furniture, decor, etc.)
-There aren't enough windows.
-There isn't enough lighting.
-The room is tiny.
I think you can paint rooms in a dark color. And if you have a good sense in terms of this type of stuff, you will know whether or not it works.
It seems that we pick a color out and when that color hits the wall it seems to look darker than we remember. We painted our dining room when we first bought the home in a dark gray. The room does have lots of light and with the white floors, ceiling, and trim it looks very nice. The bathroom looked very dark but with the placement of light and the mirror it seems to look very nice as well. We like it anyway and that is all that matters I guess. Still was kind of wondering because the main hallway has very little light, other than the overhead light in the ceiling. Then again maybe that can be resolved by installing some recessed lighting.
I don't think the paint color matters as much as the lighting in the space. Even white in a room with no light will appear to be too dark. If you find a room seems dark, add a floor lamp or something and it will improve the appearance.
Most people are afraid to use color because they think it makes the room too dark or too small but I've not found that to be the case personally. Too little light is usually the cause of both of those.
My wife and I love the contrast of the new paint scheme that we have chosen. All the trim, doors, molding, is a gloss white. Our floors are white ceramic tile. Ceiling is all white. We recently finished a bathroom and the color is a dark grey, almost charcoal gray with a white ceiling and the white tile floor. The tub, toilet, and sink are all white. Cabinets are white for now.
We also plan on painting the other walls a darker tone of either gray, tan, or a rust. I will have to send pictures at some point but not ready for that just yet. Just wondering, can the colors be too dark for a home?
I think your first comment says it all! You and your wife love the colours you have chosen. That is what matters.
Your bathroom sounds lovely but I am biased! We gutted a very small bathroom and had the walls and ceiling sprayed with a grey tone Zolatone paint. Replaced all the fixtures in white with chrome. Love it.
Our living room walls are a medium grey (which we like) but the room became very dark when we moved the big, heavy, black leather sofa back in. It seemed that sofa just absorbed all the natural light in the room. So we donated that big sofa and replaced it with a LeCorbusier 2 seater sofa (black) and a glass top coffee table, made the world of difference.
So our experience is that the room furnishings and fixtures play a significant role in the "lightness" of a room.
Have fun decorating!
I think your first comment says it all! You and your wife love the colours you have chosen. That is what matters.
Your bathroom sounds lovely but I am biased! We gutted a very small bathroom and had the walls and ceiling sprayed with a grey tone Zolatone paint. Replaced all the fixtures in white with chrome. Love it.
Our living room walls are a medium grey (which we like) but the room became very dark when we moved the big, heavy, black leather sofa back in. It seemed that sofa just absorbed all the natural light in the room. So we donated that big sofa and replaced it with a LeCorbusier 2 seater sofa (black) and a glass top coffee table, made the world of difference.
So our experience is that the room furnishings and fixtures play a significant role in the "lightness" of a room.
Have fun decorating!
Sounds like you both have similar taste to us. Yes you are right. we love it and get to live with it. All others are visitors and can go back to the design patterns and colors that they have chosen to live with.
I don't know if there is a general rule. When we had the interior of our house painted, I took into consideration that the main hall ran north and south, and that meant that light didn't penetrate very far into the house from the front door, which has quite a bit of glass. I used a lighter color in the hall for that reason. I chose the rest of the colors to react well with that color.
I did choose a medium gray for two rooms: kitchen and guest bath. The gray looks really, really good. The kitchen gets plenty of light, except for in the winter, and the guest bath has only artificial light. The trim is white. And the floors in those rooms are light.
I do think that with your choices of so much cool white, that the wall tones might be best if kept on the warm side. I chose to have warm floors and light but warm ceilings. The walls are pretty cool, which works with my dark reddish warm-toned furniture.
I think it is best to have a way of thinking about what you choose to do. In other words, you choose your colors to fit a pattern or template, rather than simply choosing random colors. If the house seems dark, then you would choose to keep the colors light, for instance. If a room or hallway is dark, you would stay light on the walls. If a room has a lot of sunlight, you might make different choices. In a bedroom, where you want to sleep, a darker color might be chosen. If most of your furniture is darker, warm brown, then you might want cooler toned walls.
And there is no one right way to do this sort of thing.
Remember, it is only paint. If you are drawn to a dark paint color, go for it. Have a respite from the dark color in the adjacent rooms. If, in the end, you do not feel comfortable, you can always change it.
I moved to a house with dark pumpkin in the kitchen. At first I liked it, since I am a fan of boldness, but after 3 years I felt that the walls were closing in, so I had to revert back to my core, which are pale beachy colors.
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