Colour scheming

Since I'm home so much, I spend a lot of time coming up with grand schemes to fix up our little house. Most of my fantasies involve gutting the kitchen and knocking down some walls, but we can't get started on that quite yet. So that leaves painting. My dynamic work crew, a.k.a. Grandma Eileen and Grandpa Moe, arrive next week, so it's time to finalize the colour choices so we can paint while they're in town. I've been taping paint samples to the wall for weeks, and I've almost figured out what I want to do.

Living room:



This is a long, narrow room that doesn't get much natural light, so I can't go too deep with the paint colour--the place will look like a cave. My original idea was a spicy orange/ pumpkin-like colour, but all the samples I found ended up being too dark on the walls. So now I'm trying to choose between a much ligher, almost yellow orange (Ralph Lauren's "Chesapeake Sunset") and Plan B, a mid-tone, mossy green. I'm leaning heavily toward the orange because I want to add warmth and energy to the room. But some shade of green is always in play with me.

We have to remove the stupid wood stove and repair the wall before we paint. That should be fun.

Downstairs hallway:



We're going with an intense, cream-of-tomato-soup red. There's actually not much wall space involved, so I figure a splash of bold colour here will jazz up the first floor considerably without being overwhelming.

Upstairs hall: Cornmeal yellow, just like our old foyer. I loved that colour.

There are a couple other rooms to paint, but I don't think I'll get to them within the next few months. I'll post "after" pictures once the work is done.