And you picked those colors why...?

November 20, 2010 9:11 AM

How do I live in a house with light pink walls, and big bright blue accent walls?

Next month, I'm moving. I found a really nice little house, right in the neighborhood I want to live in, in a cool little community. Exactly what I was looking for. Except the landlords have painted the interior in a... distinctive way.

The walls are a light coral/salmon sort of color. Three out of four walls in the bedroom and living room are that color, as well as the entire bathroom.

And the bedroom and living room each have one big accent wall in bright blue. Like so:

Blue: 3F72B1 or R:63 G:114 B:177
Pink: E9D0C4 or R:233 G:208 B:196

(You can use this tool to take a look at them.)

I'm an earth-tones kind of guy; my stuff is wood, tans, and browns, the darker the better. I've never lived anywhere quite that... cheerful?

Any suggestions on how to go about toning it down, or dealing with it in general? Will my mostly-brown stuff work in there? What colors should I use in the all-pink bathroom? Any colors I should avoid?

(My landlady is an interior designer; her husband is an architect. When I inquired politely as to whether they might be planning to re-paint, here's what they said:

"I think you will find that the paint scheme really does work with the desert environment. Blue for the bright skies and the desert blush that recalls the sunset colors in the summer months. There really is no pink, but rather a subtle melon color. We gave a lot of thought about the color scheme and when you move-in you will see how art, fabrics, furnishings, and accessories are enhanced by the colors, and vice versa, and with the right lighting at night, how cozy and warm it makes your living environment."

So, um, I think they're pretty attached to the colors. Plus, they may write ad copy on the side.)

Usually, I'm pretty good at setting up a space so that it's livable, but this is a bit beyond me. Help?

posted by MrVisible to Home & Garden (20 answers total)

Best answer: You know, honestly, I think it's going to be OK. They are not my first choice colours but the blue is... fine... and what you are calling pink is really not pink to my eye. I think they're stating their thinking on the colours in an overblown way but woods, tans and browns should pretty much drop right in and be fine. If you want to tie it all together a bit, get some blue throw pillows and sheets.
posted by DarlingBri at 9:26 AM on November 20, 2010 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Yeah, those are pretty hideous. But I think the first order of business is to move in there, put your stuff where it belongs, and try living with it for a couple of weeks. You may find that the landlords' desert ideas are correct. If you don't, I'd propose to them that you want to repaint, and that you'll pay for it to be re-repainted back to their colors when your lease is up.

Basically, since it's a rental I wouldn't fuss with purchasing new furniture or decorative items to go with a color scheme you hate.
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:27 AM on November 20, 2010

I think DarlingBri is right. Imagine all your tan & brown stuff is driftwood, woody cactus trunks and oxidized sandstone and I think you'll make it work.
posted by toodleydoodley at 9:32 AM on November 20, 2010

I recently moved into a house with lots of bright colors painted everywhere. I love bright paint, though, so I was fine with it even though I would never have chosen most of these particular colors. The room I'm in right now was a baby girl's room and it has a chair rail with BRIGHT hot pink below and white with painted-on black polka dots, pink flowers with bright green stems, and black and white vinyl decals of sheep.

Our strategy has been just to put our stuff in the house and not change anything. We're probably only going to live here a couple of years. In this room, I've put in neutral furniture and I've hung stuff on the walls to cover some of the painted stuff -- and I seriously don't see any of it anymore. In my fluorescent chartreuse kitchen, I again hung stuff on the walls and totally don't mind the amount of highlighter-level brightness that's still visible.

So all that's to say that your furniture sounds very neutral, and when I looked at the paint colors on the website you linked, I didn't think they looked too too too bright, even though I totally get that they are brighter and lighter than you're used to. I think once you get your furniture in there and live with it a bit, you totally won't be that bothered by the paint colors. Your masculine, dark furniture hopefully will bring a sense of balance to the rooms. I totally wouldn't stress about trying to accessorize until you've lived with it a while. If you're gnawing off your limbs in frustration after you've settled in, can you maybe hang some large (neutral) artwork or fabric on the troublesome walls?

Bottom line: I think you should pretend those paint colors are neutrals and go with the flow, man. Feel the desert blush! :)
posted by hansbrough at 9:34 AM on November 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

The pink is almost a warm tan color. I think once you get your brown earth-toned stuff in there, it won't seem so pink.

And hey, the blue is almost Metafilter blue!

Also I bet if you live there for a couple months and then ask if you can paint a few walls, they might let you. Especially if you offer to re-paint upon moving out.

(This is why I am an engineer and not an interior designer.)
posted by beandip at 9:43 AM on November 20, 2010

Just move your stuff in and give it a shot. I really think woods, tans, and browns will go fine with those colors; it's hard without seeing it in person, but those would be my first-choice colors to go with that blue and that... not-pink... melon, whatever it is.
posted by J. Wilson at 9:54 AM on November 20, 2010

I think one fundamental difference between your tastes and the feel of the place might be texture. Desert schemes seem to be about the feel of sandstone or bone - smooth, dry, with a matte finish, and a cool feeling. Wood and earth tones are often about a striated textured grain, which has more depth visually and feels smooth and/or warm. So, in a sense, they are opposed.

You might try concentrating your "warm" earth-toned furnishings in some of the rooms, and letting the desert color take over in other rooms. If you have wood-framed art or tall shelves, you might be able to make a den or bedroom for yourself that feels more like a familiar home. Then, having an entirely different room for a change could be refreshing - just see what you have that works with that feel, and enjoy.

Also, see which of your furnishings are of a color that looks good against the coral color (maybe the more light yellow wood tones), and which looks good against the blue. I suspect that darker oak or mahogany tones will look better against the blue, but I could be wrong and the reverse might be true -- try it and see.

If you have or acquire art, look for pieces with a touch of deep (dark) red or deep blue in them that will work well with the current wall colors and with the undertones in your wood furniture.

Finally, if the furniture you currently have is pre-fab not-too-exciting wood, you might do well to look for more interesting wood textures at antique or resale (or new, if you have the means) shops. This will add a lot of warmth and interest and is more likely to work anywhere.
posted by amtho at 9:56 AM on November 20, 2010

Similar colour scheme - seems unremarkable to nice to me!
posted by DarlingBri at 10:02 AM on November 20, 2010

Best answer: That is really more of a tan with pink undertones...your tans and browns will probably look just fine in there.

Get your stuff moved in and take a look before you freak too much. That is actually a nice basic desert color scheme and it's more neutral than you think. You can always put in a few accent things in the blue if you need to.

And hey, your landlady is an interior designer-ask her advice!
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 10:04 AM on November 20, 2010

I'm a woman and that pink would be a bit much for me (it's very . . . flesh-toney). My pink-averse husband would hate it. So I feel your pain.

Considering using something like this to hang curtains and tapestries around your rooms.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 10:05 AM on November 20, 2010

That's a very acquired taste for a colour scheme. Boo to your landlords for not letting you change it - they don't have to live with it!

What I would do is get some large wall hangings or posters and try to cover it up as much as possible. Since it seems that you can't actually make any changes, you could get an extendible shower curtain rail, and drape some materials over that. 3M poster strips are also pretty good at not leaving any marks on either posters or walls.

Try aiming light away from the pink walls to make them appear darker, in the shadow. Focus the light on other things in the room so that they stand out against the darker walls.

Also, all pink bathroom? Hmm....
posted by Solomon at 10:38 AM on November 20, 2010

I once lived in a house whose living room was referred to as "the Dorito room" because the walls were a sort of cheddary orange, carefully stippled with a Cheez-Wiz-colored sponge paint job. I feel your pain. We tried it for awhile, until one housemate decided she couldn't take it anymore and ordered an enormous roll of colored paper. In an impressive feat of patience, she re-papered the room using thumbtacks and colored paper.

It looked pretty good. The paper was a bit more bright blue than she wanted, but it was still loads better than the Dorito effect.
posted by corey flood at 10:57 AM on November 20, 2010

Response by poster: Thank you so much for the excellent advice, and for the emotional support, too. Reading through your answers, I'm really feeling a lot better about this.

So, my take-away from this so far:
Don't make many design decisions before moving in.
Move in, figure out how well things work when they're in place.
Maybe emphasize brown, with blue accents, to help tone down the pink.
Watch my lighting; try to direct light away from the walls.
If it's really bad, think about covering large swaths of the walls.

I was going to get a new sofa and new rugs before moving in, but you're all very right; I need to wait to see what will work in that scheme.

I think I've figured out how to handle the bathroom. Chocolate brown everything. Towels, bath rug, shower curtain. Maybe that will de-emphasize the pink a bit. Or possibly make the whole bathroom look disturbingly like a colonoscopy. Whichever.

You're all amazingly helpful.
posted by MrVisible at 11:00 AM on November 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

Or possibly make the whole bathroom look disturbingly like a colonoscopy.

That would probably be apt, given the room.
posted by Solomon at 11:14 AM on November 20, 2010

My bathroom's pink and gray. Gray bathroom textiles make it more livable, and dark burnished-metal accents.

(My late grandparents' bathroom: pink tile, gray-blue accent tiles, pink cabinetry, pink linoleum with black streaks... and, the kicker, wallpaper of bipedal poodles going to the salon and then out on the town. Your situation is vastly less dire.)
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 11:30 AM on November 20, 2010 [2 favorites]

The downstairs bathroom in our new house has baby blue toilet, sink (complete with fake marble white streaks and scallop shaped basin), and tub. The tiles that go 2/3 up the wall throughout are white with a little pink and blue seashell in the center of each. It's pretty hideous.

Yet, all it took was this shower curtain (the blue matches the toilet &etc) pulled closed to cover the tub, and a few towels that match the colors in the curtain, and it changed it to a completely different color scheme. It's not ideal - I daydream all the time about ripping out the tile and the sink - but its livable.

So at least for the bathroom, I recommend finding a shower curtain that matches but pulls the color scheme in a different direction.
posted by misskaz at 12:36 PM on November 20, 2010

Hmm, the blue is a little hardcore if that's not your thing, but you can hang a curtain or heavy fabric over it, or those floor-to-ceiling panel curtain things that Ikea sells. The "pink" is not particularly pink to me- it's pretty neutral, and I think once you move your stuff in, you'll forget about it after a while.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:50 PM on November 20, 2010

My kitchen is salmon/creamsicle colored. I hung a LOT of black & white art, and it actually works pretty well.
posted by judith at 12:55 PM on November 20, 2010

For accessories that you need to buy anyway, my recommendation is to go in a rust-brown direction (rather than straight chocolate brown): something like this salmon-and-rust shower ensemble. Terra cotta could work similarly as a bridge between the salmon and brown.
posted by SomeTrickPony at 1:54 PM on November 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Just to update anyone who's following this saga breathlessly...

I gave up.

My landlords are over at the place right now, prepping it for me to move in (and they're really seriously prepping, stripping the floors and retouching everything, they're awesome) and I stopped over with some new paint chips, and made my case for leaving most of the house that coral color, but painting the accent wall a deep brown with a small hint of red instead of the bright blue.

After a very civilized discussion, in which I pointed out that I was willing to buy the paint and do the work, they agreed. And then admitted that the bright blue was exterior paint they'd had left over from another project anyway.

So, I can definitely learn to live with the light coral color in most of the house, as long as I don't have to decorate around bright semi-gloss blue.

Thanks for all your suggestions, nonetheless. I really appreciate it.
posted by MrVisible at 1:08 PM on December 14, 2010