What color to paint a room?

July 8, 2007 6:24 PM

What color should I paint my spare bedroom/office?

I plan to use the second bedroom in my new house as an office. A few items of note:

- The room is approximately 10x10 with 2 windows which provide plenty of light.
- By office, I mean the place where I will likely keep my desktop computer, manage my finances, and do my graduate school work.
- I've already painted other rooms a sage green (kitchen), light coffee (dining and living rooms), gray with a hint of olive green (bedroom), and light icy blue (bathroom); and I would like not to replicate any of these colors (or colors close to them)
- The window and floor mouldings are painted pure white semi-gloss
- I have several book and CD cases of varying wooden finishes that will also go in this room
- I generally don't like colors in the yellow family, and I'm not sure that reds would be the most conducive color for an office

So, what color should I paint the room to minimize distraction, not be boring, and not resemble too closely any of the other colors I have already used?

posted by LouMac to home & garden (8 comments total)

grayish-purple (Behr's Ash Violet or Violet Shadow, perhaps?)
posted by belladonna at 6:55 PM on July 8, 2007

Christopher Lowell's Seven Layers of Design has a great section on how to choose paint. It is probably at your library if you don't want to buy it. The section I'm talking about is just a few pages. I have no interior design sense and it helped me a lot - I got a lot of compliments on the colors I chose once I got over my fear of painting stuff anything but white.
posted by selfmedicating at 7:06 PM on July 8, 2007 [2 favorites]

Creamsicle orange or pumpkin. They're supposed to be energizing colors, they look great with natural wood, and seem to coordinate well with your other rooms.
posted by B-squared at 7:10 PM on July 8, 2007

My home wall colors are very similar to yours (sage greens, olive greens, light coffee) but for some reason, I chose to paint my study yellow. I was going for more of a light gold, but it didn't turn out that way unfortunately. I would probably try to stick with something in the neutral arena if you're going to be thinking and concentrating a lot in that room.

Why not try Behr's free online ColorSmart program, where you can take a digital picture of your room and then see what different paint colors would look like in there.

They also have a great Inspiration section with lots of ideas, depending on the mood you want to convey.

Best of luck!
posted by susiepie at 7:43 PM on July 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Hermès Orange.
posted by oxford blue at 9:43 PM on July 8, 2007

i'd try a buttery yellow or a dusty rose/dusty mauve.
posted by violetk at 11:43 PM on July 8, 2007

Have you considered a color wash or other faux finish? It isn't hard to do and you can choose from a wide variety of colors and final appearances. From what you describe some sort of cream color would probably fit your criteria of avoiding blues/greens/browns because they have already been used and reds/yellows for aesthetic reasons. If you want you could throw a little purple in the mix; enough to make it interesting and stand out from your other rooms, but keep it subtle by virtue of using it as part of a wash technique. Googling "faux finish" and "color wash" gives you a plethora of information.
posted by TedW at 5:29 AM on July 9, 2007

Agree with the grayish-purple.

Also, try this online color visualizer.
posted by desjardins at 8:00 AM on July 9, 2007