Choosing Paint Colors:
I am a firm believer that paint for walls should be chosen after you choose your fabric and furniture color. Paint for the room has the widest variety of options and is the least expensive to execute and alter if need be. Your fabric choices will likely inspire a color choice or range of colors and may even spark a creative attempt at a tree silhouette mural or a few graphic could shapes.
By sticking to a few basic color rules and choosing any of the colors from the middle to the lightest hues on a fan deck card, you likely can’t go wrong. But, if you do…you will know fairly quickly. Paint is extremely affordable and is the fastest way to transform. Don’t stress about color, most lines offer sample sizes now. Test out a color (or 2 or 3) in a large space and watch how it changes throughout the day. Place fabric choices near the test run to see how they work together as the light in your room changes.
If you don’t consider design to be your forte, stay away from beige on the walls. Beige has a wide spectrum of base colors and underlying hues and it is difficult to match or compliment without running into trouble. Instead opt for light and neutral greens, light grays, pale yellows, and soft blues perhaps even with gray or green undertones. The truth of the matter is that even a pale orange will cause you less trouble than attempting to find the perfect beige. If you aren’t experienced with color…it’s elusive!
If you are daring using a dark color like Martha Stewart Zinc is quite beautiful, not too dark and just enough warmth. This color would also be beautiful on the furniture if your design calls for a medium toned neutral wall color and her paint is Low VOC.
The paint colors shown below will all work well with the fabric arrangements from Part 1 of the Eco-Chic Nursery for Less series and should work with any color story of your own creation that incorporates a one or more of the new neutral color palette as outlined in the previous article. Choose from any of the upper 3 colors on the deck cards to play it safe in your color pick, and perhaps stretch down to the 4th row on a few of these deck cards if you are bold with your color choices and confident in your design sensibilities.
If you have your heart set on beige or taupe color for your walls, here are a few beautiful shades. These all tend to have gray or green undertones and that will provide a much more pleasing and easy to work with option for beige. It will tend to interfere with your color palette far less than a warmer orange toned beige. A safe options would be to use colors from the Taupe family only if you are using a color palette that has gray or pink or brown included in it as taupe tends to have a mix of those colors as a base. A Taupe that leans toward the pinker side of life, might look strange with greens and blues and yellows, so be sure to purchase a sample size first and create a large test strip on your wall. Check throughout the day to see how the light affects your choice before committing to an entire room of the color.
Some fabulous options from Land of Nod Mythic collection for the light, beige and taupe family: Stay light, and cool for your beiges and you will be in good standing.
