I have an orange room, actually it s a square central hall. I love it. I chose the color because the area has no windows of course, and get no light. I at first tried a light pastel color and it always looked so dreary and gray-ed out with any light that it got, so it looked dirty besides. I gave it a lot of thought and was hesitant, but I chose orange. I wanted something bright but it had to go with the deep sage and the gray I had in the two adjoining main rooms and the pinkish-peach tiles in the bathroom. There is a lot of orangye-y oak in the hall, being that there are two bedroom doors, bathroom door, linen closet door, attic door and then a large arch to the living room. I like my choice. You have to consider the wood tones. I don't think I would like orange with painted white woodwork.

You are probably going to ask where I got this wonderful shade of orange. I got it at Home Depot and it was in the Ooops bin.

I can't say how you will feel about orange or if it will work with your wood tones and decor style. You can view orange rooms in the gallery. I think someone started and orange thread there.

California Paints "Pumpkin" LOL That brings back memories.

Our very first home had a color called Pumpkin Chiffon in the kitchen/family room. The carpet was dark brown. It was the absolute worse color and we often reminisce about it!

Oooh, newhomeb., that room must have been bad for you to respond so vividly to the mention of Pumpkin. But dilly_dally brings up a good point about lighting. Pastels gray out where I live too, to the point where they DO look dirty and bland. But if Pumpkin grays out here in summer light, maybe it will take the edge off of it, right when you need that to happen with a hot color. Wish I weren't so lighting sensitive.

Also, dilly, your point about the wood tones is good too. I will have white wainscoting, but will use an off-white that would work. It's my wood floor that's killing my color preferences -- too darned amber.

We had a burnt orange foyer in our previous house and I loved it (and really miss it in this a bit too open-concept house!). Our front door was glass so a lot of light did enter the room; that house was in California where it's green year 'round so the natural light entering that space was green, and I always loved it. Loved it.

I gold-leafed the ceiling and the floors were a walnut color (oak stained a walnut color, I mean); I painted all the trim in that room orange as well.

I don't have any hesitation about white woodwork with orange, so long as (you already noted) the white and orange work together. Only you in your space can determine that .... But I think a burnt orange (as I imagine your Pumpkin is) and a white-variant would look really smart and classic.

Heres mine
{{!gwi}}

Those are nice shades of orange. Here's something from the internet. I love the gray/blue in the painting with the burnt orange. If I got a similar picture and perhaps added some blue & white pottery, that would keep the orange from being too autumn-like in summer.

{{!gwi}}

Jaymielo, that's a beautiful color! May I ask what it is?
Thanks!

Thank you! In our new house, we used SW Baked Clay. In our old house, we used SW Peppery. It is a very different color, but like I said, the light in the two rooms is so different.

I used SW Baked Clay too. Here it is in my kitchen.

I used EK Tuscan Sun in my half bath. Currently it has a giraffe theme with black accents. The ceiling is EK alexandra blue which is very subtle but really creates a wonderful mood.

Alma {{!gwi}}From New House

I just finished painting my foyer twice in one week! It was beige and blah to begin with. I wanted to liven in up in contrast to the sedate greige that dominates my first floor. T

The first orange a designer chose was Benjamin Moore Oriole (2169-30), and while it wasn't beige, it felt blah. It leaned more towards the pastel. My sister walked in and asked why I painted melon on my wall? That was it - time to pick another color.

The 2nd paint I decided to do the decision-making. It was Sherwin-Williams Obstinate Orange (SW6884) and wow - it pops! Very vivid, leaning a bit towards the reddish side of orange. But there's no mistaking this color.

Love it. But... unsure of what color to paint the ceiling. Anyone else paint their ceiling a variation of the wall color? I'm not sure if even at 25% strength that it would look decent - it's such an intense color. Any suggestions?

cheers
Michelle

Ooooooooh, I love the color orange! Although I don't have a photo on the computer I'm presently working on of my my den, it's painted in Sherwin Williams Tigereye, which looks like this:

{{!gwi}}

Michelle, would a pale gray or a grayish white on the celing work for you? I looked at the SW Obstinate Orange -- great color!

Oh how I wish I could have gotten used to the copperish orange color we put on an accent room in our living area. Don't know if it was the room, lighting or color but something seemed off. We actually tried three different shades before I finally gave up. :c(

I don't have a pic, but I have orange walls in the LR. They look about the same as jyyanks SW Baked Clay, but I didn't keep any actual record of the paint I used. I have white trim and ceilings, oak floors. I think the key is also to use lots of dark woods too, and to use black as an accent color. That seems to be a common theme in all of these rooms, including mine. Go for it! If you end up changing your mind, paint color is the easiest thing to change.

In a pantry, so I have no idea about the light. But I have to say, it sure cheers me whe I go in there.

Rob333, I've said it before, I'll say it again: That is one luscious color!

I have sample boards of Farrow & Ball Orangery in my sunroom now! I'm planning to paint in the next few weeks. I love the color. The sunroom has lots of windows, painted white, and lots of light. I'll post photos when it's done.

Wow, I am loving these orange rooms!

Awn, you wrote:

It could be a good color for our gray winters & springs, and could be lovely at night. It would work with Thanksgiving table settings, my favorite holiday...[b]ut how would it look in hot muggy August when the light is greenish and dark from the trees?

You may have to choose the season with which you want to contend and go for it. My warm colors tend to look better in winter minus the deciduous-tree-green filter, but so be it. That's what I had to do to deal with the rain/grey sky combo that tends to be our Nov-June fate here.

I have a north-facing guest bedroom with gorgeous old-growth fir floors that seemed to call out for a cobalt accent walls when I moved in. IN MAY, ha.

And man, I did love it in warm weather...but after a few years of it looking grim 9 out of 12 months, I went with a caramel shade that pulled the warmth of the floor up onto the walls, which IMO, anyway, makes it cosy-in-a-vaguely-minimalist-way in there now:

Like you, I did worry about it being too "hot" in the summer when late afternoon sun floods and *can* bake that room if it's 90+. But really it's not too bad then.

I don't know what your DR floor is, but maybe just adding white or ivory/pale/spring green accessories and tablecloth in the summer would be enough. Just think peaches, not pumpkins, ha!

Yep, I still miss the blue like crazy during our 3 months of sun/warmth, sniff...

but I still change out the bedding to white once summer arrives and that keeps it from getting too Peter's-Wife-in-a-Pumpkin-Shell!

[And of course I could always follow my own advice and use white or pale blue/green throw rugs etc too!]

Thanks for your thoughtful post, house_vixen (aren't you the one with the beautiful turquoise glass mosaic backsplash in your kitchen?). I think you're right about picking the season and putting up the rest of the year. I love my subdued blues & greens in summer, but they look dull in gray weather months (Nov.-May). I like that concept of thinking peach, not pumpkin. Love that bank of windows in your bedroom too.

Hi Awm -- good memory! Yep, that's my backsplash...warm blue-green was my compromise in the kitchen since I'm not a "warm-warm" person.

But I think life goes a lot easier when we find a color that overlaps with what the environment dictates, which sometimes means we end up with colors like pumpkin, marigold, squash etc, ha! [And how I ended up just putting pale yellow tile in our small dark bathroom...though I HAD to throw in a little blue-grey-green wall color to make it feel like "mine."]

Luckily the blues and greens you say you're drawn to look great with warm tones. What I notice about your gorgeous inspiration pic and so many of the beautiful rooms on this thread is that the orange-y shade is really one of many orange-y shades, which creates a lovely blended look vs a higher-contrast one.

I'm a high contrast person for the most part, but I do think creating a stew of deeper tones can work really well when one is trying to create that sense of warmth. Throw in *some* contrast to keep things lively in the winter, then add more of it in the summer and hey presto, Bob's your uncle.

Your profile says you are in NE; if so, I know a bit about that weather and think you will really enjoy a warm shade in there. As you say, it will look gorgeous during the (long!) nights. Keep us posted!

Some good concepts there, hous_vixen. I like the idea of creating a stew of tones for warmth. And yes, the environment definitely dictates design & colors. What worked in New Orleans doesn't work here in Connecticut.

My powder room is Farrow and Ball Red Earth. I am completely unable to take a good picture of it, but I love the color.

Here's a picture of our master bathroom in progress. The WTs are still not finished, but the paint color is SW Inventive Orange. Its a little bit on the peach side.

Here is a link that might be useful: SW Inventive Orange

kitchendetective, I lovvvvve Red Earth. Taking a long hard look at that and Porphyry Pink, trying to figure out how to work those colors into my house.

Here are two pictures of my bedroom done in BM Spiced Pumpkin. These pics were taken 4 years ago, and I still
love the color!!
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}