Paint colours for sea side period house

10 years ago

I have a north south period (1870s) house in Ireland right on the sea. It is villa style one storey over basement. The front of the house, facing the sea, is north facing. The rooms are large with high ceilings and detailed cornicing. The floors are polished timber and light fawn coloured carpets in hall and bedrooms. I'm struggling with paint colours.

1) The layout on the main floor (first over basement) is two rooms to the right and two rooms to the left of a long hall way. The rooms to the front (north) are the sitting room and the master bedroom. The rooms to the back are the kitchen and bedroom 2. There are interconnecting doors between the sitting room and kitchen, front to back, do the north facing sitting room benefits from the southerly aspect coming from the kitchen.

2) At the moment all the rooms are painted sail white - which is a slightly grey white. This is too cold and bland - even in the south facing rooms.

3) I was experimenting with farrow and Ball yellows - print room/India etc - beautiful warm colours - but they simply do not go with the seascape.

4) I then got samples of blue colours - and I love oval room blue and stone blue - which are very complementary to the general feel of house and the seascape, but I fear will be too cold, especially in winter when the sea is steel grey.

5) I considered using print room yellow in the front north facing bedroom, blue in the hall (which runs from north at the front to south at the back, where there are glass doors and the sun shines in) but I am trying to achieve flow between all the rooms - and while blue and yellow do go together, they also might jar, being so different.

6) So I am looking for a palette of colours that a) complement the sea scape b) provide flow between the rooms and hallway and c) address the coldness of the north facing rooms.

7) I am a bit wary of the greys (Elephants Breath/Lamp room etc.) because they are quite faddish and fashionable and may not age well.

8) Has anyone any ideas? Perhaps I should be sticking with neutrals throughout but feel the rooms can take stronger colours, given the ceiling height (approx 12 foot) and the amount of cornicing, architraves, high skirting boards etc. that can offset the deeper colours.

All advice great fully received!

This post was edited by HelenDuignan on Tue, Jun 25, 13 at 5:32

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Comments (11)

HelenDuignan
Original Author
10 years ago
Another photo showing paint samples tried so far. (In the hall.)
HelenDuignan
Original Author
10 years ago
Not interested in creating a monument to Scandinavian cool. I like nostalgia/period/romance/rural.

This is a sample of print room yellow in the kids' south facing bedroom.
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sis2two
10 years ago
I would post this on the Home Decorating forum. You'll get much more traffic.
kitchendetective
10 years ago
What is the yellow second to the left of the doorway in the photo at 5:35 above? It is very pretty. I must say that I like Stone Blue, too, but have no experience of your seaside light in winter. How do you feel about more watery colors, like Teresa's Green or Pavilion Blue?
sloyder
10 years ago
I would look towards more muted colors
HelenDuignan
Original Author
10 years ago
That is print room yellow - same as the one on chimney breast in the bedroom

I thought I was on home decorating? Am I not? Difficult to see on tbe iPhone.
JoanLast
10 years ago
You are on the paint forum. I've had great luck with Cornbread, a warm soft yellow. Yellow is very tricky. I did Cornbread in a guest room in Colorado and my laundry room in Delaware. It's technically more in the the white or cream family, but comes out like a beautiful soft yellow. I agree the colors you have are too strong/harsh for this beautiful home. I came on this forum, because I'm looking at which colors to use for my condo at the beach. Good luck! BTW - Cornbread was either Behr (Home Depot) or Valspar (Lowes). It's been a while, so can't remember exactly:-(
Vertise
10 years ago
What a lovely old home. I agree the colors you are considering look too strong.
HelenDuignan
Original Author
10 years ago
Yikes! I've gone for the print room yellow in our bedroom - very strong but really shows up the cornicing beautifully - but it doesn't complement the sea side environment at all.
kitchendetective
10 years ago
How does Dorset Cream look in your light? I love the PRY, and if it cheers you in the winter, don't worry about the seaside environment.

This post was edited by kitchendetective on Thu, Jun 27, 13 at 18:09
eclecticcottage
10 years ago
I know exactly what you mean about keeping things 'beachy'! We live in a small cottage by Lake Ontario, and I just felt that we needed to keep watery colors as our decor. I chose a light blue/gray for the hall and a light sagey green for the dining room. The living room was paneled with realy wood paneling, so we just white washed it, and the bedroom is also white wood walls (the kitchen and bath are all paneled as well, but we left them jsut stained wood). I can't recall the color names I chose off the top of my head, but you can see them on my blog (hallway is the last post on the first page, dining room is a post or two down on the second page). I think blues (grayish blues, not Caribbean bright colors, lol) and greens work best in a coastal environment.

Here is a link that might be useful: My blog