Faux finishes in general are not my favorite thing and the finishes that use red almost always end up looking cheap IMO. Professionally done finishes can be a different story but even then it depends on what and who is involved.

Lots of times you'll read color info on websites and in books and whatnot and often you'll see a caption that goes something like "the top three biggest color mistakes designers and homeowners make". That's a color sound bite crafted to get your attention. The info that follows, for the most part, is a collection of more empty color sound bites with no substance or explanation behind them. i.e. The big mistakes they cite will be along the line of mixing warm and cool colors, or mixing clear and muted color, or missing and not using the color tip that directs people to use the background color from the main fabric, etc.

Those aren't big color mistakes if not adhered to or followed. All of those are simply color design choices. No more, no less.

And a top three or five or six or whatever list doesn't even (it can't) begin to explain with any substance what those design choices are or can mean or how maybe they can work in certain situations. Fundamentally, however, I do think there are real "mistakes" that can be made. And this post is a good example and I hope you don't mind, aok, if I elaborate on what I'm talking about.

It comes down to trying to make color fit a room instead of fitting a room with color.

Placing color design "rules", color schemes, or colorways from elements like fabrics and rugs at the forefront in place of considerations of the three dimensional space to be painted is the only true color mistake one can make.

You have a very large, bright master bath. No surprise it can wear a color like deep cranberry. The water closet, however, is not very large and bright. It's a different three dimensional space with differenct characteristics. It needs to relate to the color scheme as it is a part of the master bath, but structurally it is its own space. A bigger or different light bulb would be more like a band-aid, not a real solution because the room has not gotten the fundamental consideration it needs.

The other thing is tolerance. Others could paint the smaller water closet deep cranberry and love it. You've done that and it feels, to you, like you're inside a blood vessel. A deep cranberry in the smaller space of the water closet does not suit your color tolerance and preference.

So between the needs of the space and your tolerance and despite the *color scheme*, you need different color options. The water closet doesn't have to "match" anything. It is a separate space. As long as it relates and creates an interesting sightline, you have more color options.

Your first idea of a medium gray is a good one; it could be enough without ragging red over it. If a medium gray is a part of the adjoining space but doesn't thrill you, another option is to use that medium gray on which to base a short color chip search. Pull gray chips that are lighter to much lighter in value than the existing medium gray.

The walls done in a gray would be much less light absorbing than red or any combo of red + gray. You could then add in cranberry and white accents to keep to your desire to have the color scheme repetitive and cohesive from the larger portion of the master bath to the water closet.

See, I knew I'd get different perspectives here! I'm too focused on my original idea to be creative.

The original paint throughout the entire house was a very pale dove gray, which we've lived with for 14 years. I like it, but it's so light it's often mistaken for white. I don't really care what visitors think, it's my house :-). But I was looking for some change.

I've just had what may be a ridiculous idea. Feel free to tell me it sends you into fits of laughter. What about the possibility of leaving the dark red paint low on the walls, and repainting above, effectively a chair rail effect, in white? I could perhaps do some sort of stencil along the line between the two colors.

The room is so small that it doesn't lend itself well to accents of color. There is no window, so the only thing I could do to bring in accent colors is to hang stuff on the wall.

I appreciate your input, and I'm wide open to more educated influence!

If the ceiling in the water closet is 20 foot tall, then maybe.

It has a small footprint, there's not enough room to whack it at chair rail height. Not to mention some stencil action added to the mix. The question begs, what's a chair rail doin' in a toilet room other than to accommodate using two paint colors. That's not a good enough reason. When you take creative measures for the sole purpose of finding an excuse just to deploy color instead of using color, then someone's likely to call a color Mulligan when it's over.

A simple, sophisticated, small gray w.c. room with art, towels, accessories that relate to the larger master bath space could be enough. Less is more kinda thing.

Now if you feel you must or really want to *do* something colorful and creative, maybe consider leaving the back wall behind the toilet cranberry and paint the other two side walls a complementary value of the gray. An accent wall in a w.c. Featuring the toilet. I guess if you've got a nice toilet, then what the heck. :~D

Yep, I knew you'd laugh! :) I really didn't think that was a very good idea, but it popped into my head. I do like the idea of leaving one wall red. I'm just tired of plain gray paint, and there really is nowhere for accents. No towels in there, although I guess I could put down a fuzzy rug. It seems pointless to put any art on the walls of a closet, although maybe I could find something a little offbeat. Oh, wait, I know. We have an oval mirror in a gilded frame that came from my husband's grandmother's house. Do you think my MIL would be offended if I hung it in there? Sorta like hanging it on the back of the refrigerator, huh? :-)

As to others asking "what the heck was she thinking?", we're talking about the water closet in my master bath. Not a lot of external traffic through there.

Ahhh, so you kind of have enough gray. I didn't catch that before. I wasn't thinking of others wondering what you were thinking, I was talkin' about your wishing you could do it over once it was done. I don't give tours or have parties in my w.c. either. lol! :)

Although one night at Euchre Club one of my friends was talking about one of her bffs who had just remodeled her master bath. She - and I am not making this up - had a dinner party and she had cocktails and hors d'oeuvres set up in her newly remodeled M.B. Shortly after that I read a similar story on a forum and I wondered if it was the SAME lady! I mean how could there be TWO people on the planet who would do this?

Anyhoo, a couple of other options, which may or may not be good options in your opinion, but options none the less:

wallpaper - would give you some pattern and a change, but wallpapering a small w.c. is not fun.
Âstripes - gloss/cranberry vertical. You didn't say what finish the cranberry paint is. Could tape it off and add gloss finished stripes so it alternates flat cranberry / shiny cranberry. Gloss doesn't really contributed much of anything to light propagation. I know some people really believe it does, I just don't see it.
ÂPaint only the ceiling cranberry. Gray the walls with a red ceiling to make it feel not so gray.

In a small room, a pattern of small or skinny stripes would be kind of nutso. I'd do wider stripes.

That's all I can think of.

I'll be keeping my cocktail parties limited to the den, I think. Although the whirlpool tub would make a dandy beer cooler!

The paint is satin, so it's got quite a sheen. I know of what you speak, the alternating stripes. I'm going to do that in my dining room, but in white. I've tried it on a large piece of sheetrock, and I love it. It looks like wallpaper.

Anyway .. I think stripes would make it feel rather like a jail cell, since it's such a small space. And I can't see how much of a difference it would make in there, still using the same color. It would still be dark. I may still go with the accent wall and repaint the others back to gray,but maybe a different shade of gray than we're used to. Maybe I can find some interesting art to hang on the accent wall, so it would be the focus and not the plumbing fixture!

Thanks for all your suggestions, you've given me some new things to cogitate on.