Help with open floor plan

10 years ago

Hi all, I'm a first time poster, and I'm in need of some advice.

We are finally in the process of painting our home (we've been here a couple years), it's still builder white (with white trim, some crown molding). I'm struggling with this because of the layout. I'll try to describe without too much confusion..first floor only.

Walk in and LR is on right, office on left behind double doors. Fan staircase is straight ahead, hallway on 2nd floor exposed. Follow 1st floor hallway to the left of stairs to the kitchen, very open, FR is to left 2 steps down from kitchen and only a knee wall separating the rooms. To the right of the kitchen is the DR (through an open doorway and DR joined to LR), through the kitchen you reach a sun room. You can see multiple rooms from one location so I'm not sure how to go about painting. Others in my neighborhood with similar plans have painted a few different bold colors in each space and I definitely don't want that for my own home. It feels too choppy and just isn't my taste. However I don't want to have an all beige house either. I'm not too keen on accent walls, again a little too bold for me, but it might be an option if I end up keeping mostly one color throughout. I have brazilian cherry floors in some rooms and beige carpet in the rest, espresso cabinets and mostly darker wood furniture.

I like tans, warm browns, some blues...I'm just at a loss right now! Do I keep one (neutral) color for the back of the house where the kitchen, FR and sun room are? Leave the front foyer, halls and staircase another (lighter neutral) color? And office, DR and LR something else? I have a lot of light in the house as well. Thank you for your help in advance.

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Comments (3)

Annie Deighnaugh
10 years ago
You might want to post this is home decor forum...lots of decorator types there to help you.
melindy
10 years ago
We lived in a house with lots of natural light and an open floor plan and we painted it all one color - including the vaulted ceiling and the trim. We had great views and wanted the focus to be that. The color was Devine Oak, which was kind of a mid value straw color. I believe the Devine colors are all Miller paint colors now. So the entry, great room, kitchen and hallway were all painted the same. I loved it. We had gunstock colored hard woods, dark furniture, and painted (dark olive green) cabinets. Neutrals don't have to be boring. You may want to check out Houzz. You can search images of just about anything you can imagine.
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Annie Deighnaugh
10 years ago
There's another thread about design seeds which is a website that takes lovely photos and uses them to inspire color schemes.

In the thread linked below, I suggest ways in which you can use a palette to create rooms that all coordinate and flow without being all one color. You might want to take a look at that.
Pretty generally, the best place to change a color, if not at a doorway, is at an inside corner...though if you have a good painter, you can break it at outside corners too.

Here is a link that might be useful: applying design seeds