Color schemes....

[Matt]

Be moving to a new apartment soon, have to repaint it and fully furnish it myself.

Furniturewise I am going to see if I can scrounge some old traditional Vietnamese/Chinese dark hardwood stuff and restore it, have done that before to good effect. Should be able to call in some furniture industry contacts for a couch etc.

Paintwise, I dont know much about this sorta stuff, anyone have pics of colors that will work well in a relatively small place (about 70 sq meters/750 sq feet).

Its an open kitchen onto a slightly raised platform living room (probably 55 sq meters). Separate bedroom.

I guess need to keep it to light colors to give illusion of space, but dont just want boring white, and dont want anything too bright and loud. As a general rule Im an earthtones kinda guy, but not sure how that will work in a smaller room...

Any color scheming advice or pics or sites to recommend?

- M

 

[globetrotter]

Matt,

considering your location and being single, I would suggest this is a perfect opportunity to use a lot of local textiles to give the room color - go with dark wood and a number of different local print textiles to dictate the colors of the room.

 

[horton]

If you're talking about pant, here are generally good considerations:

rooms with lots of sun benefit when panted in cooler colors; rooms with less sun benefit when panted in warmer colors.

Darker or more saturated colors tend to make things seem closer which can make a room seem smaller but can be used to advantage at times (e.g., if a ceiling really is too high).

Best advice: find someone who seems to put color together well and effortlessly and invite them over. Some people are just gifted at this stuff (not me).

 

[esquire.]

I'm surprised that the apartment owner will let you choose the color and paint it yourself. Usually, they're reluctant to do that since they'll have to paint it over once you move out since your taste might not be popular with other potential renters. If they're going to make you do that, then I'd stay away from darker colors which would require more coats of paint afterwards to cover up when you move out.

If you were living in the States, I'd recommend Benjamin Moore dealership. They usually have somebody working there who's a color expert, who will help you pick out colors.

The general rule of thumb is to use lighter colors to create a feeling of spaciousness. But, if you really like earthtone colors, you might just go for a lighter earthtone color on the wall, and have the ceiling white. From my experience, the only problem with that is that it can be a hassle if you're painting it yourself when you're dealing with those edges where the wall and ceiling meet. They are really no good tools for the DYI for that; it takes a certain amount of kinestic memory to do it right. You watch those shows on HGTV and read that painting is best thing for a homeowner to do so you think you can do it yourself. But, IMHO, its so not worth it since you don't even save that much money because you're not getting the same discount on paint as the professionals do.

But, if you have darkwood furniture, you might choose different colors depending on what you want- do you want the furniture to blend in with the rest of the apt. or do you want them to pop up against the color of the walls.
And, don't forget the flooring as that might influence the color on the walls as well.

 

[briancl]

Originally Posted by esquire.

I'm surprised that the apartment owner will let you choose the color and paint it yourself. Usually, they're reluctant to do that since they'll have to paint it over once you move out since your taste might not be popular with other potential renters. If they're going to make you do that, then I'd stay away from darker colors which would require more coats of paint afterwards to cover up when you move out.

I've rented from a good number of landlords in my time, and all of them allowed me to repaint rooms/walls. The only stipulation was that I repaint them to the original color before my lease was up.