My Color Nightmare
We've moved into a lovely Mediterranean-style house that we're renting, and since I have none of my stuff, have been occupying myself by repainting the interior (with the blessing of our landlords).
For the most part, it's been simple- just design a color palette that reflects and enhances the existing architectural style of the house, as well as helps with transitions, lighting issues, and all that jazz. Lots of golds, rusts, warm reds, and yellows to warm up the place. (I'll show you some before and afters in an upcoming post)
So, we've got a pretty consistent architectural style here. Until we get to the bathroom. It's so ghastly, I haven't wanted to step foot in it, and instead have been using the guest bathroom in the basement! Ready for this? Here it is:
Mint green appliances and peach/rose tile. Can you stand it? Is it just me, or is this just too horrible for words?
My husband says we have to embrace its "funkiness" and go all out. He's voting to paint the remaining wall spaces mint green to match the bathtub, sink and toilet.
Here, to the left of the sink, you can see a square of rose color, where a previous owner had gone the pink route. I only discovered this after ripping a Christmas scene plastic tray off the wall that had been glued in place.
At one point, I was considering charcoal gray, to accent the black tile motif, and try to draw attention away from the overall pastely-ness. Of course, that would probably make the bathroom way too dark, and that's no good, either.
So basically, we've got the white walls above the tile work, the shower curtain, towels, and throw rug to work with. I am TOTALLY stumped on this one, and since it's my own rental, don't have the objectivity to examine some color options. Oh, color-savvy readers, please help!
14 comments:
Lavender with gray in it? Chocolate? Periwinkle? A deep Peach? You're right of course. Hopeless and will have to "make do." You could always paint it Pepto Bismol pink and call it your indigestion room.
Ah-Rachel...the tile is not so bad...but the mint green appliances... Ah yeah. I have to rush off for my annual mammogram so will check in later with color thought (i so love a challenge)...My first thought is to embrace something Morrocan, funky patterns (fabrics woudl play a huge role)and colors would tie in somewhat with the Mediterranean theme. What do you think?
Monica
mikikelly@verizon.net
Oh my. My first thought was violet. I'm not entirely sure why violet (and a rather pale violet at that) but there you go.
I also like your husband's idea to embrace the mint and paint it mint green. The charcoal would look great but would also make it a dark room unless the lighting was increased significantly. Think of it this way - bathrooms are small and don't take a lot of paint - even less since you don't have to deal with painting in odd nooks like behind the toilet - the absolute worst if you end up painting it twice.
I'd also recommend a solid (or tonal stripe) shower curtain to add a chunk of visual serenity somewhere. All those grout lines and tile colors-yikes!!!
I like the mint green and I like the tiles. Separately. Not together.
But in trying to live with both at the same time, how about a shade of blue?
OMG that is so hideous. Pls don't add any more mint green! I can barely stand it. I think I would buy a long curtain that touches the floor for the tub, rim the sink with some sort of non-permanent facade (I know Ben could whip something cool up for you), and cover the toilet in a smock! Then you only have to look at the interior mintiness of the sink. Then choose the color that goes best with the tiles. I like the charcoal grey idea; maybe it could work if you hung a bigger mirror to reflect light (check out some thrift stores to keep the costs down).
Well, I've seen worse. I don't know about painting the walls mint green... I think it would be too much mint; overwhelming. Have you tried playing with a paint color chooser like the one on Behr's site? I know it doesn't let you change the color of your fixtures but you could put mint in as trim and see what looks good with it.
Whyyyyyy do people do stupid things like glue things to walls? My cousin bought a house and ended up basically ripping off the paint trying to get stuff like that off.
Wow, what a fun color challenge. Charcoal gray would definitely help balance the space. Along those lines, there are a few shades of paint from Home Depot's new Freshaire line that might be nice, too. There's a deep, earthy green-brown called Pinecone Hill. There's also a rich brown called Sacred Soil, and a cooler brown-gray called Natural Wilderness. Can't wait to see what you do with this...
I took a second to plug it in to my software and I too thought plum or chocolate, but the only thing that calmed it down was dark green. Sounds scary but I think it may be your only terrifying option. I'll send you the pics! So sorry!!!! I'd probably be un-eco friendly for a moment and resurface the fixtures white!
thanks for all your fabulous suggestions!
i need to pull a picture into photoshop and mess around with some of your ideas. it's so great when you're stuck, and get a fresh perspective. i just stand in that room and go, "ick!"
i'm leaning more and more towards charcoal gray, but of course would need to add better lighting. I might look into a bigger mirror, too, to reflect more light back into the room-great idea!
Sooz-too funny about the toilet skirt-can you imagine it?
jessica- i'd love to see what you came up with, definitely
My first thought was black which of course won't work, but the floor tile looks to be a beige/tan tone and I'm wondering if that wouldn't be a better nutrilizing color than white.
Hi Rachel,
Marie here! Gee, I can't believe we now live about a mile from each other! I hope to see this famous bathroom in person sometime. Maybe if charcoal will overwhelm the space you can try it on just some of the larger walls. Don't know if it would look to choppy in a small space though. My other votes are for a warmer gray or a terra cotta if there is such an element in the tile you have. Much luck and hope to see you soon!
This is just like my mom's 1940's original bathroom in California, but without the mint green fixtures. Instead they have salmon pink.
She ended up going with deep fuschia, gray and black. It actually looks nice.
I must be honest, though - I don't think your bathroom looks at all bad!
My thought was to go in the direction of a clay, as marie mentioned with terra cotta. Mid-to-Darker toned without a lot of chroma. Not too dark. It maybe the time I've spent in Greece these few weeks, but the clay is a neutralizer here. Add some white trim if you can, and white towels, shower curtain and accessories to bring in clean solid balance. Check out my spectral study for July of Clay, it may inspire.
http://ichkalliope.typepad.com/ich_kalliope/color_obsession_color_joy/
Hi, Rachel.
Wow - lots of help with your bathroom!
In case you want one more suggestion, I immediately thought some sort of chocolate-y brown would be good - or a warm charcoal grey, if that's in your tile. (Hard to tell from photos). I think adding a rich, deep color will help balance out the space. Right now, it feels bottom heavy.
Also, I was thinking you could definitely "embrace" the funkiness by adding some mint green accents. Maybe some funky sconces like these: http://www.bellacor.com/productdetail/59999.htm
or some vintage accessories:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Green_vintage_buttons.jpg/780px-Green_vintage_buttons.jpg&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Green_vintage_buttons.jpg&h=600&w=780&sz=93&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=g99X7NLp52zgtM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=142&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgreen%2Bvintage%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us%26sa%3DG
have fun! It's really not that bad. :)
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