department of the interior: home decor

So we have possession of the new place now, and we're taking til the end of the month to fix it up and move. Repainting everything, so we have to make some choices about paint soon. Also have to carpet at least two rooms (bedrooms - co-op rules). A little overwhelmed by all the choices, especially with all the design sites showing all these "accent colors" on trim, single walls, etc. Also there's the thing of making the color "flow, since we have a semi-open plan between the foyer/dining area/kitchen/living room (there are sort of archways between them). We still have the bright orange cubitec shelves, which I'm attached to, but having giant bright orange shelves is definitely something you have to tailor your design choices to.

contrasting trim >>>> accent wall paint

Ok, paint colors that go with this kitchen, go:
http://postimg.org/image/99io65jav/

argh damnit
http://i.imgur.com/oFQVbqr.jpg

Oh and this is the nook attached to the kitchen (from the kitchen) and we want to maybe do two-tone paint that goes with the kitchen, and then back wall of the kitchen same as the darker of the two tones:

http://i.imgur.com/ItQbqYF.jpg

(not our stuff in there)

One of these glass-look tile backsplashes that Home Depot sells below the wall cabinets. They're actually large, inexpensive stick-on tiles you can cut with a knife or scissors to fit your wall and stick over the existing tile.
http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/300/38/3890b081-d91b-4bff-a2bb-7fd31bc30d8a_300.jpg
http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/300/fa/fa3dd3e9-9f16-44a7-938d-d465acadf571_300.jpg

If the kitchen gets daily sunlight I like high-contrast color schemes--a lot of white with a primary color, checkerboard floor tile schemes, kinda retro, red enamel accessories, etc. If the kit is low-light, obv something softer. Would keep the chair rail white semi-gloss, but put two soft shades of the same color on those walls with the slightly darker one on the bottom. That back room should be painted the LIGHTER color, not the darker, because it looks like it's dark enough in there already.

What's in the nook?? What a strange layout. Possible pantry opportunity??

I think you're lucky to have the white 4x4 bathroom tiles, at least they can be cleaned and won't clash w anything.

Was it perhaps a maid's room?

No, then the doorway would have a door and not an arch. Hm.

Sorry, I think I'm not explaining clearly. It's basically an eat-in kitchen that's partly closed off by a doorway. This is the view from the foyer: http://i.imgur.com/kfdYvoN.jpg

So it does get sunlight, and as you can see, I think it would make sense to have the back wall of the kitchen pick up a color in the eat-in area.

Oh I was reading the foyer as the "nook" but I get you now. Nice.

I want to know what I DIED would do.

H liked the idea of some combo of two from the fourth column from the left (the one with "ice mist" "sea foam" "ocean air" etc., mainly the lighter ones

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vc5C1FFyuHE/UBK9VZ-T5HI/AAAAAAAACPU/hE6oxvB-4Ls/s1600/Benjamin-Moore-Color-25.gifp

I'm not sure. She's usually better at this than I am.

At first she thought Ocean Air + Ice Mist, but I think the Ice Mist is too white and will just look like the trim. But Ocean Air + Sea Foam seems too samey maybe?

and also I'm not sure about that scheme at all, but I have no fucking idea where to go. I actually woke up at 4am unable to sleep with the benjamin moore color fan spinning in my head. Probably just anxiety of actually having bought a place, I usually don't put this much thought into colors.

All I know is I moved into a place with a pistachio green kitchen once and I thought it would be terrible but actually I kind of liked it.

I'm kind of having trouble seeing around the terrible furniture layout in that EIK tbh.

Yeah everything in the place was like that. Terrible furniture layout, tons of clutter, dirtiest carpeting I've ever seen, walls were dirty and splotched up. Bland samey paint on all the walls. I feel (hope) we got a good deal because the place just looked bad so it sat on the market.

I like warm colors, not cool ones. So I'd prob make the kit white with a contrast color...say, pistachio green, and maybe accessories in red or yellow. Then I'd make the EIK flat white on top, semi-gloss white on the chair rail, and the contrast color from the kit on the bottom. That's what I'm throwing out there.

Although when I say "flat white" I don't mean a winter white, I mean like a verrry slight almond or something, because I think the only things that should be WHITE-white are the ceiling and whatever trim is in your design scheme (if you want white trim).

argh, I'm starting to hate the little nook all of a sudden. Buyers remorse.

we have honey colored wood floors and honestly i cant fathom any color but something from the disney kids line looking acceptable with this jaundice color. any suggections? Im strongly leaning toward a pure white with colored tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. this is all open plane btw which adds a degree of difficulty.

I have two questions:

1. If I got with a thickened cream white colored paint (no noticeable yeallow or grey tones), painted the main rooms in the alone but then dressed the wall with some large colorful striking original abstract artwork, would that take some of the coldness away?
2. All of our trim is "cream" (not white like supermarket cream). More a yellowed ivory tbh. I absolutely despise this color. Id really REALLY like a bold color for the trim, but also dont want the place to look like a day care or kris kardashians black and white Calabasas monstrosity. Any ideas?

okay 3rd question:
3. Its perfectly acceptable to paint the outside of you front door a semigloss black, right? I've seen some lime green doors popping up in the hood and as much as I was horrified at first, i now really love them. would not work for our house though what with the clashing shade of green siding :\. So black or maybe charcoal?

ahh and a fourth:
4. what is a good alternative to track lighting? we have a ton of it because our living room, hallway, office and dining room have ceilings up to 30-ft high but to me they just feel like annoying flood lights that serve little purpose. Is it time for lamps? ugh.

oh my fucking god. check out the before and afters here. I know some got stainless appliances too but a lot didnt, just some new cabinet hardware. total cabinet transformation for less than $200. Gahhhhhhhhh. Im SO in love with the espresso. I want to call in sick to work today to do it! FUCK YOU HONEY COLORED WOOD. YOURE OUTTA HERE.

http://cabinets.rustoleumtransformations.com/testimonial-gallery.php

holy crap

you can use it on furniture too! I have the ugliest most hideous oak coffee table that i could totally refinish with this stuff

*considers*

Haha. I'm not into dark stained wood, I'd probably completely paint something before I'd darken it. But if that stuff really works, it could solve your problems, sunny.

Don't hate the nook, Hurting! You have an EIK, I'm jeal.

What if...you don't have to highlight the chair rail, although I would, but what if we flipped the colors and you put a strong color in the kitchen and then also used it on the chair rail in the nook but did the walls in there a much lighter version, or white? Liiiike...an Italian country blue in the kitchen and that same blue on the railing and some other details in the EIK--textiles, artwork, whatever.

Hmm, that's a pretty interesting idea. can you find a pic of the kind of blue you have in mind?

Uhhh hard to tell online but like Benjamin Moore's California Blue or Dark Royal Blue or Blue Macaw--actually these are tending a little teal-ish because that's what I like, but anyway...maybe?

Well, for better or worse we chose this for the top half:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f3N0sic0fhM/UR0Ca6PxpOI/AAAAAAAAAaw/3ZGB0dS7I-Y/s1600/lemonice.jpg
and this for the bottom half:
http://media.benjaminmoore.com/WebServices/prod/ColorSwatch/1633.jpg

I spent like two hours fucking around with Benjamin Moore's digital painter and capture app, which is probably not accurate as to what the color will look like anyway. this blue is a little grayer and less "resorty" than the other one and I like that the top one is going to be a warmer color instead of another blue.

really hard to tell what it's going to look like, e.g. here the bottom color looks WAY greener than it did in the app. But I think that will work if so.

Also trying to figure out how to do the kitchen wall now -- some combination of the two on the rear wall, window grille and radiator I guess.

H found me up in the middle of the night obsessing -- she has taken to calling me "Martha" ever since we started planning the new place. Why you gotta be so gendered about it, man?

We completely blew up the plan for the EIK and chose "soft pumpkin" and "pale oats" instead. Soft pumpkin is what it sounds like, a medium dark but very mellow orange. Pale oats is a lighter shade on the same spectrum.

Good. I didn't like those icy blues for a food and eating and family center room.

exactly how I wound up feeling

Ok, what do folks think -- refinish these floors with a stain, or just use poly and leave them "natural" (note: the stain is just a color, it doesn't have any other affect on the durability of the floors or anything) (note 2: some of the floors are in much worse shape than this. We could maybe get away with not refinishing this one, but we decided to just do them all)

http://i.imgur.com/kXXQ3ZO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/a1eiO6N.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/AILORH3.jpg

Anyone? I'm leaning toward leaving it natural but it's partly a convenience thing (can move in sooner) and it's also cheaper. And also we're "technically" supposed to have 80% coverage with rugs.

my advice was useless so i didn't post it
i would leave it because i am lazy and not fussy about the appearance of my flooring
but like i said that is useless advice

I tend to NOT doing things to wood if there's any doubt. It's possible I lack vision but I can't care. Also if u don't stain and it ever gets a scratch or dig, the other color won't show through.

Also I like the warm warm golden color those old oak floors get--if I were going to stain it would only be to an even deeper amber shade, not a dark one.

if you're 80% rugs and there's no significant damage to any of the flooring, and you're on the fence about it in the first place then I would leave them as is

the only reason we did our floors is because the floors were stained with dog pee and all kinds of stuff from the previous owners, and it was kind of a headache

Just to be clear, we're doing the floors regardless -- some of them are in horrible shape, some of them have stains, and some are under disgusting filthy carpet and we're guessing they don't look great. It's just a matter of whether we do them with stain (color) or without (just polyurethane). The floor in the living room happens to look ok, although it has a lot of discoloration that doesn't show in the photos.

You're stripping them and refinishing? Pick a color you like. Nothing wrong with the natural oak but something darker (browns and/or greys) looks more modern and tends to contrast better with modern furniture/decor.

We have natural oak hardwood floors (found them that way in good condition and left them alone) and I'm vaguely sick of them, don't match anything else we've done with the place.

In general I have a hunch that when people say "modern" they mean like, in this 5 year period and not for the longer term. Dark floors, are those still "a thing" or are we over them yet?

i like this dude's wood floor

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/david-karp-is-tumblrs-reluctant-technologist/?_r=0

I think I'm just gonna go no stain since (1) saves money by not paying extra for stain (2) saves time, which saves me more money by being able to move earlier and not risking getting hit up for a month of holdover rent and (3) seems like a crapshoot how it will come out either way, and I've seen plenty of pictures of natural floors where I like the look

I really dig those floors where the wood is of strikingly different tones

oh and also because we're doing a lot of area rug coverage due to toddler running around and making noise and co-op rules

If you're stripping the floors anyway, I don't know that staining would add that much time or expense. Probably only adds one day to the project (which is multi-day anyway, you need multiple coats of poly and time for each one to dry).

If you don't like the overused modern cliches of chestnut and espresso, you could try a grey or even a whitewash, which would give you more of a natural feel without recreating the traditional honey oak color you're sanding off in the first place. That would also help highlight/reveal any variations in the wood color or grain, something like this: http://glittersparkleluxe.blogspot.ca/2013/04/white-wash-stain-and-pickled-wood-floors.html

Can't wait to own a home one day. One thing is certain, it will never be too stuffy or warm and always have blankets should anyone feel too cold, which is more likely. Why is it always hot at everyone else's house?

Welp, turns out we're not staining -- flooring guy says he doesn't really recommend most of the water-based products for floor staining and things we won't be happy with the result. So we're just doing a semi-gloss poly. I think it will turn out fine.