Wall colors for a "Great Room"
11/18/2008 07:16 PM by Gretchen Schauffler
Great rooms live great. They are open floor plans that allow you to enjoy several activities, from cooking, to dining, to watching TV. It allows families to spend quality and quantity time together, multi-tasking between chores and leisure. While great rooms offer an abundance of flexibility, they limit the number of colors you can paint in a room. If you are craving color, do not be afraid. Make a great room great by choosing a fabulous paint colors that fill the room with beauty from head to toe. There is a great big ceiling over great rooms. Ceilings are a HUGE part of a great room’s color scheme.
A typical great room has 2 book ends: a kitchen, dining, and family/living area. This home owner did an awesome job in terms of choosing colors that look good with the furniture and natural surfaces. But leaving the ceiling “color detached” or white without purpose, along with walls in different colors makes the room look choppy.
According to my Devine Math, the walls are less than 40% of the surfaces of the room—the ceiling is a whole lot more.
Colors like Devine Peanut, Sand, Oat or Maple can replace white as the ceiling color and become great neutrals for the home. By carrying the red to both ends of the room and replacing the rest of the walls with the “NEW” warmer neutral, the room looks strong and striking. Instead of 3 colors on the walls, there are three background colors in the room: two on the walls and one on the ceiling.
For this look try Devine Blush, Ginger, devinegreen: Sarsaparilla, or Orangutan.
But why stop there? You can also do colors like Devine Roast or Hazelnut instead. Since there is not much wall surface, try richer colors to give the great room great bone structure and contrast!
Try Devine Cocoa, devinegreen Elephant, or Devine Truffle
If you want to paint the great room a deeper red to really pop the cabinets and accent the dark chocolates, think Devine Sangria, Cabernet, Pinot, devinegreen: Clover or Walrus. Adding richer color allows you to try out richer neutrals like Devine Cafe’, Sumatra, devinegreen: Persian or Impala for an overall richer palette.
Whatever you do, don’t leave the ceiling white! :)
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We just built a coach house above the garage that will be like a full apartment with a bedroom, kitchenette in the dormer area and bath in the other dormer. It has sloped ceilings in the main room going from around 6’ up to 10’ and center flat ceiling is 10’ by 23’ The kitchenette extends to the side in the dormer with it’s own sloped ceiling. I’m thinking about peanut for the walls and oak for the ceiling. What do you think? It only has one other window in the room that doesn’t get great light. Should I start the oak at the slope or only on the flat? Also the kitchen area gets the most light in the room. Should we keep the colors the same there? (I left this message under sloped ceilings also but perhaps fits here, too)
— Mary 03/18/2009 02:28 PM #
I forgot to mention that we have fir doors and other wood trim that we will be staining I’m thinking a light/medium neutral warm color like Ipswich Pine or Summer Oak (slightly yellower) and also have red oak floors being installed which we haven’t decided to stain or not.We’re thinking about Swedish finish without a stain but I need to see how that looks. Thanks for any ideas.
— Mary 03/18/2009 02:42 PM #
Mary, I would do Peanut or Oak but no need to do both, it will look better as an overall look and then you can accent the kitchen area. For the kitchen accent the sky is the limit! Greens like Devine Green Tea, Moss, or Victoire should be stunning. Neutrals like Lion, cafe, or Bison can also do the trick. We the reds, blues, and purple choices as well… To really nail the colors that make your colors sing use our Trend-Proof Color Palette the way I suggest, you will find many rich and warm colors that will make your walls stunning surfaces. The Trend-Proof Color Palette will show you several color directions you will feel confident to follow. Our colors look amazing with all natural wood stains. Following the palette process will help you even narrow it down more.
— gretchen Schauffler 03/19/2009 11:22 AM #
our tv room and computer room are connected but i want to paint the tv room how do i know where to stop painting because i will not be painting the computer room the same color as the tv room
— dana goddard 04/25/2009 08:28 AM #
Dana:
Unless there is a good corner where you can change colors, it will look functional, not beautiful, to split a line on the wall. I suggest doing something physical like adding a window curtain panel, a column, or a tall bookshelf between rooms and split the color behind or think of doing 2 L-shape colors opposite each other to appear like 2 spaces (not 2 rooms).
— gretchen Schauffler 04/27/2009 03:28 PM #
The main house is a redwood stain with concrete stem wall. I need to paint the guest house, same redwood, but I’d like another trim. What shade of brown? Or?
Thanks.
— ann 05/10/2009 10:17 PM #
Ann:
We just painted a bedroom with Devine Piping in Luscious and what can I say…amazing!! Also try Devine Truffle, Gator, Whip, or Clover?
— gretchen Schauffler 05/11/2009 03:10 PM #
Wondering if I’ve got to much color going on. All the rooms, kitchen,dining,living room are all divided with walls with arch ways leading into each room. I’ve painted the kitchen dark red, dining room a mustard yellow and living room medium brown. Now I’m in the process of doing my bathroom which sits off the living/dining room in a hallway. Thinking of a light color orange on the top with a med brown faux finish on the bottom. I love color but do I have to much going on, the rooms are fairly small, bathroom smaller. What is the rule for color in each room or does it matter.
— Kathy 11/18/2009 07:04 AM #
Kathy, you can have as many colors as you want as long as they all connect—a painted texture sounds fun. I always tell my clients that a thoughtful color plan leads to multiple color combinations. The tricky part is where to put them. Sometimes you just don’t have the room. You don’t mention what color the hallway and entry are. If you have worked with Devine Color you know that all the colors are to create connections so that every paintable surface is perfect and important. I have recommended lots of colors in certain homes, and only a few in others. If you are asking it’s probably because it feels like to much color. Ask yourself: When you stand in one room and see the others, does it all look like a beautiful weave or patches of color?
— Gretchen Schauffler 11/19/2009 05:09 PM #
I want to go to your supplier in Victoria BC but I have a decorating challenge we have an open room concept with vaulted ceilings. The upstairs open concept includes kitchen DR & LR. The kitchen is light warm wood I believe maple and the kitchen Island and countertops are in black. The back splace is also a black/grey/taupe color granite. In the LR we have a grey & yellow stone fireplace with light wood shelving above. The room is strawhat by Benjamin Moore which is yellow/golden color and does nothing for our kitchen cabinets. I was wondering what color would bring out the wood. Also our flow are hardwood with oak with some dark knots in the flooring. Could you help me out.
— khamilton 12/07/2009 02:47 PM #
K:
You are correct…any “straw” color will not do a thing for your wood, as described. I can certainly give you a ton of suggestions that may, or may not, strike your fancy. I want you to make this home, your home. Get our Trend-Proof Color Collection. When you go through our PROCESS, with our Trend-Proof Color Collection at home, you work with all the colors “at home”, and can follow them like a roadmap. Seeing the entire Trend-proof Color Collection among your own things, in your space, and interacting with each other will allow you to see colors that are perfect with your natural surfaces, such as wood stains, granite, fabrics, and art. The Process guides you there. You will understand how many color combinations are possible and pick the direction you love the most. I can then help you narrow down the many great choices you have at your finger tips. If you need further assistance, (SO WORTH IT!) we have Virtual Colorization’s. We take over and give you visual color advice (See examples). Either way, we are here to HELP! But first, empower yourself with Devine Color’s smart Trend-proof Color Collection, and go through our wise Process.
We have lots of pictures and blog articles about what to do. We also have a PICTURE GALLERY that shows you even more possibilities.
I would love for you to send us yours!
— Gretchen Schauffler 12/14/2009 10:41 AM #
We are installing our hot rub inside in the basement. It has a redwood casing. My walls and ceiling are siding which must be stained/painted and sealed. I am thinking about using blues. Maybe a dark blue on the siding and wipe it down and then painting the other walls a lighter shade of blue. Is there a better color to compliment the redwood spa?
— dshow 01/26/2010 02:30 PM #
D:
Red and blue are a classic combo! Here is a couple of possibilities with our line if you are going to try to texture a “two-tone look” :
Devine Cool/Current/Spray
Macaw/Shark/Beluga
Jay/Cest La Vie/Sea Star
...get those Mini-Paint Pouches and start experimenting :)
— Gretchen Schauffler 02/01/2010 11:06 AM #