Period Colours !

[masochists-r-us]

Having purchased umpteen F&B matchpots we finally settled on a deep pink for our newly plastered dining room. The sizeable patch I painted looked lovely until there were two coats of it on three walls when it started to resemble wet bonding coat and felt like a naff pub. We have lots of dark beams,stone flags and a large stone inglenook in this room. Should we give up on our ambitions for strong colour and resign ourselves to 'boring' neutrals ? Incidentally, has anyone used F&B colour consultancy service ?

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Try another product!! Ecos, Rose of Jericho, Paint Library, Little Greene-- to name but a few! R of J recommended!!

 

[JoceAndChris]

How does the colour consultancy work? I have used their recommended combinations, a lot, and like them.

I bet you like the pink in a couple of weeks - never judge a colour until the room is complete and you've lived with it for a period. It can be a real shock initially.

Reds and pinks lovely for a dining room, especially illuminated with candlelight and firelight. And especially if your stone is grey. Still love our dining room in RofJ " Tuscan Red" with FnB terracotta St Antoine wallpaper.

Any chance of pics?

 

[88v8]

It might 'work' better at night, depending on your lighting. If you have proper incandescent bulbs in old fittings. Perhaps, intentionally or not, you are creating a cosy, winter, room. What furniture, rugs, pictures? Pub interior can be very homely.

Ivor

 

[Owain]

I bet you like the pink in a couple of weeks - never judge a colour until the room is complete and you've lived with it for a period. It can be a real shock initially.

Also once the expanse of wall is broken up with pictures etc.

Anyway, what's wrong with naff pub? I've spend many happy evenings in them; just get some hunting prints and horse-brasses to complete the look

 

[Sonyaclegg]

I think your room can stand the colour. Once the room is dressed, you may feel differently but if not, there are the companies Joce suggests. I've been through every colour card in the land! My recent favourite is Mylands of London. Some interesting pinks in their range.

 

[Zebra]

Well I'm a fan of boring neutrals. Every wall will have a honey yellow finish. Once I've plastered them, that is. But Joce's idea of never judge a colour until the room is complete and you've lived with it for a while, I can vouch for. I limewashed my bedroom in a yellow hue which at the time looked horrendous, now, about a month later (still not finished the room and moved in, still sleeping in the living room, but that's another story) can't see what the problem was.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I think your colour scheme sounds lovely for your property Zebra. I wouldn't say those ochres were boring at all, but highly appropriate.

Still can't decide what colour for our main drawing room. Peach, yellow-cream, or blue??? Very hard making these choices.

 

[Zebra]

Get all the colours you think you like Joce, and mix them all together in a big tub and use that.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Fine blue, and if you have a dado, French grey below it---from our favourite R o J

 

[LadyArowana]

Get all the colours you think you like Joce, and mix them all together in a big tub and use that.

:lol: let me guess Zebra, you were the little girl with the models made from brown plasticine and your mum had a muddy looking picture of a house and garden on the fridge door.

 

[masochists-r-us]

Thanks everyone for your input esp Owain as I was having a very bad day and you gave me a laugh. Zebra, you will see from my now photo that I am with you ref. the honey yellow.The paint I chose was Old Gold from Laura Ashley. Although I prefer F&B paint, I couldn't find a shade to compete with this gorgeous colour which looks lovely whatever the light level in the room / time of day. Whilst Porphrhy Pink is a lovely shade and looks much better in the photo than it did in real life, it probably needs a much bigger room/house to take it.
Still a fair bit to do in this room to finish so will post more pics later, but I'm just so happy to be at the stage of dealing with aesthetics as opposed to building,dirt,rubble and all.

 

[Zebra]

brown plasticine

Yes! :lol:

So you changed it masochists. I do like the Old Gold, that really looks good in that room. But don't tell us you don't miss the building rubble and dirt, even just a bit?!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Joss- I really like those blues -thanks.

Masochists - that yellow looks much better I agree. Porphyry Pink is a Regency colour and that isn't a Regency looking room, on any level. I also think it looks wrong to put strong pinks, reds and terracotta up against bright white ceilings, or even off white ceilings - it's too stark a contrast - I think it's better to wrap the colour round the room, or go for a more washed out version of that colour ( so a Fowler Pink ceiling with Porphyry) or if it must be on the white side make it as much towards beige as you can take. Or, as a contrasting shade, blue grey, which was a traditional ceiling colour choice. But not white.


People often think they hate a colour but what they're reacting against is a combination of colours that jar, because we all have an instinctive sense of the colour wheel.

Anyway I think ochres and yellows and buffs are perfect for exposed brown timber rooms.

 

[Zebra]

Anyway I think ochres and yellows and buffs are perfect for exposed brown timber rooms.

I'm glad to hear you say that, since you seem such an expert at interiors. I don't seem to have an eye for colour at all. I've bought pigments from Ty-Mawr Lime, to make coloured limewashes for my interior. I've bought Clean Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Warm Yellow Ochre and Raw Sienna, and tried mixing them in various combinations and strengths but seem unable to get exactly what I want. I see a colour I like, but then I can't make it. Or it seems right but looks wrong on. It's either too yellow or not yellow enough.
Given up and gone back to stair building. Whinge over.

 

[masochists-r-us]

I also think it looks wrong to put strong pinks, reds and terracotta up against bright white ceilings, or even off white ceilings - it's too stark a contrast - I think it's better to wrap the colour round the room, or go for a more washed out version of that colour ( so a Fowler Pink ceiling with Porphyry) or if it must be on the white side make it as much towards beige as you can take. Or, as a contrasting shade, blue grey, which was a traditional ceiling colour choice. But not white.

Actually Joce ceilings aren't painted at all yet, but am definitely taking the Old Gold up and over between the beams. This is recommended by F&B to give impression of higher ceilings and having tested it out on a couple of panels which can't be seen on the photos think this is the way to go. Started my red spectrum ambitions with Red Earth(too orangey)then Eating Room Red (too dark) and decided to go for it with P. Pink thinking compromise. Glad I tried it and have now well and truly got it out of my system. It reminds me of the time many years ago when I insisted my hairdresser perm my hair. I've been happy to have it straight ever since

 

[Keithj]

We took a piece of wall with the colour we wanted to the nice people at Ingilby, and they matched it for us. Not only that, but when I phoned 18 months later to ask if they could do the same again, they had the specification on file.

We were warned that limewash is never exactly the same colour next time. We knew that, because our outside stuff is pale pink on warm dry days, and plum coloured on wet ones.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Masochists - lovely that you're going to take the OLd Gold up in between the beams - that will look great. And you brought back some very nostalgic memories for me debating with Chris about the colours you mention, and feeling exactly as you did about them ( hence ditching FnB and going for RofJ!).

Zebra - forgive me - but if you aren't confident about colours is making colours perhaps giving yourself a headache you don't deserve? I've always loved paint and colour but if you suggested I mix my own I would see it as just as crazy a suggestion as making my own wallpaper. The expertise and balance of different pigments that goes into those colours ( not just yellow to get a nice yellow!) has been arrived at after decades of work. Why not give yourself a break and try some of the lovely savannah like hues in limewash by one of the top companies - Straw, or Buff, by Rose of Jericho, or send off to Womersley for their paint chart and look at their Ochres.

 

[Zebra]

Joce I'm sure you're right. My reasons are many: on the one hoof, I do always seem to choose the hardest way of doing things for some reason. On the other hoof, I actually thought it would be simple, get some pigment, mix some limewash. On the other hoof, I like to use traditional materials where I can, and limewash is cheap and plentiful. On the other hoof, I'm not sure choosing a premixed paint colour would be any easier, I think I just don't have an eye for yellow. Black and white, on the other..... oh.

 

[LadyArowana]

I actually thought it would be simple, get some pigment, mix some limewash. On the other hoof, I like to use traditional materials where I can, and limewash is cheap and plentiful. On the other hoof, I'm not sure choosing a premixed paint colour would be any easier, I think I just don't have an eye for yellow. Black and white, on the other..... oh.

My view is that there might be more than one colour that you will like. If you don't already have loads of "stuff" ( carpets, elephants, vases, pictures etc. ) then there is less of a requirement for finding that one perfect colour that matches/ sets off the "stuff". All you need to do is eliminate the ones you really don't like. Whilst a very strong colour can look fabulous with the right accessories, it can also be overpowering in its naked self. If you go with your idea of mixing your own limewash, you could try doing one wall at a time gradually adding more pigment to the mix and see how you like it. The lighting conditions will slightly change how the colors look, and you will be doing multiple coats anyway, so working from light to dark in terms of testing wouldn't be a great deal of extra work. Alternatively you could have one black feature wall and the rest white, with some black and white stripey curtains, or just go with some nice black and white prints of your ancestors.

or keep it simple in terms of wall colour and then add in lots of lovely textiles and vintage pieces.