Paint colours - walls vs trims vs doors - diff combos

[Bella]

I have always had a rather conservatice colour scheme for walls vs archs/door jams/skirts vs doors and am currently researching different schemes. I'm really interested to know what others do.

My 'old' way is cream walls (I do vary the colour of the cream so am not completely boring with it), standard white for archs/door jams/skirting and the same cream as the walls for the doors.

Other schemes I'm thinking about which are still of the conservative cream and white combos are:

Scheme idea 1:
Walls - cream
Architraves/door jams/skirting - a darker cream than the walls
Doors - standard white

Scheme idea 2:
Walls - cream
Architraves/door jams/skirting - a lighter cream than the walls
Doors - a honey creamy yellow (eg Duluxes Cooled Cream which to me is more of a yellow than a cream)

Scheme idea 3:
Walls - cream
Architraves/door jams/skirting - standard white
Doors - a darker cream than the walls

comments please!! any idea of what the visual effect is of doing the 3 things different colours? eg does say a white door with say cream trims make a room look bigger, smaller, a different shape, something else?

we have some rooms where we have already painted the walls a nice cream (3D Dimensions colour of Pollen Drop) and others we haven't started on yet so are not locked in to cream walls for everything. It is for 3 separate buildings we are painting - a PPOR, an IP and a commercial office.

 

[calvin@34]

Only Committees settle on Cream!

Hi Bella,
being a bloke (and all that goes with it) for give me up front for any comments made.

The Title holds a comment made by some investor friends I have and I tend to agree with them.
Why not look into current Homes magazines for ideas. You'll find most of them have various colour combinations (yes including cream) that work very well. Most have three walls the same colour and one as the "feature wall" being a loud contrasting colour.
For example, three walls cream with the fourth wall a deep velvety red!

To answer your question more specifically, I have been informed that light (or white coloured doors and jambs) make a room brighter and therefore appear larger! Our last rental had the doors, door jambs and scirting boards al in a gloss grey (Greystoke I think it was called). Repainting it in white brightened up the place no end and every one thought that it looked hughe (for the lounge room).
I would (for me) combine the light coloured doors/jambs and scirting boards with the three + one wall effect, it looks a million bucks!

Further research at Dulux
http://www.dulux.com.au/html/home/index.aspx will highlight my point. If you don't like them try www.603010.com.au for further ideas.

I'm not sure I helped or further confused you, sorry.

 

[Mrs Bird]

Hi Everyone,

Just finished painting a new house and used a beautiful colour scheme.
Here are a few guidelines that I have used successfully..

Bella, to the question you asked about paiting 3 diff shades, I would go for the following...

1. Walls cream full strength
Architraves half strengh of wall colour
Celings quarter strength of all colour

This allows continuity throughout the house and all shades are from the same tint.

Also, if you are going for different colours in rooms, what links them together are the architraves and doors painted the same colour. Once again, this allows continuity throughout the property even though different colours are used.

2. Feature walls are the best decorating tool you have. I would recommend a solid colour and not bagged, rolled, sponged etc. Reason being that it is fashionable for a few years and then becomes very dated. Look in the magazines and you will see what I mean. Feature walls should be striking. I have seen people who are scared of colour paint a FW in a wishy washy safe colour and it has no effect at all.

Sample pots are so important. Worth every cent you pay for.

In the next few weeks I am going to post pictures of my farm house and list all colours that I have used. ( I know that I have been promising this for months but I want the whole project to be perfect

Also, decorating includes co-ordinating colour with the style of the kitchen bathroom tiles, carpet etc

Hope this has been of some help

Mrs Bird

Ps...I am a frustrated "Interior designer" with over a 100 home beautiful magines in my cupboard

 

[Lplate]

What bland has going for it is that it does not clash with the tenants' furniture and tastes. Bland does not always have to be cream or off-white though.

My personal preference is to use a brightly coloured lamp or vase to lift a room.

 

[geoffw]

I like a feature wall which you can change every few years as it goes out of fashion. I like the Dulux Suede Effects especially.

 

[Brenda Irwin]

My neighbour has used the same color used for the trim on the exterior of her house to paint around the doorways of the interior. It's a blue color and looks quite nice. Walls are a neutral shade of cream and doors are white or off white.

 

[phm]

Hi there

Painting the doors and the trim around the doors a grey colour hides fingermarks. This was recommended to a friend who has an IP, by a painter.

 

[Ecogirl]

My fav paint colour is Taubmans China White....I painted the ceiling white, walls full strength and the skirting boards and doors in double strength. I use the walls as a blank canvas and have colourfull accessories - but that's just me.

I read in Peter Spanns new book that the interior designer recommends that the doors and skirting boards etc get painted in a white high gloss enamel so after each tennent it's easy to go around and do touch ups and it should blend very well. Nice tip....

Ecogirl

 

[geoffw]

I read in Peter Spanns new book that the interior designer recommends that the doors and skirting boards etc get painted in a white high gloss enamel so after each tennent it's easy to go around and do touch ups and it should blend very well. Nice tip....

High gloss is the way to go if your painter is painting it- but I find it much harder to work with, being so used to water based acrylic paints. I'm always leaving drops where they're not supposed to be, and I love the convenience of cleaning up drops with a wet sponge. There'a more prep to be done if you're painting over enamel.

However, it is my understanding that not even a good semi gloss acrylic has the strength of a good enamel.

 

[Archi]

hi bella

cream color is one of the most common holor household uses, yet it is the color most people sould accepted.

however too much cream color would make people feels boring (because of the same tune). why don't you try this web site (old but useful)
http://www.603010.com.au

well, the feature wall issue... most people make misticks because they choosen the wrong color, effect, of paint too many walls. just KISS
remember people react to freature wall different, so try to use some common accepted color as feature wall would be wise

cheers

archi

 

[Aceyducey]

Get an interior designer in.

Will cost a couple of hundred for a consultation to pick all the colours plus they can provide tips on where to get cheap paint & accessories.

Cheers,

Aceyducey

 

[Queen Bee]

The last IP that I painted a couple of months ago came up really nice. When I bought the place, every room was a different bright colour. Some people would walk in and say WOW others would go Mmmmm. Not to everyone's liking. So when the last tenants left we decided to paint everything cream. Even though I personally hate cream.

The trend at the moment apparently is to paint the architraves, skirting, walls all the same colour. And it was heaps easier to paint because we didn't have to cut in for different shades. The doors were left natural wood, and we sanded and polyrethaned the floors. I painted the fireplace surround in the lounge dark grey and used the same colour on the kitchen cupboards. It made it look really modern compared to what it had been, whereas it was looking a bit last century.

I don't know what the trends are in Oz, but we are so over feature walls. Everything is now one colour. I hated all that careful cutting in. And it's all earthy colours, greys, terracotta's, muted greens etc. I actually really like this now more than the in your face feature walls that were of so last century! Don't the designers say, texture, texture, texture! Or something to that effect.

I saw this makeover show on tellie the other night where they painted the exterior of this house. Originally it was white, and it looked OK. But they painted it a really dark grey and painted around the windows even darker. Whereas I probably would have painted around the windows lighter, but it looked really awesome, and it made the house look so modern. I'm now going to paint my exterior of my PPOR the same colour, because it was just so different that usual.

Cheers, QB

 

[Bella]

wow, some great ideas.

I have been playing with the dulux and 603010 software for a few months now, it is great, but it actually leads to more colour procrastination for me!

the biggest dilemma I get stuck on is whether doors should be a different colour to trims. We like feature walls and have done several, with the regular walls being cream. Normally do trims plain white. I think it looks nicer when doors are either the same colour as the walls (so that when you look at the area near the door you have wall colour next to trim colour next to door colour - nothing is directly next to something the same colour) OR doors are in a 3rd colour ie different colour to both trims and walls. anyone else get stuck on this?

am also getting fussy about architrave and have stopped using the MDF ones which seem to be chunkier and less delicate than the fingered pine type which you can get slimmer ones ie in both width and depth. does anyone else take any notice of architrave style? Lately I was thinking of trying some of the silver metal strip type architraves, like the kind you sometimes see in modern offices. Since we are doing an office at the moment I thought they might look nice, but after holding a sample up, it just didn't suit.

I always thought doing walls, trims and doors all the same colour looked a bit plain. ie plainer than doing different but plain colours. To me, having the trims, walls and doors all in slightly different offset colours is a bit like makeup (not that I wear makeup myself!!! but that doesn't mean I don't like the way it looks!). I suppose if you do all 3 in the same colour, you can use furniture, window coverings and wall pictures to create a bit of contrast.

 

[DD1]

Gotta buck the trend

I do townhouse renos and have had good success with gloss enamel doors and trims in bright white, standard white ceiling white, and taubmans 'mayellan' blue for all walls.

I then matched this with a white lace for bathroom and laundry windows which had a dolphin motif in a variety of blues and cream. This gave me 2 windows finished with new matching curtains for $30.00 including the rod and fittings. Awesome finish but Im not sure how to include pics here.

I was painting the gloss white skirting board in the loungeroom when the agent brought through a young couple. First comment was "wow, love the colour, we'll take this one". So yes I was very proud that bland was not my colour and it worked a treat. They have just renewed for a further 6 months and another $5/wk.

Did an exact duplicate in a cream for my sister (who I helped buy a townhouse in the same complex). She did dark blue curtains, her choice, and I'm sure it will need repainting sooner. The darker the walls the more forgiving for tenants.

Can someone help me insert pics please.

DD1