Do you live in a house of white walls?

Question

Are you boring or insane, and if either, did the walls drive you to it?

Buying a house with all white walls, and after going from living in my parents house to renting for nearly a decade, I want color. But the house was just painted and I feel like hiring painters is just one more unnecessary expense. Plus I'd have to figure our how to put colors together, or hire someone else to that.

No, I don't paint.

Answer 1

Among other things, I painted the entire interior of my house (1,800sq ft) when I moved in. Mostly taupes and off whites.



Choosing the color scheme and decorating your place in general ought to be fun.

Answer 2

The beauty of a home with white walls is that you can incorporate so many other bold colors and patterns, or go more calm and sedate, or really do whatever you like. It's very versatile. If you keep the walls white, then pick two or three accents colors per room. Like in your living room you could have a pretty turquoise vase, throw pillows that are turquoise and green, and curtains that are turquoise, yellow and green, and in another room you could mix chocolate brown and robin's egg blue. You don't have to go all out. Just a few pops of color will do. My old room was cloud white, and I used a lot of pretty jewel-like colors. We lived in a condo in Chicago then, and my room was small. My room felt bigger being white. My last room was a very pale sunshine yellow, and I loved it at first and then I hated it. It sort of looked like cat pee to me after a while. Now my room is fuchsia. I freaked out when I finished it because it's so bold, but now I love it. It looks so crisp with my white furniture and bedding. Idk how old your daughter is and if she's looking for new bedding but Teen Vogue has an amazing new line at Macy's. It's much better than you'd expect it to be.



Painting is super easy. Use frog tape.I don't know why you don't paint. It's not that hard putting colors together, either. It's really fun. I helped my grandparents redo their entire downstairs and it looks awesome. I just went through the Domino Magazine Flickr group, Apartment Therapy, and different blogs to get ideas. You'll feel really proud when you just put it all together, and it doesn't take that long.



Foyer, downstairs hallway, stairs and landing: a sophisticated turquoise blue called Wythe Blue from Benjamin Moore. It's the exact same color used in the house on "Mad Men." My nana liked that house so I looked it up.



Living room: very gentle, creamy gray with ivory paneling.

Dining room: wallpaper

Kitchen: wallpaper

Great room: pale turquoise that's in the same family as the Wythe blue.

Downstairs bathroom: pale lavender gray. It's the color of my favorite MAC eyeshadow. I just brought it into Home Depot and they color matched it. That bathroom is unusually big, so the color works well and makes it spa-like calm.

Guest rooms: they haven't been redone in forever. There's some seriously craptastic wallpaper from the 90s going on in there.

My grandparents room: wallpaper (but it's really nice wallpaper)

My room: fuchsia

My bathroom: very, very light, watery aqua



I liked these blogs a lot:

http://www.houseofturquoise.com/

http://www.younghouselove.com/

Answer 3

I don't remember the last time I had a house with white walls.



I went through a light blue and peach phase, a sage and taupe phase, a beige and peach phase, and now I am mostly in a peachy, green and beige phase (although my bedroom is yellow.)



I do paint, although I hate doing it. But the result is worth the pain.:o)



However, I just inherited my mother's house, which needed to be painted throughout. I hired someone else to do it....all beiges and creams.

****

Des....five years ago I painted my living room walls what looked like a nice beige in the store. Once it was up on three walls it was clearly PINK. I felt like I was inside a hot dog. Needless to say it got repainted. :o)

Answer 4

Parchment.



And lots of great original art to hang on it.



Buy a couple big canvasses from Michaels or your local craft store. Buy some paints and have your daughter and husband and yourself each create an original work of art for your blank spaces. Pick out favorite colors and do something modern if you're not an artist. A big canvas isn't all that expensive and it's a fun project that brings color into your walls.



That said, the top floor of my house is done in shades of water.

Answer 5

Before marriage....everything was Swiss Coffee (who knew Swiss people made white coffee)



After marriage.... condo looked like a rainbow of colors with a lot of sponge painting, etc (we had more energy before the kids came...lol)



Current house: Son has John Deere sort of motif (the yellow is more muted though). Daughter has pink (of course). Master Bedroom has a muted beige. Living area is a brownish-yellow (was there before we moved, never got around to changing it, now we are used to it). Did one wall a sort of wine red. Actually looks very good as a backdrop to wood furniture but it's a little too dark for our taste.



Painting it not that hard, just all the masking is a pain in the butt (plus moving the furniture).

Answer 6

I have a lot of cream because I thought at one point that I might lose the house post-divorce, so I drained some savings -- an inheritance -- and did some reno work because my house was a slight "fixer upper" and I was eager to flip it profitably, so some walls went cream.



The living room is a sort of middling creamed-coffee brown, two bedrooms are a strange shade of pale blue, kitchen's blue (and half primed and ready to be turned into something nicer to look at) and the main bathroom is purple. Which I painted while it was being renovated, and the plumber came back and saw the purple and said "This bathroom is going to look great as soon as you get it painted!" Wise guy...

Answer 7

My walls are..



Living room: One terra-cotta wall, the rest are white with pictures, etc. on them.

My room: Yellow

Office: White

Bathroom: White

Kitchen: Lavender

Parent room: Blue



But in the white rooms there are a bunch of nice things on the wall.. It's OK to have white walls as long as there are pictures and paintings on them.



Best of luck!

Answer 8

Yes I do. My mum and I absolutely HATE it. We recently painted the inside of the house and mum wanted an actual color but my dad wanted a boring, nuetral color. It's so bland and boring! Me, mum and my little brothers were the ones had to paint ALL the walls as well because my dad couldn't be bothered helping, and he has the nerve to be angry at us for not doing a spectacular job! :(

Answer 9

In all seriousness..........Painting is easy.



Its not rocket science.



I always wondered why people, pay painters to paint the inside of a house. Its wasted money

Suffice to say, if your old, or incapable of doing it, its understandable.



But if your able bodied, as i said, its not rocket science.



Have you ever coloured in a colouring book?

The answer is one in the same.



Stay within the lines, and dont miss a spot.



Work room to room. Meaning you dont move onto the next room, until the room your doing is completed.

There is no rush.

Seeing that your living there for a while, you can take your time.

It gets done.

Answer 10

Yes, for the most part they are an off-white. They don't bother me. The furniture and decorations and stuff has color, it's not boring or plain. My wife is pretty good at room design and helped with the decoration. If I had done it alone it would be plain and boring.



The kids' rooms have color on the walls.

Answer 11

no, we always had everything white or beige -- except that the last time we painted i was in some kind of crazy color mode. now i've got walls of practically every conceivable color.



i learned two lessons from it. first, it's not that hard to repaint if something turns out looking much different than you expected (which i can say with certainty after we repainted our entryway three times in two weeks because i wasn't happy with it). second, it doesn't matter nearly as much as i worried it would that i don't have any kind of visual or artistic sense. these colors make me happy, and it's not as if decorators visit my home to pass any judgments. next time i do it, i'll stop worrying about whether i'm choosing colors "wrong." heck, who makes the rules, anyway? if we're happy with it, it's good.

Answer 12

My walls are

Living Room - Cider Vinegar (like a yellow based tan)

Girls Room - Pinky Purple

Master - Sage - y Green

Toy Room - Yellow with flowers, butterflies, etc on the walls

Bathroom - Blue - darker than a powder blue

Laundry Room - Cream

Answer 13

Okay I DID live in a house of white walls and it sucked big time! Felt like the crazy house! (Not that I know what the "crazy house" feels like).



Now I live in a house with no white walls (no crazy colors, all neutral or "earthy", but all color of some sort).



We hired an unlicensed cheapo painter to paint the whole interior before we moved in, can't say I am thrilled with his painting but I didn't have to do it all and it's good enough.

Answer 14

Mine was for a few months. I hated it! I need colour! I kept the trim and mouldings white all over, but a blank wall just looks sad and dull to me. There's not a white wall in the house. I love painting and experimenting with different colours, but I do have a... ahem... strong affinity for red, white, black, and dark brown. Along with other rich colours.



Kitchen: white and red with white, dark brown, bright red and stainless accents in the furnishings.

Living room: dark red with dark brown, teal, yellow, red, purple and orange accents.

Halls: muted light brown, white trim.

Playroom: violent dark magenta with yellow, pink and orange accents.

Main bedroom: dark plum with white, black, silver and lavender accents.

My bathroom: lavender and grey.

Laundry/mud and staircase: Bright red.

Oldest 2's bedroom: lavender, since they change bedsets a lot and it goes with most colours.

Younger's bedroom: light blue.

Kids' bathroom: teal and pink.

Spare bedroom/office/misc. room: chocolate brown with red and white.

Downstairs bath: tan.



My detached studio is the only white space I have, but true to form, bathroom is bright red and so are the doors :o)

Answer 15

God, no...I might die. I wallpapered the kitchen, dining room, and bathrooms (all tone on tone paper). I have painted eveything else in colors. I really hate white. I love to see the transformation...and would never hire it out. Come on, MT...you could do it.

Answer 16

We're not allowed to paint. Unfortunately the walls were already a sickly green colour, everywhere. I have covered them in my kids' artwork.

Answer 17

i live in a house with all light cream color walls

I love it

neutral and I can easily change the room by changing accessory colors

Answer 18

Nope, every room, closet, bathroom and the laundry room and basement are even painted...adds a lot of personality.

Answer 19

nope, not white walls in this house