Colour me Mine

Ahhhh, the decision I've been simultaniuosly looking forward to and dreading...paint colours.

Mick and I are an interesting pair when it comes to colour. I LOVE colour, especially bold colour and Mick...well, he's pretty much as colour-blind as you can get, and I mean that literally. He can't distinguish between red and green, can seldom see red (though interestingly he is attracted to it, which confused me no end in the beginning of the relationship when he said his favourite colour was green but he would choose red things!), and when I ask him to describe a colour, he usually answers, "dark?" So, you can understand my stress? Luckily we came to an agreement fairly early on that, as long as Mick didn't perceive the colour as heinous, I could pick what I like.

Now, my favourite colour is purple and left to my own devices I would probably put it everywhere. My next favourite is black (though not a colour technically), then red. I do not like green or brown, and whilst I can appreciate a neutral, white or pastel colour scheme (especially with pops of timber, black or bold colour), I would not paint them myself (much like lovers of those schemes probably would avoid my choices).

It all started with a clear vision for the formal living space... I have been unable to find an image that encapsulates exactly what I want to do but I've always felt strongly that I want the first impression upon opening the stained wooden door to be of dark floor boards in the entry and hallway, light creamy carpet (possibly with a pattern) through the main body of the living area, creamy/parchment wall colour through the hallway and most walls and a bold, deep, purple/red/taupe main wall colour framed by white skirting and architraving. I love the idea of a rich, warm, regal purple/red/taupe muted by lots of cream (not too dark or yellow) with timber accents and a shot of greenery through large windows. Here are a few images that inspire me (I've tried to give sources for images where possible, but some of these images are from my ancient web trawls before this blog existed):

Smart Strand IQ150 Carpet

Feature Wall Colour - Wattyl Hunter Grape

Main Wall Colour - Wattyl Natural Angora

Skirting/Trim/Ceiling Colour - Wattyl White

Now, the kitchen/meals (as I have covered earlier) I envision being white with timber accents and a pop of aubergine/grape and black (through appliances and crockery). I also want glass to feature and both Mick and I want a large, long, rustic timber dining table (likely about 3m long). It will be our only eating space and we want it to be large and inviting. Here's one we like at the moment (if only we had somewhere to store it):

http://www.dtll.com.au/rabbit-trap-timber/product/792-farmhouse-tables

The Media Room is the tough one. I think we're going to attempt to carry-through the grape feature colour and hope that it plays nice with Mick's chocolate-brown, sued lounge...If not, it's only paint...right?

I can't remember exactly how the concept for the Study started (possibly from a Rawson brochure from way back when we first bought the block), but we want that to be a masculine space so we've chosen a blue feature wall colour and will accent it with (and this part we're not entirely sure-on yet) either chunky white or black furniture. At this time, we plan on having a long computer desk, which can accommodate two computers, floating shelves, a small sofa-bed and floor lamp. Here is my inspiration:

House to Home UK

Ikea

All Things Lovely

Wattyl Citadel Blue

Then we have upstairs. With no set occupants for most of the rooms, we're leaving those cream. We've decided to paint a feature wall in the TV Room and Master Bedroom, so that when you're sitting in one (with all the double-doors open), you can see the other, and when you come up the stairs you can look straight ahead at the view of the golf course, or see colour to the left and right. We' will also stain the stair balustrade the same colour as the floor-boards to carry the timber upstairs.

So, the TV Room wall colour will be the same rich grape as downstairs and the Master Bedroom will have a black feature wall that wraps around the "floating wall" that separates the wardrobe from the room. This will mirror the black and white scheme in the Ensuite (as I have posted earlier).

Here is some black and white (or cream) inspiration:

Home and Decor

Belle Maison

Belle Maison

Wattyl Eternal Dark

So, our scheme is bold colour (black, blue, grape) layered on linen/cream framed in white with timber accents.

Here's hoping it works!