fun with interior painting (1 Viewer)

[Mark Schermerhorn]

Ok guys I've got a question. This might be a stretch but who knows.
I'm living in this house in the 'uptown' neighborhood of Minneapolis. Really cool, big, old house. Myself and 2 other guys are renting the first floor. The walls could really use some fresh paint with some color. Even though we won't be living there forever I don't really mind paying for the paint.
So anyway, I like to use dark colors, as in dark red for the entryway and dark purple for the dining room. They aren't convinced it would look good, especially with all the dark wood trim we have (they think the dark colors will wash out the effect of the trim).
So I was wondering if anyone here knows of any websites with pictures of houses that are painted with interesting colors so I can prove that it really does look good.
BTW they are making a fuss because they're anal retentive, yuppie engineers. I feel wierd having to ask this

 

[Julie K]

Dark colors will make the rooms look small.

Another thing to consider, while the landlord may not mind you repainting the walls a more traditional, lighter color, he or she may be hopping mad when it comes to try to cover up a dark, unusual paint style that would send the next renters screaming.

(Red entryways and purple dining rooms are sure not my idea of a relaxing paint scheme...)

 

[Mark Schermerhorn]

Julie: In this part of town (trendy / artsy) the funky colors probably won't be a problem. The rooms are also pretty big. I'm waiting for the landlord to call back, so yeah all bets will be off if he doesn't like it. I still think it will look good Oh and I actually have a women who is good with color who agrees with me, which is better than nothing

 

[Julie K]

Ok, goes to show what I know about trendy color schemes. I'm just a boring engineer I guess

 

[D. Scott MacDonald]

We painted our living room walls rasberry red a couple of years ago and we love it. It does NOT make the room look any smaller. The colors are not for everybody, but we love it and it's definately a conversation piece. We now feel freaked out whenever we visit somebody with white walls (how boring).

One piece of advice: when painting a dark color, use the highest quality paint you can find. This is because the tint in the paint never actaully dries, so the more tinted the paint is, the weaker it dries. I first painted the walls with Ralph Lauren paint and some sort of failed occurred where the paint wouldn't stick to the walls, so Home Depot paid to have every wall re-drywalled, after which we repainted with a higher quality paint.

As far as color suggestions, the Ralph Lauren paint samples from Home Depot are pretty good - just don't use the actual paint.

 

[Mark Schermerhorn]

Scott: Ralph Lauren is the paint we were planning on using. My friend actually recommended it. What paint did you use that was higher quality? How much did it cost? Are there others like it? Did you prime the walls before you used the Ralph Lauren paint?
Julie: don't worry I'm an engineer too
It doesn't make you boring if you don't like bold colors, everyone feels comfortable with a different scheme.

 

[Julie K]

We now feel freaked out whenever we visit somebody with white walls (how boring).

Well, my paint may be boring, but I quarantee you that the other things on my walls aren't. Red paint in my living would clash with:
Rubbings from Mayan ruins at Copan
Print of a painting showing trout swimming around a 50s living room.
Various dragon themed artifacts
Bad Taste movie poster
Scimitar horned oryx
Hippo
That's just the living room...

 

[Mark Schermerhorn]

Julie: who is freaked out with white walls?
And yes you'd need white paint to give some continuity to that eclectic mix of things lin your living room

 

[Kelley_B]

We are painting the kitchen in our new house a red with an orange hint....and the living room/hallway we are thinking about painting it Electra Blue, my "dork room" will be red, the bed room will be Deepwater Blue(it has a wallpaper picture on one wall of Cinammon Bay), and the extra bedroom will be Mantis Green. The guest bathroom is wallpaper black and white vertical lines and the main bathroom is grey squares.

 

[Julie K]

Julie: who is freaked out with white walls?

That was Scott, but I'm sure he was exaggerating a bit
I should also mention the bathrooms. What I lack in adventuresome taste in paint is made up for what I put on the walls. The bathrooms are fish themed: fish clocks, fish plates, real live dead pufferfish, glass fish, ceramic fish dispensing soap and lotion, fish coat hooks, fish towel holders, fish toilet paper holders, fish prints, fish pillows, fish hanging from the ceiling, fish shaped scales, and other assorted fishy items. My goal is to cover almost every inch of paint

 

[Mark Schermerhorn]

Kelley: now that is cool. Lots of color. What is a dork room? Do you mean a room with computers and video games or something?
Julie: hehe
Still, no one has given me any leads on my original question...

 

[Kelley_B]

Mark,

dork room is what my fiance calls my room which is filled with horror movie posters, computers, and more videogames than I will ever have time to play.

 

[D. Scott MacDonald]

Julie, I should have said that I get freaked out by boring walls. With all of the stuff that you've got on them, I'm sure they're not boring. I said this only to illustrate that many people will say that they don't like dark colors, but it also works the other way around. Once you get used to creative use of color, you start to get bored by the typical white wall look.

We have also maxed out our three bathrooms. The hall bath is also fish themed, with wavy alternating stipes of green and blue shades to give it that aquatic look. Our master bath is painted apple green with a sponged pattern, and our downstairs is basically yellow with lots of wallpaper accents.

For those that think this is too much, everybody that visits our house wants a tour and many have come away with great decorating ideas. Our real estate agent said that decorating easily enhances the houses value.

Mark, yes we did primer the walls wiht Ralph Lauren primer that was explicitly designed to be tinted, but we believe that it was actaully the primer that failed rather than the actual paint. The Home Depot guy said that he had only heard of one other case of this, so it's probably not a widespread issue. BTW, Ralph Lauren were a bunch of jerks about it, but Home Depot came through in a very big way. Over hear in Seattle some real good paint brands are Kelly Moore and Parker, but they probably don't exist where you live. I'd recommend calling a professional painter and ask what they use.

 

[Mark Philp]

I'm a landlord and will give you a little advise. Read your lease then talk it over with your landlord and show him/her what you had in mind. If you don't you might find that you won't be getting you security deposit back or worse get hauled into court for "damages". We're all not "badguys" but remember that it could be VERY expensive to cover up a dark color. I repaint my rental property for each new tenant and I usually let them pick the color as long as it a "soft" one that's easy to paint over.

 

[PaulG]

Communicating with your landlord can be a good thing. Remember, you are in a house, not an apartment building, so a landlord may be more flexible. My last landlord let me break some rules of my lease a few times, and somethings he said no on. He even let me out of the lease a month early when I bought a house. I still got my security deposit back.

 

[Mark Schermerhorn]

We're going to go to him with color samples. Hopefully he won't turn down the dark colors. He's a fairly flexible guy. He owns 6 - 8 houses in the neighborhood, so it's not some massive business or something. Maybe I'll post pictures when we're done. There is no home theater there but hey