Please help me make myself look ‘warm’ again!

4 years ago

Hi everyone,
We are mid way through renovating our modest 1970s house, and I fear I have removed all the warmth from it with my choices of paint and flooring thus far...
When we moved in it was decorated in oranges, peaches, browns and creams and felt very dated and dark. It has large windows in some rooms but really just reminds me of a quirky old cottage inside. The ceilings feel low and it certainly isn’t grand in any way!
I swung completely the other way with colour choices when trying to modernise the decor, choosing blues, greys, greens, whites, to lighten the spaces, but now feel I’ve made a big mistake as some rooms are so drab and cold.
Our house is slightly off east/west facing, and I didn’t consider this when picking colours - I now realise this was a mistake!
Our kitchen is dated, (fitted in 1980), a dark warm wood tone that we cannot yet afford to change, and this was the main factor in choosing a grey dappled vinyl flooring for our kitchen and hallway. I now hate it, but again, it won’t be changed now until we get a new kitchen, which is 2+ years away.
I’ll include some photos and any advice would be so great if anyone has any ideas?
I really like vintage furniture so most items are warm mid/dark tones.
One other thing we have found is that pure brilliant white looks blue almost everywhere where it’s been painted on doors/skirtings etc. It is worse in lots of ways than the dated yellowed oil gloss we have in places!
Thanks very much in advance.

Featured Answer

Juliet Docherty

4 years ago

Post as many photos as you can, it will really help. Colour temperature is not something that we can measure, it is a 'feel' thing so we are all affected by it in different ways. I know I am really affected by it and so could never paint a room with pale blue/grey walls unless it was south facing and made of glass. Interestingly, the trend for grey was really pushed in the industry by the same people who are now pushing warm peachy beige interiors. It's fashion, pure and simple. Another factor is that LED lights (most of which are too yellow or too blue) make cream paint look sickly whereas the old Halogen dichroic lights were very flattering.

Many true grey paints are actually blue which can look cold, pure white almost certainly looks and feels cold in rooms starved of natural light. In general there are creamy yellow based neutrals, green/yellow neutrals, cooler green or blue neutrals and taupe neutrals which are usually a bit red or red violet. Avoid anything too yellow with a grey that looks very blue, they will exaggerate each other. Skimming Stone is a good colour as it has a bit of magenta in but can appear warm enough to look pleasing but isn't creamy. I also have grey tiles in my kitchen and dining room where I have painted the walls Joanna by Little Greene which is a very pale taupe. If a room feels flat then a shot of saturated warm colour such as a deep olive can really cut through the grey and warm it up. Another thing to consider is painting the skirting boards the same colour as the wall, it can then just look like a white room that is easy on the eye.

This is 'Joanna' in my dining room. Another thing that can help is add as much nutty brown as possible. Brown can be a dirty orange, yellow orange, red and even purple/reds. People say every room needs black, I say every room needs brown. Hope this helps.