Decorating Challenge

[Byrd]

Okay, this is my mom's livingroom my sister and her husband recently painted it for her. My mom wanted dusty rose, but got this... Pepto Pink! She wants to get a new couch, but there's really nothing that will go with it, so now, she wants me to fix it.... any ideas? (All the accents are burgundy btw)

This is the view when you walk in the door. The blue and pink don't exactly work. I'm painting the hallway for sure.


I'm definitely going to paint over the entrance too, it's just too much.


This is looking toward the back hall.


Looking into the kitchen.

[Maya]

Lol the pepto made me laugh. I googled dusty rose and that is about the right colour. Too bad he didn't have it mixed with white and maybe a bit of grey to tone it down. I wonder if you couldn't put some kind of wash or fine pattern over it to avoid re-painting the whole thing? I'm an artist but not familiar with house paint techniques unfortunately.

[Byrd]

I was thinking of sponging over it, but that's sooo last century.


It was supposed to be more this colour:

[Maya]

Ya the pillow is more the colour I would have thought a dusty rose should be.

Some spongy ideas here:http://www.murals.co.za/paint-text.htm#marbling (I like the marble stone effect and faux finish) I'd be worried i'd make things worse or too busy though. Seems like there should be something that could just be layed over easily but I didn't see anything.

[joeysmama]

I would just start over. I've had to do that twice. Once I picked a white that was supposed to have a mere suggeswtion of yellow. It went on with a greenish cast and looked horrible. It made you look sick when you were standing in the room. I didn't even bother putting the furniture back. I just painted again right away.

Last summer we painted the dining room. It was supposed to be a shade deeper than the living room and foyer but it looked almost the same--just slightly off. No contrast at all so I repainted right away and I'm soooo glad I did.

Once I had my living room and foyer painted and it came out COMPLETELY wrong but the ceilings are high and I couldn't correct it myself and the painter wouldn't. I lived with a color I hated for 7 years before I could afford to have it redone and it made me so mad.

[marsupial mama]

I was thinking of sponging over it, but that's sooo last century.

LOL. I thought the same about the pink. When we moved to canada *last century* the first place we stayed in had pepto pink walls.

I was going to suggest sponging too but I am obviously old-fashioned. Unless there are funky new techniques you could try, but the result would probably be too "busy".

Looks like you will have to start over. Unless you can do things with wood trim or wallpaper borders to give a chair rail effect, then you only have to paint over half of it.

I had to paint over a few times. Once I just said fuggedabout it b/c I was moving and I let the new people have that headache!

My friend asked for burgundy once and got hot pink so she had to do it all over as well. The guy in the store told her it would darken as it dried. I think the lesson here is to maybe do one area and be sure of the colour before you do the whole room/house...

[joeysmama]

I usually ask a friend to help me choose colors. If you have other people looking and someone says, "that has a lot of pink" or "that will probably dry to a deeper color" it can really help you avoid those iffy colors.

[Byrd]

See that's the problem, my mom and sister went to pick the colours. I did the dinning room and I think I did a pretty good job with that.



I'm definitely going to do the front entrance and the hallway, I will just go over them with the same colour that's in the kitchen (oatmeal) and it will tone it down but the pink will still show though. That's what I'm thinking of doing with the whole livingroom, going over it with a beige and the pink will still show through but will be much toned down. I just don't want to have to paint the whole damn thing. I'm also afraid that it will look streaky if I go over it with a lighter colour, have to be sooo careful.

What if I went over it in a taupe colour, would that work?

[technodoll]

everything depends on the paint thickness and opacity. If you want to go lighter, you'll need to first go over all the pink with a primer (white) and then apply your new color. why not something cheerful that goes with everything, such as pale butter or light corn yellow? just applying taupe or beige won't help, the pink will show through and everything will just look "dingy". (been there, done that )

i agree the pepto bismol would rather have its place in a little girl's barbie room and I can't imagine dusty rose looking any better, specially connected to blue rooms...

GOOD LUCK!!!

[joeysmama]

I think taupe is the way to go. It's a great neutral and you can pick up any accent colors you like with furniture or throws. And it will be the most likely to go well with the blue. I think taupe and blue will look so much classier than what you have now.

[Maya]

Originally Posted by technodoll

pale butter or light corn yellow

That would look good with the blue for sure, its also more fresh and cheerful.

[joeysmama]

such as pale butter or light corn yellow?

I have pale butter in my living room and foyer and the corn yellow in my dining room. Well those aren't the names on the paint chips but that's pretty much what they are. The bigger area is the color of butter and the dining room has wainscotting halfway up and the darker color, like hay or corn the rest of the way. The family room is a camel brown, but then I changed the furniture so now I have to paint that room a brighter color since the furniture I got is a textured brown. The room is blah !

I still like the idea of taupe with blue but the yellow is very in style right now and it would go well with the blue and be cheerful.

(The pink and the blue are cheerful too but in a crazy doll house kind of way. )

[trippincherri]

Well the pink and blue remind me of bubblegum balls lol, so try to sway her with a different color and repaint it all.
I agree with TD, a nice shade of yellow would go great with the blue AND the burgundy accents will still go nicely in the room!

That is wayyyy to much pink for me. And I like pink lol.

[TeriM]

I got this from my Benjamin Moore paint book ....

Problem: Too Bright Buggle-Gum Pink Walls

Solution 1: Glaze the walls with a color that is less intense (ie more grey) than the original pink color.

Solution 2: Glaze the walls with a light green glaze (the complement to pink) which will cancel out the bright pink. The resulting wall color will be a very grey-pink.

[coppperbelle]

I think you are going to have paint over the whole thing. When you buy your primer which I think will be necessary unless you are going darker, ask them to tint it. If the primer and new color are the same it will be easier to cover.

[Prin]

I agree with coppper. Tinted primer is great for these sort of "mistakes".

For some reason, I have that pepto song in my head now.

[Skryker]

For that kind of vibrant pink, I think you're going to have to go with a really good primer and paint it out.

[Byrd]

Yeah, looks like I'm going to have to do what I was most trying to avoid.

[wdawson]

that sure is pink ....hurts my eyes even on my monitor....can't imagine live

[Byrd]

Gives me a headache.

[glasslass]

Grey would go well with burgundy, and look nice with the blue. Isn't there a one-coat paint?