Q: After gutting our main bathroom, I need help with color choice. I chose a natural maple cabinet, and faux granite for the sink top & shower walls. It's called "sandy beach": it's speckled and sandy-looking. The fixtures are brushed nickel. Now, for the wall color problem: my whole house is beige. I've always been afraid of color, but now I'm hooked on all the TV design shows and I want color in my house! I think I want to paint the walls some sort of blue but who knows how to pick the right shade? Not me! Any suggestions?
A: Remember that you're asking this question of the Anxious Decorator, not the Calm, Cool and Collected Decorator, so first off let me say that I fully understand your fear of color. And rest assured that it's one that's shared by many. But you're right to try and push through this fear of yours, and the bath is a great place to start, because chances are it's one of the smaller rooms in the house and can easily and affordably be repainted if you choose a color you can't live with.
First, think about what the overall "look" of the bathroom is. It sounds as if you're going for a sea-shore look, given the sandy colored faux granite which seems to take up much of the room. The brushed nickel and natural wood cabinet contribute to the outdoorsy effect.
Therefore, the color you want for the walls is something equally muted and natural-looking. The bright blue that would speak of the sea or sky, however, would be too bright here, I think. In fact, a blue color may not quite pick up the right tones, particularly in the wood and nickel.
Instead, I'd go with a natural, muted shade of green. Something like moss, lichen, or sage. Imagine standing on a beach: there is a big branch of driftwood, there is the warm pink colored sand, there are the flat stones. What is the shade of green you'd expect here? Take that image with you when you go to the paint store - and it won't hurt to also take a swatch of the faux granite and perhaps even a sample of the nickel faucets. Then, bring home several paint chips of the more muted, natural shades of green, and try them out. Once you've narrowed your color choices down, consider purchasing a small amount of paint and really test them out. You can do this by painting on a white sheet of cardboard or wallboard, propping them against the wall of the bathroom and living with the color for a few days. You'll find your choice of which shade to choose will become quite clear.
Once you do the painting, you can pull the whole room together with towels in green and sand stripes, and with artwork in these colors. You don't have to beat the sea-side theme to death, though - you can leave out the actual seashells and the glass jar of sand, instead aiming for a more subtle manifestation of the idea of the sea, through color.
Reprinted with permission from the Sheffield School of Design
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