What color to paint wall if I have small space

We are planning to paint all the rooms in our Cape Cod style house. When you enter the front door, the living room is on the right and the dining room is on the left. Both rooms share a wall where the front door is located. The windows of each room are also located on this same wall. There's a staircase in the middle to divide the two rooms.

My husband wants us to paint the wall in the living room red. We have a black sectional sofa, black entertainment center, and black rug, all of which are from my husband's bachelor days. He doesn't want to get rid of all these black stuff so they're all staying. I feel that 50% of the living room is already black and painting the walls red for me makes it look like a night club. Since this room shares a wall with the dining room, I don't know how you can paint the living room red without painting the dining room red, too. Also, I feel that each room only has 3 walls because the 4th wall is actually the side of the staircase. I don't want us to paint one side of the staircase one color (on the living room side) and the other side a different color (dining room side). The dining room has oak harvest table and oak china cabinet. I'm planning to paint it yellow gold but I don't know what to paint the shared wall.

All the rooms in our house are small so I don't want to paint it a dark color because it might make the rooms too cramped. Can you suggest what color to paint our walls given the small space we have and the kind of furniture that are already in each room?

Please help before I divorce my husband because his ideas are making me very angry. Thank you!

 

yikes! i agree with you. the red would be atrocious with the black - very nightclub-y, not to mention TACKY! also, with the country/antiquey thing going on in the dining room, it'd be awful. in all actuality, the black stuff needs to go. it sounds very dated & no doubt, is clashing with everything else in the house.

i think you should come up with a color that will work in both spaces, since they do flow together & it can all be seen from one vantage point. pick something that will work for each space such as the buttery gold/yellow/cream you're thinking of, or a nice beige/taupe/tan.

if the black stuff must stay , at least change out the black rug (it's too much). you could compromise and get a rug with red in it, and then incorporate the red into the dining room. dark red (brownish, like barn red, not purpleish red) & gold work great together. and then either replace the entertainment center, or see if you can paint it. then the black sofa on its own won't be so bad.

 

Thanks Annette!

Everytime I come home, I feel depress seeing our black living room. My husband thinks I'm just being difficult. I want a living room that is warm and welcoming but it is very difficult to soften all these black stuff around me.

I really appreciate your advice. I'm going to show your reply to my husband so he'll know that I'm not the only one who thinks his red/black idea is tacky.

Thanks again.

 

his black stuff could work great in the basement rec room - do you have a basement??? you can do lots of fun "themes" with black in that sort of room - Route 66 stuff, or CocaCola or 50's or Motorcycles or anything he's into.

but, unless your house is really contemporary (and i can't imagine that it is, being a Cape Cod!) the black stuff just won't work.

good luck & my sympathies.

 

One thought, what about painting the entertainment center? Is that possible? What's it made out of? It's worth a shot, perhaps. If he'll allow it.

In terms of a wall color, a nice mossy/seafoam type of green might be nice with the black sectional. Just make sure it stays in a soothing tone & doesn't go yellowish or harsh. That color also translates well to country, so it would blend with a color in a similar tone for your dining area.

We use LOTS of color in our home, and the styles vary somewhat from room to room. But because we've kept the same tones it all works (and it's an open floor plan, so you can see through from one room to another).

Is it a money thing with your husband, or a sentimental thing? Either can be difficult to combat, but you might be able to appeal to him if you understand where his hesitation's coming from. "Honey, I really want to make this OUR home. Can we work together to come up with colors and styles that we can afford, that would make both of us happy when we walk through the door at the end of the day?"

Once my own husband (who doesn't like to spend money, and views things as 'good enough') began to see the results of us doing work on each room of our house, and how comfortable the furniture was, and how we could save money by shopping at certain places, etc....he was energized and enthusiastic.

Good luck!