So when poor old Jordan was born, we'd been in our new oldoldold house for two months.
Incidentally, Nick has taken to calling our abode Downtown Abbey. Because it was built in the late 1800s and, until we upgraded it, had plumbing and electricity of roughly the same era as the Downton series. It was probably very modern, you know, when electricity was first installed in city houses.
You know, back when they wrapped the electric wires in cloth. And made the pipes out of lead. Hand to God, we had both.
Anyway, Jordan. We chucked him in the room off of our bedroom, which was made to feel like the nursery only because it had a crib and changing table and some cute decals on the walls.
But the walls were still grotty and gross and cracked. Same with the window sills. And floorboards. And really everything.
He was wee, and he didn't care, of course. And I didn't have the energy to care, quite honestly, because we had things like a kitchen to build.
And then a year ago we moved him (and the awesome claw foot tub!) down the hall to another grotty room. Which turned out to have no insulation. And big gaps around the windows And so we ran an AC window unit all summer, and have had a space heater all winter.
So.
Now we are insulating and fixing Jordan's room. And putting up a wall in the room in front of it to make into the girl's room. Initially she will sleep in the old nursery, but now the elevator runs through it and also that means we can't get to our bathroom, both of which make it less than ideal.
We're also redoing the bathroom between the two rooms, because it turned out that those soft spots in the floor were, uh, holes in the wood. So when you pulled up the tile you could see daylight below.
AND NOW HERE'S THE VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION: WHAT COLORS?
See, I love pink, I do. But very strong pinks - like fuchsia and magenta and such. And I love them with orange.
But our girl's room, it is small. And dark. There is one window, and it is opaque, because the view is of the neighbor building's fire escapes and garbage cans and piles of crap.
So, while I would like Spring Bloom (and if you click you can embiggen the photos), I think it's too dark. Betty and Nick like the lighter pink, but it seems kind of cliched, doesn't it? How do you feel about Weeping Wisteria?
These are the same colors on the wall nearest the window.The Bayou blue is the color I think I am going to paint Jordan's soon-to-be done room.
But then what for the bathroom? There's very little wall, and mostly white tile...so of course I am tempted to turn it lime green or ORANGE! or something extreme. But Nick and Australian Builder think it should probably harmonize with the two rooms. Particularly since we have so many other colors going on in the house.
These are a couple possibly harmonious options. I didn't lighten the photos, so you have a good idea of the lack of light we're dealing with.
I don't have baby colors or a theme, or really anything I have to work around. I'm considering peacock decals, but those could be any color.
In other words, it's wide open and I have to decide soon, particularly on the bathroom and girl's room and I don't know what to do.
What do you think?
Our baby is going to have a yellow room, so I'm no help! I do love the soft grey/purple of silent ripple.
ReplyDeleteYellows can be lovely! But I find yellow so difficult! Our kitchen is yellow - bold yellow - and it's a good shade but not the perfect shade.
DeletePart of my problem is that I like the really strong colors...but it's not like every single room in the house has to be strong, you know?
i'm a big fan of accent walls. so, how about one wall spring bloom, the other walls light pink?
ReplyDeleteI've never tried an accent wall. I might have an easier time with the light pink if we did have one strong pink wall...
DeletePart of the problem is that several people have seen the pale pink and been all, oh God, no! Not such girly pink!
eh, it might be girly but who cares! its fun. and you can accent with things that aren't pink- like bedding with orange in it. plus, you'll change it eventually, probably to something different! right now the girls room is green but there is a TON of pink in there. plus everything else they have is pink- backpack, clothes, pictures, etc etc. you're gonna have pink someway, somehow :)
DeleteI like this idea as well.
DeleteI gave this some thought last night and I don't know that I want to break up an already-small room with color that way. Also totally rethinking pink after input here and in person...
DeleteI like mrsmac's idea. I also like the idea of the lighter pink with a bright orange hippopotamus decal somewhere on the wall. I am less fond of the wisteria color, especially if you're thinking of blue for J's room and bluish purple for the bathroom, because then everything is kinda bluish.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely one or both of the pinks. And I'd go lighter in the bathroom, mostly because dark bathrooms creep me out.
Welllll, you make a good point about it all being kind of bluish...although I do quite like the wisteria. Nick and Betty are not so fond of it, though, and I don't love it enough to confidently go with it.
DeleteAnd I wouldn't go dark in the bathroom - it's another opaque window - but bright and bold (if I went bold). I don't like dark bathrooms, either.
Spring Bloom for sure, I love the darker pink! Tone it down with some dove grey and orangey accents and you're set! LOVE LOVE LOVE it!
ReplyDeleteHere's some inspiration(not all kid rooms) for cool color combos...
You could then do Jordan's room in blue and orange and brown...and thus your orange bathroom is the unifier!!!!
color palette for Baby Girl:
http://pinterest.com/pin/181621797442490096/
http://pinterest.com/pin/181621797442332605/
http://pinterest.com/pin/181621797442276427/
add some of your pink to this one...
http://pinterest.com/pin/181621797442487753/
Color palettes for Big Boy Jordan:
http://pinterest.com/pin/181621797442305307/
http://pinterest.com/pin/181621797442490191/
http://pinterest.com/pin/181621797442487523/
I could go on and on and on!
I love Sarah's ideas because they give you so many options.
DeleteSarah is an amazing designer. She really is.
DeleteThank you darlings! Also LG - do you have pinterest yet? You should!
DeleteOh, Sarah. It's so clear that you are VERY good at what you do. I'm good at picking pieces, but not good at pulling things together. I love these inspirations - thank you!
ReplyDeleteI would not use a pink on the walls if you like pink. Then you will be wedded to that particular color pink "forever." If you use blue or even a nice tangerine, then you can do bedding, rugs and curtains in a pink motif and not worry about matching the pinks. We painted our dd's room aqua and have gone through crib and now big girl bedding. This made it much easier to do new bedding in pink tones. Otherwise, do a light pink/blush for walls with hot pink/orange fabrics.
ReplyDeleteI love nursery decorating, but alas, it is not a good reason for me to have another baby.
I gotta say, I like the bright pink, but I love the aqua idea. Maybe a turquoisey color and all pink accents? How fun would that be?
DeleteWe just bought a new house, and I was all wild about painting our toddler's room PINK! Well, we got it up on all the walls, and am waiting for one or these days when we have enough free time and patience to paint two or three of the walls back to white to leave just one or two the pink. It is OVERWHELMING.
ReplyDeleteSo I'd echo the others on doing one wall pink for a fun punch of color (If you were set on painting all the walls, I'd go with the purple. It's lovely!) and then you can bring in your orange accents as well as other pink accents without feeling like you're drowning in it.
Now that I've been sitting with pinks on the walls for a few days, I have this feeling, Tempest, that I would be the exact same way if I did the pink. I would want it OFF OFF OFF!
DeleteMy two cents: I love the wisteria, but if the room is dark it'll tend towards grey and be gloomy and depressing for the baby. I would go with the light pink and accent wall as some suggested or how about stripes? Like large vertical stripes in white and pink and a border in the darker pink? I ended up painting both my kids room a lightish green with a big pink horizontal stripe running around the room for the girl and light blue stripe for the boy.
ReplyDeletealthough, going back to the wisteria, my bathroom is that same color and orange, (wisteria walls, and light fixture and orange curtains, towels, accents...) and I know it sounds weird but they actually look quite nice together.
The wisteria is actually a little lighter and pinker on the wall than it comes out in the photo...but I fear you might be right about it tending towards grey...I'll have to look again. Purple and orange are lovely together, being close to opposite on the color wheel. Hmm.
DeleteIt's going to be beautiful, your home is delightful and chic. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI'm fond of pink, it's become a neutral color for me....goes w everything. It's sweet, baby girls are too. I love the accent wall idea.
You'll be here shortly after it gets done! (Fingers crossed that it's done by then. It's SUPPOSED TO be.)
DeleteI'd say f* it and go with the bright pink. I heard bright colors stimulate babies brains or something, so that's your reasoning. It's not like you're painting it black or dark blue, so it's fine in a small room. Use light accents (white, yellow, etc) so it doesn't make the room feel small. And then post pictures!
ReplyDeleteAnd the thing about painting is... if you regret it later, it's still the cheapest and easiest thing to fix. And I could see her LOVING that color for years to come.
One of my friends pointed out that it is not at all soothing, which made me realize that much as I love the bold pink color, I wouldn't actually want to wake up in a room that color. So I'm heading towards soothing.
DeleteAnd yes, agree with you on painting. I've previously been very quick and cavalier about choosing color, because it's so easy to redo. But I'm in no shape to redo anything and we won't have time to repaint and let it air and blah blah blah before baby, so we'll be living with choices for a while in this case. (I realize it's not life or death...:))
Pinks aren't my palette, but may I suggest two other things:
ReplyDeleteSoft butter yellow in the bathroom.
And my main suggestion is, replace the opaque (I'm assuming someone painted the glass out?) glass, with frosted or patterned glass. That way the neighbour's mess is obscurred, but light comes through. Light is so important!
Have fun!
You know, I am totally wrong in saying the window is opaque. Oops. It's a frosted window, so I suppose it's translucent. So we do get some light through, just not good quality.
DeleteMy daughter painted our little Abby's room pink with orange. It's a small room but looks adorable. If I can find a picture, I'll send it. It's not light pink either, although I don't think it's quite fuchia either. When she was planning it I thought, ewe.... Now I love it. There is only one window in the room.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see - would be so interested in how she did the combo!
DeleteI like the wisteria color and the silent ripple for the bathroom.
ReplyDeleteI'm almost completely sure I'm going with wisteria.
DeleteMy bedroom is Wisteria. It's gorgeous. I think you'll love it.
ReplyDeleteBTW - My dining room? Lime green and bright orange.
I'm sorry. I wish I could be more help but I'm just sitting here seething with ridiculous rage at paint names. Why the fuck can't they have normal names? THIS IS BLUE. God.
ReplyDelete