Anyone Good at Decorating/choosing Paint Colors?

love color questions!

(sigh) great color combos. I like a lot of color & variety. I try to avoid matchy-matchy. Sooo, my thought would be: don't try to match. Choose a 3rd color for the walls. Add a little bit of it into the quilt/bedding...even with throw pillows.

I would use a citrus yellow/green. Something lighter than the green in the quilt. The reason for this is that purple & yellow are opposites on the color wheel. By using a yellow/green (think Crayola colors & citrus colors), you will make the predominantly purple quilt "pop" against the walls. The green in the quilt then becomes an accent....& is also an analogous color because it is next to the yellow on the color wheel. Easy-peasy way to tie it all together.

Soooo, using your ideas, go for the one which will provide the most light for the room + work with your wood tones. & I will be honest with you: white or very dark wood furniture will work better with purple. :)

With this in mind, go for a white canopy....white wainscoting....with the yellow/green on the top. Match the curtains to the canopy. All of this will help brighten the wood + purples. & by using some purple/greens in the artwork, you will bring it all together. You could also use pops of the yellow/green in accents on the furniture....the lamp, etc.

Oh, & for the curtains....another thought: if you can't/don't want to match the canopy, then you could use more of the quilt on the windows....going with patchwork or one of the fabrics. Have Fun!

EDIT: http://www.houzz.com/using-purple-green-%26-yellow. Love the yellow with the purple.

http://www.houzz.com/purple-and-green. Look at how the green pops against the purple. I think you should avoid purple walls with the purple/green quilt. It will blend in too much.

http://www.houzz.com/photos/bedroom/purple-and-green-. Interesting how they used a deeper red for the 3rd color. I didn't think of that one!

The most elegant would be the white wainscoting, but that will be a lot more effort and money.

The truth is, it doesn't really matter. Whatever you do with paint can be changed in a day. It's only a little girl's room, so just have fun and go with whatever your daughter wants, or what you want.

I have a back room that's a light lavender, and it's pretty, and the ceiling is white, if that's what you mean by "canopy."

Paint the ceiling white. All purple will be overwhelming.

Alternative paint color suggestions-
periwinkle blue
grey
beige
taupe
ecru
brick red
buttery yellow
medium green
medium brown
orange
pink

You can really use any color you would like, and it can serve as a neutral. You just have to pick a less saturated shade. If you decide to go for three or more colors in the room, don't have them all loud, or they will compete.

For our son's room, we've got minty green walls, a white ceiling. The dresser and cubby are dark wood, the crib is turqoise, the rug is a medium blue. The curtains are white, with medium and navy blue leaves. The snuggle chair is black and white plaid, and the "accents", including posters, and the cubby cubes and ottoman are red. This might sound like a hodgepodge of colors, but it works well, and we get loads of compliments.

There's a lot going on, but wherever you look, there aren't too many things/ colors/ patterns competing for your attention.

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

For a "sunny" bedroom, you could paint the walls a creamy yellow. Add a bit of the yellow to the ceiling paint. It's much better than painting the ceiling plain white, which tends to look grayish in a year. This extends the feeling of height to any room. Purple accents will pop.

Option #2, with white canopy! Purple is my favorite color. :) Happy painting!

I'd keep the walls white, but add interest line purple flower wall decals or polka dots in sage green.

My oldest daughter loves purple. We painted three walls a very pale lavender. And then one a dark purple for pop! We loved how it came out so much, we did the same thing for my younger daughter, but with a pale pink and dark pink. Looks great. To add a little fun, we ordered dots - multiple colors and sizes - that you just stick on the wall - and did a polka dot wall!
I personally think the dark/light separated by a chair rail is an older look - not something I would do for a child.
Stripes and polka dots are in, so maybe your canopy could be a fun pattern like that?

I'm big into color in all aspects of my life (knitting, clothes, no white walls at my house ;-) I've found a couple of ways to play with different color schemes to get a feel of what will give you the look you want. 1) paint stores (esp Ben Moore) sell small samples for a couple of bucks AND 8x11 special paper to paint it on that will dry to look just like it will on the wall. Tape them on the walls and move them around and look at them at different times of the day to see how the colors look in different lights.

2) make a sketch of the room - doesn't have to be detailed or well done. Make a couple copies on your printer. Try out your different color schemes with the closet match you can find with colored pencils, pastels, crayons or markers (I find pencils best). You cannot believe how helpful this is - really. I use the same technique when designing knitting projects.

3) I sometimes us a kids online drawing app (some paint companies do too) and essentially do #2 on your computer.
Have fun and don't stress!

Sage Green with golden/brown accents on the top boarder.

Accents can be easily done by taking a plastic bag crumpled up and dipping part in a brown and part in a gold color and dabbing them on the wall. Tape off the part you want to act as the boarder, to keep the rest solid.

Basically it is a twist on using a sponge. I once used feather dusters to create a cool texture.

I suggest the canopy be purple, but maybe a richer color purple than the color on the quilt.

If the wood is a medium tone, just go really dark.or really light with your wall color. That way there is some different tones, like if you took a black and white picture of the room, you dont want it all the same shade of grey. I like the dark purple and light purple idea, with the chair rail. Go really dark with the dark purple and have them also tint some base coat or primer purple for you or you will end up doing a crapton of coats to get it saturated.

I know at Lowes, you could even take in a fabric watch from the quilt and have them tint your paint to match. I would probably go white with the canopy, it will be too hard to find one in a matching purple to the quilt unless your mom wants to make that also.

My daughter's room are these colors except her furniture is white.

We did a light lavender for the walls, and a bright light green fabric with small lavender flowers (lime but not fluorescent) for curtains, throw pillows, chair cushion, etc... The green tones down the sweetness of the lavender. I'd pick a plain white fabric or white with maybe some small pattern with the lavender or green in it.

Try not to make everything purple or lavender - it gets too saccharine very quickly. And use the lavenders and greens in different shades to vary the look.

It sounds like her room will be really pretty, especially with the canopy!

We had someone paint my daughters room dark purple and then light purple about 2 feet on the top part of the wall. It looks great and there was no need for the chair rail. As for the canopy I'd go with a neutral - white, off white, even a silver

White walls look awful. But so do purple ones.

I recommend picking a complementary color that isn't purple. Paint the bed white. It's still your mom's bed even with paint on it. When your daughter is done with it, you can refinish it again. That's the great thing about solid wood.

Here's some inspiration: http://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and...

My DD's room is lavender, from Benjamin Moore. The furniture is grass green and the oak floors are medium brown. It was easier for us to use a solid color and then accent with curtains and bedding and wall decor in other colors. I tried to tie in the lavender as a compliment to the green, pink and yellow in her room. Once the room was decorated, the wall color was not overpowering. Good luck.