What wall colours can I use to tone down my hideous floors??

[SmokyMountains]

New house has terracotta floor tiles throughout the ground floor. Truly orange, not the nice rusty or beige varieties.

We were gazumped day before exchange and had to raise offer by 20k to keep house...so my budget to re-floor throughout has now disappeared entirely and I'm going to have to live with it for the foreseeable future. It is pretty hideous.

The walls are magnolia throughout and I don't think its helping. I can afford to paint the walls (and maybe some bits of furniture) but don't know if more colour would help or just clash more?

I have tried pinterest but terracotta floor searches seem to bring up moroccany type rooms or country kitchens rather than schemes I could use to do say the dining room or living room....

[NameChange30]

£20k?!! What was the purchase price? Don't think I would have coughed that up tbh!

Sorry, massively missing the point... Tbh I think magnolia is the best bet until you can change the floors.

No chance of an interest free loan from a generous family member? Interest free credit from a flooring company?

[sentia]

Plain white walls?

[sentia]

Mustard also goes with terracotta. Not that I would paint walls mustard, mind you

[SmokyMountains]

YY to the amount, it hurts me even to type 20k, let alone pay it.

It was so tempting to tell the seller to bugger off, but in the 11 months we had been looking in the area, it was the only property we had found that had this particular (weird) feature we needed, so we felt in a bit of a bind.

No chance of family help, not sure about flooring co loan, hadn't occurred to me, might have a think.

Somehow the plain white looks much better than magnolia, wondering if magnolia being warmer somehow exacerbates where the white seems to tone down.

[SmokyMountains]

I do have a mustard coloured debenhams cushion with a pug in a bow tie on it, so that means one item I own won't clash horribly with the floor.

If I went white, what colour wood furniture would you go for? (Most of mine currently in f&b elephant breath but can be changed)

[DaisyFranceLynch]

I think the plain white looks really nice with the terracotta. For wooden furniture, probably not elephant's breath - maybe either glossy white or some other strong, clean, bright colour in a glossy finish, like the navy in the kitchen picture above, or the pink wellies in the first picture. I don't think muted and subtle would stand up to the white + terracotta combination.

[NameChange30]

Ooh yes I think the white walls look good actually.

What's "elephant breath" in plain English please?! I'm guessing an expensive shade of off white?

[NameChange30]

I wouldn't put mustard with terracotta and white. Maybe a strong shade of blue, like teal or navy. Only accents though (like cushions) or it would be too much.

What's the style of your furniture? I would probably go for white (to match the walls) or a dark shade of wood. I'd avoid anything too similar to the terracotta in tone.

[SmokyMountains]

Elephants breath is indeed a shade of grey/off white This is exactly the sort of thing my mum is referring to when she tells me I have stayed in London too long and sound ridiculous.

When we moved, I left behind our old Ikea sofa, chairs and white lacquered dining table and chairs thinking they were totally knackered, and weren't worth bringing...but they were all white and would have worked with the floor until I could replace...boy was that the wrong decision

[sentia]

This kind of palette might work, in terms of painting furniture and picking some accent colours?

[SmokyMountains]

Dark shade of wood an interesting idea,

I do have access to a lot of dark teak furniture (dining set, bookcases, 2 x coffee tables etc my parents are storing for someone to use...)

Do you think very dark brown would work with white and terractotta?

[sentia]

Yes I think dark wood would look good.

[sentia]

Like this...

[SmokyMountains]

I LOVE that blue...

It is the same colour as the blue on the walls behind the couple on the sofa in the clearstream advert on TV where the bulldog talks (am shamefaced at admitting I've noticed this, btw)

So white walls, dark brown furniture and teal curtains, sofa cushions maybe??

[SmokyMountains]

That's a really useful pic, thanks

[MachiKoro]

If you go into pinterest and search "kitchen terracotta floor" lots of gorgeous pictures come up. Turquoise, pale (provencal) blue, greys, olive green, white, cream etc. I'm sure you'll find something to suit. Turquoise, teal and bright yellow are vibrant.

[sentia]

Yy, I love the teal too. I think it sounds like a plan

[SmokyMountains]

Thank you

[AnotherPrickInTheWall]

French navy, electric blue, stark white. Ignore the flooring; strong colours will detract the eye from it. I bloody love constraints when doing interior decorating.
Scandi furniture from second hand shops, teamed with patterned rugs and cushions; TK Maxx is good for this sort of thing.
Moroccan stuff is on trend and would also lend itself to the flooring.

[SmokyMountains]

Am googling like mad, Another....

[ChishandFips33]

We have quarry stone floor which I see as on the orange side. I've got natural calico walls in the kitchen and an olive wall in the utility room which I really like.
Elsewhere I've got slate grey, duck egg blue and a mustard/yellowy green in curtains, picture frames, door etc
It's all north facing so the floors are fairly in the dark which calms me as it's not something we can change

There's a dark brown leather couch in the kitchen which doesn't clash and medium oak coloured furniture which tones rather than contrasts - it's very earthy/natural rather than vibrant