What colour walls with purple curtains?

[justabigdisco]

I live in a 100 year old terrace. The front room is west facing and we have these www.diy.com/departments/carina-blueberry-purple-plain-woven-eyelet-curtains-w228cm-l228cm/258247_BQ.prd curtains.

There is an open fireplace (black surround) and a picture rail. The room is quite small. We have laminate floor, a taupe sofa and purple curtains. Was initially going to go quite neutral on the walls but it seems a bit cold in the evenings.

Any suggestions for colour schemes? Starting to think of going more bold on the walls (below the picture rail) or perhaps having an accent wall on the chimney breast / in the alcoves?

Thanks in advance

Saturday bump!

My first thought is a pale grey. I like Dulus Misty Mirror but may be a bit too dark for a small room.

*Dulux

Yes a nice grey could definitely work, or Dulux have some nice greyey/purple/mauves like 'Dusted Fondant' (google it). I would have loved to use these but my DH wasn't not at all keen on 'purple walls'

I guess with the picture rails you could go for same colour top and bottom with the rails gloss white or you could go for a darker colour below with a lighter version above.

I love www.florencefinds.com/merry-twixmas/ this blog and she has done some nice stuff with picture rails in her lounge.

I'm not personally a fan of accent walls but I think they look better on chimney breats opposed to one normal wall, but that's just my taste.

Good luck with your decision

Thanks. Funnily enough dusted fondant was the first colour I chose but when I put the tester on the walls, it looked TOO purple with the purple curtains. We were thinking of a contrasting colour like teal/jade, but I think a warm neutral would work better. Tried a few eg Mellow Mocha but looked too cool in the evening. Need something bolder/warmer I think.

That's funny, justabig, good minds and all that

Teals and jades are gorgeous but as you say could look coolish, when you want to avoid that.

Who'd have thought finding the perfect neutral could be so difficult!

I have natural calico (or something beige....!) Nice and warm.

Dulux Jasmine White looks lovely in west facing rooms and has a warm pinkish tone.

Dulux Almost Oyster is nice with purple.

Not that this helps you now, but dusted fondant tones in nicely with lots of different purples.

Thanks for all the ideas. I need to just make a decision! So are feature/accent walls out? A colour (eg dusted fondant) for the chimney breast with a neutral on the rest?

Dunno disco, as soon as you ask the question, then someone will say 'yes', but others are still painting their chimney breasts in a feature wall type colour. I think maybe colours that blend together are more common these days, but we still love the colour of our mid-tone painted feature wall after 5 years, and have no plans to change it yet not least because we have other rooms to do first

But I think your purple and teal sounds lovely, and you should do what you want. You'll know when a certain look is passe because YOU will go off it. Particularly with the 2 colours, it will be balanced and a very different look to being dominated by heavy feature wallpaper (which has dated IMO).

I'm about to paper 2 facing walls of our bedroom in a delicate patterned wallpaper, and paint the other 2 to match the wallpaper's background. So not a feature wall, but still using wallpaper on some walls but not others. No idea if this is in or out, but it's our bedroom so it's easier to ignore what's 'in' because no one else will see it.