Decorating Ideas Please

[HiddenSpirit]

Finally going to get round to decorating living room again after kids ripped half the wallpaper off We've decided to just paint this time (by looks of things we won't even need to put lining paper up as walls are pretty sound).

We've chosen a light blue for top half and a darker blue for bottom (not as easy to see kids handprints/artwork on walls). Also the room gets plenty of light, so the dark blue shouldn't cause a problem. What I can't decide is whether to just do plain or add something like a stencil or paint effect (such as rag rolling, which I have no idea how to do). Also how do we "separate" the 2 colours? Was thinking of a dado rail, but not sure how expensive these are (don't want to go to too much expense as hopefully we will be out of here in the not too distant future).

Any and all ideas on what to do greatly appreciated

Oh, don't know if it would make any difference to what we should do, but I have 3 large serene posters to get framed and go up, which will fit in with the blue colour scheme.

Hi HS. If you are going to be putting the piccies up then i would leave it plain and not bother withe rag rolling or anything.
Colours sound lovely, but can't think of another way of seperating them apart from a border, but it can be a pain in the arse trying to find one that will go.
I don't think dado is that exspensive is it. It's a dust trap though according to my mom.

HTH

Dado rails are an easy way of separating colours and can be bought at any diy place pretty cheap, yes nutcracker, they do unfortunately collect dust but it only takes an extra minute to clean

intresting to see if you could buy a wallpaper type border (the kind that is about 10-15cm wide) with some sort of vertical blue lines in it or a very simple geometric patern. stick to only 2 different shades of blue on this paper). perhaps better to buy that first, then choose the blue paint to match the blue shades in the paper. have a look at homebase or even the B&Q website, it should be pretty cheap. I would think, aesthetically, a rail looks better than just a strip of paper and don't think it's all that expensive.

definettly keep the walls plain, no stencils or any special effect like that. unless done professionally, it ends up looking a bit on the cheap side.

have you thought about adding stencilling to the top half of the room, almost like a top border, but hand done and slightly up and down to create a curved more natural effect....do you want blus throughout, as just though yellow/ pink or whatever as stencil would give it a personal touch....btw have never done this myself, but looks easy enough with the rubber stencil and then spray paint...leaves, flowers, grapevines, butterflies, you can make your own....sure blue on own will be nice but personal touches can really dress a room, even white/ cream....sure other mumsnetters will have better ideas for you

Have done some stencilling. Did our bedroom (pic here if you want to see )

Trying not to go paper border route as kids would just peel it off

I agree now that plain would be better with having the pics up, but what do you all think of something (stencil or even colour washing or something) on the bottom just to break up the dark blue a bit? Or am I being silly on that thought?

The dust on the dado rail would match the rest of the room Nutty

Thanks for the ideas guys, anymore are welcome too

I'd go for a dado rail too. Or just have one colour walls actually - maybe one wall or any alcoves in the darker shade although this won't solve the "grubby children" aspect. Make sure you get a truly washable paint - I've successfully washed felt pen off the walls in DS1s newly painted room. It was a Crayola children't paint in "scrubbable satin" finish but I think Crown do a washable one too.

I will this time Soupy Didn't get washable for the hall, and made the mistake of getting a light colour. It now sports loads of grubby marks by the front door and a bit of artistic work in brown felt pen by DS1. What makes it even worse is it's the first thing people see when you open the front door grrr!