If you had a WHOLE house to decorate from scratch, how would you do it?

[LadyOfWaffle]

We totally decorating the whole house, we have been here 18 months and everywhere was painted magnolia to do for now (it was awful before, white living room with a wonky lilac stripe!) and I am so so sick of it. Most walls need re-plastering anyway, so it really is from scratch. The only thing decided on is the flooring which is an wooden oak veneer. Now the work has started I cannot think how I want it, I keep changing my mind and really just have no idea now! Hopefully someone can give me some inspiration! We have DSs room to decorate (that's re-plastered now so reay to go), L - ish shape living/dining room, my room, bathroom, kitchen, hall ways and entrance hall inc. stairs and spare bedroom.

I think I want to paint the walls and have a car wallpaper - do you think up the top or round the middle is better? He is no room for storage really, can just about squeeze in a wardrobe, chest of drawers, a cot (then bed) and maybe a chair in the corner. I was going to store alot of toys under his bed.

In our house every single room is a different colour as we had been looking for a house for over 1yr and all we saw were the same old magnolia coulour schemes...yuck.
The kitchen is bright yellow and blue, the dinning room is light green, the living room is cream and brown, the hallway and landing have bright terracota, the bathroom has small blue/green and white tiles (floor to ceiling).
One bedroom is green the other light yellow and one is pink and lilac.
And the "piece de resistance" is the small downstairs toilet room which is dark purple with a yellow ceiling (DH's idea not mine).
But the idea of using favourite furniture , curtains or objects to get an idea for the colour is a good one.
AB

Have decided on a farmyard border for DS and green or yellow walls ( would have yellow but I was going to do halls/corridors yellow). At least that is one room decided!

Hi there.

We moved into our new house last month and are totally redecorating it (also doing annoying and expensive 'not fun'stuff like putting in a new heating system and rewiring the house etc etc...bleurgh). I am also struggling because I know in no uncertain terms what I don't like...I just find it incredibly hard to say what I DO like !!

So far we have decided on:

• a completely plain white tiled bathroom - will add colour through pictures,plants,towels, decorative stuff

• strip back original floorboards downstairs and paint reception rooms and halls a rich creamy white (Jasmine White I think it's called).

• a white gloss kitchen with walnut worktops and furniture, and oak parquet floors

...urrr,and that's it!

Got 4 bedrooms to decorate and furniture to get for reception rooms...no clue what to go for!? Thinking maybe warm,autumnal colours for the back reception (which will be a more casual,cosy living room).No clue about the front room,though. And our bedroom...??? Got a massive iron bed and that's about it:-)

It's a great position to be in...but scary all the same if you aren'tan interior designer type.

I did interior design as a crash course evening class and my advice would be, kids rooms to be as funky as you can go. We did ds2's nursery in 3 paint bands, bottom sandy colour for the sea bed, mid blue wavey lined sea and then paler blue above for the sky. Bought sticker pack from boots (but you can get it loads of places) and made a sea scape.

see this

I almost copied their scene.

I agree that you need to work with what you cannot change or want to change (sofas, flooring, expensive dining furniture, pictures, etc) but I would get a large sheet of A3 white paper and work out an overall colour scheme.

People tend to make each room individual and it doesn't flow or it can even clash! If you have several rooms that lead of the hallway think about how each one will be viewed from the hall.

Look for pattern or shape and try to continue that through. Like if you had those very beautiful leather dining chairs that have a mini scroll at the top then repeat that in wallpaper of a cushion.

Tone on tone works well (think of those dulux colour charts where it starts dark then gets lighter in about 6 shades) or look at a colour wheel and do opposites, or colours next to each other.

Choose paint colour LAST, choose fabric for curtains/bedding/cushions and work around that. There are thousands of paint colours. Put it all on the big piece of A3 paper and see if it all gels.

As you are planning beautiful walnut worktops try to pull that wood throughout, a bowl in the living room or furniture. Pick up the grain pattern and see if any fabrics mimic it.

Good Luck (says Fizzy who has just gutted a house from top to bottom, white bathroom, rest of house in pale coffee colour and associated tones, brown leather sofa -I know so unoriginal now, coffee curtains with chocolate gerberra flower on it, off cream kitchen, bedroom in same coffee colour so that it all flows from downstairs to upstairs)