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What colour are the walls in your victorian property?

32 replies

hippipotami · 27/01/2008 14:22

Help, am having a colour crisis...

We live in a Victorian halls-adjoining semi. The front of the house (with the bay window) is North facing, thus the back is South facing. Some areas (particularly the hall and landing have (imo) a lack of natural light. We do have frosted (etched) glazed panels in our front door, and when we converted the loft we had a small velux placed above the loft stairs to shed some light onto the landing. But when the bathroom door and the bedroom doors are closed it is still quite gloomy.

Currently most of the house is pained in a caramel cream shade. Our bedroom and dd's bedroom are pained antique white, and ds's room (the loft) is painted white.

I want to repaint the whole house (bedrooms excluded) in one shade to make it look and feel more open and spacious. But what colour???
We have exposed stripped floorboards throughout the house except the kitchen which has cream tiles. All our woodwork (doors, doorframes, stair spindles etc) is white.
The ceilings are white.

I have a dream of a white house, but I think it would look grey in those areas where there is not enough natural light. Also, it may be too modern in an older house?
I am fed up with the caramel cream as I find it a bit too dark in those rooms where there is not enough natural light and am fed up of living inside a custard slice.

So, what is most sympathetic in our house? I am normally pretty good with this sort of thing, but right now can't see the wood for the trees.

Oh, most our furniture is wood, with the exception of a cream painted side board. Our sofa's are red but we are hoping to replace them soon, not sure for what yet.
Our kitchen units and kitchen tiles are duck egg blue.

Any suggestions???

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needmorecoffee · 27/01/2008 14:26

Front (west facing) is cream whilst back (east facing) is burnt orange in one bit and cream in another bit.
bedrooms are all sorts of hideous colours cos we've not had time to decorate yet as there's a leaky roof we can't afford to fix.
I'd go for white with a hint of lemon. Not startling but still light enough to bring some light into the house. Got some mirrors up?

hippipotami · 27/01/2008 14:27

No mirrors as yet, but you are right, they would reflect light wouldn't they?

Great tip, thanks

I hope you manage to sort out your leaky roof soon.

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Maidamess · 27/01/2008 14:30

I have white everywhere....except my loft bedroom which is Farrow and Ball Light Blue (a lovely dove grey green colour) and my front room is the same.

My bathroom is Ostrich Feather by Homebase Traditional , I love it.

I did have the decorators start to paint the house a caramel cream colour and it looked so dingey I couldn't bear it.

hippipotami · 27/01/2008 14:43

Maidamess, I am sooo glad you said that about Caramel Cream. Once we had bought the paint I thought I'd better perservere with it, but I really really don't like it. I have not liked it for at least 5 years now.
Dh thinks it is fine.

A friend has recently repained her victorian semi in F&B 'string',and it is lovely, but don't want to copy her...

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PavlovtheCat · 27/01/2008 14:44

cream, mostly.

smurfgirl · 27/01/2008 14:47

Our house is magnolia everywhere, apart from the bathroom and kitchen which are white and it does not have lots of natural light (particularly the landing) and the magnolia lightens it up and it feels quite a bright airy house.

Its not victorian, but it is an edwardian terrace so quite similar.

hippipotami · 27/01/2008 14:49

Thanks pavlov and smurf. Light and airy is definately what I am after.

Have just asked dh and he said he would like a very pale traditional 'teal' colour. I can picture it in bigger period properties, but perhaps not in a smallish semi? But I think it would look nice with the white woodwork and the exposed wood?

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smurfgirl · 27/01/2008 15:07

I am not sure really about teal tbh.

This is not the best picture but this is my quite small living room/dining room and I think it shows the colour working quite well...

www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=12898225&uid=1718331&members=1

noddyholder · 27/01/2008 15:10

If you haqve the old original doors you can get a glazier to remove teh top two wooden panels and glaze them and it floods the hall with light.Costs about £80 per (big) door.I always do that when developing and people love it.Usually sandblasted for bathrooms and small white linen ikea roman blinds on the others for privacy

lalalonglegs · 27/01/2008 15:15

Try a "heritage" paint company such as Farrow & Ball which makes really subtle colours that look great in older houses. We have greys - which sounds horrible but really suits the period of our house but still feels light and modern. They are a bit more expensive - but not hugely so - then normal Dulux etc but I think the colours really justify the outlay.

Pannacotta · 27/01/2008 15:17

Farrow and Ball String is def a good colour for North facing rooms, we have it in our conservatory. Its a great true netural IMO, not too yellow/brown/orange/pink based etc and it goes well with most other colours. We have a wooden floor, very pale grey (F&B Dimity) woodwork in the conservatory, with white and dark furniture and it looks very good in both natural and artifical light IMHO.

GrapefruitMoon · 27/01/2008 15:32

I've done what Noddyholder suggests on our upstairs landing - doors to the bathroom and smallest bedroom/study have sandblasted glass in the top panels. We also installed two of those solar tube things and overall it's made a huge difference....

At the moment a lot of the house is painted in Crown's China Cup - one of their period colours - a sort of yellowy cream, so would be good for north-facing rooms. having said that, I am planning to redecorate soon as it is all very grubby from the kids - am probably going to use one of those more washable paints! Our back living room (north-facing) has just been repainted in - I think - Bleached Lichen 3 from Dulux. It is a sort of warm grey and not too dark for a bright but north-facing room. I am tempted to use it all over but it might be a bit dull in the downstairs corridor which is the darkest part of the house (in spite of glazed internal doors!) I am also thinking of using that light-reflecting paint that Dulux does but am worried it will not be very durable...

MuffinMclay · 27/01/2008 15:37

Farrow and Ball Pointing in a couple of rooms. Reflects light well, and is a warm off white. (Homebase pale blue paint in ds's room)

The rest of the house is magnolia textured wallpaper - lovely! Not sure I'd recommend that. Will replace with the same F&B Pointing one day (been saying that for months now).

hippipotami · 27/01/2008 16:11

Your house looks lovely smurf, are you selling?

I agree, F&B string or something similar is the way to go.

Noddy, some of doors are original, and we have bought reclaimed doors for those that are not. I was indeed planning on glazing some of the top panels, would you do all of the doors? (was thinking frosted/etched glass for privacy)

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smurfgirl · 27/01/2008 16:16

Ooops didn't mean to link to the whole album, not selling no but did it up when we bought it so thats the before and after pics for family to see.

We went for Magnolia because we were on a budget but it did work surprisingly well F&B colours are lovely though so sounds lovely

hippipotami · 27/01/2008 16:17

Sorry, was being nosy

You have done really really well with the colours in your house - it is lovely

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smurfgirl · 27/01/2008 16:20

Aww thanks its our first house so I am very proud of it!

noddyholder · 27/01/2008 16:46

I would do all the doors.Etched glass is good and essential in the bathroom but I bought little linen blinds from ikea which i pulled up during the day to let more light in but still feel cosy at night.You can and I have diy'ed it but not as succesful.Ours were reclaimed too and some of the beading got damaged being removed but looked fine once back on. Have also used that space and light paint in a darkish loft room and it is brilliant

hippipotami · 27/01/2008 16:49

Thanks noddy - I will pay to have them done.

I am going to have the doors stripped before repainting them white. Then will have them glazed.

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noddyholder · 27/01/2008 16:52

That will be lovely I love old white doors am weird about those things

hippipotami · 27/01/2008 17:03

Same here, nice solid chunky white doors. Actually, while you are here noddy, what doorknobs would you recommend? Currently have ghastly homebase cheapy brass knobs, and they will just look wrong on the old doors.

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wheelybug · 27/01/2008 17:03

F&B house white in hall/stairs/landings and sitting room and conservatory - its light but has a bit of warmth to it. OUr house is quite dark and it works quite well.

hippipotami · 27/01/2008 17:05

Grapefruit, sorry, I missed your post earlier. I was thinking about one of those solar tubes, but as our loft has been converted I am not sure how it would work.

Your colour scheme sounds great, will google some of those colours.

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hippipotami · 27/01/2008 17:06

Thanks wheely. So many people (on here and in RL) are recommneding Farrow and Ball, so will definately check them out.

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wheelybug · 27/01/2008 17:08

if you use them, use the modern emulsion - its more wipeable than the estate which is terribly non-wipeable !

For kitchen/bathroom we used fired earth colours in eggshell. They are brilliant- everything wipes off.

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