When White Walls are the ONLY Solution

{via pinterest}

In the very beginning of my design career I was fortunate enough to have some great mentors. One was a very talented designer who probably couldn’t tell you about undertones but she had amazing spidey senses when it came to choosing colour.

As designers working in a paint store, our job was to book in-home appointments with customers who came into the store looking for help with colour. After the consultation, we would clip colour chips and glue them on a white board to create a colour chart for each of our clients.

Many people who move into a new house might renovate the kitchen first (as I did), then you’re left with dated bathrooms. My design mentor’s philosophy on choosing colours for dated bathrooms was to specify white or cream. The end.

This way her colour chart wouldn’t look like she was ignoring the flow of the house with what would look like a random colour that in no way related to anything else in the rest of the house.

Contrarily, my philosophy on choosing colours for dated bathrooms has always been to choose the colour that relates the best to the existing finishes to get that bathroom looking as fabulous as possible! If you have to ignore colour flow (in terms of the rest of the house that might be more updated) to achieve a better looking, dated bathroom, so be it.

I have saved many renovation budgets just by choosing colours that made an ugly, dated, bathroom look so much better. Just take a look at one of my bathrooms on the day we took possession:

And now after a new colour and some styling:

 Colour & Styling by Maria Killam {P&L 25-27 Chanteuse}

Choosing white or cream is one way to do it but sometimes white or cream in a dated bathroom is the worst possible choice. Painting the walls cream in my bathroom (above) would not have been much of an improvement.

Is there more painting I could do here? Yes. However, since this bathroom is up for the next renovation, the rest of it doesn’t bother me right now.

So here’s when white or cream is the ONLY solution to a situation where you might be looking to update or achieve a fresher look and feel.

{via Centsational Girl}

Kate from Centsational Girl posted this bathroom update this week with vintage blue countertops. Here you can see that the earthy tile was clearly installed (by a previous owner) without any consideration to whether the new tile would relate to the existing blue countertop.

The walls were painted a yellow or pink beige neutral (hard to tell which) and it left the bathroom looking like “New floor, old countertop”.

Until Kate’s specified white walls and a new shower curtain to transform the bathroom into a look that felt fresh and current.

Add a white bathroom matt to cover up the earthy tile and now we can just ignore it until the budget works to replace it.

Decor Chick

Same thing here with the coral vanity. But you must have the fabulous bath mats to cover up the pink beige tile here from Anthroplogie!

Bunny Williams

Here’s a very pretty entry filled with pink beige stone. With the cream walls, it looks like sand. If you had to choose a colour, you’d have to go with pink beige. My choice? Leave it cream.

This is NOT a solution for the average house on the block though. How many of us have an entry like this?

Architectural Digest

This bathroom has the same issue. Dark pinky/brown travertine tile and countertops but its here in Architecture Digest because of the windows and styling. The walls should be more cream so they don’t look as stark with the earthy floors, but it still made the magazine so my point is made.

Have any of you used this trick to ignore something dated that didn’t work? Fill me in below!

There are still spaces left in my Specify Colour with Confidence training here.

Here is a video testimonial from Leigh Ann Raines, from Chic by Design a talented (and so sweet) LA stager and interior designer:

[youtube_sc url=”https://youtu.be/sPnh1RcxKTI” rel=”0″]

 

Here’s the direct link to the video.

You’ll also receive my new bonus training on the step-by-step process I go through with clients during an on-line colour consultation.

Then you can stop making excuses about how every monitor is different and just start making more money consulting on-line. After conducting literally hundreds of consultations this way for the past few years, I have it down to a system that really works!

And best of all, the training and support doesn’t end with the 3-day course! You’ll be eligible to join my True Colour Experts™ Private Facebook page where daily, graduates post their design and colour dilemmas for feedback and advice!

Register here.

Here’s a sample of the kinds of posts that go up everyday:

And Leigh Ann Raines whose video you just watched posted this great project the other day:

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact us! We would love to help you choose colours, select the right combination of hard finishes or create a plan to pull your room together. You can find our fabulous e-design consultation packages here.