Decorating and Design - Suggestions needed for patio room colors

We are adding a 26 x 26 patio room, there will be T1-11 on the walls, a concrete floor, 20 windows and a french door. I'm getting ready to stain the windows and can't decide on a color. Should the windows be stained darker than the walls or the walls be stained darker than the windows? Or should I just stain everything the same color? I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Big Dogs Mom (mom to three sheepdogs)

Hi,

I will be glad to help, but can you clarify what is T1-11 ?

Regards,

T1-11 is a plywood siding normally used outdoors. We decided to use this in our unheated patio room because it will stand up to the weather. We live in southwestern Pennsylvania and the winters can be awful. I was thinking about staining it a light golden color and doing the windows and baseboard in a medium brown. I want something light and cheerful and my husband won't agree to anything "wild." He's definitely a "brown" kind of guy.

Thanks for you offer of help.

Connie

Hi Connie,

thank you for clarifying.

It seems that you will need to find a half term for you and your husband.

You will need to create a focus point, or several points and balance them. These points will give "personality" to your room, so you can use more "brown" colors as a background and put the colors, textures and effects in the accents.

Perhaps, you can consider elements of a Spanish patio, with some old tiles and old iron grates on the walls to hang planters. Ceramics will complete the picture.

For staining you can consider golden oak, it is not "wild" but it is not "brown".

Anyway, my best advice, try to visualize all the options and colors in 3D. It is a cheap resource and will save you lots of money.

Let us know if you need more help

My thoughts on this are that if the frames around the windows are different wood than the walls than, I would use the same stain for all. Different woods hold stain differently and the grains give it a different look, too. Even if everything is the same, I would still go with one stain, but if you must choose two different stain colors, decide what you want to accentuate. The darker stain should go on the windows if you want people to notice the windows, (which doesn't really need pointing out since there are so many).

Darker color on that which you want people to notice 1st.

Thanks Jessierose for the suggestions. I'll take sample pieces of wood and try them at the store with the same color of stain. I also appreciate the suggestion on the keeping the trim darker.