Decorating and Design - Too cool?

Hey! I'm making progress on the new bath and have reached a point where I need to decide on a color scheme. The bath is large, 11 x 17, with 9' ceiling and it has beadboard on the lower half of the plaster walls. It's a corner room and gets plenty of light from 3 windows.
The look I'm going for is sort of a Victorian era farmhouse....touches of fancy in a period farmhouse. The fixtures are all white and the faucets are chrome. I haven't even picked out vinyl for the floor yet so the colors are wide open.
The light fixtures are galvanized metal...very similar to the old gas station lights that only throw light down, which leaves the ceiling darker than the rest of the room.
I've installed plank decking around an old clawfoot tub and I'd like to stain it to look like grey, weathered barn wood. I've been thinking about installing a white with small black diamond patterened vinyl floor, painting the beadboard & trim a white, and washing the upper half of the wall a light blue but I'm concerned that this will make the room a little too cool. Any thoughts? A darker flooring perhaps?
The room will contain at least two fairly large pieces of painted furniture, a vanity and a chest of drawers, perhaps painting these a warm color would help?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I seem to be stuck here! lol My gut tells me to go with blues or greens for this room but beyond that.... :confused:
Thanks!

i don't think it sounds "too" cool - if you love cool colors, what's too cool? maybe what you're afraid of is too "washed out" - ? that could be a possibility. lots of white & silver tones & the color blue "can" tend to "float" like clouds in the sky! try grounding the room's decor with a darker (or different) tone or two on a few key pieces. for example, simple black frames on artwork will work wonders. or like you said, painting a large furniture piece will help. i'm not sure i'd paint the vanity AND the chest, though. you don't want them competing. i'd vote for painting the chest a contrasting color (not necessarily "dark", just different - like the green perhaps).

don't panic and go dark on the floor. then you're working against your initial plan, which was to go light, bright, airy & fresh. keep that the feeling, but just add some "heavier" elements to contrast a bit.

another idea: sometimes in rooms that are all painted, the element of wood is missing. just adding something stained will work wonders - maybe stain the dresser instead, or add an accessory of some sort that's woodtoned - a shelf or baskets to hold toiletry items, etc. ........wait a minute - i just remembered you said the decking was wood - grayed, weathered color. so that should be plenty of wood for the natural element.

i think it sounds great - not too cool. very "beachy" colors. once you get it painted and the white floor in, if it still seems too cool, you'll be able to easily warm it up a bit with accent colors & towels & accessories. i think you're right on track!

it sounds fabulous!!! :thumbup:

Thanks Annette! You hit it on the head, I'm afraid the room may look washed out and feel cold but I see what you are saying about grounding it with some darker touches.

Unfortunately, all the furniture that I have to go into the room at this time are pieces that have previously been painted but, I'd planned on distressing them a bit to allow some layers & a bit of wood to show through in appropriate places. I like the idea of throwing some green into the room! Dark green?

I have some wood from an old barn that I can use to make some shelves out of, if...big if, I can get the new planking around the tub to match it closely.

Oddly enough I think my biggest challenge is going to be finding a white for the bead board that works with the plumbing fixtures and the white in the flooring. The fixtures in the room are from three different manufactures and I'm sure that they are NOT all exactly the same shade so this could get interesting! :wall: lol

Thanks again for all your great suggestions! I only wish I could take you to the paint store with me! :)

i didn't say green, YOU did! you said you knew you wanted blues or greens, so i guess i read an AND in there somewhere! i was picturing light green with the light blue, like water colors. i love the idea of the painted chest being really old & ratty looking - great textural interest! and don't worry about matching the shelf wood tones with the decking wood tones - let them vary. that's the beauty of it! you've got this pristine white & blue room, but then you've thrown in this barnwood stuff & a painted focal point piece! don't match anything!

ME say green?! Never! lol It's only my favorite color. Funny you should mention watercolors...recently while looking through old magazines for some inspiration for this room I came up empty except for one photo that I tore out....an ad for cream cheese of all things. There sat this luscious slice of cheese cake on a bunch of blue, green, and pink Easter eggs. I fell in love with the blue and the green....toss the pink out the window and pass the cheese cake, please. I think I've found my colors! :thinker: