Decorating and Design - First Time Home Owner, need decorating advice!! (pictures)

My husband and I just bought our first home and I'd really love to get some advice on things like paint colors, window treatments, etc. I'm pretty clueless about the whole decorating thing!

I've picked some colors that I really like, maybe somebody could help me narrow them down? All of our furniture is black, LOL, black tv, black sofa and love seat, black end table, black dining room table, bed frame is black, night stands are black!

I know downstairs and upstairs in the loft I think I'd like a neutral color, a brown, tan, beige, taupe or something like that. The reason I was thinking brownish colors is because the kitchen has a green granite, so I want a color that will look good with the granite! Also, what colors would look best with the hardwood floors and black furniture? What would be good accent colors?

Master bedroom I'm thinking a shade of brown..

Office, I'd like to do a blue with white trim everywhere. I have a white book shelf and I plan on getting a nice desk and painting it white also.

Guest bedrooms, open to suggestions! What would look best with the hardwood floors??


I am really clueless when it comes to things like curtains and what color to get, what style to get, etc.

Help!!! :eek:

Pictures:
paint swatches from Sherwin Williams
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/276/paintcolorsza7.jpg
entry
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9715/entrysl4.jpg
kitchen

Living Room (need ideas for curtains/window treatments)
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6987/livingroom2et3.jpg
Living Room 2 (good ideas?)
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6877/livingroompp0.jpg
Master
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/2989/masterbedroomok7.jpg
Loft
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3732/loftnewgd8.jpg

Hi Jessica_2020,

The first thing you need is to define a style or styles for the house and / or the rooms and try to visualize the details.
The Sherwin Williams website has several tools to help you with ideas, inspiration and the visualization and color compositions
Need help planning a project or selecting the right colors and products? - Sherwin-Williams (http://www.sherwin-williams.com/do_it_yourself/index.jsp)

In order to define blinds, curtains, etc, I'd suggest that you define first the colors of the walls

You have a blank slate, so you are free to go in any direction with colors. Black is a neutral color. Black furniture is currently very popular, and it makes a bold statement. Black and the wood floors will work with any of the colors you have selected.

I would suggest introducing some wood tones in furniture. A wood office desk with the bookshelf painted black would carry the black through to the office and introduce some wood tones to give the eye a break from so much painted furniture.

Guest room colors should be more soothing and less dramatic and thematic. Guest rooms should appeal the greatest number of potential guests. Here it is possible to carry your color scheme through, too.

In Master Bedroom and guest rooms, it's best to begin with the bedding. Bedding is an inspirational color palette from which to choose colors for wall paint, accessories, and accents. Whether, Master or guest room, the colors in each room can be complementary, but different, and pick up the colors of your color scheme for continuity.

In living rooms, a good place to start is with an area rug to anchor the conversation area. It, too, provides a ready color palette from which to choose wall color, accessories, and accents.

I liked the idea of putting the TV in the bar area. It might be possible to enclose the TV in that area and have storage for electronics with a built-in without removing the bar. That way, when it comes time to sell the home, the future homeowner, who may want a bar, could use the area as a bar.

After checking, your pictures again, there is a good neutral on the walls now, so you don't have to rush to get all the painting done that you want to do to personalize the home with the colors you love.

The fireplace wall is a good candidate for an accent color wall. While many are painting fireplaces black and chocolate brown these days, I'd consider painting the accent wall before deciding on the color to paint the mantel. Consider if tables will be wood and whether the tones match. If wood trim is white, you may decide to paint the mantel white for a contrast from all the black.

There are many beautiful colors from which to choose from today's popular color palettes. Keep in mind that today's paints are yellow-based. So, you see lots of sagey greens, dusty golds and teals, rusty reds, and lots of creamy and caramely colors. Rusty red is a hot accent color. If you go shopping, you will see that these colors tend to dominate the colors in bedding, linens, etc.

Popular window treatments are plain, simple panels with a trend to hang above window frame or at ceiling with panels reaching to the floor. Neutral color window treatments remain popular, although those who want to make a bolder statement and call attention to windows will select a bolder color from their color scheme.

Explore decorating websites. Many have informative articles and lots of pictures. One of my favorite places is www.hgtv.com (http://www.hgtv.com) At www.roomzaar.com (http://www.roomzaar.com) you can explore the 'highly rated' rooms to see what others are doing with their spaces.

twelvepole- thanks!! Really great suggestions!

One of the main reasons I was thinking a light brown color for the walls in the master bedroom since our furniture is black, I was thinking I'd have more options for the comforter, I figure a comforter with blues, greens, or reds would look nice with the brown and black. I like to change up my comforter selection!

The bedding I have for one of the guest rooms is a light tan with lots of pastel blues and greens, so I guess a nice blue or green color would work well for that room.

I do like your office idea of a wood desk with the black painted bookshelf, but I have my heart set on blue with white trim and accents. Do you think that would work as well? I didn't post a picture of what will be the office, it's just one of the smaller bedrooms next to the master!

We do plan on painting before we move in, otherwise I know we'll never get it done! LOL I really don't like the yellow color at all!

I've been scouring the internet looking for model home pictures to get ideas from. I must say, I've found some great ideas for my upstairs loft area!! :) Not really with paint colors, but the furniture and arranging!

Would the colors I selected be considered neutral colors? Even the blues and greens? I dont like real bright colors so I tried to pick some more softer colors!

I really like your idea of painting the wall with the fireplace an accent wall!! That would look great! But what color? Maybe that rustic red color you mentioned? Would that go well with the brown colors I picked out?

Where the bar is in the living room, I'll need to remove the part that overhangs because our tv is huge, with the stand it sits on it's easily almost 5 feet tall, so that needs to be changed, otherwise I don't know how I would be able to arrange my living room. The color on the mantle I thought would look nice if it matched the trim in the room. I just love darker colors with white trim, it looks so nice!

Thank you so much for posting! I enjoyed reading your suggestions!!

pmgca- I love Sherwin Williams site, that is where I pulled all my color swatches from, playing with their room visualizer! That is a pretty nifty tool!!

For style of the house, I'd just like it to look like a model home! I don't know what style that would be contemporary? I've been looking at model site homes like Pardeehomes.com and others. They do have some great ideas!

LOL, duplicate post, I didn't think the first one went through! :wall:

Any other suggestions? anybody? :)

Again, choose bedding that has the color that you love. That will be your color palette from which you choose your colors. I recently saw a stunning bedroom with latte walls, black furniture, and bedding with rain wash blue, latte, and cream.

Light sagey green is very popular as a wall color and may work well with the bedding in the guest room with light tan and pastel blues and greens.

The 'right' blue with white trim and accents would work in the office. White painted furniture puts me in mind of cottage decor or shabby chic. You need to identify your style and stick with it for cohesiveness and flow throughout the home.

Blues and greens are not neutral. They are on the color wheel. Neutral means 'without color.' Beige, ivory, taupe, black, gray, and white are considered neutral. But, you have to watch the undertones. Today's popular colors have yellow tones. Take white, for instance, with yellow undertones you will find lots of creamy colors, but you can find whites that have other undertones that make white look bluish or peachy.

That's why it is important when buying paint to buy samples of the colors you like and bring them home and paint on white poster board or a swatch on the wall. Study how the color interacts with light--both natural and artificial and at different times throughout the day as the sun moves over your house. Paint will be different than what you see on a color chip or on an interactive paint site like Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore.

Accent wall color should be done after given it great. Again, an area rug is a great source of color inspiration. The accent wall should be complementary to the paint color on other walls and your furnishings. I've been seeing a lot of rusty red, dark sage green, and chocolate brown accent walls. Chocolate brown is a favorite on the hgtv decorating shows. It's stunning with white trim.

Wow, a five foot TV! Does anyone need one that big? So, you remove the counter, but what to do about hiding the back of the TV? Furniture will have to be arranged to take in two focal points--TV and fireplace.

Style? "For style of the house, I'd just like it to look like a model home!" There are many, many decorating styles. With your black furniture, are you leaning toward contemporay or modern? Or, transitional, a mix of traditional and contempory?

Descriptions:

Transitional-- Transitional Style : Decorating : Home & Garden Television (http://www.hgtv.com/decorating/transitional-style/index.html)

Contemporary--
Contemporary Style- Decorating in the Contemporary Style (http://interiordec.about.com/od/contemporarystyle/a/contemporarystl.htm)

Modern--
Contemporary Decorating (http://www.decor-medley.com/contemporary-decorating.html)

This is a fun site with options to explore decorating ideas for different rooms. There are slide shows of pictures for inspiration. Home Decor Ideas - Interior Decorating Pictures - Goodhousekeeping.com (http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/home-decor-gallery/)