Color Me Wild (part 1)

A little while before actually closing on our home I have been thinking, dreaming and researching about the colors I want painted on our walls. Sam and I long ago decided we wanted bright colors in our home. Nothing against white or more neutral colors--they have their place, too.

It's quite a challenge when we're starting completely from scratch, with limited furniture and no plans in the next little while to purchase more to fill the home.

My mind has changed numerous times. And I've received all sorts of reactions to my ideas: "oh, that'd be cool!" to "that color won't help when it comes to reselling the home."

After flipping through magazines and books, seeing what others have done, and buying things to spruce up what we already have, I've come to many conclusions and decisions (more to come in future posts).

1. Lots of Color
Some of the color-picking stuff I read from paint stores, etc. stated to stick with one color and paint different walls/rooms/trim different shades or hues of that color, and then picking another color for accent walls or whatever.

I like too many colors to stick to just one or two, but I was unsure how to do it without making my house look like a circus or a theme park. Fortunately, I kept reading and found more tips on incorporating color into a whole house.

A Better Homes and Gardens book Color Solutions offered these possible suggestions to unify the home and connect rooms with colors:
-  Use a thread of color: each room its own personality with a single hue as a theme that runs throughout.   Play that color again and again.
- Set up a dialogue: use a partial wall or peninsula as a dividing line, use same trim color, bring touches of each area’s color into the other. For best results, choose two colors that are closely related and similar in value.
- Unify with white trim.
- Choose a limited palette: repeat same colors over and over.
- Play with light:  choose 2 closely related hues and apply the lighter one to the sunniest space.

So, we're basically going to paint a different color in every room, but we'll tie it all together with white trim and by repeating colors that exist elsewhere in the home.
Here are some of the colors we'll be using (we still have some to pick out):

And here's a sneak peak of an idea I had in my head for a while that my color-consultant friend Jessica (more on her later, too) found in print form from a nifty paint idea sampler pamphlet at The Home Depot.

This doesn't look as good on the computer as it does on paper... But I can't wait to see it in our bedroom, especially with the quilt my mom made us for our wedding.