Sure you can always paint over, but that doesn't make picking the color that you'll see everyday any easier. I've seen more people agonize over the perfect wall color than the perfect sofa, despite the fact that the former is significantly less expensive. It's harder to visualize, and that's scary. Here are a few things to keep in mind to ease the process.
• Don't ignore your floor color! Don't. It's probably the most common rookie mistake, and the one that is the least forgiving. When we see a color in a magazine, we tend to overlook the second largest surface, the floor, and focus on the walls. However, floors, regardless of material, have a color, and within each variety there are many variations. For example, a wood floor is not just "wood color." It's honey-colored, or cherry, or ebony, or limed, etc...A wall color will only look good in your home if it relates well to the floor color. So hold paint samples right next to the floor, not just in the middle of the wall. Red walls will look totally different next to cherry stained floors than they will next to limed oak ones.
• Let your art lead you. This is a decorator fail safe. Have you tried it? It feels like cheating. Line up all the art you'd like to hang in your room, pick out a color, and find a paint swatch to match. Bam, done. You'll feel like a pro. The same principal can be applied to rugs and accent textiles. Choosing one of the more subtle accent colors in the rug will bring a fresh dimension to whole space.
• Coordinate with your upholstery. Like your floor, a large sofa will throw off a room if it clashes with the walls. If you try to compensate for a sofa that you're not crazy about by picking a wall color that you love but that doesn't go with it, you'll be disappointed. Don't add wrong to wrong. Pick a color that compliments what you have, and both the overall room and the upholstered piece in question will look better for it.
• Make up for a lack of architectural character with saturated colors. A typical dark, low ceilinged, wall-to-wall carpeted basement apartment will look infinitely more chic and cheerful painted something dramatic, like charcoal gray, than it will a pale sunny yellow...which will only add to the gloom because it's out of place. If you have a space with great bones and great light, it will be difficult to go wrong with any color, and light colors will let those details shine. However, when you have the opposite, go dark. It's counter-intuitive, but it lends a blah space a strong presence. You can always lighten the mood with bright accent pieces and good lighting.
(Images: Leah Moss)
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#4 is a great point! We followed this rule in a small bathroom with no windows - now painted nearly black! (but balanced with plenty of white) It's very dramatic, clean, and modern looking vs. being so blah in its previous life as light blue.
Wow, what great timing. Just wondering what to paint our currently light blue windowless cave of a small bathroom--and were thinking light colors. Reconsidering.
Wonder if there are any rules regarding what kind of light your place gets. I have just one exposure, Northern, so I get no direct sunlight. Hard to figure out what to go with.
Excellent timing for me, too! When I saw this I already had about a dozen paint chip scattered across my kitchen floor - trying to figure out what will tie in well with the new tile.
For low light or Northern exposure, I usually stick with warmer colors.
Great post. Will definitely consider these points when I decide to repaint my apartment.
I do like the idea of painting dark rooms in a dark color. A small white room actually feels like it's more confining.
But #2 is the worst kind of designer claptrap. Art is not decor and it's bad design to use it as such. If you had a Blue Period Picasso would you buy a matching blue sofa? What a load of hooey. Pulling out colors in your art to use in your decor only minimizes and detracts from the artworks. If it's art, let it stand alone. Otherwise you might as well just buy cheap prints that match your sofa.
I'm with KOKO33 - I don't agree with pulling colors from artwork, but I do like it with decor items. A throw pillow, area rug - even a favorite blouse. If you love the color combination, the work is done. Just transfer it to the room.
Thank you! We have several painting projects on our horizon, and have every color from French Lilac to Cardamon on our walls. Hopefully with these tips we'll be able to nail something down.
I see nothing wrong with using colors from art to inform your paint choice, at least if you like the piece of art. It's not at all the same as buying art just because it matches your wall color.
Like wordgrl I also have a northern room I would like to paint. It has been painted in a dark eggplant, which is beautiful and dramatic, but I want something lighter for a change. I don't like most yellow tones, so I was wondering if there is such a thing as a warm blue or warm green?
Also, I agree that people should not purchase art to go with their decor, they should purchase art because they love it. Having said this, it is true that art can stand out much better against different colours. It's worth experimenting to get a sense of this.
Let me get this straight: we should not pull colors from current artwork as inspiration for paint. We also should not purchase art specifically because it matches some color aspect of your room.
So how is it that anyone, anywhere has a piece of artwork hanging in a room that doesn't completely clash with what is going on all around it? Yes of course art is art and it stands alone, but who the hell decided that you can't coordinate with a piece to some degree? I'm not painting a room green that has a 90% blue painting on the wall. Why is that a crime?
I'd like to add a #5 to this list: Consider all the light exposures your paint will get.
I have a large living/dining/kitchen combo area that I plan to paint all the same color. It was very surprising to see how different the same exact color looked painted on different walls within the space. I'm talking I-can't-believe-that's-the-same-color different. So on top of trying to coordinate with 2 different flooring materials, 3 different light exposures, and 2 people trying to agree on things it turned into quite the swatchcapade on the walls. Worth it though, to know about this in advance.
We've been looking for a pale sea glass color for a bathroom and love the swathe in the picture. Can you tell us it's name and manufacturer?
I agree with JESS13. I picked Behr's 'Bamboo' because it was a lovely grellow shade on one end of my long living/dining room. But on the other end of the room it was bright straw yellow: a lovely color, but totally not what I was going for! It's definitely important to consider your room's light exposures.
I really like #4. We have a low-ceilinged, carpeted room with ugly old paneling that I painted white two years ago. But the white is boring and almost oppressive, like we're trying to pretend like we don't live in a cave. Now I'm choosing to embrace it by going with a warm, mid-toned gray. We have lots of warm wood tones, white furniture, and punches of bright color in our art and textiles. I think it will be so much better!
Because we have lot of photography and art in our house we like to stay with crisp white or neutral walls. It's just easier to have a blank slate to do so and let's the art show best. I let the accessories be the color pops.
Also agree with the lighting comment. Very important to consider.
Great, helpful post! Thank you!
1. Drawing colors from artwork is perfectly legitimate. It isn't mandatory, but if you have and love the art already, it's likely that the colors used had some bearing on that. Why NOT use the art as a color inspiration? (Buying a particular piece of art that you don't like merely because the color matches the drapes is not a recommendation, but buying drapes that coordinate with the painting you love only makes sense.)
(I have a large oil painting that I bought from an artist friend years ago. It's a soft misty landscape in white, grey, peach, and neutrals, like mossy green. My walls are cafe au lait and my sofa is mossy green, both colors I like for a soothing room, and both colors that are in the painting. I'd HATE that painting against the aqua in my bedroom or the orange in the family room -- colors like that would undermine the mood of the work.)
2. Bright crisp white trim can work with nearly any color to add sparkle to an interior.
3. I think we forget about floors in magazine shoots because the rooms are photographed in the first place because they work. And usually, we want the focus of the room to be higher up, not the floor itself. So the design of the room is deliberately moves your eye away from the floors. But you are totally right, they are another large surface, and wall paint should harmonize.
Swatchcapade. Now I know what to call that. Nice one.
Wall texture matters more with darker paints. If you go extremely dark and matte you can minimize imperfections, but in the middle tones -- with some hues especially -- a bad wall surface looks terrible.
I am cursed with spray-on texture (orange peel) walls in areas of my home that have not been remodeled. Before this house I had an old plaster and lath home with damaged walls. I have found that with the rough walls I can get away with dark colors only in the rooms with northern light.
Latitude matters as well in choosing paint colors, for quality of light...mine is 37 degrees. NYC is 40, for comparison, Paris 48, Stokholm 59 (sticking to northern hemisphere for no other reason than that's where I live). There's a reason those southwest colors look right only in Santa Fe (35.6 degrees and high elevation) and hot colors look garish in Seattle.
On the question of pulling colors from artwork, if you are planning to hang a beloved painting or other art in the room, in a prominent place, you do not want to choose a color that will deaden it. Pulling a strong color that is a very minor feature in the work and applying that to the wall will help the piece stand out. Not an issue, of course, if you stick with white. Which is why so many galleries do.
Great post. I agree that figuring out the lighting is super important. I painted my entire apartment the same white that I had used in my previous place because I LOVED it. In the new place...not so much. All the light reflecting back from the building next door killed it. As did the color of the floor, as you said. Good to know.
If I owned a blue-period Picasso you bet your booty I'd use it as the touchpoint for all nearby decorating.
I beg to differ with Rural and Rueful. Unless I'm not understanding what you mean by Hot colors.
We live in Seattle and our bedroom is Pomegranate by C2 with an accent wall of Spumoni.
Our exterior is Bonjour also from C2.
Bright yellow.
It works.
Again maybe we define hot colors differently.
We do though embrace a grey/blue for our living room walls!
I could talk color for a week straight and it gives me immense pleasure to have found, through blogging a world of folks, like me..and you. As an artist, I am ALL about the relationship between ART and wall color...because the wall color cannot help but become interactive with the ART, one feeds off the other, is enhanced by or diminished by, the other...what is that science term called? oh yeah...like a symbiotic relationship!!!....
hmmm it seems so odd to go with dark paint for a dark room... our living dining room gets some natural light, we only have 1 sliding glass door facing west, no windows... and i've been dreaming of a nice peacock blue/dark turquoise color to paint the walls, we have white trim and a white fireplace... but i thought it would be too dark until we eventually put in skylights. wouldn't it be dark and gloomy?
Welp, there goes my paint plans.
ERINPEARCE, I think the idea is that light wall color, in a room that doesn't get much natural light, can appear cold or dingy (e.g. white walls that would look crisp and bright in a room with lots of windows will turn gray and stark in a dimly-lit room). If a room doesn't have enough natural light, nothing will make it look bright, so may as well embrace the lack of light and go for a more cozy look. A richly-colored wall can look gorgeous when lit with sconces and table lamps, while a pale wall will just look sickly.
I painted our one-windowed bathroom B&M granite...dark and gorgeous. I put in two extra mirrors along with the two mirrored medicine cabinets to capture a bit more light. No regrets.
I should add that I think a rich peacock wall color could be absolutely stunning with the right lighting and accessories!
I think those of you who say not to match the walls to your art are missing the point of hte original article -- it's a way to pick a color that complements all the artwork. Even "white" has variations. I "got this" in college when we were allowed to pick the color for our dorm rooms -- all looked white to me as chips. But when I visited individual rooms I could see the difference. And because in those days our "art" usually came from the same limited variety at the campus store, it was a great exercise in shades of white.
#5
Be aware that this color WILL reflect onto opposing or nearby walls. One night I painted the wall leading to my basement chartreuse. Didn't realize the affect on the opposite wall until the next day when the sun was shining in... Now I'm rethinking this decision. Keep meaning to put this on my blog (backtothetrees.blogspot.com)... but you know how that goes.
I would add another key point to consider: the undertones of the largest surfaces in your space. Like the floor, but also your cabinets, your countertop. Say you're going to paint a beigy-brown colour. If your wall paint has clashing undertones with some other large piece, you'll be sorry. I made sure that my kitchen paint colour (Tyler Taupe) had the same yellow undertones as my floor, countertop and backsplash and it all looks great. Before the paint colour was beige with pinky undertones and it looked hideous.
Always, always, always pick your paint color in the room you are going to paint. Metamerism is the interaction of color and pigment - which is why Montanagal's wall colors looked so different in different parts of the room. Light varies by direction, season, what part of the world you are in (natural light in the Northeast is very different than it is in Southwest) and source (natural or artificial). Use those paint swatches and tester paint pots and see what the color looks like on more than one wall at different times of day and in different lighting conditions. Live with the color samples for awhile. Then you can paint your room with more confidence in the final look and feel of the color environment you are creating.
what's an undertone and how do you find it?
(pardon my ignorance)
Ok, since nobody's mentioned it yet don't forget to pick what you personally like and makes you feel good when you walk in the door on a subconscious level. For me that's flat white through most of the house, aqua blue in the kitchen and a white bathroom with a trompe l'oeil painted blue ceiling. Flat white is practical, you can buy it off any store shelf to do repairs. It makes a nice backdrop for my art and the rainbows my window crystals bounce around. Also my place is really tiny and can seem claustrophobic at times as I spend a lot of time working and living indoors. It was painted a mix of medium beiges when I first moved in and when I went back to the white I grew up with not only did it suddenly become larger but the familarity went long way towards feeling like home. Maybe if I had separate rooms a nice deep taupe or something would be worth a try but as this is my total living space along with a tiny kitchen and tiny bathroom, white it shall be.
Im so glad to see this post. I just got a confirmation today that i am moving into a larger apartment. I starting from scratch and changing everything. This will help!
Seconding what SkylarkMelody said - think about whether the color creates energy or serenity. The same color that might be eye-catching and dynamic in a family room could be overwhelming in a bedroom; a more subtle tone that might bore in a main living area could be soothing in a home office.
@51Desks (and everyone else, too), may I recommend the website of the wonderful Maria Killam? Undertones and getting colors to work together is what she does, and I've learned a ton just from reading her blog. I'm not affiliated with her at all, just a fan. http://www.mariakillam.com/
Another (is this 10 or 15?) thing to consider is the way the room is used. Private, intimate rooms can take bold colors. Public rooms are the rooms you usually photograph friends and family in. Not everyone looks good in Chartreuse! Also, every time you look at the photos, you will be overwhelmed by the backdrop. Learned that one the hard way when I had a Caribbean green on my family room walls- my husband called it "Hulk Juice" green!
51desks and englishdaffodil, I was just going to recommend Maria Killam of Colour Me Happy as well. I'm also a fan and reading her blog prevented me from making some costly mistakes. I used her tips to pick five coordinated paint colours for my space and did not regret a single choice.
@EnglishDaffodil: Thank you for the link to the Maria Killam website. Very instructive. I have some serious reading ahead of me.
@ EnglishDaffodil, I went to the site and came right up against "download my e-book" before she'd shared any of her wisdom.
No thanks.
Does anyone else find themselves experiencing paint synesthesia? I have trouble imagining a green bathroom, even though I love the color green, because "bathrooms just aren't green." It reminds me of how I felt that high school math notebooks should always be blue and history ones should be yellow because "math is a blue-colored subject and history is a yellow subject."
+1 on the link to MariaKillam.com. Her ebook on color (It's all in the Undertones) is fantastic!
@splitty
Science and math are both blue! History is red.
What? You're both crazy. History is green! You're right that math is blue, though.
And you're right, green isn't a good bathroom color. Bathrooms are usually too small to avoid the color reflecting off of your skin, making it difficult to put on makeup in a green bathroom.
"I was wondering if there is such a thing as a warm blue or warm green?"
I've just painted a north-facing but very light room in a warm pale green (sounds like an oxymoron, but it's not) called Tunsgate Green by Farrow & Ball. The floor is neutral, but the accent colours are a strong green and a strong blue. Looks great!
I love colour, but my house is white because I can never choose which colour to use! One thing I dislike is dark colour on walls with bright white trim - it reminds me of icing on a cake, and tends to make spaces look smaller.
Re: pulling colours from a piece of art. The way it's phrased does imply co-ordinating your decor with your artwork. But it makes sense - there's a reason you like a picture, and colour probably is a major factor. It's like choosing colours you like to wear. Doesn't mean you want to co-ordinate with your walls!
crash course in color theory
primary colors (all colors come from combinations of these): red, yellow, blue
secondary colors (made from combining the above): orange, purple, green
tertiary colors are secondary ones that lean one direction or the other. Like green blue or green yellow
warm colors: reds, oranges, yellows
cool colors: blues, greens, purples
so now I can try to clear things up but using the color purple as an example...
purple on it's own is a secondary color (can be considered cool or warm) but with the addition of blue or red it would still be purple but one "warms" the color (red) while the other "cools" it off (blue). Every color has these primary and/or secondary colors as a base so figuring out the base of the color you seek and the desired effect you can eliminate many bad choices right off the bat. Having a color wheel on hand...even if it only has the primary colors can help you find what you're working with and how to proceed. This technique also works with clothes...Have you ever seen someone wear two colors together that seem like they shouldn't work but do? They most likely share a common base.
Tinting, toning and shading a color changes it's attributes futher.
Tinting a color is adding white...your pinks and baby blues for example
Shading is adding black for your navy and goldenrod
Tone is adding gray...those pleasing tones most people like to use live here...the robin egg blues and periwinkles
I hope this helps you navigate thru the sea of swatches...it's easier to pick if you know where you're trying to go
Also re: #2, I can comment on applying the art principle to rugs. In my parents' previous home, they selected the wall paint colors for the entire house from a single, oversized rug in the living room. This method was suggested by a family friend who is an accomplished interior decorator and it worked very well - the colors were extremely varied but coordinated and it was not obvious at all how they tied together. To reiterate the point a few others have made, I think it's more about pulling inspiration from something you love or know you will have in your home to ensure your art, walls, floor, etc. complement one another; not so much about being matchy-matchy or force-fitting anything.
Re: dark walls in a small bathroom, I'm in the process of posting photos of my black bathroom to my blog if anyone is interested! The before (white) and after (black) can be seen here http://whoisamelia.blogspot.com/2012/06/bathroom-facelift-part-1.html
ALL- let me clarify. I didn't say go out and buy art that goes with your wall color. I think art should be personal and appealing. But if you're stumped on a wall color, look to your art. Presumably the piece appeals to you, and if you pick a wall color that coordinates with it (one of the accents colors rather than the dominant backdrop color), it will shine all the more, and become a focus not an obstacle.
@WORDGRL- Light does matter, but I don't think there are any hard and fast rules per se. In general with low light I think going rich and saturated is better. Cool light tends to make lighter colors look wimpy, so finding a color that can stand up to it usually works. Warm and cool don't seem to matter as much as depth if that makes sense. We painted my son's tiny nursery a dark navy blue. It's a north-facing room with only one window. Before, it was painted a pale yellow that made it look like the most depressing, dingy little room on earth, but now I really love the depth and richness that the dark blue lends even though most common decorating advice would advise you NOT to use a dark color in a small space or a blue in a north facing room. It's the only dark room in the house, but we really like it. You can check out the nursery here:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/safs-pint-size-personal-historynursery-tour-room-tour-etc-167672
@22- it's a mix of Benjamin Moore's Super white with Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage.
Interesting opinions re color and art. The problem with picking a color from an artwork you like and using it in the room is that it distracts the eye from the art. Your eye sees it in the artwork and then starts to follow it around the room, unable to concentrate on the artwork. There's a good reason that art galleries are stark white -- it doesn't detract from the art.
There's no reason to be so strict in the home and, for example, it's perfectly sensible not to put a dark painting on a darkly colored wall where it will be difficult to see. But I don't believe artwork can clash with wall color. If you have a green wall and a blue painting, that's not a problem.
Pick a wall color that goes with the floor and the furniture and has the warm or cool undertone you like. Then just hang the art pieces you love and they will look fine.
@splitty - I painted my bathroom a soft, pale citrusy green (B. Moore Limeade) and it looks great with the white tile. Doesn't make me look green at all.
JESS13- I have the same problem, one large room that gets varying amounts of light. Its currently painted a color called warm muffin, and with the tons of light it gets its too bright, I am thinking about a mocha shade. Did you end up going with only one swatch on your capade?
I was thinking I might try two sections of the the room in one color and the third one shade lighter on the swatch? Any input from anyone?
Mary Ellen
Hi 22- we chose Benjamin moore's beach glass color for our western exposed, bright kitchen and am really happy with this truly beach glass color.
@Fortunegirl: ended up choosing Sherwin Williams Pediment for the whole shabang. It does look like a different shade on each wall but we happen to like each shade, and they all still went well with the floors, so it was the winner. I did not want to fuss around with multiple paint colors if at all possible.
For those looking for a warm green, I love Ralph Lauren's Lafayette. It looks really brown in the chip, but great up on the wall.
Also, do people transfer paint into elegant glass containers before painting their bathrooms? Or is that actually the way the paint is packaged?
@Koko33: Not all galleries have white walls. Red, dark blue and grey/taupe walls show off art beautifully.
I'm pretty good at picking out paint colors in most rooms. But in my main bathroom, where I apply my makeup, totally confuses me. No windows and fairly small. It's white now with faux painted black and white tiles. I've read so many articles about paint colors to stay away from because they distort your coloring while applying makeup. Examples are to stay away from yellows, peach, melon and pinks. Greens and grays are also mentioned. I'm thinking about maybe a soft purple with just a hint of blue in it, with a soft sea green ceiling? My moldings, counters and cabinets are white and folding metal linen closet door is about the color of sea green. My current towels are yellow, soft purple and fern green. My shower and floor tiles are white. Okay, maybe to much information here.
My main question is what colors are best for a windowless bathroom that I apply my makeup in???
@Splitty: I always color-coded my three ring binders to my school subjects, to the degree that those dull color options would let me. Blue or grey for math, green or grey or black for science, red for Spanish, beige ("putty") for history, pink or beige for English. Kind of neat to see that other people make the same associations.
@51desks: Warm green is pear green. Warm blue is turquoise.
Color, especially in decorating, is my favorite topic! I have 5 points that I don't think have been said yet: 1) Re using dark colors: If you have a traditional space with moldings, try adding a chair rail and painting a dark color above it and a lighter color or white below it. Use light flooring, light furniture, and light art or accessories against dark walls. These will brighten the room and make it much less oppressive. For example, our bathroom has navy walls, but there is so much white with the flooring, trim, and fixtures, that it doesn't seem dark.
2) There are many warm light greens available now. It's important to try them at night with artificial light, as some of them turn either gray or frankenstein neon. It has to do with the pigments used, I think.
3) Western light is warm and brings out the orange in colors, and northern light brings out the blue in them. Southern light is a bright, whiter light, and shows colors most accurately. Eastern light is cool, but probably not as cool as northern light.
4) Warmer and richer colors look good in gray climates. Think of English country houses with the beautiful rich wall colors. White looks good in bright climates such as Southern California.
5) I think color preference must be mostly genetic. I like colors that are both cool and warm, such as warm greens, cool reds, chocolate brown, and cool yellows. My husband prefers warmer colors like coral, peach, warm yellow, rust, and tan. Neither of us like blue, white, or gray much--too cool for us. Fortunately, he is pretty easy going about these things, and he gets veto power on everything.
Undertone: it's the hint of a second color in the main color.
There's true red without an undertone of anything, and then there's red with a little blue in it and red with a little orange in it. If you put them next to each other, it's obvious.
Yellow can be greenish or orangish, blue can be purplish or greenish. Neutrals can have very subtle undertones that are hard to see until you line them all up, then it's more obvious.
Then there are the gray and brown undertones! Red with a little gray in it will be more muted than true red. Cream with a touch of gray becomes beige, sort of. Muted colors tend to look muddy when pared with non-muted colors but paired with other muted colors they can look very rich.
Paint chip displays are organized this way, making it a lot easier to see how a color changes when it is muted with gray or brown, or how it changes when another color (yellow, red, blue, etc) is added in small amounts.
Basic tip for auditioning wall colors: get a big board (2x3 at least, foam core or luan), prime it and paint it with your color, from a sample can. Move it around the room, look at it at different times of day, see if it works. Picking a color from a swatch alone is a recipe for disaster!
Art and wall color: check out Fine Paints of Europe's Guggenheim Gallery Color collection. Gallery walls are way more than white!
Re: Northern Exposure. I too have northern exposure and in my living room, I painted my wall apple green/sage. On one wall, I put a large mirror to reflect light, make the space appear brighter and to decorate. This paired with succulents and plants, makes the room feel light airy, soothing and cozy -- at least that's what my friends say. On the other hand, in my bedroom, I wanted a dark and romantic feeling, so I panted my wall turquoise. I'd say selecting colors has a lot to do with the mood you want the room to evoke too.
I've been looking for the right paint colors for weeks for my home which has primarily northern exposure and a good deal of tree cover. It's shadowy inside, even on the sunniest days. Two suggestions for others:
1. Go warm -- whatever color you choose, with a house like mine you already have gray on your walls due to the shadows. Choose colors with no gray or black undertones and with more yellow undertones than you would normally be drawn to. The warmth will even out the gray shadows that are already on your walls. A great paint for this is Benjamin Moore's Color Stories. These pigments are mixed with no gray or black in the formula, so they have more depth and luminosity.
2. Because I was hell bent on painting one wall charcoal gray, I found a perfect deep dark gray (Benajmin Moore's Deep Space -- which has a decent amt of navy it in) and then balanced it by painting the rest of the space a very creamy, warm white (Behr's Toasted Marshmellow color matched for Ben Moore paint). It allowed me to enjoy my dramatic gray wall and kept my house from looking like the inside of a prison.
Love the 2nd tip : Let the Art Lead You. Such a clever idea.
Thanks to all of you for suggestions about warm greens/blues to use in a northern facing room, and for explaining undertones (still not sure I get it - will visit that blog)
An incredibly bright color on one wall. When I lived in Amsterdam (many days without intense sunlight) I had an apt with a lime green wall in the kitchen & also a lime green wall in living area. I was very skeptical, but I loved it! It made the apt cheery & even on gray gloomy days, I felt the sunniness of that bright color.