apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Even the Veuve is best enjoyed in moderation.

But seriously, are you using halogen lighting or Reveal bulbs? Perhaps too-yellow lighting at night is causing the undesired color change.

I don't know if the yellow is exactly the problem...I think the brown window treatments do not go well with the yellow.

yeah.. the brown window treatments are whats ruining it for me... I would rather have a sheer white window treatment... with that yellow.

hmm

the shelves look a bit gaunt. what if you added pieces to fatten that area up a bit *visually* and perhaps adding pillows a slight shade darker than the walls on the couch...

the grey curtains..they need something..can't pinpoint it yet..but something is missing.

love the color..but..without the proper accents my head feels like i have had too much bubbly.

and yes p(2) you are right..perhaps chaning the lights might help.

on a side note...im sorry to those you went to the meeting last night..i got stuck at work till late..wah wah..maybe next time

I think the color is beautiful. You just need to make your accessories light and airier when you use such a bold color.

I really love large amounts of white with shocking colors. Some ways to embrace white are to paint the shelves white, or more importantly get white window treatments. What about your sofa? Do you like that color? Hard to tell on my monitor. Maybe it could be slip covered in white? And some lighter, airier pillows.

P.S. I love the sparse arrangements on your shelves. I think you off to a great start here and can turn this into something really beautiful.

I hope you add white and that we see your place in this year's color contest!

I think the yellow could work, but not with those other colors. The window treatments and the couch, especially, seem to clash against the yellow.

oy vey...my monitor is shot then cause it looked grey to me...yeahhhh brown and yellow..ehhh

unless its a banana or me wearing a yellow dress...not always a good combo..BUT i can see how it can work. we just need to tweak it.

a tad

a bit

My first, and somewhat catty, thought, was: oh, and do you have a room in Tiffany blue as well? Perhaps one in Graham Greene?

To be fair, we all fall in love with different colors for different reasons. I think you're going to have to mix P(2)'s and labchick's suggestions to counteract the color change.

I'm not a big fan of theme rooms, but if you're going to go for it, GO for it. Use the other colors on the box and label; hang that classic poster (Gurau?) on the wall; frame a picture of the widow herself; fill a bowl with the caps.

And only champagne music on the CD player...

i think the couch would be okay (if you aren't cool with slipcovering, that is) if everything else wasn't so dark....you could get away with it.

the ottoman, the shelves and the window treatments are waaaayyyy too dark for that color. i doubt you'd want to slipcover the ottoman so you could maybe have a light colored throw on it - pillows need to go - you should paint the shelves, and get some flowey white curtains.

jonathanb-
you make me giggle..

Using the other colors on the label -- or the color of the filled bottle itself -- at least guarantees that everything "goes" with the orange. The designer took care of that for you.

I don't think it needs an overt Veuve Cliquot theme at that point -- just treat your object as a swatch.

bella --

glad to know someone's paying attention.

missed you last night at the dwr

My daughter wanted her bedroom painted that color. We painted the moldings white and put down a small, deep red and black oriental rug. She has a white daybed with a grey duvet cover (to tone things down a bit.) One door is concealed with a red chinese silk panel. There are two red ikea square ottomans (the kind with canvas covers). A little desk, bookcase and an antique dresser. It is a very tiny interior room, with an interior window -- 10x 10, in a floorthrough rowhouse. But it looks quite cheerful. The dark red accents tone down the orangey walls.

I like the wall color & agree with many of the suggestions above. Can you change the window treatments? I like the orange & brown, just not so much of it and I think it would make a world of difference if the window tretments & pillows were light (even white).

I should have said I found some gauze panels at Ikea that we hung to cover the entire closet wall. They are virtually the same color as the orangey gold walls. You could do the same with that brown (window?) area. Also the trim in our house is not stark white as in your photo, but creamy ivory.

Thank you all. All ideas are welcome!! Let's keep them coming.
:)

jonathanb-

ugh..i know.. i was looking forward to it. but i had some backlogged photo stuff to do here..:(

what a dedicated worker i am...work work ..ohh coffee..i mean work ..lol

back to the orange room---mmmmm red and orange can work...btu it has to be the right red. otherwise it might look like ronald mcdonald took over..or eggs and ketchup.

but i like where this is going..warm colors..hmmmm nice.

im not feeling the faux fur. i just noticed that.

A nice plant would work wonders in this room

Fabio- very bold color choice! I like. Look at how the yellow looks next to the white trim. CRISP! Then compare it to the yellow next to your couch. CLASH!

I see two options: keep the walls and do a white slip cover with tan pillows OR keep the door wall yellow and the couch tan but paint the wall behind the couch white.

I also think a big, graphic pattern on the couch pillows would bring the room to life. Good luck!

I think it's too much. I just painted my small, darkish den Farrow & Ball's Yellow Ground and I must say it looks a lot like your Clicquot color. I found it to be too overpowering, and like you said at night it's too orange...my fiance absolutley hated it at night. I've decided to go in the opposite direction and try to achieve a light and airy effect with a softer color.

Best of luck!

OHHH yeah melissa4981... THAT is whats missing.. something graphic...on the couch/wall/curtain.

I agree, it's the brown window treatments that ruin it for me. I'm not a fan of the champagne themed room, but looking at the packaging for accent color inspiration is a good suggestion. You could replace the brown with a black and white pattern. It's bold, yes, but maybe you need another bold element in the room to balance that color a little.

OUCH me retinas are burning...

How about white window treatments, and slipcover the couch in deep red?

My kitchen walls are a similar color. I worried when I put the color on the wall, but it looked great after painting the cabinets white and hanging pictures, etc. It works for me because there is much more of my white cabinets than there is wall space, so the yellow becomes an accent color.

The brown you have on your windows is a middle value color, and so is the yellow you have...thats what's causing the problem. It needs more contrast. If you were to replace the brown window treatments with white, I think the yellow you have would work (Hold your hand over the brown windows in the photo and see how nice the color works with the white door frame and baseboards). A much darker brown would probably work too, but I think white would be better since it matches the door frame and baseboards. If you want to leave the windows as they are, I would suggest a paler, lemon yellow with no orange in it.

I always tell my clients that if you love a color, use it sparingly. It's the difference between "Oh, you love yellow! It even reminds me of (champagne label)" and "Oh, you've clearly gone insane and painted your entire room yellow. Let's take a trip to the nut-barn".

But seriously, find a complementary color to the yellow and then use the yellow in pillows, artwork, draperies, etc.

Now, if you don't want to paint, what I would recommend is finding a "bridge" between the yellow and the grays/browns. Add some prints with supplemental window treatments (double rods) that incorporate yellow. Tone down the shelves by placing larger art pieces underneath them, casually leaned against the wall. Get a big bowl of labels of the champagne you dig and throw 'em in a huge bowl on your coffee table - with a bunch of books about travel, wine, champagne, etc. That shows you are interested in these things and gives people a jumping off point to talk about these interests when they come to your home.

Everything is wrong!! Really and I am sorry I have to tell you that. I mean just start over. I am so confused by looking at this I cannot even suggest something positive. WOW! I need to look at the photos of my apartment quickly to clean out my mind.

too late I just vomited. s**t

michaelc......

thats not nice....this room does need a major renovation. I don't understand why you didnt go with something that would compliment the couch. what a great couch. its being swallowed up by that wall. the wall and the couch are actually fighting. oh and the curtains... well thats the shit hitting the fan.

this is not nice either.

but honestly i think you should forget about that color on the wall, paint it something else, anything else. .... and buy some kind of couch pillows that have that color.

Yes I agree - the orange walls require color changes in the window treatments and couch. However, if you are willing to abandon the orange walls for something in the earthy neutral family, you can achieve a harmonious room for much less money/hassle.

Your right. I apologize. Still cleaning the floor in front of my desk. The front cover of this months dwell is a perfect example of when yellow(any variation of yellow) could be used and used well otherwise stay away from it. Mustard yellow (call it what ever you want) is just wrong. This would make french's mustard proud. As for a solution...Work off the sofa. The color is universal and has a straight, clean lined, contemporary look. Try a deep red (not candy apple red) more deep, not maroon but you can get the point. You have the browns already, the ottoman will look fine and the moldings(white) will contrast that choice of red well.

What also might look good is to have only one wall this color (the wall with the door). If the wall with the curtains was painted white, the entire scheme might come together without changing anything else. I dont dislike the yellow color, you just need a lot less of it.

Fabio - The problem you are having with the color "changing" from day to night is a common one. The color of daylight is very different from the color of an incandescent bulb. The blue-ish light of day might be muting some of the qualities you find emerge at night. The use of a dimmer, yellow, warm tone, or natural off white fabric shades will only add to the difference. I would start by changing all the bulbs in the room to Reveal bulbs. There are also bulbs manufactured to exactly match daylight, but most find them to be too blue. If you almost always have your lights dimmed down, try replacing the bulbs with a lower wattage bulb instead of using the dimmer. Dimming the lights adds warm tones to the light. A lower wattage bulb will keep the light more "white" while still allowing you to create the desired ambience. If your shades are a warm tone, these could also be the culprit.

I suggest painting the wall with the door all white or cream, leave the bookshelves, even get a sheer fabric for the window in the target color.
If you must, leave the stripe on the wall and paint that top edge in the target color. The color of the couch doesn't seem to go with the room at all. Maybe something in cream or white would work. The fur pillows are kind of pulling heavily on the room while it would be nicer to focus on bringing lightness to the room. You know, make the color a happy color and not some drab room thats been smoked in for years. I like the pillows in Amenity.com which seem to go well with these colors.

I believe the brown with the yellow is the problem. I found this link, http://www.casadelalma.com/index.html on Desire to Inspire, check it out.

It seems if you switch the brown to another strong color it will probably work, also keep in mind you do not want a color that will bring out the red undertones that give it that orange look at night.

I painted my bathroom a very similar color with bright white trim and an ultramarine door. It looks great, but admittedly it is a small room.

The other thing to consider is that a room full of color sort of "self-amplifies" itself. So, if the match color was a standard one, perhaps consider repainting the room in the next color down on the color chip. It won't match the label directly, but the room's appearance will do what you were hoping it would.

The only other thing to keep in mind is that that Veuve label color does indeed have quite a bit of pinkness to it... so perhaps a color with slightly less red will work better for you.

As for the room in general, I think getting some white down into the room will bring the whole thing together better (and incorporate the white molding into the overall scheme). You can bring white in in swanky ways that will go with the modern lounge-y vibe you seem to have going.

Perhaps not useful in this case, but just to make note of it: I once painted a room this color--or, a bit more accurately, the color of the line down the middle of the road, as a friend described it--and painted the wood floor a bright, shiny white. On the floor I put a Chinese silk rug with a rich dark blue background, a dark brass-colored border, and many teals, roses, crimsons, and greens in the pattern. The furniture was mostly antiques, plus a couch slipcovered in snowy white, heavy linen. When I announced I was going to do this, my friends ran around holding their heads and screaming. They were shocked to find it was gorgeous. I enjoyed their apologies. . . .

eewww. i'm in agreement with indira, hdtex, itsthehouseshow and michaelc. definately not a color you can live with for a long period of time. looking at the photo is iritating enough. one thing i would do, is add at least one more shelf to the wall, and mount them closer together. they also need some more interesting knick-knacks/books, etc. the propping now is sort of flat/uninteresting.