apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I don't have a specific color in mind, but I would suggest they check out Benjamin Moore's Affinity color palette in the Aura formulation. We mainly used those when we painted our home--the colors are very beautiful and they all work together. The color palette is limited (the fan deck only has 144 colors) so there are fewer choices (a good deal in my book). A few that we used and liked: fondant, peau de soie, kona, atmospheric, buttered yam. The only caveat I have is that the range of yellows is quite limited.

Hard to say with a room that has both red and blue in its color palate! (perhaps you could get her to go either warm or cool and get rid of the alternate color?) With the red, cream, and gold, sounds like she'd prefer more warm. Maybe a brown tone? Suede?

Though, looking at the pics, the color that comes to mind to paint would be a sage color.

Behr paint has a computer program for $5 that you can download your photos and paint the room with any of their paints. That's where I'd start.

Okay, in the living room, your mother needs to take a close look at her rug. There's probably a golden tone in it, and that needs to be the majority of the lower walls. That kind of color will knock back the shelves, and the assorted shelves and collections will settle down. Go cream on the upper wall and ceiling. Now take the red from the rug and use that for the fireplace accent wall.

Don't worry about leaving blue in the room -- it's also in the rug and will be fine. Your parents aren't aiming for a sleek modern feel, and the red-cream-gold-blue is compatible with their style.

I'd be tremendously tempted to do the dining room in the blue. That's contrary to the wisdom of doing dining rooms in red (which is also a possibility), but I think it might work because the blue in your parents' furniture looks like a rich, Americana blue rather than a soothing blue.

Thanks, you guys! I'll pass the suggestions on to my mother. wende in phoenix, I think you grok my parents' style - I really like your ideas and I bet they will too.

I've also been trying to get them to cut down on clutter, but that's harder. :)

I would have to say I would stick with the neutral current colors, anything else would be too busy in addition to all the "stuff"...

i'm seeing 2 things, for some reason...in the living room, keeping a base color on most of the walls as some sort of gold/grey neutral (pale), a warm gray picture rail, and above the picture rail, 1" even vertical stripes of ivory and either hunter green or dark sage. (they'll end up looking like a not-too-cluttery texture with a little color to it)

in the kitchen, the wall with the window on it would look great bright red (above the window and below the windowsill. i love bright red with that maple/birch wood tone.

that's just what comes to mind.

I would paint everything a white/offwhite,ie BM-OC45including the fireplace and bookcase-this room is way too hectic-do the trim(fireplace etc) in a semi gloss and walls in a fllat-by trim I mean all woodwork even the doors and built ins... To add a dash of colour paint the ceiling ( down to the picture rail) in a soft warm blue ie BM -HC147
This will not close in the room at all but add some interest-the unifying color on the walls/trim will help to visually declutter the spaces-adding some soft drapery panels in a color similar to the walls or a mix of the wall/ceiling color will warm and soften the space -lose the afghan shawl, get some bigger artwork for over the sofa ( hung lower) and put about half of those books in storage(or to goodwill)