Color is challenging... and yet few of us would completely forsake it to live in a white box.
Even if we wanted to, color just has a way of showing up in the form of all the stuff that winds up in our abodes, invited or not.
Sometimes you inherit a color scheme, and sometimes it just evolves naturally through the choices you make over time. Regardless, there's usually a given that sets a color scheme in motion: the brown wall-to-wall carpet that came with your rental or the bright red sofa you fell in love with and had to have even though nothing you owned matched. As we said, color just has a way of showing up.
I would LOVE to paint my walls but my landlord is in strong opposition to this. I was going to drape the walls with fabric but it turned out to be harder than I thought & since my apartment is so small (typical 1 bedroom in SF) it just made the rooms seem even smaller (not to mention the fact that all that fabric was costly). If anyone has suggestion please let me know.
I voted "accessories," then reflected that if p(too) can insist that white is a color, than surely I can insist that beige is a color.
Direct quote from husband: "Of course you like the desert. It's your favorite color."
I live in a rental, so I realized that if I wanted color, I would have to bring it with me. I have been painting my thrift-found furniture since then. Once you add artwork and accessories you can end up with very colorful rooms despite the off-white walls.
jinsanfran-
i'm in the same boat as you. what about covering a really, really big canvas with fabric or wallpaper samples? i know it may be a bit "done" at this point, at least, according to some people, but the canvases are easy to make and customize, and because they're not too heavy, all you need is a nail or two to balance the canvas on, so minimal damage to the wall.
depending on what color furniture you have, you may not need color walls. like, at some point, there may be too much color, and things are competing. colored furniture, colored walls, colored curtains, colored accessories, etc. may be a bit much.
Definitely walls here.
When we moved in, our kitchen was a black and white hell.
http://photos.imageevent.com/bats/houserenovations/Previous%20Owners%20Kitchen%201a.JPG
We changed a lot of small things but wall color made the biggest difference.
http://photos.imageevent.com/bats/houserenovations/Kitchen%202006a.JPG
(not sure if these long URLS will work)
Well the long urls worked... but you have to past both lines into your browser address bar.