I'll probably just be the first in a long line to ask you: why bother with your mother-in-law opinion????

I have a 2-month girl and totally hate the pink-purple scheme that is all around nowadays. So I went for a blue-lime-chocolate-cream palete instead, and, when told about my plans, guess what she ask another member of the family, right in front os my bare eyes: "I dont like it, do you?".

grrrr

Anyway, I went for it and glad I did it - it's super chic and completely unique for my little girl.

Go for your colors. It's your house. Maybe your spouse's opinion is worth hearing.

But I say just maybe (rsrsrsrrs).

Assuming that the "We" in "We just purchased" was not you and your mother-in-law, paint it what you like. Color is never bad if you like it. I know you have seen posts on AT where people have used totally skittle colors and they have turned out WOW!!

First of all, it's YOUR house. You will be living there she will be visiting! ;) So stick with what you (and your husband) like. As for my opinion: pale colors might be boring. I'd go with a mid-range shade, too dark might be cave-like. Good luck!!

I don't see any problem using color, especially if that's what you like, but I really like the grey tones in some of your pictures.

Since there is a lot of molding and some built-ins, could you do some more neutral colors and add pops of color in the molding, flooring or furnishings?

Also, it's nice that you want to consider your future-mother-in-law's opinions but isn't it more important that you and your future spouse love the house and color scheme?

Color can make a home seem rich and inviting - pick the ones you love, and your house will make you happy!

And that is the whole point of this exercise, isn't it?

It's hard to choose paint colors not knowing what your furniture & art looks like. But the only people who's opinion matters should be the occupants!

If you have a central room that the others enter off of, paint the central room in a neutral even if it's dark & rich, so that it will work with all the other colors you choose.

Craftsman style houses were the original open floor plans (I have one too, but with the original oak woodwork unpainted). I can see every room in the house, including the upstairs bedroom, if I stand in the center of the dining room with all the doors open. It looks like you have several of those 'see into each other' rooms, too. So a cohesive color plan is a necessity.

Pick a fabric whose colors you LOVE - one with several colors, of course. Use that fabric in the space a couple of times (a pillow, a runner on the table, curtains) and then pull your other colors from your fabric - wall colors, other fabrics (in solids and not too matchy prints - I like small scale ones that read as solids) and accessories. You can use a reproduction fabric from the era of your house (which is what I did), or a cute vintage fabric with the kitchen red in it.

With all due respect to your mil, a neutral pallet with all that white woodwork will probably be pretty drab.

I say paint it the colors you want, it's YOUR house. If your husband to be has a problem with the colors, that would be different. Tell your MIL that you appreciate her input but have decided to go with what you had planned.

I don't think color is tacky or gauche, and certainly not for a bungalow. When I looked into paint options for my own bungalow I found that colors of the period were deep and rich. I got good ideas from the Sherwin Williams historic collection palettes, and if you google around or look at books you'll find lots of good color options.

Besides, while it does take work, it's not that difficult to repaint if you don't like the result. :)

Consider painting everything white and adding bright colors through art work, pillows etc.
I just think that looks really fresh and fun...
but it is YOUR house have fun with what ever you decide to do!

i would go with neutral. sometimes in-laws are nosy, sometimes they are right. Neverless, there seems to be a lot going on with the brick, green and white checked floor, wood flooring, and decorative window panels. Since your cute-as-can be bungalow (jealous) seems a bit narrow, using the same hues of a neutral may bring a little more cohesiveness to some of the rooms without being boring.

Paint it whatever you want - seems like it might keep her from visiting! If her need to tell you how to decorate your house is any indication...that might be a good thing. :)

Hey Mary;
I live in a bungalow like yours, except the woodwork is unpainted oak in the main rooms. Since bungalows can have limited light, I have found that I needed to paint several samples of color and watch them throughout the day. Rich complex tones seem to work the best; wan colors and neutrals have a tendency to look flat and dated.

My daughter's West/South facing room is Pratt and Lambert's Flower of Passion (a lemongrass color) that looks much brighter on the swatch than it does on the wall. Benjamin Moore's pear green is in the north facing bedroom. I ended up going brighter in that room because the palm color I originally wanted looked gloomy.

The dining room is a vibrant turquoise, the foyer is colorwashed in red oxide, and the living room is mango. So, I'm all for bright colors, I guess. When we bought the house, it was painted soft white, which looked depressing in these small rooms. I think the neutrals that soften edges in bigger homes can make bungalows feel gloomy. If you check out publications like Old House Journal, Style 1900, and This Old House, you will see that the original color palettes were quite bright, albeit still natural in tone. Ochres, Oxides, Greens and soft yellows really pop in a bungalow. Avoid artificial or neon looking colors. Eggshell paint gives a nice sheen to the plaster walls, and help reflect light. It does not disguise as well as flat paint, but if I had drywall I would have bought drywall.
Hope that helps, and enjoy your new home!

YOUR house, paint it any color you want. Why is your mother in law involve in this?

I think it's important that your home be a reflection of you. If bright colors are you, and the idea of neutral walls make you wince, then bright colors it is! There are few things worse than not feeling 'at home' in your own home.
Have fun with it, and if you need ideas about how to pull the bright colors together brows through decorating mags, websites and paint stores for ideas.
Your new place is great, btw!

I would think there are a couple things to consider (besides not offending your MIL):

1. Consider the floor. Unless you are going to change the flooring, I would try to compliment the floor colors. I see gorgeous wood in most the house that is a light brown in tone. I also notice the green/tan check in the kitchen dining room. I don't want to go against what you love, but you might consider painting those two rooms a compliment to the floor (again, unless you are going to change it). I green compliment would be nice in the kitchen. and a tan (yes, neutral, I know - but the floor is a statement) in the dining room. If you are leaving the wood flooring, I would opt for shades that reflect its warmth (colors that are warm vs. cool).

2. Your furniture. Unless you are planning a great big overhaul of your belongings, look at them all carefully and decide what tones you already have. If you have all black painted wood furniture, I would stay away from dark wall colors or very brights true colors (like true red, true green, true yellow) - the rooms may be too strong if you have strong colored furniture and also strong wood colors. Chances are the rooms are smaller and you want to open them up and not make them feel cramped and small - which is what too many strong colors will do.

3. as one post already mentioned, most craftsmen style houses are like open books. Every room can be seen from every other room. Its important, if you want to feel relaxed in your house, to make sure it flows from one room to another. This does not mean all neutrals, but complimenting shades. if you paint your bathroom yellow, for example, perhaps your bedrooms should either be different shades of that same yellow or a shade of green with yellow accents. when I lived in a craftsman house, I painted my dining room deep fall orange. It was amazing. because you could look from the living room through the dining room and into the kitchen, I painted the livingroom a neutral burlap color and accented with orange and the kitchen a pale green and accented with the burlap brown and the orange. It flowed nicely. (sounds hideous, i know).

4. Consider using your strong colors as the accents. You might have the urge to paint each room a different color, but I would suggest you direct that urge to your accents. I would paint all your walls complimenting colors - perhaps even the same color but different shade (one bedroom is dark grey blue, one bed room is a lighter version of the same color). And use your desired color (purple, bright green, yellow, orange, firehouse red) as the accent in that particular room. Throw pillows, throw blankets, light fixtures, paintings, a painted piece of furniture - are all great ways to introduce strong vibrant colors without overpowering the space. It also means if you change your mind later, you don't have to re-paint.

Your place is cute. You said you wanted to go with rich colors and were worried your colors were Skittles-ish. I haven't seen any Skittles that were rich colors. Color is great but if you are uncertain hire a color consultant. Sounds like you just want some reassurance about your ideas and a color consultant could tell steer you in a good direction.

Your home, your colors.
Or perhaps you would prefer to live with someone else's choices. But then the question (and exercise) is no longer about color.

Your mother in law might be over the line and she might be being helpful. My sister in law who is 15 years younger than me painted her kitchen cabinets a dark red and her walls kind of a gold color. She loves fall colors which is fine but I knew it was going to be too dark. But I decided to not be a budinsky and figured either she would like it or she would learn by her mistake (according to me!). She repainted the kitchen walls white and we still love each other.

I say give the color a shot and tell mom in law that you want to experiment but appreciate her advice. This is not worth a full out fight but you want to assert yourself a bit or picking baby names is going to be hell!

Are you keeping your red brick fireplace? I have a 1910s/20s bungalow and my living room looks exactly like that and I really don't like the red bricks but at the same time I don't know if I really want to paint them. I wonder if there's any sort of surround I could just glue on that wouldn't ruin the bricks

My suggestion is this: You're the one who has to live there, so do what you want to do. As long as your significant other is fine with the color scheme, it's none of your MiL's business. You put up with her beige when you visit her, I'm sure. She can put up with your skittles when she visits.

I personally love that style home with rich, warm colors--reds, oranges, golds! I think they complement the bungalow feeling. Go for it!

Hi all, Mary here! Thanks so much for 1-your support regarding my well-meaning but opinionated (to say the least) MIL, and 2-your extremely thoughtful, helpful suggestions! Seriously, there are some fantastic ideas in this comment feed.

We're thinking about taking the advice of several commenters and choosing bright but natural-looking colors that are historically appropriate. Not at all skittles-ish (I think that was a poor descriptor). And some neutral rooms and details to keep it from getting out of control.

Thanks again, fiance and I will follow up with pics of the final result in a few weeks!

Just one more thing to consider -- dark or bright colors might make the rooms fee smaller (maybe cozier, maybe not.) Light colors tend to feel more expansive. You should do what makes you happy, but this might be a time to try out one of those colorizer programs that let you apply colors to a photo of your room to try out before actually painting. You could be surprised.

(I went with lemon pie yellow once and in the stairway to the actual room, the yellow glow bouncing off the parallel walls was overwhelming -- we had to fix it. And while "it's just paint" is true, having to immediately RE-paint is still a pain in the butt!)

If the red color over the brick fireplace is reading close to true, I would change that, if it were me. The bricks are more orange/brown, and that cool red doesn't look nice with them. (If you love red, I'd head for a warmer red. In the Library we are about to redecorate, we are using Benjamin Moore "Georgian Brick" around out fireplace. More a rusty red-orange than what you seem to have...)

I love color in my house. Go for it.

PS Apartment Therapy should do some history lessons in decor. In a nutshell, during the Renaissance, color was king. There couldn't be enough colors used together. Skip ahead two centuries, and most of that color had faded to beige on beige. Most people who had inherited these great homes and apartments couldn't afford to redo them in the 19th century, so muted colors became all the rage. (Everyone had it, and it was free.) Fast forward to today, and it is still fashionable to live in spaces that look like all the color has faded away.

I grew up in one of those stylish beige homes, which is properly called 'butter'. I hated it. I couldn't wait to move, and have a house with color, and I have. I love Monticello Rose from Benjamin Moore, and have used it in every house or apartment I have owned. It is so soothing. I paint everything rose except the kitchen. In my last house, I had two rose baths, one lined with rose Turkish tile. I still miss that destination bath and Jacuzzi. Best bath ever.

Good luck Mary! I'm excited to see the final result.

Btw, this could be a good resource:

http://www.historicstyle.com/williammorris/wallpapers/index.html

Even if you don't like wallpaper you might draw color inspiration from it.

A neutral palette with dark trim thoughout would look interesting, and make the space appear larger.

your house looks adorable, congrats!

i agree with everyone who said "it's your house, paint it what you want!"

if you truly like bold colors start researching historic craftsman color palettes, lots of deep reds and greens if i recall.
that way, when you have her over in your newly bold painted house you can come back at her judgemental statements with a "well, it's an historically accurate color for this style of home..." and you're golden.

I side with the urban girl - paint the house using the rich colours, it will keep her from visiting!
:-)

But seriously, it's your house, not hers and it's you who will live there. Paint the house so that YOU (and your DH) are happy in it. Don't let her have a say in how you decorate your house.

I'd be curious to know what's under the white paint on the trim. Deep, saturated colors with original (refinished, if necessary) wood would be fantastic, but with white trim it might feel, as you put it, "Skittles-ish".

I love the red of the kitchen. There is enough beige and white in the world for those who love it. Go with color.

If you want to "be true" to the age and style of the house, you may want to look at some of the many books on bungalows (library or bookstore for browsing) as well as American Bungalow and Style 1900 magazines, to see the various ways people interpret the style. YOu will find everything from neutrals to deep rich tones, so this may give you a chance to get a feel for the range of choices as well as for what you really like. Since your woodwork is white, you have a bit more flexibility I think--our 1929 house has the original finish woodwork and it sort of helped choose its colors (mostly sagey greens and golds in our place).

Have fun with this!

color is so in. and look at that house. you have so much interest to work with. do you read makingitlovely.com ? she is a great example of balancing bright, pastel and neutrals.

don't wake up ten years from now and realize you lived in a beige box. if you want colorful walls, have them. you can cut the color with the items you hang on the wall and the furnishings.

proceed with your plan.

anyway, i vote teal for that fireplace wall. there's so much light and the color will pimp that brick, the white moldings and the shutters.

Don't listen to your mother-in-law. (It's a little rude to impose your taste on someone else... there. I said it.) My favorite apartments on this site are the ones with bright turquoise. The second I'm a home owner, I'm getting bright turquoise walls. Behr's website has some cool simulation options. Check it out!

Tell your MIL to MHOB...
...and when she comes over and sees all the colors you've chosen for her home and says something along the lines of "This looks better than I thought it would", simply reply "I know"

Yield an inch to an invasive family member and her unreasonable demands will become increasingly inappropriate. Set limits now by painting your home as you please. Besides, it'll be an opportunity to observe your fiance--the conflict and his handling of it may be deal-breakers.

Any color you like

Do what you want. You're paying the mortgage. I normally like saturated intense colors used judiciously. I this case, I'm inclined to go with watery colors like bottle green, blue gray, silver green and rainy.
Or you could research the colors that were popular when the bungalow was built. If I recall correctly, the colors were a bit faded. Have you been to the site with the kodak color photos from the Great Depression? They're stunning. There's one of a farmer driving a horse drawn wagon through a peach orchard. Here's the pic:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/05/18/article-1388179-0C1EC7B700000578-447_470x423_popup.jpg

You can find more photos from the time your house was built in this story about the rare color photographs from that era.

Your mother-in-law doesn't have to live there, now does she? Paint whatever colors you want and don't look back. Let her win on this one and you'll be kissing her ass for the rest of your life.

Do you.

With reasonably high ceilings and white trim, you can afford to use bolder colours.

Personally I'd like to see the walls flanking the red chimney painted and ocre-y shade of orange.

Try going to your local paint stores/paint sections in hardware stores and asking for their "historic collection" - these are usually tones from the early 1900s through the 60s and have a couple dozen options. If you choose one strong neutral, let's say a cream or silver-gray, then you can start selecting other colors from there. Strong palettes work best with only 3 or 4 colors (besides the neutral) throughout the whole house. Have fun with it and imagine your home as a live-in museum...what colors would make you feel great AND give a nod to the home's past?

Do what you like. And if what you decided on did not come out the way you like, then do it again. And again if necessary. Part of the fun of having your own place is being able to experiment with paint and decorating.

I painted my Craftsman living room a medium purple that actually became a neutral next to all of my grey furniture and dark wood molding/floors. Everyone who sees it loves it. I say go with what you love. She can live with neutrals in her own home.