For the better part of a month now, we've been watching colorful room, after colorful room whiz by! It's been a festival of personality and excitement, but certain colors aren't meant for everyone. We often times hear the phrase, "It's pretty, but that would never work in my house." Is there a color that makes you cringe? Which ones...
We have a hard time saying no to any color, we're color junkies and we're pretty sure there's a 12 step program for that at this point in time (either that or we're destined to join the circus). But we know that there are those who just can't get behind certain colors. For some it's pink, others it's purple and for many, it's black.
(Image: Flickr member unleashingmephotography licensed for use by Creative Commons)

White Enamel Flatwa...
blue and grey
No color is off limits as far as I'm concerned. Well, mint or sea foam green, perhaps. And peach.
We painted our bathroom pink. Worst color decision ever. I thought I liked pink, but I was oh so wrong. So I have to say pink.
Mint green is bad, as is pepto pink.
Chartreuse and other shades of yellowish green. I disobeyed my lease by painting because I just couldn't stand to sleep in a bedroom that color. I also probably couldn't stand neon walls, but I have yet to encounter those as a renter!
orange and most pinks
Pepto pink and that institutional muddy-grey green that is often used in schools. {Shiver}
I find it funny how anti-black walls and furniture people can be. Black, done properly, it can be beautiful and dramatic. I had a black living room for years, but with a white ceiling, wide white casings, a good lighting scheme and light toned wood floors, it was far from dark or oppressive. Everything of color in the room just popped because of the high contrast level. Definitely the most "show home" looking room I've ever done, and my husband loved how dark we could make it for movie watching!
As a young broke student, I painted my share of apartments bold dramatic hues. Now that I'm at a point in my life where I have investment quality pieces of furniture in neutrals, color can be added and changed quickly and inexpensively with paint, pillows and accessories. And in these smaller doses, I think I could learn to love almost any shade.
On the walls I only have one real limit. Perhaps it's because my Mom subjected me to serious pink overkill when I was young, but I will NEVER have a pink room in my home again, as long as I live!!
While I like army green for clothes, I despise it in decor. something about it really depresses me.
I also dislike peach and most pastels in general.
country blue and mauve ... the choice of country kitchens across the blackbelt
hunter green and peach ... a more "sophisticated" but tragic color combo - blech!
Orange
Pastel shades (except for blues and yellows). Loud primary colors without any nuance. I also hate chartreuse, hospital green, and most shades of pink.
Dusty rose! Some people call it mauve. BARF!!!
most pastels- especially baby blue and pink.
Red, I can't stand it. Red walls always look cheap to me even when they are in old, embelished homes it looks a little too "new money" for my taste.
Beige.
peach!
i think with the right styling and pieces, i could live with any color. the color i am least likely to choose is yellow.
Pink, beige, and anything neon except blue.
Not a fan of beige or brown.
(wood being the exception)
YELLOW! It represents "crazy" to me for some reason -- maybe I was Vincent Van Gogh in a past life. In fact, any time I have found myself in a room with yellow walls, my personality actually changes and I become hyper and, I must admit, quite bitchy. I have discovered that I can go back to being my perfectly wonderful and relatively calm self immediately by just leaving the room.
hunter green, any primary colors. Also no thank you to coral red
Peach, institution green, mauve. Ew.
we are anti-color.... black, grey, and white are our favorites. We can deal with beige and chocolate too. as for bright colors, we prefer fire engine red.
that being said, we have an authentic danish modern living room with a bright orange knoll chair. We're fine with that orange. Unfortunately, our kitchen is currently "vintage" too... and harvest gold (bleh!).
we absolutely detest blue, pink, and yellow rooms. While I wear plenty of green and purple, I would never want them in a room (unless it's white furniture with a kelly green accent wall). our winter/spring projects include de-bluing and de-yellowing most of our home...... we're replacing most of it with silver grey and white.
Mauve, bandaid pinkish beige, and the wrong yellow.
That orangey/copper that seems to be the new, trendy car color. No thank you!
There's a particular range of yellow-orange (or is it orange-yellow?) that just makes my skin crawl...
...as well as that color of peachy-beige that the US military uses to paint EVERYTHING that doesn't move.
When it comes to walls or home accessories in general, I think the only color off-limits is yellow.
Pink, any colour hue they make standard ball-point pens in, flourescent colours, reds that aren't true crimson red but sort of magenta-ish, political-party or cheap logotype navy blues, khaki green.
On that particular wheel I wouldn't stand any color from 9 to 19...
Peach or mauve!
I have a pepto pink dining room right now, and am FINALLY getting to paint it this weekend! I cannot wait!
My mom surprised me with a pale baby pink room when I was 13 year old punk and I've never quite forgiven the color.
Oh, and the combination of hunter green and maroon. I feel like these colors could be fine on their own, but typically when they come together it's bad news.
Red. I can't stand red walls. Orange is a close second, but I could live with it if it were done right.
In my new house, the walls in the kitchen and family room are painted a light, creamy shade of yellow that I hate. It looks like it was supposed to be cream but came out too dark. I hate cream too-- anything in that light yellow range. Give me real color, or give me white.
bernat - YES! Hunter green and burgundy...ick. When I went off to college, Linens 'N Things must have been selling an extra-long comforter set in that combination of colors because half of my dorm had it. Those two colors together make me think of junky, smelly rooms.
Though purple has been a popular color of late, I think most purple tones are putrid. The only purple I could live with has some grey undertones... all the pinky-purples are AWFUL.
Bernat & Shux.... I hear you on burgundy. Blech!
red--pops of it are fine, but it has to be small doses
I had a lemon yellow bedroom up until last week. Not the most restful color ever....now its a lovely gray....and it doesn't give me migraines lol
Olive green.
Purple!
Every color our house was painted when we moved in - baby poop green, vomit yellow, mint green, and a dark dusty blue. Though there is a good chance the next owners will find our paint choices (lots of grey, one room in chartreuse, a warm neutral with pink undertones in the bedroom) just as questionable...
Chartreuse, the ugly grey/green institutional color on walls, pepto pink and never a fan of grey/black or lavender.
These neutral thing with beige and browns that has been going on for a resale purposes or for rentals makes me crazy. I love black, grey, white and purple-blue (from above color wheel 17,18,19) at the moment but I can't use that combo because of all the brown in the apartment I rent.
Don't mind any of the other colors if it's done right.
I would have to say flesh/nude colored walls don't work for me. If you can walk into a room and blend in...I feel that's a problem.
And creepy.
That hot mango yellow colour that was in many of the forecasts this year gives me a headache.
royal blue, hunter green, reddish orange, maroon
eeew
Primary colors
I'm not a fan of purples and pinks, but I do like orange as an accent color, primary colors as accent colors and such.
It's funny how color can have a physical effect on people. When I was very young, the color cobalt (as in Vicks Vapo Rub jars) made my stomach turn. Now the lamps in my bedroom have cobalt lamp shades!
I won't decorate with peach, mauve, or hunter green. I like icy tones like lavender and bright white. I'm also a big fan of anything with a jewel tones like ruby, sapphire, emerald or deep rich purple. I would never paint the walls hot pink but I do like it as an accent. There is way to much beige in the world!!!!
red
Large areas of grey or black.
Peach, mustard yellow, and well, most yellows, as well as forest green (ugh -- forest green and burgandy)
I detest orange and have little fondness for pink.
I can live with any color as long as it's done correctly. For example, no combos like forest green and apple red, or bright yellow and dark brown, etc.
Silver. (See post above.) Most tans and beiges. Also those mschatelaine listed, and mauve.
Mustard yellow
Yellow, tan, and most shades of green. Bleah!
Pink. No way. Which is funny, because I love bright colors, yet Pink just screams at you.
Hate any shade of pink, purple, or pastels (peach, mint, yellow). I like monochromatic colors . . . black, white, various shades of gray with a touch of red. I can even live with navy blue (forget baby or sky blue). My favorite color for interiors is WHITE.
#10-13. just not a fan of pink!
love red, purple, greens and aquas.
Purple.
Any bright day glo colors, lime green pepto bismol pink, orange.
Colors I've painted over in several of my houses - seafoam green, peach, butterscotch pudding, avocado green, rust - and colors from my childhood homes - harvest gold and brown.
I cannot abide the color yellow in decor, particularly as wall paint. I was forced twice in my renting days to live with yellow walls, and hell will freeze over before I do it again. The only place I put up with yellow by choice is in the occasional bunch of fresh flowers - they look sort of awesome in my thistle-walled dining room.
I would have said orange. And then my husband chose orange walls for our kitchen. And...it's AWESOME! Our kitchen is so cheery, and it's just really neat.
That gross greyish maroon from the 90's. ICK.
I hate accent walls. Of any color. It just seems like a lack of commitment or something. I love red but not on walls. In the bedroom it looks like a bordello, in a kitchen it looks like a butcher shop, and in a dining room it just looks too suburban and, frankly, dated. Also don't like purple, forest green, mauve, yellow, salmon, or most pinks. I prefer blues, greens, grays, creams, and accents of brighter things.
"I hate accent walls. Of any color. It just seems like a lack of commitment or something."
Full agreement with you on this.
I could live with most colors as long as they are saturated and rich. It's the watered-down, Easter pastel versions that I find annoying. That said, I don't think I would choose a bright yellow - too Yellow Submarine meets NYC taxi!
pastel pink and baby blue (not necessarily in combination)
white with a blue undertone - some paint companies call it super white
WHITE
I'm surprised I seem to be the only one who feels this way. I can't stand white walls.
Insitution green and bright orange are awful on walls. As is off-white. It makes the place look bland and ugly.
I prefer not to live with walls that are painted yellow, rental- apartment-beige, or pepto pink. Any other color could be fair game, especially if paid enough money!
it's clear that there is not one color that pleases everyone. Some colors get almost no love, like the "cheery" yellow
wow! while not totaly surprised... im intrigued as to most people's aversion to the colours I love! haha
I once hated Orange.... orange everythings.. becasue I only ever assoiciated with the accompanying migraines the fruit causes me... NOW I love it! In muted and Burnt tones only though!
Colours I cannot love are those colours that don't commit to being anything... BEIGE for instance... and off white... give me crisp clean colours please!
I lived in an apartment painted medium sky blue once - never again.
builder's beige....i like to call it 'caucasian'
yuck
Orange and brown. Wood is brown, and that's okay, but nothing painted brown and no brown textiles. Yuck. And orange is just plain horrid.
Pink, purple, teal or yellow would all be atrocious to live with.
Beige, taupe, off-white, basically anything people describe as 'neutral' (cblls: Love the 'caucasian' label!)
White walls can works, as long as it is a bold/pure white (i.e. no muddy tints), and is touched of by other strong colors
blue, grey, green, white, yellow...
yes, i'm the person who's house is painted in the dreaded shades of orange and red. it used to be some non-descript shade of toast-beige...
BLECH!
Teal
I don't think I could decorate with any (but possibly incidental bits of) yellow, orange, olive green, navy and royal blue. When I was a kid pale mint-green (the kind they used for those fluffy polyester peignoirs) gave me the creeps, now I think it's a nice color.
Red, white and blue "nautical," or not, is just tacky, to me.
definitely white - although there are lots of colors i don't like right now, that doesn't mean it won't seem retro-cool to me in 10 years or so! look how big that 80's teal has come back - and i actually like it now. i think it's about context - i wouldn't like the teal in a miami vice setting, but in a new context it can work!
any light blue, makes me feel too cold, and i HATE being cold!
i managed to paint them all in my very first appt. highlighter yellow/green kitchen. eggplant dining room looking into a peach living room with a gold shiny layer over it. pepto pink bedroom. it was hell.
also the worst color combos are hunter green an maroon.
country blue and yellow.
It is interesting how many people dislike peach, country blue, peach, mauve, or hunter green. They were the popular colors in the late 80s and well into the 90s - when, I suspect, the majority of AT readers were growing up. And that kitchen look wasn't just in the "blackbelt" either.
I grew up earlier, and I can't stand those dusty pink living room sets from the late 50s and early 60s. The shape, yes. The color and the scratchy fabric, no!
Purple, fuchsia (a violent , magenta-ish bright pink), all neon colors, and royal blue! Echhh...
yellow, orange, red
cheddar cheese yellow or pepto pink
Teal, aqua, pink-taupe and all the cool taupes, the pink-browns in general especially Band-Aid colour, pink-tinged gray, mustard.
These are just depressing, life-sucking, anti-happiness colours to me.
But I'm a person who could happily decorate with plenty of bright, sunny yellow, so feel free to ignore me.
It might have something to do with living in the Pacific NW but I cannot stand the idea of living inside gray rooms. So depressing!
Peach, all the way. And that weird rusty heritage red that so many rental bathrooms seem to be here in Australia - also Kelly/heritage green. ICK!
I love all colors, except for pink. Pink is just disgusting to me. It may look great in other's homes, but I would never even consider it in mine. Otherwise, most other colors look fine, it just matters how the decor will change how the color is perceived.
i love blue, but could never live with it... my bf and i are die hard sf giants fans... so i really can't stand dodgers blue!
i hate brown and beige... so depressive
I could never live with beige, off-white, silver, grey, navy blue, and about any shade off blue. I love purples (not blue-purple), oranges, light yellows, happy greens (not blue-green), and all shades of ink, especially bright pink. I love anything that's fun, artsy, bold, and happy. I could not live with depressing or boring colors. I get depressed fairly easily and claustrophobic. and so I'm an artist, I need inspiration.
I meant..... "of blue" and "pink" sorry about that! also someone said that light blue reminds them of the cold, and me too! I hate being cold........... I also couldn't live with white walls.... I mean white is better than the dirty off-white color that is in my bedroom that came with the house (and I've been trying to get my room painted for 15 years now, don't ask) but I do know, that one day I'm painted my kitchen a light yellow. gonna try to go with a retro 1950's theme. My favorite decades of 'decor' are the 1950's and 1970's... I know, most people don't like them.... but I just think they are just so fun and fascinating! Kitchen's these days are just usually so blah, dark wood, or light white wood, cold blue-green, beige, born and neutral.............. yeah that's really personality expressive and makes you want to eat.... not really... just makes me depressed, and not want to spend my time in the kitchen. You only live once!