Colour Me Tolerable

[undyingking]

I have no sense at all for colours that go together (as a few of you have kindly reminded me in the past...), so I'm hoping some of the less taste-challenged among you may be able to help me with a colour choice.

We're been redecorating our library room, a small squarish attic room with a dormer window facing NNW. The walls are Pugin Red, the glosswork and ceiling are white. The curtain material is a red, gold and beige vertical stripe thing. The idea was to achieve a costy womb-like atmosphere -- of course, the walls will mostly be covered with books so they're of all sorts of colours.

My question is, what sort of carpet should I go for? My immediate thought of a supporting colour(s) which will help brighten up the room a bit was gold -- but that sounds a bit nightmarish for a carpet. T suggested oatmeal, which I guess is the universal-recipient of carpet colours, but I'd like something more interesting than that if poss.

Any thoughts?

Comments

[zandev.livejournal.com]

This doesn't directly help you, but on the subject of colours I was quite impressed by:

Kuler

Which is a flash colour combination picker.

[caffeine-fairy.livejournal.com]

I'd go for the dark indigo on that colour pallet. Goes beautifully with red and will really enhance the richness of the walls and curtains.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is very nice!

Although using it completely does my head in.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Oo, interesting idea, I hadn't thought about blues at all.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

My twopennorth: gold is a difficult colour for a very textured thing like a a carpet. It would probably feel mustardy or ochrey instead. Even though that red isn't a very saturated red, I reckon it would feel like too many strong colours in one room. I'd go for something to tone with the beige - beige, oatmeal, or similar - because it will make the room feel a lot bigger and lighter, and won't draw the eye in the way that a yellow would. I know beige is dull, but red is a strong statement for a room already, so better to have one strong statement than two statements shouting over each other.

[caffeine-fairy.livejournal.com]

The first flat Gary and I had together, the bedroom had dark red walls and a dark blue ceiling. It was absolutely beautiful, very full on, but beautiful.

As an alternative, have you thought about wood flooring at all?

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

I think T might be right about the oatmeal. Something in the beige range would disappear against your other colours. Anything more exciting might scream at them.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I did, but I don't think the budget will stretch to real wood (unfortunately the floorboards are in pretty poor shape, so I can't just expose them) and I don't know if laminate would have that cosy feel about it...

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, I see what you're saying, that sounds pretty wise.

[caffeine-fairy.livejournal.com]

Cork is nice and relatively cheap, and gives a sort of wood feel. I agree about laminate, I don't like it much.

It's worth trawling freecycle for wood flooring if it's a fairly small space, people quite often have leftovers...

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I have seen a sort of oatmeal-with-gold-bits (cornmeal?) which might also pick up the gold in the curtain, or do you think that would be OTT?

[glittertigger]

I'd second this. It isn't a huge room and the red is a strong statement already.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

The idea was to achieve a costy womb-like atmosphere

I can point you to quite a number of home furnishing retailers you specialise in costy merchandise !

As far as colours go it depends on how adventurous you're trying to be. If you simply want to avoid a disaster, a mid charcoal grey is probably the way to go.

The oatmeal colour various people have suggested is similarly quite a safe choice (although I'd tend more towards the orange part of the spectrum - likely to be called something like 'biscuit').

However, it's possible you could get away with a much more striking effect if you were prepared to risk potential awfulness. Are your bookcases light or dark wood ? If the former, some kind of rich maroon colour might work for the carpet, aiming for a sort of "East India Company smoking room" effect. If the latter, possibly something like chocolate brown.

If you can get some digital photos of the room I'm happy to produce mockups in Photoshop.

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

There's clearly only one colour choice.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I've used the Kuler app linked by zandev above to generate those last two. Type "bookcase" into the search box.

The colours are as follows:

Swatch 1: Pugin Red (roughly)
Swatch 2: Potential carpet
Swatch 3: Guesstimated colour of bookcases
Swatch 4: Guesstimated colour of gold bits in curtains
Swatch 5: Guesstimated colour of red bits in curtains

Didn't bother adding the white, 'cos it's unlikely to clash.

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

Yep, purely from the description, I'd have said a rich chocolate brown too (if anything, red-hued rather than grey/green/ochre-hued through - most browns do seem to fall into one of these IME)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

The bookcase colour is up for grabs atm -- they're being made in pine, but they can be waxed to a range of colours. My tendency is towards a light (naturalish) colour.

The other thing I should have mentioned is that this is also the overflow spare bedroom, and it includes a futon / sofa of a mid-purple/chocolatey colour.

Biscuit colour sounds good (mm, biscuits!), are you talking about this sort of colour (although that one isn't mealy)?

No digial camera here alas, thanks for the offer though!

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Yes, roughly that sort of colour.

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

I like that. I think it might go very well.

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

I'd endorse the biscuit choice.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Aha, excellent!

I've tweaked it to reflect the actual colours of the walls and curtains, and my preferred bookcase colour -- see 'Bookcases by Mo'. To my untutored eye, your potential carpet still fits in pretty well...

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

And it won't show the crumbs -- very practical.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

bateleur's colour on the Kuler mockup is a sort of maroonish brown... see what you think, if you can access that from where you are atm...

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Yup, that works for me too.

[atomweaver.livejournal.com]

Is bamboo at all popoular in the UK, for a flooring option? They sell it almost as cheap as laminate in our local Home Despot.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

It's not very common, and isn't in any of the flooring shops in Ipswich, so I hadn't considered it. But a quick web search suggests it's fairly cheap here too, and I've found an online place that'll send through samples, so I might get some to check out -- thanks for the idea!