The Color Blue.. Help

Blue is a cool color. Ok, so I have never liked rooms painted blue because it just feels sooo cold and uninviting.... I like warm colors, like yellows and burgandies and greens..and sometimes peach...and creams and just any "warm" color....

I guess I was thinking of crystal blue snow/ice when I picked these colors. Sure does feel like winter inside. All I need is a pair of ice skates and a sled for a sofa and I'd be in winter wonderland...

Ok so we decide to paint the area where I am currently living.. And would you believe I picked Blue colors. I don't know why I picked blue..Kind of like when I bought the blue sofa and hated it. Anyway, I painted some today and it is so darn ugly.. and the colors I think put me in a cold mood.. Like I want to fight or something ..

So I need help... Are there any "contrasting" colors that I could use to warm down the cool blues? I thought of getting lots of green hanging plants.. and maybe I should paint white or purple clouds in the blues.. But, I am not that creative.. and I don't have money for plants..

The guy upstairs paid for the paint.. as he is the owner.. I told him lets go back to the cream. The original color. He said he likes the blue. I said I would paint his room blue..He said he didn't want his room blue...shrugs shoulders ..

Is there a way to use colors to "warm" up blues????

I dunno.. can colors really put folks in different moods? or could I just not like blue and blaming my mood on the blues. Gessh, I even painted part of the ceiling an icy blue. God... what was I thinking???

lol....wow. all those blues. color can affect mood. it's not that you don't like the color blue. one time, i had a pair of sunglasses with blue tints. i wore it one day, and it put me into a strange blue mood. yeah.

reds (bright red, not dark), oranges, golds can be a really good contrast for the "blue-ness" of a room. you can get cloths, like curtains, throws, rugs, etc to give the room some warmth. if it's not enough, you can get cloths to hang on the walls that would help, too. i just use thumbtacks to hang them. hope this helps.

hmm I never thought of bright reds and oranges. Thanks for the good ideas....Looking at my coffee cup which happens to have Christmas designs on it and umm would you believe there are cool blues and red and greens and it does look nice. Red is a nice idea...

wondering if by chance there are colors one could add to the blue paint to change the colors to something more desirable?

I really made a mess of things. I am so irked with me... I know better or so I thought.

Check this out!

Color Schemes

Hey Petunia.. Where was this site when I needed it.. lol

I painted my blue room there and played with the oranges and reds and golds.. Reds and golds looks pretty nice. Different for sure.. but nicer than all blue..

Gonna play there some more. I should have stuck to painting online than painting real walls.

Smilen now.. thanks Petunia...

How about some tans and chocolate brown? Thats a big trend now too. I love those colors together!!

colors... really affect my mood... it "throws" my whole balance off.. sooo I know what you mean..

another good idea.. tans n choc brown. Will take your suggestion to the "paint gallery" and see how they look with blues. Thanks for the suggestion...

I did not paint the whole room yet. All I see tho is blues.. blues top to bottom. Not a pleasing sight for sure. Three/Four different shades of blue. I am rather shocked at myself for doing this.... shocked and teary eyed.

Wow.. folks understand my dilemma..makes me feel all this color business is not "all in my head".. I can say my "mood" has been off balance all day. Edgy, cranky and teary eyed. What a mess I am..

I painted my son's basement apartment such a nice color. Greens and peach . It isn't peach ,., not even in that category, but I call it peachy .. Is soo warm and inviting...

I have painted rooms blue before and always hated the results. I know better. I know I am not a blue room kind of person.. Yet I painted not one shade of blue, but three.. I hope by tomorrow I can laugh at all of this and pull myself together and figure something out.. Something has got to give/change or something..

Here's a color wheel for you. The colors exactly opposite of the blues you used can be used as accent colors. Have fun!

Hey September.. Thanks for the color wheel.. My head is swimming with colors.. OO lordy.. colors n more colors. I think I shall go to bed and sleep on it..

I don't mean to make such a big deal out of these blue walls. I mean, there r more things more serious than blue walls. Just.. ... well anyway......my head hurts, lol... Going to bed..

yeah, we all do something silly in life that we look back and go "what in the heck were we thinking?" and we laugh about it, if it's not so serious, you know?

It is always good when we can laugh at ourselves. As a good sense of humor always comes in handy....

Looks like "men" are not affected by colors.. As I tried to explain to the guy upstairs, all he could do was say, it is a pretty color and kept giving me that "look", like are you nuts or something. lol Looks like the blue stays and mega colors of contrast added.. oooo well......just a hint of hope still.. just maybeeeeeeeee his mother will visit and say how awful it looks.. haha

Life is good...

Radio~

I was just to the place I used to work to get my hair done today. This week is her 20th anniversary of owning the salon and she redecorated the place by putting up new curtains, cushions for the wicker chairs, and other accessories. She did it in blues and warm golds/ browns. OMG it is sooooooooo cool!!!! If you want I am going back up there Thursday and can take some pictures of it. I am telling you this looks very nice and kind of sophisticated. But warm and welcoming. Let me know for sure. Her Blue was like in the H section on Septmorns wheel there and the golds( between D and E / browns are like on D.

ooo yes, please take a picture. I would love to see the color combination together... ty so much ... I can't wait to see the pictures......

Very kind of you to do this for me.. and I appreciate this soo very much...

Its no problem Radio!! If I didnt think this could help I wouldnt have said anything. But the combination was soo neat!!! I understand these dilemmas myself lol. Although after thought out .. I do have to say I do an ok job of decorating my home. I am doing some earthy greens in my dining room this fall. Just gotta get the husband in the mood to take wallpaper down for me and do the painting up high. I can do the part down lower. But he is such a procrastinator about this stuff!!! I am doing iron and wood decorations in there too. Love that combination with my quilts as the " pictures" . So I gotta get busy and make some more up!! LOL. I got lots of projects upstairs to work on.. just need to get motivated .

I took several interior design courses at the local community college....one of the classes was all about colour.

Blue is a difficult colour to work with, but when you get into it, there is quite a lot that can be done....like the colour wheels show how the colours blend & then the best is a large contrast. I was looking through the colour book & saw a photo of fall trees against the blue sky. Shows how in nature, the browns, golds, yellows, & greens all go contrast so well with blue.

I was also thinking about using a border around the ceiling, or even maybe using a pretty stencil with flower. They have stencils that are vines & then add bright colour flowers to that.....along with that, the accents, like throws & pillows pick up the brighter colours & then it makes the blue like the sky....just the background to paint your world against.

Then again, you can look at a sunset at the beach.....those colours. The sunset colours or oranges & purples & yellows in the clouds against the blue ocean & tan sand.

I know you said you don't have much money & this suggestion is costs some....but maybe a thought for in the future.....there is this design product called Tatouage (SP?). I have seen in on HSN & QVC....the lady used to paint wall murals & she found a way to paint it on a transfer that rubs right onto the walls....all kings of ideas....landscapes, gardens....there is no end to the things that have been created. Maybe in the future, you could find a piece that you like & build on it as you can afford. I know in a rental, I never wanted to spend much decorating something I can't take with me......but a little here & there can make a huge difference.

In my first home, I had a storage room that had a blank wall that just needed something on it. I found a beautiful mural & put it on the wall, like wall paper.

Imagination is the key & building on the colours in nature helps.

Just a few ideas for your blue room.

I just purchased my farm in Kentucky & ended up painting each room a different colour. I wanted each one to have it's own personality. I did use mostly the mauve, peach, & green colours, but I ended up with my bonus room a pretty crystal blue. I had to reinforce the ceiling because of some settling the house had done...which required putting a post in the middle & wood pieces along the ridges. Instead of using just a plain 4x4, I found a spindle...painted it the white & the wood along the ceiling, the contrast blue to give the room some character...it made it look a bit English Tudor. I will be having fun working on the finishing touches & adding the colours to make the rooms come alive.

Go for it.....look at it as a painting a picture that you are living in.....it really can be very fun.
Guess that was what I loved about the interior design classes....it was one of the few college specialities that allowed you to create & use your imagination without a right or wrong answer.

Enjoy your challenge,
Debbie

One of the most "are you crazy" bright ideas I ever had was to tell my teenage son he could paint his room. He decided to get creative with blue, navy and teal. The wall started out off white.

He used those natural sponges and "patted" all 4 walls with the colors. I couldn't watch. Different might be one way to put it. It's kind of like being under water sort of. I get sea sick every time I walk in. (Know what he now does for a living...... nuclear tech on a submarine! LOL)

That's my only experience with blue, so can't be of much help.

Good luck

oh, LOL, kebs. that is funny.

I like your description of "blues" blending with nature. So I went outside and checked out the sky.. OO the sky is such a pretty blue today and seeing a "light" blue sky with giant puffy clouds is enlightening. And the golds, browns, greens and yellow are I guess earthy. So the bottom line, blues do not have to be always depressing. Splash of color here and there and it can look very nice.

I think I solved why the area I painted all blues, including the ceiling, which is a very light blue, looks so gloomy. All the blues cast an odd shadow. Which is quite eerie.. Well for one, there is just way tooo much blue. But I am thinking the "blue" ceiling is the problem. Soo I need to get rid of the one shade of blue which actually makes my tummy queazy and the blue ceiling. I need something extremely light that would cast a warm glow from the ceiling. I think?

And I also like your idea of the sunset at the beach. Such pretty colors... Gosh I do have a lot to work with. Need to get the "creativity" and imagination stirring and make good of all these blues. Is a challenge for me. I am taking notes of all the ideas suggested in this thread and "pondering" what exciting colors will work. I can say I am totally out of my comfort zone with these colors. But there is always room for change and growth..

Your farm house sounds quite lovely. Mauves and peaches and greens, esp sage greens, are "my" kind of colors. I have always wanted to live on a farm. Guess I am a country girl at heart with a spash of city excitement. I have always wanted one of those bath tubs with feet. And a stone fireplace in the kitchen. I am a dreamer I guess. Your blue rooms sounds very beautiful. There is hopeeeeeee for bluessss.

Thank you so much for your great suggestions. I will have soo many notes here I hope I don't get lost in them. BTW, the owner did say he'd replace the paint since I did not like the blue. Since he said that, for some reason, I want to challenge myself to see if I can make the blues work. I hope I am not making another mistake by challenging myself. I do think I can make this all work... I think...

LOL kebsfroggy.. Sea sick. Lordy, Lordy...

Looks like your son's creativity was a platform for his future. He knew what he wanted.

When my son was a teen he wanted to paint his bedroom all black. I said noooooooo way. So to compromise, I painted the ceiling black and put those glow in the dark stars n planets on the ceiling. Didn't look bad. He liked it..

Okay, you have to paint a bit on your computer screen so we can see just what color it is? LOL

I would use some gray (but I'm weird and find gray "warm" (with brown)). If it is dark enough, I'd use some maroon too?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_col...ML_color_names

Click on the blue links next to the colors and it will show you the various shades.

This week I will be getting a charger for my son's camera. I will take a pic and post the blue walls.

Geesh I've been reading on moods and colors and it does say too much blue can be depressing. The room I am working on is the "family" room. A room I spend most of my day in. Although I am up for the challenge, I do know I can't afford to be surrounded all day by a color that could swing me deeper in depression.. But the article also said light blues can be calming. The one shade I do like is a very light blue.. Oh dear.. decisions... decisions.... decisions........

Off to check the links you posted... What would be wild if i end up painting everything white.. haha

You can't do white, too hospitally :-) Neil Diamond doesn't call it "Song Sung Blue" for nothing :-)

Yellow goes good and it's warm? You can have yellow lampshades or something, like little suns :-)

Wait until you find out there are warm and cool shades of every color. I can't remember guideline for useage (like cool with cool) so not help at all. Now are you throughly confused.

Can't really remember about the exact technique but you can "sponge" a light blue and then a very light blue (or cool tint white) over the original blue but let the original blue show through. One way you pounce the sponge and with the other you scrub (blur the edges). Like the sky with puffs, clouds and blue patches.

Look at Autmn landscape type pictures which include sky for inspiration. (yellows, orange, red, brown, green and blue)

Good luck.