A style expert’s advice on colour, trim and painting trends
Style expert and Washington Post design columnist Elizabeth Mayhew recently answered reader questions about paint selections.
QI need to repaint my front door. It’s been painted a flat black to match the rest of the trim on the house, but it gets really scratched up. Is there a solution that doesn’t involve me repainting the house trim?
AWould you consider going shiny with your front door? Think of doors you see in Paris and London. The paint, if applied appropriately, will not scratch, and it will be super chic.
QOn Pinterest, I’m seeing highgloss white paint for ceilings. I love it, but my painter says no. I suspect he doesn’t want to do it because it requires an imperfection-free surface. Thoughts?
AI agree with your painter. Your ceilings need to be in pristine condition for a high-gloss paint. The same would be true of your walls if you wanted them to have a lacquered finish. The problem with high-gloss paint is that it shows all imperfections. If you have crown moulding, you can paint it a glossy white. That will at least give a pop to your ceiling.
QWe are looking to paint our gender-neutral nursery, which will be furnished with white furniture. The nursery doesn’t get a ton of natural light, so we wanted to pick a warm and light colour. Our son’s room is green, so we were thinking a shade of yellow for the new baby. Any suggestions for a warm yellow that’s not overpowering would be much appreciated.
AI would steer you away from yellow. It’s not that I don’t like it. I just think that unless it’s a sunny, saturated tone, people don’t look good in it. How about a really pretty shade of light blue? My favourite is Farrow & Ball’s Borrowed Light. It looks amazing with any colour — lavender, red, navy and yellow, too. You don’t need to spring for F&B; you can have it colour-matched at just about any paint store. The amazing thing about the colour is its depth; it has so many nuances and reacts to rooms with natural light and rooms with no natural light. Blues, like greens, are true colours of nature (think sky and grass), so they look good with everything.
QI have beige walls from 2007 that need updating. The rooms have high ceilings, seven-foot double-hung windows and hardwood floors, with ornate walnut crown moulding, window and door frames, and baseboards. I know that grey is more popular than beige with home buyers, but I wonder how it would look with the walnut trim? I painted the northfacing kitchen a neutral with orange undertones to pick up the Saltillo tile, and it really warmed up the room.
AYour house sounds amazing. I promise you that grey would be perfect. My favourite go-to shade is Benjamin Moore’s Gray Owl. It is an almost foolproof colour.
QI’m remodelling my kitchen, and my designer strongly suggested painting my maple cabinets. The floors are wood, and the kitchen has a 1980s look, so bringing the room up to date is the goal (for resale). Any advice?
AI agree with your designer: Natural wood cabinets are not in these days. I would love to know the colour of your backsplash or any tile in the room to help inform my recommendations. You can never go wrong with white, but grey is very in right now, too. It gives kitchens a pretty Swedish look. One hue I really like is Benjamin Moore’s Coventry Gray. Try a little swatch and see what you think!
QI’m planning to paint two bathrooms: one a half-bath downstairs with a window and the other a master bath in the centre of the house without any windows. I was considering a sage green, but are there problems with that for the windowless bathroom? What about painting the ceiling a bright white instead of the antique white that is there right now?
AI would not worry about the sage green in a darker room. Small, dark, windowless rooms can look very chic, inviting and dramatic. I have a windowless powder room in my house that I painted Benjamin Moore’s Gentleman’s Gray (it’s a peacock-y sort of dark blue). Everyone comments on how much they love it. I painted the ceiling and the trim in Benjamin Moore’s Decorator White, which is chalky and very white, so it gives the room a pop. Another idea, if the walls are in good condition, is to paint the darker bathroom in a high-gloss finish, which will reflect the light and make the room sparkle.
QOur new home has hideous snakeskin wallpaper in the powder room. Can this be painted over, or must it be removed?
AIt might take a little elbow grease, but you can paint over the wallpaper. First you’ll have to sand down the seams of the wallpaper, then apply a coat of oilbased primer. This will help seal the adhesive within the paper and keep it from the moisture in the paint. Then paint. You can also consider covering the paper in a peel-and-stick wallpaper. It’s easy to apply, and my guess is that it would stick onto your existing walls.
QOur master bedroom has high ceilings with a loft. There is lots of sunlight from dormers and skylights. Would Benjamin Moore’s Decorator’s White be a good choice for this space? A I would try it. It really just depends on what is around your windows. For example, if there are lots of trees, any white will pick up the green tones.