And so it begins ...
Sun, 5 Jun 2011 31 Comments A couple of weeks ago I was in Sydney (thanks Electrolux) and while I was there I made a mad dash to Murobond paints to choose paint colours. Amazing showroom. Amazing staff. Rowena walked me through their range and Geoff helped ease my technical concerns. Those of you who have been reading this page know I have had damp problems. The house is built into a hill, ill conceived renovations in the past have created water traps and the heaviest rainfall in many, many, many years provided a major surprise when we ripped off the wallpaper. Geoff and I have come up with a solution and part of it involves Murobond's breathable Murowash. The other part is dark colours. I will most likely never eliminate the risk of water seeping into my brick house completely and I'm loathe to see discoloured stains spreading along my paint work. I'm hoping that it will be less noticeable with darker colours on the wall. I'm also drawn to darker colours because although I love white to death and it will make an appearance in my office/studio, I have been dreaming of dark, cocooning dens, cave-like cosiness and just something a little different from what I have had before.
After scooping up close to twenty colour chips I placed an order online for 7 sample pots and a couple of brush outs. (No paint allowed on the plane for my trip back.) I chose 3 browns, 3 dark blues and a bright green for a contrast idea I have.
Society Inc. Dark and stormy Mr Jason Grant's Faraway Society Inc Indigo
Murobond brown Block brown Dark chocolate
The box arrived a few days after I ordered and so the fun began. The colours in real life of course looked nothing like the colours on the monitor when I ordered so I'm glad I had the paint chips from my visit to the showroom. And the colours in my pictures here are not quite right either but you get the idea.
The block brown has an almost olive green undertone, the dark chocolate has some burgundy. The indigo is gorgeous but almost black, the picture here doesn't do the dark and stormy justice and faraway is actually a lot darker than I thought. Here's what they look like in the room.
Now you see my problem. I have orangey terracotta tiles throughout my living and dining rooms. I do not have the money to take them up for now so large area rugs will be my solution. I have several kilims that will work well with whatever scheme I go for. The colours are in the same order as above. Trims will be in exactly the same colour as the walls. There are cedar doors and some architraves that have survived 150 years without painting so they will stay as is. This is in the dining room which is small and very dark to begin with. At this stage I am still deciding if the ceilings will be white, a richer off white or the same colour as the walls. I need to see the room being painted to make the final decision. Initially I thought dark brown for this room and the blue for the living room but now I think blue for this room and brown for the living room. I have fallen in love with Ilse Crawford's children's den as seen in the New York Times.
My dining room will have a mix of vintage and tribal, mismatched woods, a glass table, chrome and kilims. Eventually I'd love a Taraxacum light by Achille Castiglioni but that too will have to wait for now.
That's what I'm up to so far. I need to move my swatches around the rooms and consider the light at various times of the day. I'm thinking that the chocolate is a little too purple and the block brown a little too green. The murobond brown may be the way to go. I love the indigo but I think it will read as black most of the time and I can't make up my mind yet between faraway and dark and stormy. Trouble is the pictures you see here are not true to the colours (the sample pots come closest ... but not quite) so perhaps you can all come round to my house, file by the swatches and tell me which one you like. I'll do the coffee and the cake. Deal?
Almost forgot to show you this display piece in the dining room. It's a Red Cross cupboard from WWII and will house my glass collection. I was thinking of washing the inside a colour that would make the glass stand out a little more. I ordered a pot of Ripple, a citrony green but I think I could also go a cinnabar red colour. Just a wash on the wood inside and keep the lovely old wood patina outside. (See my really upmarket paper shade?! LOL.) What a long post! I think I have done enough for today.
Reader Comments (31)
Jo, dark and stormy gets a vote from me. And I like that brown you've decided upon. You won't know yourself with painted walls. It will amazing no matter what you chose. That taraxacum light would look amazing in your space. I hope you offloaded those other chandeliers. Ha! Kelvin tried to pass them on to me. Too funny. Like I needed another dubious light fitting in my life...!
I'm sure Katherine and I could be persuaded to give you an honest appraisal. We just loved your fabulous place. xx
I like the faraway, personally. I think if you go brown with all that terracotta and timber it might be too brown?
i'm with anita, dark and stormy is the go. i'm getting excited now!
I'm still leaning towards the dark and stormy but I must admit the faraway looks lovely in the lamp light at night. As an aside does everyone else hate the light given out the the new compact fluorescent or for that fact any low emission lightbulb? Edison's are banned here now ... or rather not for sale anymore and I agree the world needs to be saved but I just love the light given off by a tungsten bulb. Oh well I'll get used to it.
Nat I'm still going brown in the living room but there will be more light and more colour. Anita you need to come round again. I unpacked my teak kitchen box :P I have too much. Jules I knew you'd be excited. I was thinking black for my bedroom but indigo is a serious contender now.
I am so excited! I love them all, dark and stormy is an easy front runner but I think the under dog , the faraway may just steal the show in the long run! Anita fire up the Subaru, this is the excuse we needed for a return trip ha I am also longing to know if Mary has arrived? Xx katherine
Mary is in residence along with 2 Barney cars, a Fred Flinstone car and a Flicker the horse ride. The art gallery chairs are still coming and the kitchen is not finished. I have promised myself that the kitchen will get done this long weekend. I have Friday off as well. Want to come for coffee? :P:P:P
I love the dark and stormy too. If you're not sure between that and the faraway can you use both in the same room somehow?
And the murobond brown is FAB. I cannot wait to see this finally come to fruition. :-)
I think the faraway would be GORGEOUS with the terra cotta floor tiles. I think it's more versatile than the dark & stormy. You can add lighter or darker accessories, where with the dark & stormy you can really only go lighter.
Dark and stormy! The lighter blue will really pull the orange from your tile, and I'm thinking the color is one of the things you don't care for? (Although I love that tile!!) Of the browns, I think Murobond works the best with your floor - the block brown will definitely read green and the dark chocolate purple, as you said. I love these colors! My living room is a very dark navy, and I've had it for two years, and it just keeps getting better!
Murobond and Dark and Stormy.
Every one of those colors is beautiful! How many rooms do you have in your house? Maybe you can use them all somewhere... it would be kind of cool to use a series of browns or blues to transition through connecting rooms. I'm picturing brown walls and kilim rugs and I can't wait to see it in person. Were you ever able to resolve the terrible damage to your floors? Did you have to paint them?
Well, "to each his own" or "vive la difference", or whatever polite way there is to say "personally I would find all those dark colors terribly depressing". Striking, yes, but, well...never mind. It must be the Florida girl in me.
That's OK Bette. I knew not everyone would like it. It's only a few rooms at first unless I really love it and find myself compelled to paint the whole house. Hopefully you'll like my bright white boho style office and studio :)
Kath thefaraway looked lovely in the lamplight last night.
Anne-Marie you would not love that tile if you saw the fugly "tuscan" insets every few feet.
Tricia Rose I'm saving up for a Rough Linen set for my bedroom to go with the suzani, flokatis and black walls .... maybe indigo wall? :)
S@sha you read my mind ;) We have 2 large rooms upstairs one a bedroom and one my office/studio (another large bedroom with a fireplace). Down the staircase to an entry hall which I want to use as a library and then the living room is under my office. The dining room is beneath the bedroom and another small bedroom leads off that. It will be a guest room/dressing room and I'm thinking of using one of the other blues there. These rooms lead out to a sunroom/breezeway which will be black and white. From there is the kitchen and a bathroom and a "man cave" but they aren't being painted this time around. We decided not to fix the floors until this painter is finished. Couldn't bare the pain of more paint spills :P
from the pics, i vote for faraway. any of them will make it dark and cozy, tho, lucky you!
Hi Jo.
I used Murobond murowash on my house and the colours are very good. I don't know whether you've used it before or whether this would even bother you but because it's so incredibly matte (which makes the colours so scrumptuously dense and rich) it also isn't the most durable paint. I have found it grazes easily. So it's been great for walls which don't get scuffed, but not walls in high traffic areas.
In terms of damp - I have Murowash Regal (a dark grey with a purple edge) on a damp wall. I've found after heavy rains there can sometimes be a sort of tidemark line, which then disappears over time.
If you're worried about the darkest colours reading as black, wouldn't Dark and Stormy run the risk of that? (Personally I think that could be fab). Faraway would be more likely to read as blue?
Whatever you choose, good luck. I hope you love it when it's done.
All the best
PP
http://pimpmybricks.wordpress.com/
I was SO hoping that you would comment PP. (Thanks by the way for giving me something else to call you besides Pimp.) I was hoping that it would just be a tide mark then dry out. Great! Rowena and Geoff did discuss the marking I could look forward to if we went as matt as Murowash is but I'm prepared to live with that. The two rooms I am using it in are not high traffic except for one wall in the dining room which forms a walkway from the breezeway to the entry hall. We are playing with ideas of Murowash on the bottom (damp never gets up high) and a "suggested" dado effect by having an acrylic above in all the rooms giving a textural change as well as providing a hand sliding area for my husband who is blind and often walks with his hands. The other way to go is just paint that one high traffic wall with acrylic. It has two doors up against it and a door opening off so not actually too much wall. The other good thing is that it is actually not affected by the damp because it is an internal wall.
I am still leaning towards the dark and stormy and am thinking of the faraway for the little bedroom off the dining room. The next problem is the entry hall. I'll post pictures on the weekend. I need suggestions as to what colour to paint it as it is between the living and dining room but then leads up a double height staircase to the top floor which I didn't actually want dark. There is no real clear area to stop the paint. It just flows all the way up. Maybe wallpaper down in the "hall" and a lighter colour even white up to the next floor. I'm not sure white will work between the two dark rooms. Sitting in a brown room looking through a white /light hall into a dark blue dining room. I'm thinking book wallpaper. Deborah Bowness for that much space is a luxury though when we need a bathroom first :)
Definitely Dark and Stormy. You right about the indigo (if what my computer monitor is showing me is correct of course) its gorgeous, but too black.
My vote is Faraway and Murobond Brown. Such wonderful deep dark colors will look great, in fact that pot of Murobond Brown looks deliciously like the best chocolate!
You should see the indigo in real life xtina. Gorgeous and inky. I'll find somewhere to use it I swear :) The Murobond Brown is a definite lsaspacey. Still tossing up between dark and stormy and faraway but I know now that I'll be using both. Just which room?
I agree that that a white hallway and stairwell would be too much of a contrast with your dark colours but you have a perfect opportunity to create a wonderful chiaroscuro effect looking from one prinicpal room to the other. A light pearl gray, or if you're feeling feisty, perhaps a pale lavender, would be beautiful and could be carried all the way up your stairs and into your second floor hall.
Hi again Jo
I'm glad I looked back because so often I plonk a comment down and then forget to return!
I just had a look at my tide mark and at the moment it's a white wavy line - not very noticeable. We've just recently had bathfuls fall out of the sky on us, so the wall is damp. When it's dry again I'll have another look, though I'm pretty sure that line either goes or fades. Have you thought of having underfloor fans put in (if you have the underfloor space that is)? We did (our house is also built into a hill) and it has made some difference. And having issued the caveat about the durability of murowash, I should say we've had it for ten years in our house and it's done pretty well.
If you wanted a white hallway between two dark rooms, might it work to have dark objects in your white hallway to reference the rooms on either side? And speaking of white and bookshelf wallpaper, have you seen the white version? (can't remember who makes it). It's like a dream of books, a ghostly library. I lust after it. I think the new house needs it.
I hope you find a way to have the indigo. I have a black bathroom and a deep, deep blackberry bedroom and I find both to be fabulous and wonderfully soothing to live with. Everyone talks about the cose factor of dark colours, but they also bring a serenity which utterly took me by surprise and I don't think I'd want to be without it now, at least in a few areas.
All the best
PP
Lin thanks for the suggestions. Maybe I should play around with colour for the halls and landings.
PP I need to find the ghost books. Does anyone know of these ghostly books captured on wallpaper that PP taunts me with? Maybe I can have something printed myself. Maybe I can butcher some more books ...ooops sorry that came out the wrong way ;)
You need to send me pics of your current place PP. A blog post before you jump into the never ending pit that is your gorgeous new old georgian house?
Hello hello Jo
Should be asleep but instead I'm stalking the corridors of blogland in my white fluffy dressing gown.
Tomorrow I'll dive headfirst into the pit I call my computer and try to come up with a maker for the wondrous (to my eyes) white bookshelf paper.
And I'll pace around the idea of a post or pics of my current house. Bit scary, that one!
Goodnight!
based on the pictures - dark and stormy will bring out terracotta orange in most delightful way.