Tuesday, February 23, 2010

What color to paint dining room ceiling (red walls)?

I am planning to paint my dining room a vibrant red with a slight warm undertone. I am wondering what color to paint the ceiling. My trim around ceilings, windows, and baseboards are oak wood. Hardwood floors. I think white would look ridiculous. Adjoining rooms are the kitchen where walls are kind of a light orange sherbet color, and living room where walls will be a cappuccino color. Any suggestions for dining room ceiling color?What color to paint dining room ceiling (red walls)?
I have a client who loves red, her dining room was done in a very vibrant raspberry version of red and in some of her other rooms (bedrooms) she used a great deal of red toile in decorating. For her red rooms believe it or not, we used a very dusty blue-green. It is a fabulous and very traditional treatment for ceilings in red walled rooms.





Contrary to popular belief, painting a ceiling will not make your room look smaller. When the room looks smaller as a result of painting the ceiling it is because the color choice was not optimized to that of the wall color. In brief, the concept was right but the application was flawed. What does make a room appear smaller is contrast. Painting your ceiling white would indeed take the breath out of the red and would diminish your room. Red is inherently a medium to medium dark color...there is no such thing as a light red. If you took a b/w photo of a red room you would easily see that the red is on the darker side, therefore choosing something softer will compliment your color. Your eye is very weak when it comes to seeing color, in fact we are able to see contrast better because of our physiology. When your eye is presented with rich color and contrast at the same time, your eye will see the contrast first and your ability to see the color will be diminished. To get the most out of your red try this color from Ben Moore, Imperial Gray, #1571. Use a flat finish paint, don't be put off by the name, it is a beautiful soft color and I've used it many times with situations just like yours.


Best,


RoddWhat color to paint dining room ceiling (red walls)?
Pictures please!

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play around with the Sherwin Williams color visualizer to find colors that you like. It is the best paint visualizer on the web, imho. I like how their color palette is laid out, I like that you can search by color family %26amp; color name, the ';painted'; rooms look the most realistic, and it suggests coordinating color schemes. You can literally spend hours:


http://www.sherwin.com/visualizer/





I think ';khaki shade'; (# 7533) would look good.





You can also take a photo of your house %26amp; upload it to the makeover gallery on this website:


http://www.roomvues.com/


You can get color suggestions %26amp; for $5 they'll photoshop them onto your room so that you can get an idea of what it will look like.
That's a great choice of colour! I'm actually doing something similar for my kitchen. Painting 2 or the 4 walls a deep cranberry with a neutral complimentary colour. Since your using such a strong colour, it's best that you use a light colour for your ceiling as a light colour would making the ceiling appear higher, as opposed to dark, making it appear shorter and more closed in. I would suggest a nice beige, or mushroom colour for your ceiling. If I had a picture it'd be easier to explain...But think of a very light caramel, vanilla colour. Another thing to consider is the ';colour wheel'; which shows which colours compliment others. Good luck in your colour hunt and remember what I said about light and dark colours. :)
Good for you for not being afraid to use color! I like all the suggestions of tans, khakis and creams, but I wanted to throw a couple others in...





Green is the natural complimentary color to red. Taking a cue from your adjoining rooms and the warm undertone of the red, think about a pale, warm sage green. A warm sky blue/turquoise would also be beautiful with the red. A toned-down, lighter version of robin's egg blue.





Before you buy the paint, take home chips of different shades and tones of the colors you're considering. The colors will look very different with your existing colors and light sources than they do in the paint store.





Good luck and enjoy your room!
I would go for either a really creamy color with a hint of yellow or a nice beige in the warm tones. It won't be white, but make certain you get a really warm ivory. It will keep the room warm and big without giving you that nasty look. You might also go with a very light warm brown, no Khaki but something close-ish so you don't clash with the oak, maybe more honey colored? Definitely try for the warm ivories and warm light browns in the tan family.
you've got to be careful when painting a ceiling. it can wind up making the room feel smaller. i think a lighter color would look nice, especially since your walls will be red. if you're totally against bright white, maybe you should try a softer color like an ivory or bone or even a really light buckskin color.
I used Sherwin Williams Barn Red on my dining room walls and I used their Blonde for my ceilings (flat). It looks great!! Email me if you want a picture, I took some ';after'; shots to show my friends at work. Good luck!
White always looks great on a ceiling and stops the room becoming too enclosed!!!
egg shell white

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