HELP!! need colour advice

What colour are your walls in the hall?

Skirting board is white?

Walls, at the moment are cream but need painting (anaglypta) and the skirting board is white at the moment. Want to change it though

Don't be persuaded to use grey on the walls if your carpet is brown. Dulux do a colour called Perfectly Taupe which has some grey in it but is quite a warm colour and looks good with brown. You could maybe go for an off white paint if you want to really lighten things up. I would paint the skirting boards off white as well.

Whenever I re-decorate a room I drive DH mad by buying lots of match pots and daubing them all over the place. Gives you a good idea of how things will look though.

Off the top of my head - for a warm look - walls in a pale apricot, woodwork cream.

For a sharper look - walls a pale turquoise, woodwork white.

If your door is varnished wood I would leave it alone. What about the bannisters?

It's amazing how different a colour looks when painted on the wall. One colour I tried which look pretty 'off white' in the tester pot looked almost purple when on the wall. The Dulux site has a good test page where you choose the room and then add the paint to see how it looks. My son has glass doors in his house and painting them white has lifted the feel of the whole room. He has a wooden floor in the living room and has surprised me by painting the room a light green [I think he uses that light reflecting paint, and it feels very fresh]. I'm hoping I've got a tester of Perfectly Taupe somewhere. The basic colour of most of my walls is a a warm off white which means the new grey shades are out for me, but I can go to town with the bedroom, which hasn't been decorated for years.

What tone of wood are the doors? Unless they're dark, I would leave them. We have creamy/beige walls in the hall ( Dulux pebble,*I think*) with natural wood banister and doors. Skirting is as similar to walls as we could get.
IMHO white skirting and creamy walls don't go.

I'm with Granny23 - "walls in a pale apricot, woodwork cream."

You need the hallway to have a warm and welcoming feel.

How big is the space? - I think that is relevant too - if you need to open it up and make it look bigger, then paler colours are good, especially at the end of the space.

Don't go for blue - cold and unwelcoming. Our local ancient pub has just had a designer in to decide on colours and we now have black floor and blue/grey walls - grim in the extreme. I wonder how much that c**p advice cost?!

Apricot white, or nutmeg white by Dulux? But one of the ' whites' looked dull and dirty can't remember which so do a test!. Ours needs doing desperately, perhaps this will motivate me

You guys are fantastic, thanks for lovely ideas. hugs and

I too like the idea of a pale but not too cold turquoise. Do you have any other colours to tie in to - curtains etc? I'm a bit of fan of "heritage" colours (mouse's back, dead salmon, coalhouse door etc) and we used a F&B colour called "String" in our sitting room which I really like. But there are so many options - trying to find the right colour you could do the whole area in assorted matchpots

I'd leave off decorating until the carpet is down and live with it for a few weeks. It's amazing how ideas change.

I know you'll have to cover carefully when you do paint, but I've repainted rooms with carpets in situ. After all what are old shower curtains for?

Can you buy some paint tester pots? Then cover a sheet of paper in each one and when dry, blutack it to the wall in various lights and situations. We have moved a lot and that is my solution to how not to make a big mistake - paint is fearfully expensive now.

I was thinking of a deep ochrey-type yellow.

If you decorate using a paint pad instead of a roller you don't get any splattering so carpets and furniture are safe. I've decorated large rooms by just pulling furniture away from the walls and covering the carpet with a old sheet.

When I painted the windows, skirtings and door surrounds white I left the doors as they're glazed with small panes & even though they're quite dark it looks fine.

I have booked Bob the Builder (no kidding) to do the deed. Not sure what he uses. Think I will leave hall doors, bedroom doors will need a lick of paint.

We have similar coloured carpet and our walls are painted in apricot and our doors in a rich cream.Think the apricot paint is by Homebase, it was easy to use.

Sounds nice roses any chance of a picture somewhere xxx

Can I butt in here please? We`re going to buy some rise and recline chairs in the near future, which will also necessitate redecorating and a new carpet. Firstly, we`re undecided whether to have the chairs in mocha or terracotta, then, whichever we choose, we have to decide on a colour scheme and carpet colour, which incidentally can`t be a light colour. Oh, and the fireplace and display cabinet are mahogany.

I use Almond White for woodwork throughout the house rather than white. The effect is soft cream. Our hall was recently decorated using Dulux 'Trench Coat', sort of sand colour effect. I am a F&B fan too and used 'String' for the kitchen and painted my frame collection with 'Mouse's Back'.

I'm always buying tester pots and when I am finished with certain ones will mix them together and have 'discovered' some very interesting shades of something!

The only colour I've ever chosen in the whole of my married life is the Heritage Green that is on the fireplace wall of my sitting room. The WM does all the decorating and as he's a designer I just leave him to it. He's scrupulous about asking my opinion about what he's (usually) already chosen and occasionally includes me in the decision making process by saying I thought I'd do.........., what do you think? I'm just so grateful that he's a born handyman - must have saved us tens of thousands over the years.

My DD2 lent me this book by Kevin McCloud when we were decorating our hall, and choosing new covers for our suite.
It's absolutely brilliant - it shows many different palettes of colour, ie what goes with what, and you can look at what overall effect you want to achieve.
There are several different colour combinations that would incorporate a mid-brown carpet.

Almond white could be nice ln the woodwork, but I was very unhappy with the effect on our sitting room walls. We repainted again very quickly. But it is matter of personal preference. It seemed to look more greyish in our room.

i think it depends on how dark your hall is...mines very dark so i chose a very ...now its lovely and bright...light mushroom colour for the paintwork and a bright yellow for the painted walls