yellow + grey living room (PIPs) help!

[grey56]

Our living room is grey and yellow.

Walls are a pale warm grey (Silver Drop by Behr).


Sofa is the Ektorp with Svanby Grey cover.


TV console is Besta in white. Example (not my room):


Fireplace is this tile with white painted mantel:


Rug is this one from Rugs USA:


Only framed art is a Mogwai concert poster that's greys and yellows (can't find online). Other framed pieces are photos of family (all jumbled together in a tacky looking photo wall).

Coffee table is a church auction find, two tiers, rectangle, pretty basic. The wood is nice so we can either stain or paint. It's currently half sanded down. :-)

There is also a side chair, similar to this. We plan to recover the seat with a grey patterned fabric. We are undecided about painting the wood a hi-gloss white (the wood is nice).


We want to reupholster a wingback chair in a grey patterned fabric (different but complimentary to the other chair).

Finally, there is a pine bureau against the wall by the door (can stay or go, haven't decided).

Still missing window treatments and side tables.

So to conclude: pale warm grey walls (white trim), grey couch and patterned chairs, glossy white TV console and fireplace surround, yellow rug, and grey+yellow accents (art, throw, pillows, etc.).

Options for change:
paint the side chairs glossy white or leave them as-is
paint the coffee table (what color?) or stain the coffee table (to match the side chair?)
leave the stained pine bureau or remove it (do not want to paint this)
and then of course we need side tables and window treatments

This all seemed really straight-forward in my head but now, I feel like my post is jumbled. Does anyone have any thoughts? Or ideas on how to make this all make more sense? Thanks!

[Deleted]

Can you get us an actual pic cof your room? We'd be able to hand out better advice for you. It is hard to tell from stock photos.

[FoxInFiji]

Jan 10, 2013 8:11:40 GMT -5 grey56 said:

Please don't paint this chair!! I know it's all the rage to paint the wood of shield back chairs (see a few of Sarah Richardson's designs) like this but I think it's a travesty. White painted wood will be out of style before you know it...actually isn't it kind of going out of style right now?...and then you're stuck with a painted chair (it's extremely difficult to make this stainable after it's been painted). Whereas if you leave the wood and reupholster for your current style that chair will always stay classic.

It sounds like everything is gray, white, or yellow. This is where being a D&R fanatic gets people into trouble. Not everything has to match perfectly. Having some wood tones and additional colors mixed in would make the room look more put together over time. If you want to be picky trying to keep the wood tones all to a dark color like your chair but that isn't necessary. I would bring in some artwork or accessories in colors like light blue or apple green. And I'll challenge you to use a different fabric on one of those chairs that isn't gray. Try a different color on the shield back chair fabric. That would be easy to change out later when you change your decor. Curtains in a non-gray color would be nice too. Also a metallic color somewhere would be nice (silver, gold, ORB whatever floats your boat) like the curtain rods or in some picture frames.

What are your floors under the rug HW or carpet? What color is the pine bureau?

ETA: I'm no decor expert but some of the interior design blogs I follow point out to use a mix of gray tones (some lighter, some darker) so everything isn't a sea of the same color. Same goes for prints mix some large patterns (ie. your rug) with smaller patterns on the pillows or chair fabric so you have a nice balance. HTH

[house]

Ditto dairy. I suck at imagining a whole room together! I am very visual and (most women are) and have to see the whole thing put together to be able to offer any help.

Also I agree with Fox. It sounds like you have enough white in there so the chair doesn't need to be painted. Specially when you said the wood is nice.

You might want to post a pic of the photo wall as well. This board is good at helping with those.

[bunnymendelbaum]

I agree, leave chair wood. Leave coffee table stained wood.
Use yellow for either wingback or accent chair cushion. You need more yellow in the mix beyond the rug. Something larger and substantial.

[sierramist03]

I'd mix some dark wood in with the white stuff it will still look nice.

[ktzmoh]

I agree leave that chair unpainted. What about the pine bureau? I'm having trouble envisioning anything pine working in that scenario. If it's not a nice piece, and it sounds like you are fairly indifferent toward it - maybe that's an area to experiment with an have some fun? Maybe paint that and try something unusual ?

[grey56]

Wow, I didn't think I'd get any responses b/c my post totally sucked when I re-read it after I posted it. So thanks! And the replies are even helpful!!

Ok, I won't paint that shield back chair. DH didn't really want to, he likes the wood. It's a medium tone, same as the pine bureau and the legs of the other chair we'd get reupholstered. The coffee table is currently painted but when DH was sanding it down he saw that the wood beneath was actually really nice! So we will continue to sand that down and see how it looks. (There are lots of crevices.)

The pine bureau is an antique from my mom, she has asked that I not ever paint it. I don't mind it but sometimes I think, wow I have a bureau in my living room that I used to keep clothes in. Weird. Once my LO isn't in diapers, I might trade her changing table for this bureau.

We do have a painted yellow secretary desk, a tall skinny one. My DH painted it and he doesn't subscribe to Sherry's "thin and even coats" philosophy - he thinks thicker paint means fewer coats means less time painting. So it looks bad IMO (but not to my DH). You can see the stain color showing through in the areas where he didn't put enough paint. So I wanted to move it out (our guest room has yellow in it, thought it would be nice to have a small foldable desk in there?) but I can leave it - maybe add another coat of paint when my DH isn't looking, haha. (This is a sore spot, if you couldn't tell.)

I like the idea of adding in another color. My fav color since 8th grade has been grey, so I know I go overboard with it. The framed art has some other colors in it so I might pull from there. And I forgot to mention the giant canvas painting over the fireplace - my DH is an artist - has all sort of blues, greens, yellows....I could totally pull colors from there!

I'll take some pics this weekend and post again next week, if that's ok with you all.

And I totally didn't even think about asking for help on the photo vomit wall. I'll take a pic of that too!

You guys are so helpful!! Thank you!!