light blue walls. are they trite?

[Anonymous]

Is the light blue walls, white trim, harwood floors, mostly white/beige/tan furniture look tired and pottery barn beach cottage circa 2000?

We are stumped at what color to paint our living room. I like all white/light decor, but I want to paint the walls a very light blue. I am noticing that look in a lot of my OLD magazines and catalogs. I'm not a trend setter by any means, but I also do not want to decorate in a way that is instantly dated. The walls are currently off white. We have a cream sectional couch. Our coffe table, tv stand and two side tables are all different shapes and sizes but are all painted shades of white to cream and some are distressed, slightly shabby chic looking. We have two Louis Ghost armchairs and a brown and tan patterned area rug. Most of the small decorative items I've got in this space are crystal and silver family hand me downs. The floors are a medium stain hardwood.

What color would you paint this room with the furnishings I've got? I don't want to buy anything new and major, except maybe a new rug...

[Anonymous]

Not an interior designer but I agree that regular old light blue might be a little passe. Perhaps if you went for a light gray-blue it might make things a little more current. Then you could keep the neutral decor and throw in a bright accent color with pillows or lamps to modernize further.

I recently painted my kitchen Benjamin Moore Sterling and am in love with it. It looks gray sometimes and blue sometimes but is still very light.

[Anonymous]

You don't have children, do you OP?

[Anonymous]

Yes, and I wash the slipcover on our couch about once a month. I guess we are just lucky. The silver is dented up from occasionally being knocked around, but that's ok. I like the dents.

[Anonymous]

Also, ghost chairs are great for little people. I can just wipe them down!

[Anonymous]

Farrow & Ball has beautiful blues that don't look trite or dated. We've used Parma Gray (a rich blue with gray understones) and Blackened (which is a tinted white that looks like the gray/blue walls in Swedish design) in our home and they're gorgeous. They use real pigments so the colors change a little throughout the day as the light moves through the rooms. I think either would go well with your decor.

[Anonymous]

We have a light blue in the living room with a little bit of a greenish grayish hue to it. It looks beautiful.

[Anonymous]

Now I'm obsessed with these Farrow & Ball paints, but don't want to pay $100 per gallon! Will def be taking these ideas with me to Home Depot!

[Anonymous]

Honestly, Farrow & Ball can't be accurately replicated. I've had BenMoore guys come very close, and they do have the "recipes,"

but even they will tell you that they can't copy the proprietary pigments. And it does make a difference: i have one room in actual F&B "vert de terre" and the room adjacent in BenMoore's approximation of that color. You can totally tell.

Look how complex this color is --





Unless your living room is 50 x 50 feet or something, I'd spring for the better paint.

[Anonymous]

If you used the F&B paints, do you need to use their undercoats as well, or can you use a normal primer?

[Anonymous]

I agree that light blue is out. (I have a light yellow living room that is out too, and I'm dying to repaint.) I'm going with a light gray or whitish pink for something fresher. We just did our kitchen BM gray horse, love it! With all of your pale furnishings, you should go with a color. I just saw a kelly green living room in lonny mag, that looked great!

[Anonymous]

I am honestly curious about this thread. I was unaware that people could have the same debate about paint that they have about skinny jeans and Uggs. How often do paint color trends turn over? For those of you that are up on the trends, how often do you repaint?

[Anonymous]

OP here. So, if I don't do light blue, what about a light/medium blue green with gray tones? like this:

http://us.farrow-ball.com/dix-blue/colours//fcp-product/100082

[Anonymous]

NP. I really like that color. I had my bedroom painted a similar color -- Benjamin Moore Woodland Green. I think BM colors run about $60/gallon.

[Anonymous]

I found a BM color similar to that F&B Dix Blue:

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/bmpsweb/portals/bmps.portal?_nfpb=true&_windowLabel=sidebarportlet_1_2&sidebarportlet_1_2_actionOverride=%2Fbm%2Fcms%2FContentRenderer%2FselectSideBarArticle&sidebarportlet_1_2np=public_site%2Farticles%2Fapplication_article%2Fapp_colorExplorerTool&sidebarportlet_1_2isNonSecure=true&_pageLabel=fh_explorecolor&cd=710&col=CC