When decorating all the ‘public’ areas of the house, one of my main goals was to create a consistent interior design across all those areas. I didn’t want the rooms to all look the same or have the exact same color palette, but I didn’t want them to feel choppy and disjointed. I wanted the house to have a flow from one room to another.
That was the plan, and although the execution of that plan wasn’t perfect (some parts of it required a lot of trial and error, other areas weren’t quite right yet and will be you’ll need to make some adjustments), and I think it worked in most cases. It started with using neutral in almost every room throughout the house.
I’ve seen a lot of homes where the walls in every room are painted exactly the same solid neutral color to achieve a cohesive interior design. As long as that’s what the homeowner really wants and likes, there’s nothing wrong with that plan. But that’s not really me, so I tried to use the same concept with a little creative twist.
I’ve used the same two neutral paint colors, Behr Polar Bear and Benjamin Moore Classic Gray, in almost every “public” room in my house. The living room walls are classic gray, and the crown molding, baseboards, window sills, and door sills are all Polar Bear.
In the hallway just off the music room, I used Polar Bear for all the trim and built-in cabinets (not visible in the photo below). The walls have horizontal stripes in Polar Bear and Classic Gray.
And in the hallway bathroom, I used polar bear for all the trim and wainscots, and classic gray for the upper walls.
And finally, at this end of the house is the guest bedroom. I think of this as the “public” area of the house. This is because once you build an extension and have a suitable master bedroom, the door to this room will always remain open (unless a guest actually uses the room) and the room will always remain open. increase. It will be visible to anyone entering the hallway. So, in this room, too, the trim is all polar bears, and the closets are classic gray. Then I brought both colors to the painted floor.
On the other side of the house (beyond the kitchen, not much paint except for the painted cabinets) is the living room, and I used polar bears for all the trim, picture shelves, and TV frames. Then I painted the walls classic gray.
Studio details are still being worked out. It will end up being a little more colorful than the rest of the house, but I also think of this as a “public” space, so I carried a polar bear with me. Classic gray is applied to the painted floor in this room. Also, all the trim in this room will be polar bear. When all is said and done, classic gray is very likely to show up somewhere in this room.
After creating a canvas for each room based on these neutrals, I started layering more colors in each room. I tried to keep all the colors somewhat similar and in the same color group so that the colors in one room wouldn’t be offensive compared to the one next to it. That doesn’t mean it has to be an exact match, just because it fits for the most part.
And that doesn’t mean I got everything right either. As I mentioned above, there are areas that I plan to go back and tweak a bit. One of the areas I mentioned in my previous post was the hallway vanity, and changing its color would require a new shower curtain in the bathroom.
I like the color itself, but this bathroom is visible from the music room (with the raspberry velvet banquette) and the living room (with the pink curtains). And this vanity is a little too orange to match those colors. You’ll see what I mean here…
One of these is different than the other. One of these doesn’t belong. 😀 Did you get what I mean? That vanity definitely throws a wrench into my consistent interior design. They don’t all have to match. The chaise longue in the music room and the curtains in the living room do not match. But in my eyes they don’t seem to be fighting each other.
But a vanity can be easily repaired with a quart of paint. And if you match the color of that dressing table more closely with those two colors and play nicely together instead of fighting each other, that dressing table is set against a background of polar bears and classic grays, so it’s a perfect match for the rest of the house. It will fit snugly on the part of the Run through the rest of the house.
Here’s the process I used to create a consistent interior design throughout the house. However, you don’t have to paint the walls of every room the same solid color to create a cohesive look. If you like the way it looks, that’s perfectly fine. But if you’re like me and want a little more excitement and pattern, you can use the same neutral in different ways throughout your home and mix it up — solid walls, stenciled walls, Striped walls, striped floors, checkered floors, walls with standard trim, walls with wainscoting, etc.
In Addicted 2 Decorating, I share my DIY and decorating journey of modifying and decorating a 1948 Fixer upper that my husband Matt and I purchased in 2013. Matt does most of her work because she has MS and she cannot do physical labor. I do my own housework. You can learn more about me here.
