Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Beige

We are about to decorate our hallway. For a small London flat, we have a considerable corridor so it is not a small project. And the current colour scheme really won’t do – lilac and cream. I detest lilac at the best of times (why is it so popular with grey pale-faced mother-of-the-brides?) but really even if I loved it, it isn’t a hall colour.

I want something pretty neutral, two complementary tones, not too dark on account of its narrowness, but warming. I thought it was going to be easy. I was wrong. I’ve tried about ten different shades and none of them will do. They are too pink, too peach or just too yuck. My hall now resembles a teenagers year old experimenting with the foundations on her first trip to a makeup counter.

I didn’t think there would be so much choice. Simply Fawn, Summer Stone, Silk Gown, Natural Calico, Natural Hessian, Toasted Almond, Whiff of Nutmeg, Touch of Truffle, Dash of Coffee, Hoping for Latte, By George Its Beige. (I may have made up some of these). I even dreamt about looking for the right shade last night, in an anxious dream where I was juggling decorating with going on tour with Led Zeppelin, which was also causing me worry since I don’t play guitar.

I think this morning though I may have isolated the right tone. It’s a calm gold but towards the bluer end of the spectrum, as I informed the OH this morning who looked bemused. I’m off to B&Q again tonight and if I don’t find the right shade this time, I may have to repaint the whole lot lilac.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's so odd as I was going to write a similar post tonight! We are decorating our hallway, which goes into an open plan dining room and upstairs to the landing so it's a huge job. We are going to wall paper as our walls are manky and have exactly the same problem - we want neutral and it looks neutral in B&Q but it's all a bit pink or peach when we get it home!

Shame you made some of those colours up as hoping for latte is just the colour I want!

Katy Swift said...

I'm with NM you have a talent for naming colour. A career switch maybe?

The joy of renting means that I've never had to worry about shades being too blue or peach but I know my sister is putting off decorating for as long as possible to avoid having to make a decision. At the moment she's using "It'll soon be Christmas".

SandDancer said...

NM - Alas 'Hoping for Latte' is not real. I have now (after 3 trips to B&Q) settled on Soft Maplewood 4, which sounds made-up too.

Hotter - apparently if you don't do something within the first six months, its likely to remain undone. We've been in a little bit longer than that and I was starting to fear we'd never do it.

M said...

I just did this, and I couldn't believe how many shades (and names) of off-white there are. Just imagine -- it's actually someone's career to do all that. Yikes.

cogidubnus said...

For gods sake just steer clear of (a) f***ing builders magnolia and (b) "white with a hint of shite" tints - both of which were designed for minimalist tits lacking the courage to go for pure white...

Being far from a minimalist, I'd cerainly err on the bolder side... my dining room is huge, but has red walls, a natural wood floor, varnished wood cupboards, window frames, skirtings etc and a ceiling of random gold/deep red cloudiness ... perfection achieved by painting the entire ceiling in metallic gold and then gradually spongeing with diluted red...

OK I know it sounds bleugh, but eveyone who sees it agrees it's perfect with the black wood piano (a family relic) and original black lead range...

Anonymous said...

What is the colour of the yellow end paint?