Heidi is a longtime reader with a longtime renovation under way (don’t we all!) She wants our help in choosing a paint color for her hallway – to coordinate with the flocked wallpaper that she is keeping, to honor the many gifts of the Retro Decorating Gods. She explains:
Hi Pam,
My husband and I are finally getting to the painting part of our long rehab. We are having trouble figuring out what color to paint our hallway, because we’ve decided to keep some of the 1960s blue and gold flocked wallpaper that use to cover the entire thing. So we can’t figure out what color to paint the hallway that would mesh well with the wallpaper. Help from readers would be appreciated.
What do you think, readers? I’ll pipe in with my thoughts at the end…
Meanwhile, enjoy the slide show of Heidi’s space before, during and after taking down a bunch of the wallpaper. And, hey: If you personally like the “befores” better, please remember our #1 commenting rule: No one can be made to feel bad for their decisions. (Lamentations will be deleted or not approved.) Flocked wallpaper can be a lot to digest — and this wallpapaper was no wallflower. I am SURE that Heidi gave the decision lots of consideration — evidenced by the fact she decided to keep the memorial flocked wallpaper in the hall.
Hi Heidi – I love the picture of you SMILING while removing wallpaper – having recently gone through that process, I’m not sure there was a smiling moment in our household!
Glad you kept an artist wall of the flocked paper…what about about a camel/gold paint color? It would be bold, but might work well.
by the way, your hallway looks the way ours looks – except ours has been that way for 10 months now as we try to decide what color to paint or treatment to apply! Also glad to see that someone else’s hallways has as many doors as ours does! Lots of trimwork to paint!
Good luck!
I’d recommend geranium red.
I always fall back on color theory when I’m stumped, and with the gold and navy you’ve got variations on two of the three primary colors already in place.
A red with a bit of orange in it (Chinese red, cerise, or geranium red) would complete the triad and brighten up the hallway, which can sometimes be a dark space.
I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
I was thinking either a slightly lighter shade of the gold in the wallpaper… I think it may be the best way to make it a cohesive part of the hall… The cram or the blue would be the extreme ends of the scale, making the wallpaper look a but too garish by contrast; the gold, as the mid-tone, would probably both complement and subdue it…
I also second the idea of framing the medallions if you’ve got them – a group of three or six framed medallions adjacent to the remaining paper would look fantastic! You’d only need one to make color copies of: you could use the original size, reduce them, enlarge them… you could even play with the scale of the stripes and do the same… or use them to decoupage something! Whatever you do, HAVE FUN!!!
Thanks Brian! The light gold seems like a good idea. We have saved several of the medallions for framing. We plan to put them up in the great room where the wallpaper used to hang. We might have saved more wallpaper like we did in the hallway but in addition to it being overwhelming at times, it was quite damaged in several places.
I agree with Brian, though a tint of either color in the paper, would be nice; very go light as the wallpaper is very strong and you want to show it off , plus adding a third color could make it more circus than you might want ; )
I also vote for team ‘light gold’.
It will bring out the colours in the paper just enough without making it too contrast-y, and will also make the white woodwork and built-ins stand out as features (cream will make them melt away).
Also, the stone looks warm toned, so again, sandy gold version that is lighter than the paper and refers to a colour in the stone.
Nicest flocked wallpaper I’ve ever seen!
Personally I’d probably match the blue but my walls are painted white or black so I’m not sure that this would be what I would actually woman up and recommend to someone else, I’d support it as a good possibility if you were so inclined.
On the other hand I can testify that the light end of medium in gold has served me well in many houses since 1974 and people have unfailingly liked/loved it where ever I’ve used it (same people not so warm and fuzzy about the black and white thang ;o) ) It’s a sophisticated, warm and comfortable colour all at the same time.
And as another poster said, unnatural act being so happy during the wallpaper removal stage….afterward, sure, all over a good happy dance then.
I don’t know why but I’m picturing a light blue. Then again, I have mostly bare white walls here in my rental.. good luck!!
I think the Retro Decorating Gods would highly approve of going with the gold color that is in the wallpaper.
I’m going to be boring and obvious and say an off white or cream. It will make the remaining wallpaper stand out and make it a bit of a feature, plus the light colour will make your hall feel lighter, bigger and more welcoming. Choose accessories to match the gold and navy on the wallpaper. Good luck xxx
For now, I would try to match the base cream or off white of the paper. That would give you a fresh, clean slate to hang art work containing the gold and navy of the remaining paper. Were you able to save one of the medallions?? Than would be so great framed and given pride of place on a freshly painted plain wall.
Paint can be redone later on if the cream becomes too boring – but would enable you to call this reno done so you can get on to your next project.
Kudos on keeping part of the original paper!
By the way – I’m loving the built-ins I spy, along w/ the blue chair and ceiling light!
that’s what we are thinking of doing in our kitchen – keeping the (rather intense/awesome) wallpaper on the backsplash and painting the rest the base shade of cream from the wallpaper – i think it will make for a cohesive look. we have even talked of framing some of the old wallpaper, too!
although, if cream sounds too boring to you, a chair rail might look nice – with the color on the bottom and wallpaper-matching cream up top. i think that compromise would keep the room light still – hard to do in hallways.
I’d go with gold.
Another vote for paint to match the shade of white in the background of the paper! Then I would hang artwork or decorative accessories with the blue/gold colours on the white walls. Maybe some sculptural pieces painted blue, or a 60s Venetian style gold mirror with matching consoles or candle sconces…
Take it off. Take it all off. Then you can paint it any color you want.
Firstly, I love the paper. Great impact and perfect way to add oomph to a small space. That said, I’d keep the colours neutral and let the paper do the talking. Perhaps match the walls to the background of the paper, or take an neutral “white” and tint it slightly with a gold/green tone to match the gold/green in the paper. But I would keep the wall colour soft toned and neutral.
I’m curious about your floor covering choice as well! Fun!
Good luck and I hope we get to see the afters!
Put one more vote in the column for the light cream color of the paper. This is the best way to meld the colors and yet bring some light into the hallway, which I am assuming is a goal. If that seems too boring, then I would move up the density scale a bit into the gold color, but not as deep as the one in the paper. Good luck and have fun with this.
I vote for a rich cream to match the cream in the wallpaper and then you could play with color in your accessories and accent things. And, no texture.
Can’t wait to see what you do.
I agree with a reader above…I would lean towards a light blue…And here is why, in the one pic, you can see the hall way through the stone wall…Why not pull a coordinating color from that wall, which would be either a light blue-ish gray or even a tan or taupe color?
Depending on what else you decide to do in there I think a cream or beige might end up TOO boring….I LOVE the light fixture by the way!
Cream with a gold tinted glaze? Perhaps that would be too much. Good luck choosing a color!
Wow, I loved seeing the “before pictures”. All that wallpaper was really cool, but slightly overwhelming. I like what you’ve done with the amount that is left – an “homage” to the spirit of the house. I would go with the off- white color in the background of the paper or a lighter gold.
Off-topic, but I LOVE the stonework in your house
“Homage” — that’s the word I was looking for! Thank you, Jenny.
I would have to put my vote in for a muted gold color with a litte sheen. I think that it would really accentuate your fabulous light fixtures that are already there. I agree with Michael in that sculptural pieces and a gold Venetian mirror would be sensational! The color of your floors will also be a big determining factor. I have been doing this to our house for the past 6 months, and holy poo what a task!
What are the floors going to be? That might help you decide….
I’m sorry most of it is gone, it’s such a bang! But yes, match the white/cream, and go with a mirror in a big, gaudy gold frame to reflect the print and draw the colors over!
I vote for matching the dark gold color. Darker neutral colors have a tendency to recede. And, I think it would really tie-in the wallpaper with the space and make it look like it was planned.
Also, i have two Matisse “Blue Nudes” framed in gold metallic frames that would really add some mod, color-coordinated glitz to those hallway walls. I’m trying to find the perfect spot in my home, though.
But I think adding the right art would really coordinate the whole thing.
Good luck, and it’s really going to look great when finished!
I’m so glad that some of the wallpaper was saved. Three cheers! I vote for gold paint. Nothing as dark as the gold in the wallpaper but something lighter that would correspond. I love the ceiling lights and the built-ins in the hall. I hope that we get to see the “After”!
GOLD, no question. Gold.
Ok…it seems that there is a built in halfway down the hall with a chair rail across the top: that is your starting point.
I would install a chair rail riight through the entire hall/entryway area. Low…at the height of the existing piece. Match the rail as closely as possible. It looks about 30″ in height.
This will “open up” the hallway…which is what I assume is the idea here.
The chair rail gets painted your existing trim color….the area below, the green-y gold…and the top wall space:off-white,similar to the wallpaper.
This will give you a good base, yet keep the hallway open and air-y. Trust me.
It looks like the front end of the shelf when the doors are open? Where would the chair rail terminate when you get to the end of the hallway?
I would go right around the front door- and where the corners of the hallway open to another room I would stop. Not just a flat stop….the top tip of the chair rail would meet the corner edge and working down to the rails base I would mimic its’ profile.
That’s if the doorways of the next rooms have no moulding…..if they do, I would butt them to the casings.
Google Image: ending chair rail no casing.
Picture #8 shown how to stop then you get to the large opening of what I guess is the living room….
I really dig the light fixture at the end of the hallway!
I would go with gold on the walls, cream on the doors and trim, and blue on the ceiling. The blue would really set off the ceiling light, which kind of recedes into the gold right now. As Martha Stewart says, bold colors that would overwhelm a larger room can really work in small spaces.
Good luck. Can’t wait to see the finished hallway.
That is serious wall paper. I can see why you’d only need a little of it to make a statment.
I think a nice cheery yellow-gold of some sort would be fantastic.
Did you know that flocked wallpaper paints really well? It might be an option, to paint the hall…..and just paint over the wallpaper too, keeping the flocking texture in tact.
I am in the gold camp. And I’m with Jeanne — a relatively strong green-gold. I think that you are sort of seeing what cream would look like with the stripped walls you have now — I don’t think the contrast is really as pleasing as the more complementary nature of the gold would be. I used a Benjamin Moore color called Putnam Ivory in our bedroom — that might work… still might be too light. Alternatively, look at the BM Historic paint colors — all the golds have a very green base.
I’d paint the trim the field color of the wallpaper — and carry that through to the adjacent spaces, if you’re looking for a neutral wall color.
Like others I wonder: What are you doing with the floors. And other’s suggestions about decor — like framing the medallions — are terrific.
Thanks so much for all the suggestions. We really like the gold idea, too. And I like the idea of a paint color with a subtle gold sheen/sparkle to it. Where do I get paint like that?
We’ve been hemming and hawing over the flooring. Most of the house was artificially built up so the house could have a sunken living room. We love this, but unfortunately the soil used to build up the rest of the house wasn’t properly packed. This resulted in some serious heaves in our slab. In one corner of the great room the slab has dropped almost 2 inches. We had thought to jackhammer out the entire slab and have it repoured, but that was very pricey. We’ve been in the house for 5 years and the slab hasn’t moved any more.
Wow. That is the very long winded way of saying we are now considering very low pile carpeting maybe in brown. We can use a thicker pad in the places that are lower to level out the floor. Maybe like you see in the Case Study houses or something.
Thanks so much!!!!
Martha Stewart has a line of paints, Precious Metals, with metallic or shimmery finishes. My daughter chose the pink pearl for her closet. Will let you know how it looks once it’s up.
Great tip, Lynn-o. Thanks!
Heidi and anyone else interested in this paint–
We finally got the Martha Stewart Pearl Pink paint up yesterday. It’s amazing. I love it. However, the shimmer *really* shows any faults or irregularities in the wall. Our drywall mudder promised us a knocked-down plaster look but did a sprayed-on texture called Spanish lace instead. The shimmer really shows the parts where the little globs of mud didn’t get knocked down as much. You couldn’t really see it with the flat primer. We also had to do a second coat, which we didn’t have to do with the other paint. If you want a metallic finish the results are worth it, however. Gorgeous!
Hey Lynn-o, send me pics when you are ready for prime time. Sounds gorgeous!
Lynn-o!
I need your help! I am two coats into the Precious Metals Froth in my hallway. I keep ending up with marks where the columns of 20″x20″ squares overlap. Our walls aren’t textured (as I believe yours are) but do you have any insights into a better way to put this paint on the walls? We love it and it looks AMAZING with the flocked wallpaper. Help!
Hi, Heidi! We had the same problem. I should have written about it. After combing the internet I found some advice from a Home Depot rep. They said to use a thicker coat than you would for regular paint, so keep your brush/roller pretty saturated, and don’t let it dry at all as you do a section. In other words, don’t do what we did the first coat and have Daddy cut in at the top, then Mama roll the upper half, and then kids come in and do the lower half. Each wall needs to be done all at once, and you want to keep rolling in the same direction. Otherwise you get the effect of someone rubbing a section of velvet the wrong way. It’s a little more work than regular paint and takes more paint, but it is so cool in the end. I smile every time I go by. In fact, we liked it so much we got some for the other daughter’s room.
I really hope you can make it work. It’s to die for.
Oh and I meant to say: GOOD ON YOU for paying homage to the flocked!
I vote for gold. You have a lot of light doors in the space to break up the intensity of the color, so I wouldn’t worry about it feeling too heavy.
Contrarian view here: I would go for a markedly lighter shade of the midnight blue tone in the wallpaper, so that the gold in the paper would really pop.
Yes, I think that could look really good — if Heidi is okay with having a dark hallway…
Cream or gold would give a more period effect but I like the blue idea. It would put the focus on the fact that there’s gold on the light fixture as well as in the wallpaper.
I’d start out looking for a grayed sort of blue for the walls, not quite slate gray. Not necessarily pale, either. Actually, the blue jeans don’t look half bad with the wallpaper! You could paint the doors with the cream.
It may depend somewhat on how the adjoining rooms look (period or contemporary, as well as their colors) and the color of light and amount of light the hallway gets.
Isn’t paint fun? You can mull and mull to your heart’s content. The best part is, if it doesn’t turn out to thrill you, you can always repaint! Go to a store that sells sample size cans (Benjamin Moore is one of these) and get a variety to experiment with.
Sorry, I’m confused. Is the paint being used only in that one little hallway where the wallpaper is preserved or is it to cover all the hallways that used to have the wallpaper? Heidi showed several different hall areas, the front? door, the horizontal hall off it, leading to the other areas, another short hall . You can tell by the different light fixtures, (btw, love them).
If the paint is to cover all these areas, it would have to look good with all the rooms off it, especially the living room with the rock wall (love that too!).
And I really think that the flooring choice is very important. Carpet would be easy to match, although sometimes it can drive you crazy. If wood or laminate, will it be light or dark.
Therefor, if Heidi wants to paint first, I’d go with the creme choice since it would be easiest to live with till it could be changed.
And last but certainly not least, does everyone realize that Heidi no only stripped the wall paper but also stripped the “popcorn” off the ceiling? She deserves a vacation after all that. Way to go, Heidi.
Oops, that should be Therefore.
It’s such a personal choice, I can’t comment on color ideas, but have fun whatever you choose!
Super-cool light fixture in the hall, too!
I vote gold to match wallpaper!
We were so torn about taking down the popcorn. But it had been painted so many times that it was losing its texture. We thought, “Well, let’s take it down. If we miss it, we can have it put back up and add some nice glitter, too.” I think it will end up staying down. We really like the clean simple lines of the house that contrast with the large rocks in the rock wall.
I think we will paint the hall and entry way the same color. It would be hard to transition between the two spaces because both are visible from the great room. And because of a 12′ brown/gold rock wall adjoins the entry way/hallway, I think a light gold would work well to pull all of this together.
Fabulous ideas. I’m going to take a look at the Martha Stewart Precious Metals this weekend. Can’t wait!
“We really like the clean simple lines of the house that contrast with the large rocks in the rock wall.” You might want to read the great atricle about Googie architecture at spaceagecity.com/googie. Especially the “Symbols and Metaphors” section.
You should paint the walls a pale green. It would be like butta!
NAVY!! Nobody else voted NAVY yet??
I painted one of the bedrooms in my old house a very deep blue/navy. This room had lots of trim and doors, which I painted a creamy white. And I had ethnic indoasian type paintings ornately framed in cream white with blue and leafed gold pictures and it was GORGEOUS!
The color I used was Sherwin Williams Peacock Blue, but I think its too green for this – I’d recommend matching the blue in the wallpaper and then going a few tones darker.
Assuming that the starburst/sputnik light fixtures and the cottage door are original, it would lead me to believe that your house was built in the 50′s or with a 50′s spirit (often times building construction lags the design world by a few years). If instead these were installed by you and taking into account the aqua chair in one of the pictures, I would say that your taste leans much more towards the 50′s than the 60′s/70′s (the 60′s/70′s were loud and overpowering, a reaction to the at times suffocating niceties of the 50′s). In either case, it was nice of you to save a patch of 60′s/70′s wallpaper that is either not original or that you probably don’t like that much. All this being said, I would chose an off-white or cream to match the base in the wallpaper because it won’t detract attention from the wallpaper itself and will fit in more easily with a 50′s aesthetic.
Thanks Jim. The house was built in 1956 and is a Cinderella ranch. But the focal point of the interior is the large 25′ x 25′ great room with vaulted beamed ceiling and floor to ceiling windows along with the aforementioned stone wall. The original lights had been removed when we bought the house, but we found these on ebay. The exterior is definitively cottage but the interior is more 50s modern.
Aesthetically, we are more the understated 50s modern types as is the house, so the cream could work well, too. We plan to strip the doors and built-ins back to the wood and refinish them with a light colored stain. The introduction of the wood into the mix makes us think that more subtle colors, like the muted gold or a cream, might be a good way to go.
Thanks, too, for the Googie architecture link.
I would vote for a light gold color for the hallway. It would coordinate with the wallpaper and not make the hall feel too small. Love the ceiling light fixture! If you wanted to accent with a darker (navy) shade, you could do an upper border of navy blue paint that would contrast with the vertical navy striped in the wallpaper. I agree with Jane (Mulchmaid)… whatever color you choose will be the right one for you!
That was soooo my thought ( I yelled it outloud) when I first saw the pics…strip the woodwork! That’s cool that you will be doing that. It will make those areas that much warmer visually. Just to throw it out there since you may be interested in metallic colors: I bought bedroom paint today and one of the big box stores has a line, Valspar Signature Colors Brilliant Metals. Looking forward to see what you you decide.
Love the light fixture in the hall! I would also paint the gold color found in the wallpaper. Your house sounds wonderful. Our 1951 brick ranch is also a little more colonial/cottage on the outside, and more mid century modern on the inside. I look forward to seeing more of your pictures!
Bold Option: chartreuse or sherman williams pear.
Subtle: Ice (white with heavy blue undertones).
I cannot wait to see your final choice and result.
I love your house. I especially love the light fixtures. Unlike some houses, you have a lot of different ways you could decorate this place.
From the pictures, it looks like a cross between Diff’rent Strokes/Elvis (the wallpaper) and the Flintstones (the rockwork). I like lighter colors for a hallway better than darker, but either could work. Darker: cave. Which might work with the rock. Lighter: easier to see your way to the bathroom at night. (Probably safer.) Paint one wall dark and one light to see which you like best, then go with what is most comfortable.
I wonder if you could pull the outside in with the flooring materials? Is polished concrete too hard? (good for tricycles, but bad for slip-and-fall). Or maybe some kind of tile from those lovely people in Ohio?
If you decided to go full-on Elvis, I’d go with shag carpeting, like in the Jungle Room. It’s comfy on your feet, peanut butter can be cut out and everyone loves shag. It’s like fake grass without the bugs.
I would go with the creamy tone underneath the blue and gold. That will make the blue and gold really pop and make it really classy. It would also allow you to accent some other features of your hallway in either the gold or the blue.
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and comments. We’ve been in the house for 5 years and still aren’t finished (we bought a foreclosure and restored that one to rent out in the middle of restoration of our house). It is so motivating to get all this help! Thanks again!
i hope it’s not too late to comment!
i think putting a gold or blue to try and match the wallpaper in the hallway will end up looking weird— you’re not going to get the exact colour and it’s going to look like one or the other is not original. i also don’t think a red would work, it would look silly, to me at least. *if* you go with more paint, i would probably go with a neutral colour that is very light like maybe a cream? but i don’t think paint is the best option.
i agree with taking out the wallpaper for most of the hallway— those stripes really make you claustrophobic in a narrow hallway like that. but have you considered having a different, more minimal wallpaper? perhaps a mostly white patterned wallpaper would keep the space ‘open’ without leaving the walls blank.
also, one other note is the popcorn ceiling. my last house had that crap, and if you can do it without blowing a ton of cash, i would replace it with plaster, and give the plaster a kind of half swirl pattern across it. for an example take a look here:
http://roberthannay.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/cimg0009.jpg
they have given the plaster there a kind of circle pattern, but for more of a 50s and 60s style, try giving it only quarter circles across the ceiling.
the reason i hate popcorn ceiling so much is that it’s an 80s/90s artifact, it’s ugly, and the stuff falls on the floor and leaves this chalky substance there.
i hope i wasn’t too late and i wish you good luck with your restoration!
Yes, I like this idea — a pattern-on-pattern cream wallpaper, too….
If you decide to go with a gold, make sure that you have a small amount of black paint to tone it down. Almost all golds/yellows these days are too bright and will seem a little sunshiny. Mix in a little black to add that gray scale that was popular in the 50′s and 60′s to get the perfect muted tone. Paint back then had lead in it that really grayed up the colors, so you have to kind of add the grey back in. Good luck!
That’s so interesting that you explain that it was the lead that greyed up the colors back in the day!
lol… ladies code for “i don’t believe you”.
I actually would go with the blue. Not just to be contrary, I swear! But gold walls can be very…. gold walls, especially at the level of classic greenish-gold of that paper… I’m looking at the background of the medallion section. That is definitely not a sandy, desaturated, nevermind-me-I’m-just-here gold.
But if its a softer gold, that will just read as giving up and going beige, I think.
But some dark blue walls everywhere the wallpaper is not… with some gilt-framed mirrors, or pictures, and some gold/brass finished vintage-style sconces? That would look very intentional, coordinate well, and calm down the space. I would hope you have some nice lamps, though!
Go team blue!