My daughter's bedroom is 14'x 12' and she wants to paint it red. My question is, wouldn't that be rather overpowering to paint the whole room red. I have no interior design talents at all I am afraid to admit. Advice and opinions are welcome.
Sharon I think it would be a bit much for a room that size. I would paint one of the walls red. I painted one wall in my living room red (tomato red, don't remember the line of paint but got it a Lowe's). That wall is probably 16' with one window. I love it...makes me happy to look at it!
I agree that a whole room painted red would be just too overpowering Sharon. I would go with just the one wall in red as Kuntrygal suggests and make it a focal point in the room. You can always add red accessories to the room and other walls if you want to.
I painted mine a nice brilliant, rather dark purple. I put in a celing light that reflected the light off the ceiling as well as radiated it around, but not dircetly into your eyes if you looked up. 1/1/2 foot down from the ceiling, I left white, sort of a design touch, looks good, and reflected a little more light. I put a very thin turqoise line across the top of the purple to separate and define the contrast, not visble except under close scrutiny but very effective. If you're reading in your bedroom, use a bedside or study lamp. For everything else, I found I had enough natural light. And I loved my purple room! it was a warm colour that enhanced the colour of the floorboards, and purple is a colour that can go cool or warm, so everything went with it. (of course, everything i had was a shade of purple but moot point)Good luck, love to see pics if you end up doing it.
Don't go with red. I heard too much red (too much would be an entire room) causes aggression and hurts children in their development.
Sharon, our oldest son painted his bedroom red. It wasn't a bright red, it was called scarlet. Using a lighter colored drapes and bedding softened the effect. After he moved out we used that room for awhile. It didn't bother us. I always let the boys choose their paint colors. They had to live with it. dooley
Thanks everyone for their response. I am against a totally red room, I think it would be overpowering, but I guess I will take dooley's advice since my daughter is insistent on a red room, we'll see how it turns out.
When I was in high school (way back when) my dad let me paint my bedroom walls. One was orange, one was yellow, and one was red... then the remaining wall was an orange triangle with a yellow circle in it, and the border was red... Oh my! Why did I do that? Why did my dad let me? It was certainly colorful!! But I know it took several coats of paint when we covered it up. My daughter just used a reddish/burnt orange color as an accent on one wall in their family room, with the other walls a sort of tan/khaki color. It is not anything I would choose, but it looks nice for them.
I think it's important you let her choose the color. Your respecting her decision and encouraging her emotional growth. If you pull rank she'll resent it. Save that for the bigger more important situations thet your probably bgoing to encounter.
I agree with Bobthebuild guy. Letting her choose is a good idea. If you are afraid that the red will be too bright, use a mid to dark grey primer and then paint the red over that. It will help make the color more sophisticated and won't require ten coats to get the shade you are looking for. I'm not sure how old she is, however red is an invigorating color, but there are not studies that support it causing aggression. Bright colors have been studied and support early childhood development, so you have nothing to worry about on that front. Happy painting!
