Colour Advice please!

Shari Lemieux
by Shari Lemieux
Our open concept living room/dining room has golden varethaned beadboard wainscotting. I really dislike the colour of it but my hubby likes to see the woodgrain. I find that there are too many colours and textures in the room and would like to paint/stain the wainscot to blend in with the walls. What do you think? What could I use to whiten the wainscot but still be able to see the wood grain?
  8 answers
  • Jcraw Jcraw on Apr 13, 2018

    I’d “whitewash” with one of the darker tans in your barn door.

  • Sharon Sharon on Apr 13, 2018

    Way too many unrelated patterned items, the checked rug, the plaid throw on the rocking chair, the red flowered chair covers, the hawaiian lamp shades. The green table cloth doesn't add much to the mix. I would pick 1 print, and then pick up the colors in the print to use on other items like the lampshades, table cloth, area rug, chair covers, throw.

    Is there some reason you can't wall mount the TV which we can't see on the wall, so you can move the couch back centered between the little windows? Those wall mounts can swivel anyway you want them.

    Only way to have grain show and white wash the wainscoting, is to strip or sand off the yellowed varnish.... then do a cream wash on the wood with 50% paint and water.

  • Nancy Turner Nancy Turner on Apr 13, 2018

    The wainscoting seems to match the floors in the pictures and looks fine to me. It is like Sharon said, you may have too many patterns and colors going on in the rooms and they need to be brought together more with things that go better together. I would also paint the barn doors to match the walls to eliminate another color.

  • Mogie Mogie on Apr 13, 2018

    Room is too busy. Too much going on. You want it to be soothing and relaxing. I would paint the wainscoting to match the walls and do away with all buy one pattern. A few splashes of your accent color would be nice too (perhaps in the throw pillows and afghan).

  • Joanna Smith Joanna Smith on Apr 13, 2018

    I would stain the barn doors to match the bead-board, so you have fewer wood colors than you do now. I agree with cutting down on the patterns and using coordinating solids instead. Also, the rug is way too small for the room, ( need a nice braided or Oriental with the reds and creams, at least 8x10), and the windows could use some warm, solid drapes in the deep red color. You have nice things and the right idea, just need to pull it together a little. I have been exactly where you are right now, and believe me, it will all work out in the end!

  • Cindy Cindy on Apr 13, 2018

    I agree that you could whitewash the wainscoting to lighten the color. To whitewash, just mix white paint and water. I watch a lot of Home and Garden TV and they say that we can mix prints (2 different sizes of plaids with a floral in same color family). I like what you have but I do think a bigger rug would help. The front legs of your furniture should sit on the rug. I hope this helps you. ps Love the barn doors.

  • Fiddledd224 Fiddledd224 on Apr 15, 2018

    I don't think the color of the wainscoating is the problem. It is that you have too many other colors in the room. Use the following to guide you: 60% of the room should be a base/neutral color (beiges/tans in your case), 30% should be a complementary color (use the rug to pick the second color) and 10% should be an accent color (the red?) I would get rid of the greens and your room should be warm and inviting.

  • Stacy Stacy on Oct 02, 2021

    My hubby is also a huge fan of wood grain and so he doesn’t seem to “mind” if it’s in an out-dated color or not! Lol so I agree with everyone on the too busy too many patterns bigger rug needed , narrow down to solids with 1 maybe 2 patterns at most. — however I feel like I could throw something in that no one has mentioned … btw I am guilty of what I’m about to throw out there so perhaps this is a self check as well but you could think about pulling your furniture away from the perimeter of the room like I think your kitchen table is kind of in the middle of the area and that’s great but like your couch they call it wall hugging and I am guilty of the same thing I put all my furniture like around the picture frame of the room and Lisa Holt is somebody I love she’s a YouTube or as well as mini years design expert and blah blah blah but she’s always saying like don’t be afraid to pull your furniture away from the walls and not be a wall hugger she says that it makes a room look smaller or that you draw attention to the side of the room more when your furniture is outlined like that. I absolutely love this the fact that you have Wayne’s coating I love that look you know whitewashing that is a great idea but I don’t know I’m sitting here thinking what else could she do because no one else mentioned any ideas besides that one I do agree though no matter what the color of the wood is when you have too many different colored words that kind of throws the room you know even if they were all like an ugly color if they were all the same color I think it would help lol you know instead of white washing or paint washing doing such a delight direction would if he went a totally different direction my husband and I are really big huge fans of a look called Ceruse. (I included a small photo of an example of what it looks like I hope it comes through properly this is the first time I’ve ever use this format)

    With this look you will include both dark and light but one will be primary, try to look it up it’s really cool it’s basically just a huge defined contrast between the background of your wood and the wood grain itself. it looks way cool and it’s some thing that’s pretty easy to achieve you just need a wire brush to get it going. Any how sorry for the novel hope you were interested and read til the end - thanks and Good luck with everything make sure to post updated pictures so we can all see what you ended up choosing to do