Nursery paint color help, ideas needed

Dragonfly_Bride · October 2011

I am finally going to paint our little room. I've been saving ideas/inspiration for 6 years now, but I'm still having trouble committing. I've always wanted a blue ceiling with clouds. However, I've also wanted sky blue walls. DH says that combo would be like being in a suffocating blue box. I sort of agree, but argh! I saw a really lovely shade of yellow, a light butter, and I actually think it might go well with the blue ceiling. Any other ideas? Need to keep everything gender-neutral, and should be able to grow with the child (so not too baby-ish, which I'm afraid the yellow might be).

Mrs.Wubbin · October 2011

Are you still doing the black and white sheep from PBK? I think yellow would be great and not too babyish! Eloise's nursery was b&w toile w/ red accents and yellow walls and we just tweaked it to make it a big girl room and it is still super cute! Post pics when you are done!

Celyn · October 2011

I've seen some really cute kids' rooms that put the crown molding about 1.5' down from the ceiling, then painting from the molding up and across the ceiling with sky blue and clouds, then the bottom down in a soft mossy green. One particular room I'll always remember had hot air balloons suspended from the ceiling and a few painted in the upper portion of the wall.

Structenggal · October 2011

We couldn't decide between an ocean and a safari theme. The room already had a chair rail in it, so we did ocean blue below the chair rail and then tan above and a blue sky above that. This pic only shows the walls right after we painted, but maybe tan walls and a blue sky could work. depending on the color of tan/beige, it can be close to yellow.

kittylove · October 2011

I love your idea of the yellow walls with the sky celling and also love Terri's idea with the crown molding. I think the yellow and blue would transition well to a toddler room but you would probably re-paint by the time she/he were 8-10.

dirtbikemom · October 2011

Sara's walls are a sky blue and the ceiling is white. We did a border around the top of the room that is Winnie the Pooh floating w/ a balloon in the clouds. Now at almost 5 she wants to take the border down and asked for a Harry Potter border. That might change as her little girlfriends are getting her into princesses.

MeggyO · October 2011

I think yellow with blue ceiling would be very cute! Here is something from my favorite diy decorating blog with a similar idea--greeny yellow, with blue ceiling--that I love.

I'd love to paint the ceiling in our nursery a cute, lighter color, but we still have those nasty acoustic cottage cheese ceilings that I have zero desire or time to redo!

ZoeMay06 · October 2011

I just painted Kyva's room and we're also doing blue ceiling with clouds, so I approve of your plan! I think a butter yellow would be really cute (just not dead celery yellow - hehe). We went with something similar and used an orangey apricot color. We're putting up white crown moulding to visually divide the two colors. I think blue walls could work too if you do something like that and add other decor to the walls to break up some of the blue. I'd probably go a shade or two lighter on either the walls or the ceiling so the colors aren't exactly the same.

Mrs.Wubbin · October 2011

Apple green walls would look good with black and white too. I also like Terri's idea about the molding slightly below the top of the wall.

Dragonfly_Bride · October 2011

These are all great - thank you for the replies!

Mrs.Wubbin- the B&W has become less of a focus ever since I discovered my crazy affection for blue. I'll still have a lot of b&w, but I don't think it will end up feeling like a B&W room. Still love sheep (and the PB Chamois Lambie line), but I'm trying to temper that with the realization that this is not "my" room - so even though I have an, ahem, slight obsession with sheep, it doesn't mean my child will, too. But please do not ask me to show you any clothes that I've purchased over the years, because I can tell you with certainty that they absolutely do not have sheep on just about every single item, duplicated in multiple sizes. It's just not true and if I catch who told you that (dh), they will be sorry.

Celyn - I've seen a room like that, and I think I have it saved somewhere. Love the idea, love it. I'd like to do crown moulding, but I'm getting resitance from dh.

Structenggirl - I like that idea - I like the chair rail dividing the colors. Hmm...

MeggyO - Thank you for that pic. It's not one I've seen before, and it really helps me visualize where I'm going with my thoughts. Very nice!

ZoeMay - Pics of Kyva's room, please! Ah, the ol' dead celery yellow. How can I forget that?

Ariel - I like all these ideas, too!

dirtbikemom - I'm glad to hear that the color transitioned well into Sara's BGR. But, how is it that you have an almost 5 year old???

carmeng · October 2011

I think the light/buttery yetllow and blue will work. However, I think you may have to repaint the ceiling later because it may not work as the child grows - just my opinion.

When I was planning for A's nursery I must have visited 100s of sites and gathered ideas from all over the place. The one site that comes to mind is projectnursery.com - you may be familiar with it already. I loved it because I could do a specific search based on style, color, etc.

I can't wait to see what you come up with!

bcb4me · October 2011

My suggestion, and sorry if you've already done this, is to choose your bedding first. Paint is the last thing to choose because there are unlimited paint options but only so much bedding you'll like. Exciting!

bcb4me · October 2011

bcb4me:
My suggestion, and sorry if you've already done this, is to choose your bedding first. Paint is the last thing to choose because there are unlimited paint options but only so much bedding you'll like. Exciting!

Woops...should have been more clear. And then pull the color or colors to use from the bedding. If there is blue in the bedding, and say it's too dark for the wall, find a paint sample chart that is the same blue on the darker side. Then go a to the lighter side and choose one of those colors and you will have a color that coordinates with the bedding but doesn't look like you matched it exactly. Is this confusing?

You can also use variations of blue or yellow that can still stay gender neutral like aqua or a yellow with a sort of green under tone to it. I love blue walls, I love yellow walls but it all depends on what else you are putting with it is I guess what I'm trying to explain

bunch · October 2011

I love the idea of the buttery yellow walls and I love everyone's ideas about defining the colors with chair rail/molding depending on where it is.

I did have to interject, though, about the sheep. One of DH's high school friends had the maiden name Lam (lamb) and yes, sheep sheep everywhere! Luckily her DD lurves them too (I don't think she really had a choice) And the clouds on the ceiling with sheep elsewhere in the room- what child wouldn't love that?!?

ps- I want pics.

mrscerruti2be · October 2011

Hey M! Nursery decorating is so much fun. I think your ideas sound great. I also wanted to recommend using the free service at the paint store that sells Benjamin Moore paint in Danville. I can't think of the name of it, but it is directly across from the Livery. There is an interior decorator in house and she was actually quite helpful to me. She gave me options I didn't even think of. Share pics of your progress please.

LoLoPanda · October 2011

We painted S's room a very light yellow, and I don't think it's too babyish. I think it would work well with a blue ceiling.

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