We have been struggled with the colour scheme in the house for a while, but hopefully we have now cracked it. We have been using our “prototype window” to test out different colour combinations.
We want to use the same colour scheme throughout the house, so it needs to be relatively neutral as well as working with the existing elements (the green window frames, natural stone and oak beams).
Our natural starting point was the inside of the window reveals. Since the window frames are already a green colour, we thought a pale green would work. It does. However, the large expanses of window reveals mean that there will be a lot of green in every room. The colour needs to be light as it bounces the light into the room as it comes through the window.
We also thought that magnolia might be the right colour for the walls.
However, the colour scheme just wasn’t subtle enough. We have ended up using jasmine white rather than magnolia. This is a lot lighter and more subtle. We have also swapped out the pale green for a light taupe colour. This produces a much subtle colour scheme. Over time, I am sure that we will change this scheme but for now it seems like a good starting point.
Magnolia on the walls and light green on the inside of the windows. with the amount of window reveals, this has produce quite large expanses of green (even if it is light).
Magnolia on the wall, light green on the inside of the windows and a sort of “khaki” colour on the skirting boards.
Having decided that the light green on the inside of the window reveals wasn’t right. And also that khaki wasn’t the right colour for skirtings! We have tried a couple of natural taupe colours – a light one and a darker one. You can see the test patches here on the skirting, the left-hand window revela and on one of the mullion covers. You can also see the difference between magnolia and jasmine white on the wall to camera left.
Light green on the inside of the windows, plus two test patches of natural taupe 2 (the darker one) and natural taupe 3 (the lighter one).
Jasmine white on the walls and natural taupe 3 on the inside of the windows and the skirting boards. The architrave and skirting boards are plain MDF for the sake of this experiment.