Written by Beryn Hammil
Wednesday, May 31, 2000
©2000 San Francisco Chronicle
Question: We have a "problem" fireplace. Our
entrance foyer is behind the fireplace, and the
surrounding living room walls are white-washed redwood
panels. The adjoining room, a large solarium with a bay
view, is painted white.
I've thought of painting the fireplace and the sunroom
walls taupe or a creamy beige to blend with the living
room. Our furniture is French Country with a few
antiques, and the upholstered pieces are done in cream
and beige.
I want to do some decorative painting on the walls and
ceiling of the sunroom, so I need a fairly neutral
background. There are 16 skylights and four large
windows, so there is too much natural light for bone
white.
Jonelle Osburn, Millbrae
Answer: The dilemma you're facing seems to be
one of color and light. Your instinct to paint the
fireplace and sunroom taupe or creamy beige is a good
one, especially since that's the palette of your
furniture.
Soft neutral colors are always a good background to
showcase antiques. These colors also will tone down
intense light coming in through a lot of windows, and are
easy to live with over a long time.
Since you can't wave a magic wand and make the
fireplace transparent, softening the room's color is the
best approach.
The objective should be to make this white monolith
that's the fireplace blend into the rest of the room and
be less obtrusive. As well, the warmer color will make
the dark wood antique mirror seem to "float" more
gracefully in the place it occupies.
Pale neutral colors also function well as a good
background for any decorative painting you want to add.
Again, it's an easy color range to work with and should
be a pleasure for an artist to use as the base.
A handy tip when painting any room: paint colors will
change as the light in the room changes, so be sure to do
sample tests of the color and look at it at different
times of the day and evening.
Don't commit to a color from just a 1-inch paint chip;
invest in a quart and test it first. It's an inexpensive
way to avoid a big, expensive mistake.
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