Expert: Darlene Farmer - 10/16/2009

Question
I just married and moved into my husband's home. The entire upstairs, which includes living room, master bedroom, two other bedrooms, and two bathrooms, have red carpet. Our living room walls are white. Our living room furniture is a cream color microfiber. What color should I paint the walls in the living room and down the hallway so there's not such a dark-light contrast?

Answer
Hi

Are you planning on keeping the red carpet? Red carpet is one of those colors that will definitly lock you into a certain look with not much room to change. My first choice if it were me would be to take out the red carpet and replace with either a hardwood floor or neutral carpet. If that is not an option for you, I suggest you go with a neutral paint color on the walls so that your walls do not compete with the bold carpet color. The colors you could use to paint your walls would be grey, a neutral gold (not too yellowy, more like a tuscan gold), or a neutal beige. I just used a nice neutral beige in my LR by Sherwin Williams called Kilm Beige.
Hope this helps!

Darlene,Owner/Designer
Creative Carpet Design
www.creativecarpetdesign.com
blog-www.ourcreativelife.blogspot.com