I just finished reading “4 Colors You Should Never Paint Your Living Room.” I’m so happy that I don’t care what designers think. I LOVE my yellow living room. It’s bright yellow, but not neon. It’s absolutely the most cheerful living room, especially in the morning sunlight. But for me it’s really necessary because after about ten in the morning there is no sunlight. There’s nearly a whole wall of windows, but they face east with a covered balcony and there are a lot of trees. A beautiful view, but limited light comes in. There is a single window on the south side, but my cherry tree in summer, and tall pines and a redwood on the other side of my neighbor’s house in winter, limit that light, too. The only person who doesn’t like my living room is my sister-in-law, but then I’m not fond of her pukey tan/gray walls, either. (Even though I’m not fond of the colors, her house is lovely) She doesn’t live here and I don’t live there, so it works out. (Just talked to SIL, she likes my living room–just not for her! Ditto!)

For the light reasons, I agree with not painting my living room (or any room) brown. In fact, until we moved into a house in which the previous owner’s favorite color was brown, I usually kept all my walls whatever color (whites and beiges) they were. But in that house, brown floors and woodwork with antique white walls were all too depressing. The living room was just too dull! I ended up recovering my very 70s  (but oh, so comfortable) sofa with a blue and pink rose tapestry fabric that went with the darker blue and terra cotta chairs, and decided that light shades of the blue below and terra cotta above a chair rail would look good on the wall. I painted the hallway yellow. I didn’t really care for the pink and blue (though when we sold the house the man who bought it said he loved it). I loved the yellow, though.

Which indirectly leads me to red.

“Despite their beauty, bright colors are not ideal for a living space where you want to feel calm and relaxed,” Brooks says.

But what if bright colors make you feel good? The bedroom I used as my den in that (or maybe the next) house was Barbie pink. I found that to be a very agitating color. VERY agitating! There was a ribbon I had that I loved the color of. I looked and looked for a paint that matched. Finally I went to a paint store and asked if they could match it. He said they already had it and showed me a swatch. I didn’t think they matched, but it was the closest I’d seen so I asked for it in semigloss. He flat out refused to sell it to me in semigloss!! “You should never put semigloss on a wall,” he stated very emphatically.  After some polite arguing, he finally agreed to sell it in eggshell. I got my paint and never went back to that store again, ever. Fortunately, the eggshell did have enough sheen, and the color on my wall matched my ribbon much better than the flat color sample. My library in this house is the same color (in semigloss). It’s a bit dark in both houses, but since bookshelves cover the walls 85-90 percent anyway, the rooms are no darker than they’d be with another color. And it is nowhere near as agitating to me as Barbie pink. My library is, in fact, a very calm room (when tidy). But this is a wine or maroon red, not a bright red. I can see this red in a living room if it’s not already a dark room. It’s actually close to the color of my sofa, loveseat and recliner in my living room. I agree that bright red is probably better as accents but one wall in bright red could be a great accent!

Even if it’s not fashionable, sometimes semigloss is the only way to get the right, light reflecting color. The same color would have been too dark in a flat paint. The only negative for me is that it does show any faults in the wall surface. I’m not as fond of it on “orange peel” textured walls (which seem to be prevalent here), but it’s fine.

I’m over white walls except in the bathroom. Ours is a tiny room and bright white is wonderful. Rugs, shower curtain and towels provide color and in a totally white room I can change the look, just by changing those items. It is a rather cold, sterile look, but I don’t mind that in the bathroom. It would be too much in a living room, I agree. Personally, most hospitals and doctors offices I’ve been in seem to prefer pukey pink to sterile white. I wouldn’t want that in my living room, either, though. I can see a warm white living room and agree they’re spot on with this one. Just not for me.

They’re also right about color psychology. Everyone reacts to colors in their own way. My family loves color. Lots of color. I figured out a few years ago that our obsessions with fabric, yarn, thread, and paints have as much or more to do with color than the activities for them. But there are also people like my sister-in-law who are much more comfortable with subdued and neutral colors

The tip about color psychology is a good one, but don’t consider only your guest’s comfort. My living room is where my husband and I spend most of our time. Most of our guests tend to stay in the kitchen and . If I change a room for guest’s comfort, it would most likely be the kitchen. Also consider climate. It really boggles me that gray is so common here in Oregon. To me gray rooms (and I’ve seen a lot!) add to the depressing elements of winter. Generally, people probably most dislike snow about winter. After moving here, where we hardly ever get snow, I realized that that’s only part of it. Color and light wise, snow is probably the best thing about winter. I reflects light and also lightens the drab blacks, grays and browns. Here the moss brightens areas here and there, but it doesn’t reflect light to brighten everything. Inside my home needs to be mostly bright and colorful to counteract the dull, rainy weather.

Ultimately, the best thing is not to worry about what’s “in” or what the experts tell us. We need to do what works for us. Expert advice can guide us. Maybe, if yellow didn’t cheer me, I’d follow their advice, though if it was just a case of not knowing (as before my pink and blue living room with a yellow entry hall) following it might have made me miss out on the best living room color I’ve ever had. If we think we’ll like something, but don’t know, lets just go ahead and try it. Blue is one of my favorite colors. In our very first house, we had a red guest bedroom I loved. It was perfect with my red and gold daybed (this was the 70s) and my gold curtains. I loved it. (That’s how I knew I’d like a red den.) My husband hated it. After a bit of badgering I agreed to change it. Together, we decided on blue since we both like blue and I had white curtains and a blue and green fabric to cover the daybed. He loved it. I hated it!! For me, as much as I like blue, it’s a very depressing wall color. I will never have all blue walls again. Had we lived there longer, I would have changed it again. Paint is the easiest decorating change you can make, although, as you get older it’s not as much fun to do.

I wish I’d thought more about the blue room before I painted all the ceilings in this house a pale blue. They’re not quite depressing, but they’re dull (and according to my late brother-in-law, skew photography color). Repainting is taking years. Downstairs all but my husband’s den now have white ceilings. Upstairs, the kitchen needs a second coat of white. (It’s streaky.) and our bedroom was an experiment. When my son lived with us he had that room and painted it black, blue and orange. The blue and orange reminded me of the bank I worked in in Kansas City. After he left, I repainted the walls a light lilac and the woodwork from black to white again. I didn’t have enough white to cover the black ceiling after one coat. As an experiment, I added a bit of the white to what was left of his blue so that it was neither too light nor too dark. When it was dry I smooshed white spots here and there. (My painter mother only thought to tell me afterward how to make proper clouds.) While my clouds are a bit too solid around several edges, they’re not too bad. The darker blue is not depressing and the clouds keep it from being too dark. Many a morning I look at my clouds and find new images in them–just like in real clouds! If I miraculously recover the energy level I had 30 years ago, I may repaint the blue and do proper clouds.

The point is, you can always redo it if you don’t like it. So let yourself go! Experiment! Let your imagination run! I really want to let my imagination loose on my entry and hallway walls. Right now they are bright green. It’s okay, but I’d like to try a medium deep blue to light blue to light, medium and dark greens ombre top to bottom. Where the light blue starts to become white I’d put a translucent, maybe lightly sparkly yellow/gold. I’ll put proper clouds in the medium blue and have flowers and grasses from the baseboard up. I’ll add a bird or two to the sky and some gnomes and mice in the flowers and grasses. If I’m really feeling energetic, I’ll completely muralize it by filling the midsection–roads, hills, houses, barns, horses, cows, sheep, roads, maybe a river. At the arched doorway to the living room maybe trees or a rose trellis to walk through (which I may do even if I don’t muralize the whole wall). Hmmm… I can see roses trailing into the living room. Ooooo… and a grapevine at the kitchen archway to the living room with a few grape clusters trailing into the living room. I love the terra cotta in my kitchen and have often thought of having sections where brick shows through (where the terra cotta plaster has worn or been chipped). Hmmm… I wonder if my niece would be available to to this for me.