What color should I paint the laundry room?

Question

Okay, I've taken on the endeavor of painting the all white laundry room, but I can't decide what color to paint it. It's "L" shaped. Approximately 8x14 at it's widest points. There are TONS of cabinets, all white with chromed pulls and black granite counter tops. The back splash is white subway tile and the floor is white 12x12 tiles. The washer, dryer and sink are also white. It's lit with fluorescent lights. This is a VERY stark feel to it and makes me think of being in the hospital, or that I've possibly died and am in a God's laundry room up in heaven, lol. So, and ideas? I don't want to go really dark, the room has now windows, so the it helps to have everything light.

Answer 1

play around with the Sherwin Williams color visualizer to find something that you like. It is the best paint visualizer on the web, imho. I like how their color palette is laid out, I like that you can search by color family & color name, the "painted" rooms look the most realistic, and it suggests coordinating color schemes. You can literally spend hours:

http://www.sherwin.com/visualizer/

I think this would be the perfect opportunity for you to experiment with a faux finish. SW has a color called "pipe dream" (# 7171) in its SoftSuede collection. If you try that in your laudry room & it looks good, then maybe you could try the same technique in other areas of your home.

You can also take a photo of your house & upload it to the makeover gallery on this website:

http://www.roomvues.com/

You can get color suggestions & they'll photoshop them onto your room so that you can get an idea of what it will look like.

Answer 2

you don't mention if you have flourescent lighting or not, but assuming you do, this lighting emits a stark green cast.

With that in mind, the colors of your appliances, the walls, and a floor, I think a warm, sunshine yellow in a semi gloss finish would be perfect.

Don't know the age of the house but I would paint the room as if it had a wainscoat, meaning, paint yellow from the baseboard up to about 30" high.

Leave the rest of the wall white. Then apply a 4-6" border, inexpensive and already adhesive backed, and found at Target, Lowes, etc. Use the border tape to divide the colors that way you don't have to worry about a straight edge between colors. Get a border that has a pattern to animate the room. Technically, I would use an oil-based paint so that it could be scrubbed often without leaving a dull, flat spot as latex paint generally does. But if you buy a good quality paint, latex might work for you in an otherwise clean room. The semi gloss will add additional reflective light in the room also.