Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Too much beige makes my eyes bleed

I'm useless at map reading and plan deciphering and any form of verbal direction. All my house renovation ideas have come from books or magazines or websites that have actual pictures. As we are getting to the stage of finalising our drawings and picking colours and materials for the reno I thought I would go and have a look at ... wait for it 28 different Builders spec houses. As well as being useless I have no patience so after about House 4 I was over it. I dragged my sister along for the ride because she can not only read maps and plans but she loves this kind of thing and I knew she would give honest assessments ("that is both ugly and impractical Elizabeth") and not let me go home after House 4.
Here are some pics of the various designs. Be warned there is alot of creams, whites and beige. Before I was made to look endlessly at beige coloured vanities I thought I wanted neutral colours for our benches and cupboards... and I still do but I hope I find some colour schemes a bit more inspiring.





Cute couch in a bedroom. It was at this point David took over taking snaps of things we may actually need to refer back too.


This ensuite opened up to the bedroom... it was hard getting Cath to leave.



Great use of rock tiles up the middle of the shower... shocking place to put the ugly shelf.

















This kitchen makes my eyes bleed AND induces claustrophobia. Window anyone?





This kitchen has similar colours to what I think we will end up with. Darker (mocha) stone tops with lighter joinery. The white breakfast bar fascia is just asking for Bears Size 9 school shoe to be dragged up and down it.





Much better use of the tile stripe.



I'm over it at this stage. But this is how we are having our ensuite. The shower and toilet sit behind the vanity (so there is no possible way to see the toilet from our bedroom) and there is glass halfway down the shower so you can look out to the garden.


Another white kitchen.. but the lights were very cool.

This bedroom did not look finished but it was still very pretty. I was thinking of going for beige walls in our room with a lot of white accessories so its good to see it "works".

Beige walls white accessories... a bit like the above shot.
After seeing these houses I think we will still stick to beige/sand/cream tones . I have learnt from previous decorating experience that I get very bored with feature walls or coloured joinery so this time I plan to get my colour fix from vases, pictures, candles etc. as its a lot easier to buy a new rug than paint over a feature wall.

9 comments:

House of Smiths said...

Whew! Sure is a lot to think about.
I agree with neutral colors for the big stuff... and accenting with your fav. color choice of the moment :)
Makes things a LOT easier to change out.
I miiiight know.
LOL.
~Shelley

The Fredy Family said...

I am converting all our walls to beiges. And like you said accent with color. So much easier. I hate painting.

Annie Vowles said...

Too much beige can make a girl boring but yeh jazz it up with some fav colours.

From your photos . . . . This "LOOK" appears to be repeated through out Aust at the moment and I suspect it will be become known as the era of the teen's (like Mission Brown is/was known to be from the 80's). Similar colours were the only offerings I had for the new cupboards we are getting done in Palmy unit.

brooke said...

I can't wait to see how it all turns out. You are so wise to do creams and whites and beige for the big stuff and accessorize with color. I learned this the hard way.

Even now, my friends keep me from buying large red appliances and patterned couches. You have great taste. It's fun to see what's hot in your neck of the woods!

brooke said...

ps. I love the bit about bear's size 9's scuffing up the breakfast bar faschia.

Kids ruin everything. My brand new barstools are permanently sticky and they are black so they show everything.

Christie said...

I am a fan of adding color like that, too. Learned my lesson after we bought a pink & green plaid couch. Loved it for all of two minutes. Will NEVER do that again. Can't wait to see yours!

Nicolee said...

looks like you've got heaps of fabulous ideas....wanna see shots of all your renos when you've finished...then I can get some ideas!!!!
you're too funny my friend, love the read!!!! ....mwah

Amanda Gibson said...

Love the tiles in the showers, love those lights in that white kitchen and love the light brown/white combo. That's what I have in my bedroom (it's a bit darker than beige but lighter than brown - kind of a light milk chocolate?). Anyway, it's awesome with white accents and trim and it really warms things up. Plus when you have color on your walls there's not so much pressure to fill them up with too much stuff, you know? The color kind of fills in the blanks for you.

So excited to see the progress and results!

Jessica said...

I'm redoing our living room and I'm all about neutrals. Emma wants me to do crimson and I told her my life is chaotic enough without me having to look at loud colors all day long.