In the process of decorating (first room of this house and got a lot
of practice with sorting out big cracks in dodgy old plaster - a tale
in itself) and this place has rather deeper window recesses than the
last. I have a fairly strong (slightly stronger than intended!)
colour on the walls, bathroom suite is white, and plain basic white
tiling around bath and basin. Tiling looks a bit naff, so I plan on
white T&G panelling around the lower half of the room to tie the white
tiles and suite all in together and lessen the impact of the tiling vs
wall colour.

Window slightly overlaps the bath tiling and the basin tiling.
Windowledge is also tiled in white. WC sits directly beneath the
window. Recess is approximately one 'standard' square tile in depth
(I'd guess 4, maybe 5"?)

I am considering whether to do the recess around the window in white
matt, or same colour as walls (a reasonably strong yellow - dulux
'sunbeam' for any curious enough to look it up).

House is a fairly standard basic 1930's place, it has white upvc d/g
fitted.

I'm after some opinions of whether leaving the recess white would look
odd/naff/good or not - I just can't decide :-)

Cheers,

Velvet

Velvet wrote:
I am considering whether to do the recess around the window in white
matt, or same colour as walls (a reasonably strong yellow - dulux
'sunbeam' for any curious enough to look it up).

I'm after some opinions of whether leaving the recess white would look
odd/naff/good or not - I just can't decide :-)

My own preference would be for the reveal to be the same colour as the
rest of the walls; but that's just me.

Surely the thing to do is to paint the reveal white first then do the
rest of the walls in your yellow - then if you don't like the effect you
can just overpaint the reveals with yellow. (of course don't do it the
other way round because it will likely take a lot of white coats to lose
the yellow underneath!)

David

On 13 Apr, 19:56, Lobster wrote:
Velvet wrote:
I am considering whether to do the recess around the window in white
matt, or same colour as walls (a reasonably strong yellow - dulux
'sunbeam' for any curious enough to look it up).
I'm after some opinions of whether leaving the recess white would look
odd/naff/good or not - I just can't decide :-)

My own preference would be for the reveal to be the same colour as the
rest of the walls; but that's just me.

Surely the thing to do is to paint the reveal white first then do the
rest of the walls in your yellow - then if you don't like the effect you
can just overpaint the reveals with yellow. (of course don't do it the
other way round because it will likely take a lot of white coats to lose
the yellow underneath!)

David


That's what I've done... well, sort of - it used to be pale pink, but
over a vibrant cyan, which dealing with the cracks revealed rather
large quanities of, so the two coats of white to prep for the new
colour have still some pink/cyan tint coming through. It's white
enough to ponder over, but would need at least another two coats of
white to be 'finished'.

I'm just not convinced about them being white. And no more convinced
about them being same-as-wall (which is how it's been in every place
I've lived in). Obviously, the only way to know for sure is to paint
them yellow, but as you say (and the reason I am holding off at the
moment) is that they will then take probably four+ coats of white to
get them white again

I think this sort of thing really has to be carried through all the
rooms, too. Which doesn't make any odds to me, I just don't want to
go with white and find out 95% of the rest of humankind look at it and
go 'eww, that's just ODD', especially since I plan on selling this
place at some point (thinking about it, possibly not before it needs
redecorating again though!)

Velvet

On 13 Apr, 20:10, "Velvet" wrote:
On 13 Apr, 19:56, Lobster wrote:



Velvet wrote:
I am considering whether to do the recess around the window in white
matt, or same colour as walls (a reasonably strong yellow - dulux
'sunbeam' for any curious enough to look it up).
I'm after some opinions of whether leaving the recess white would look
odd/naff/good or not - I just can't decide :-)

My own preference would be for the reveal to be the same colour as the
rest of the walls; but that's just me.

Surely the thing to do is to paint the reveal white first then do the
rest of the walls in your yellow - then if you don't like the effect you
can just overpaint the reveals with yellow. (of course don't do it the
other way round because it will likely take a lot of white coats to lose
the yellow underneath!)

David

That's what I've done... well, sort of - it used to be pale pink, but
over a vibrant cyan, which dealing with the cracks revealed rather
large quanities of, so the two coats of white to prep for the new
colour have still some pink/cyan tint coming through. It's white
enough to ponder over, but would need at least another two coats of
white to be 'finished'.

I'm just not convinced about them being white. And no more convinced
about them being same-as-wall (which is how it's been in every place
I've lived in). Obviously, the only way to know for sure is to paint
them yellow, but as you say (and the reason I am holding off at the
moment) is that they will then take probably four+ coats of white to
get them white again

I think this sort of thing really has to be carried through all the
rooms, too. Which doesn't make any odds to me, I just don't want to
go with white and find out 95% of the rest of humankind look at it and
go 'eww, that's just ODD', especially since I plan on selling this
place at some point (thinking about it, possibly not before it needs
redecorating again though!)

Velvet


I prefer matt white. It reflects more light in, esp if it's a dark
room. From outside the house looking in, if you have several windows
all edged different colours it might catch the eye (if they are bright/
dark colours) and look a bit odd. I've seen a diy programme with some
designer types saying white is best, but then I've other similar
programmes where they paint same as room colour. Personal preference I
guess.
Al

On 13 Apr, 22:33, "Al M" wrote:
On 13 Apr, 20:10, "Velvet" wrote:



On 13 Apr, 19:56, Lobster wrote:

Velvet wrote:
I am considering whether to do the recess around the window in white
matt, or same colour as walls (a reasonably strong yellow - dulux
'sunbeam' for any curious enough to look it up).
I'm after some opinions of whether leaving the recess white would look
odd/naff/good or not - I just can't decide :-)

My own preference would be for the reveal to be the same colour as the
rest of the walls; but that's just me.

Surely the thing to do is to paint the reveal white first then do the
rest of the walls in your yellow - then if you don't like the effect you
can just overpaint the reveals with yellow. (of course don't do it the
other way round because it will likely take a lot of white coats to lose
the yellow underneath!)

David

That's what I've done... well, sort of - it used to be pale pink, but
over a vibrant cyan, which dealing with the cracks revealed rather
large quanities of, so the two coats of white to prep for the new
colour have still some pink/cyan tint coming through. It's white
enough to ponder over, but would need at least another two coats of
white to be 'finished'.

I'm just not convinced about them being white. And no more convinced
about them being same-as-wall (which is how it's been in every place
I've lived in). Obviously, the only way to know for sure is to paint
them yellow, but as you say (and the reason I am holding off at the
moment) is that they will then take probably four+ coats of white to
get them white again

I think this sort of thing really has to be carried through all the
rooms, too. Which doesn't make any odds to me, I just don't want to
go with white and find out 95% of the rest of humankind look at it and
go 'eww, that's just ODD', especially since I plan on selling this
place at some point (thinking about it, possibly not before it needs
redecorating again though!)

Velvet

I prefer matt white. It reflects more light in, esp if it's a dark
room. From outside the house looking in, if you have several windows
all edged different colours it might catch the eye (if they are bright/
dark colours) and look a bit odd. I've seen a diy programme with some
designer types saying white is best, but then I've other similar
programmes where they paint same as room colour. Personal preference I
guess.
Al


You have some good points there. It is a (mostly) north facing room,
so gets sunlight only for about half an hour during a few months of
the year - rest of the time none at all. You are also right about the
external appearance, neighbours have bright lilac showing in their
surrounds which I've always thought clashes nastily with the red brick
of the external house wall. I had sort of considered the first but
the second hadn't occurred at all, so thanks for that.

Velvet

Velvet wrote:

I'm just not convinced about them being white. And no more convinced
about them being same-as-wall (which is how it's been in every place
I've lived in). Obviously, the only way to know for sure is to paint
them yellow, but as you say (and the reason I am holding off at the
moment) is that they will then take probably four+ coats of white to
get them white again

OK, so get some lining paper, lay it out flat and paint it yellow...
when dry, cut out appropriately-sized rectangles and blu-tack them to
the surfaces within the reveal - if you like the effect *then* you can
paint the reveal yellow properly!

David

On 13 Apr, 23:51, Lobster wrote:
Velvet wrote:
I'm just not convinced about them being white. And no more convinced
about them being same-as-wall (which is how it's been in every place
I've lived in). Obviously, the only way to know for sure is to paint
them yellow, but as you say (and the reason I am holding off at the
moment) is that they will then take probably four+ coats of white to
get them white again

OK, so get some lining paper, lay it out flat and paint it yellow...
when dry, cut out appropriately-sized rectangles and blu-tack them to
the surfaces within the reveal - if you like the effect *then* you can
paint the reveal yellow properly!

David


Great idea, thanks!

Thought a photo might help.

http://www.zen83644.zen.co.uk/photos...G_1260-med.jpg

And this is what I had to deal with (small cracks turned into chasms
of doom):

http://www.zen83644.zen.co.uk/photos...G_1222-med.jpg
http://www.zen83644.zen.co.uk/photos...G_1220-med.jpg
http://www.zen83644.zen.co.uk/photos...G_1223-med.jpg

Glad I took photos, I'm already forgetting the horrors I uncovered now
that they're behind that new paint

Velvet