6 DC
District
L OCAL LIVING
FROM THE CHAT White after Labor Day, and the ugly-bathroom blues
Staff writer Terri Sapienza took questions last week in our Home Front online chat. Below is an edited excerpt.
Can I get away with leaving a white slipcover on my sofa for the fall and winter? I’m not in love with the original sofa color, and it doesn’t match the color scheme in my living room. How can I make the white sofa look more fall and winter? My walls are seafoam with touches of tangerine in accessories. A white slipcover is more of a summer look, but you can absolutely leave it on all year and pull in fall and winter colors with pillows and other accessories in the room. You mention you have tangerine in the room already, which is a nice fall color. Maybe go with pillows that bring in oranges, browns and greens.
We have an incredibly ugly upstairs full bath that I could
nothing seems to help. Can you suggest a better color? How about a yellow stripe wallpaper? Or a paper with a fun pattern? I think wallpaper is always a good option in these old bathrooms because it will take the focus away from the tile.
ISTOCKPHOTO
use some help updating: dulled black and white floor tile and shiny, pale yellow tile up the walls about four feet, with edging in black tiles. We’ve tried multiple paint colors above the tile (white, ivory, yellow, gray), but
We have a 1970s Colonial with a main level guest half-bath. The problem: an avocado green toilet and sink. We don’t have the money to replace working bathroom fixtures and are stuck about how to make the room embrace the green. The tiled floor, also in great shape, is two-inch tiles in a marbled bone with chocolate brown tones. There is also a huge oak medicine cabinet above the toilet. How about painting the walls
a chocolate brown, painting the medicine cabinet white and adding white towels with a brown monogram?
BENJAMIN MOORE
I just moved into a rowhouse without a lot of natural light. The living room and adjoining stairway (three stories up) all need painting. Benjamin Moore’s Dior Gray is beautiful, but is it too dark? It is pretty dark, but it’s hard
to say what it will look like on your walls without seeing a test patch. From the fan deck I’m looking at, it looks like a purple-y gray to me.
That’s a pretty dark color for a space without much light. One of the lighter colors on that
same card might be better. Sidewalk Gray or Tundra? A lot of times when you paint a small test swatch, a darker color seems great,
but when all the walls are painted it can be overwhelming. A lighter color might be better, especially if you paint the trim white so you can see some contrast. If the gray poster likes Dior
Gray, I think Tundra will be too light. Sidewalk Gray is a nice choice but still looks purple to me. I think Whitestone or Horizon Gray might be better options.
Submit questions to the weekly live Q&A, which
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THE WASHINGTON POST • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2010
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