Paint your room red

For most of her contemporary house, Brenda Andel chose a neutral palette — cream, white, beige.

Except for her dining room.

Those walls are red.

“I wanted a room that was vibrant,” Andel said.

So she sat down with Linda Hunt, whose business is to mix color with unusual finishes, and they came up with a plan.

The three dining room walls have a rich, deep red base coat. Hunt applied texture to the walls and finished them with a burnt umber glaze, which was brushed on and then wiped off.

The result is an “energy,” which is just right for the house’s open floor plan, Hunt said. 

Andel, who added touches of red — a pillow here, a vase there and a red-tinged flower arrangement in the entry — has used the same color in other homes she’s lived in and likes what it brings to a house.

What does red say about a room?

Bonnie Whitemore, who owns Inspiring Spaces home decor  store and is a certified feng shui designer, agrees it is a color of very high energy.

“It has to be well thought out in a room,” Whitemore said.

On a front door, it’s “great and inviting,” she said.

On a ceiling, the color can pull the energy up, she said. But sometimes that upsets the balance.

Yes, it works in a children’s toy room. No, not in a child’s bedroom — it’s not relaxing enough.

Family rooms, kitchens and dining rooms are all good choices for red paint. They are places where people interact, Whitemore said.

And in Nebraska, where red is the unofficial state color, many homeowners use it to accent their Husker memorabilia.  

Jenn Carroll White, an interior designer with Interiors Joan and Associates, suggests keeping the background neutral and letting the red take center stage.

In one client’s home, one segment of the lower level was dedicated to Husker sports items, Carroll White said.

A large shelving unit covered one wall, and the Nebraska red “popped” from the display, she said.

“Red done right is amazing,” Hunt said.

Before applying red in a home, Hunt said she sits down and makes sure the homeowner realizes the impact it will have. “We talk about the different shades and what works best,” she said.

Tyler Thody gets the “red” question all of the time at the Sherwin Williams paint store that he manages.

Kitchens and Husker rooms are the most popular places for red walls, he said. “Poinsettia” is the color that seems to be the best match for Husker things, he said.  “Firewood,” is a popular red, too, but it is more of a brick red.  

Red is a color that is full of pigment, Thody said. For that reason, he doesn’t recommend it for bathrooms. “It takes a long time to dry out, and that’s a problem in a room filled with moisture.”

Thody explains that red paint used to be filled with lead to get that deep hue.  The lead is out, but it still has a few quirks.

Since it is such a strong color, good application usually takes more than one coat. Thody recommends using a dark gray primer.

“If you put red over white, it could take six coats to get the true color,” he said.

Not only is it tricky to get on, but it’s also hard to get rid of.

Thody said using a blocker, such as Kilz, over the top is the best first step before painting another color.

Ninety percent of the red paint  Thody sells is used indoors. Outdoors, many shades of red have a tendency to fade or turn pinkish.

Instead of a flat finish, Thody recommends the slight sheen found in an eggshell finish.  Semi-gloss finishes are even better, he said.

Like every color, red goes in and out of  popularity, Thody said. But in Nebraska, it is consistently a good seller, regardless of national trends. And especially when the Husker teams are winning.

Reach Kathryn Cates Moore at 473-7214 or kmoore@journalstar.com.