Window recess colour preferences

[Velvet]

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

[Lobster]

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

[Velvet]

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

[Velvet]

Thought a photo might help.

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

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

Velvet

[Al M]

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

[Velvet]

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

[Lobster]

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

[Velvet]

Great idea, thanks!

[Owain]

Or just leave the lining paper up - should last a while, no point in making work for oneself.

Owain

[Velvet]

Nice idea, but I'm far too much of a perfectionist to settle for that :)

Though given I've just spent several days filling and sanding out all the cracks caused by the masses of blown plaster around the room instead of stripping the walls back to brick and getting them replastered, you might not tend to agree!

They're now properly white, and I'll live with them a while and make a final decision once I've seen it with all the bathroom stuff back in it for a few days.

Have to admit I'm chuffed with how the cracks have disappeared - best job I've ever made of them (and only done plasterboard before, not real plaster) - just hope they stay disappeared. Won't be surprised to see them back at some point though, given the state of the plaster!

Velvet