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We are finally about to start the inside of the ballroom. So my mind is on decorating once the walls are finished.

There is a high, gabled wall behind where the piano will be. I want to achieve an effect which was tried in one of our family houses years ago. That is to start in the bottome corner of the wall with a patch of a colour. Then add a small amount of white and do the next partworking up and away from the corner. Slowly increasing amounts of white are added so that the diagonally opposite part of the wall is almost white.

I might start at the gable apex with the colour and work down. I am not quite sure.

The point is what colour should I use?

Hmm, I'm having a hard time visualizing that. Do you have any photos that show an example? The piano is black, is that right?

No, I have no photos at all.

In the old house, it looked wonderful, without furniture. As soon as any furniture went in, it ruined the effect. The point is that this wall is about 5 metres (17') high and the only item in front of it will be the piano.

Yes, that piano is black.

Whatever color (or colour!) you use, it should harmonize with whatever else may be the dominant colour in the room, besides that of the black piano.

Is this colour gradation to be gradual or will it end up being distinct bands of lighter and lighter shades of the same colour?

You may remember from a previous thread that I did an accent wall behind my piano. I colour co-ordinated with the burgundy in the rug, the matting in the picture frames, the stereo speaker cabinets (sort of) and even the primary colour in the portrait.



Regards,

Interesting. I was going to suggest whatever color works with your furniture.

If you start with the color at the top, it will be whiter near the bottom, which might contrast better with the piano, and potentially clash less with any furniture.

Anyway, decorating isn't my thing, so take the above with a grain of salt.

I don't think you'd want to go with that idea. That is going to make the upper part of the wall seem top heavy and will give the illusion of leaning into the room from the top. You need to have the darkest part of the colour as a base or foundation for the wall. (My non-professional opinion, of course!).

Regards,

Hmmm.... Well, even though the piano will be the only thing in front of the wall, you'd still want the color to tie in with whatever else you put in the room... How about earthy tones, browns, maroons, greens (not together!) or alternatively, gold?

What color did you use in the previous iteration?

Sounds like you are describing an "ombré" effect. I think with a large enough wall, in a large room with high ceilings, this would look great. Crowding in lots of furniture (like a living room or parlor) could ruin the effect, as you stated, but sounds like this is the ballroom, which likely won't have much furniture?

I tend to think the cooler colors look great against a stark black piano. I was fairly bold with the color and pattern on the wall behind my piano.

Gray Spanish tile wallpapered accent walls are all the rage, again.

https://goo.gl/images/KT3Ru8

(Which amuses me since my parents' house was full of Spanish tile pattern in the 60s.)

Being the ballroom there will be very little furniture in there.

I am hoping the effect will be gradual and not show as a series of stripes. What I want to do is do successive stripes, each the width of my paint roller, each increment mixing in enough paint to refill the bucket. That way any individual colour change should be effectively indiscernible.

I would start at the top and work down. That way any drips (I am no painter) would get painted out.

Plenty of time to think about it all as the wall is still raw brickwork at present. It is going to be covered with insulating material to give a smooth surface and, I hope, help with the acoustics.

So you're basically going to do this?



What colour is your floor? What's the rest of the decor like?
You've got the space - why did you go for that baby grand?
And have you considered a monocle?

In one post you say you will start at the bottom and work up, continuously adding white to the colour. In another you say that you will start at the top and work down. If you continue adding white to the colour, your second option will be darker at the top and lighter at the bottom, an effect I already advised against in an earlier post.

Which will it be?

Regards,

Do this! In whatever color will please your family

How will the other walls look? Single color?

If an observer, the piano, and the patterned wall are in a line, then I think the shading scheme you propose would take focal interest away from the piano. Shading on another wall not directly behind the piano might be interesting, especially if it leads your eye to the piano.

I think using a narrower roller would help to mitigate distinctly visible gradations. For example, using a 3 inch roller rather than a twelve inch roller, would result in 4 gradations per foot instead of one. In theory, the overall change per foot should remain the same, since each pass would use only one-fourth as much paint, and require that much less added per pass as well, but after 4 passes would be the same ratio of color to white as one pass with the 12 inch roller (I realize that in Bulgaria paint rollers may be measured in metric, but I'm sure you get the point: the narrower the roller, the less distinct the gradations will be).

That gives rise to another consideration though too. Be sure to start with something close to the overall quantity of paint needed to do the wall. If your starting bucket holds too much, then you won't end up with white at the bottom. And if you have too little, you'll fade to white too early.

Sorry, the idea of when I said starting at the bottom I meant to explain how it would look. With anything like this I would always physically start at the top.

The piano is not my baby grand. Somebody once told me that anything smaller than a 9' in a ballroom looks like an afterthought, so I shall be putting the 9' Bluthner in there. The reason for this is explored in earlier posts.

I thought the other walls would be white. There will not be much else in there. The floor is concrete and I shall be looking at colours of floor paint. I thought possibly brown.

The opposite wall includes the balcony. That is in oak and I want to leave that as it is.

If it's a real ballroom (where people are dancing and socializing) you don't want a concrete floor.

I like your use of blue paint to go with your Bluthner grand.
I'm not so sure how the locals will feel about you going around in Bulgarian national costume though.

I know a sprung beech floor is ideal, but it isn't going to happen!

My cover for the Bluthner is Blue.

You did see the post last week about using stickers on a piano - and room?

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/01/yayoi-kusama-obiliteration-room/

Could be an alternative decorating scheme for Philip!