How to Disguise an Old Color Scheme
May 21, 2007 § 2 Comments
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. If you’re stuck with avocado, harvest gold, or bubblegum bathroom sinks and fixtures and you’re not ready to gut the room and update it completely, then you need to disguise that old color scheme. The best way to do it is to blend the sink color into the wall color.
For example, if you have a yellowy pea green sink, tub, and toilet, choose a lighter version of that color greyed down. Benjamin Moore’s castleton mist (HC-1), a muted yellow green, or beacon hill damask (HC-2), a muted greenish yellow, will blend those fixtures into the wall color, make the room look bigger, and disguise the age of the bathroom (for at least a little while). Use crisp white towels, and some black accents to dress the room and you’re set. Warm the room up a bit with some hot pink accessories and I think you’ll be happy enough with the bathroom that you can wait for the right time to remodel.
The same approach will work for harvest gold and even bubblegum pink. If you choose a wall color that is different from the fixture color, you risk highlighting the old fixtures. If you choose a wall color that is the same or slightly lighter than the fixture color, you will disguise the old fixtures.
Your Home & Color Coach 
I have yellow tiled tub area and a yellow tub, and a yellowish floor. i hate the yellow. what color should i paint the walls?
Hi Beth,
Believe it or not… yellow. If you want to disguise the tub and tile and even the floor, the best way to do that is to blend them into the wallcolor. That way they won’t pop out and bother you so much. Look at the Ben Moore historical palette and see which of the yellows approximates your tile. That’s your color. THEN use an accent color for towels, rugs, etc. Black works great. And plenty of white, of course.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach