Office Colours - two only...what to choose?

Hi,

I work in an early intervention centre that sees children 0 - 6 yrs of age. We also have an older childrens service based in the same building who see children 6 - 18yrs. We found out today that they are going to paint the interior of the building which is fantastic because the walls are currenlty in a hideous yellow and the doors, frames etc in a lovely (not) peach. If we dont let them know what colours we would like ASAP they will repaint in the same colours

Unfortunately we are only allowed two colours - one for the walls and the other for the doors, skirting, frames etc. Most of the rooms would be quite large and there is a combination of offices and therapy rooms. We are thinking of maybe a cream/off white etc for the walls but are wondering about the doors etc? Any ideas? Coming home tonight I was thinking maybe a deep wine/burgandy colour. I would love to have all the doors painted in different bright kiddie colours but they wont let us

Any inspiration would be great.

Cheers,
Scubamel

What sort of intervention do you provide? I ask because different colours have different effects on people. Blue is meant to be a calming colour, so that may be a good choice. There's a huge range of shades from pale, powder blue to duck egg blue to aqua to navy, and lots inbetween. If you were using blue, I would tend to use white as an accent colour.

Here's a brief rundown of colour psychology. I find it really interesting.

http://matchthat.com.au/colourpsyc.htm

Hope that helps a little.

Judie

We provide a range of services - Speech & langauge, occupational therapy, phyisotherapy etc.

I'm worried about it being too 'hospital' looking if we go for a blue or green as these are common colours used in hospitals. Also I think maybe we need a strong colour as the second colour as some of the rooms are really big and if we use the cream/off white with a light blue (for example) then it all might just be a bit pale

Meldives, I’ll look at this for you tonight.
Can you provide a photo?

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&s ... o&gs_rfai=

Thanks Michelle.

Do you mean a photo of the offices?

yes please....

Could you do White Walls and then the remainder in black to allow for a bold back drop and then for the different rooms you could use art work to depict what the room is??

Here are some photos...

Waiting room/reception
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d198/meldives/IMG_0244.jpg

One of the offices...
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d198/meldives/IMG_0247.jpg

One of the playroom/therapy rooms...
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d198/meldives/IMG_0250.jpg

Another therapy room...
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d198/meldives/IMG_0248.jpg

Note the lovely orange carpet in the office and organey lino in the therapy rooms that we also need to co-ordinate somehow. Not sure who chose the orginal colours and materials but they certainly didn't have a sense of taste!

Thanks Sleven for the idea, however I think black would be too stark. In addition we've waited three years to get the building painted so there's no way there would be funds for artwork. The joys of working in the public sector

do the kids do artwork? if they do you could frame some of them?

I reckon a nice brown/neutral like hogs bristle or even something darker, with white trims would look nice and homely. why do offices have to be different to what we do from homes?

Quick question…..are they painting the ceilings as well? If so is that now 3 colours, or are they leaving the ceiling as is?

Meldives, thank you so much for the photos, it really helps!

Black is not a good colour for development of children…..they want that when they get to the argro teen ages.

Donuts is right about home colours not being too different to offices.

I would steer clear of dark and oppressive colours, so no deep burgandy’s.


First, I actually don’t mind this colour for the waiting area, it’s a nice bright and a lively colour and works really well with the brick and concrete wall….Love that wall, very effective! This is a perfect colour for entries and waiting rooms. Do they have to paint this area, is the paint work bad in this space?




Yes the doors and frames need a new colour. I’ll get to that as I progress

Not sure about the ceilings - we forgot to ask them. The paint work in the reception is in bad condition unfortunately. Paint peeling, has been scribbled on etc. I'll ask if they can repaint in the same colour - I'm sure there is loads of that colour laying around as it's a pretty standard colour to use here!

Thanks for your help,
Meldives

Since you have to work with the carpet and vinyl I’m going to suggest a fairly neutral colour for the walls……unfortunately. So this would be

Dulux Light Rice full strength semi gloss


Doors and trims

Dulux Warm Neutral full gloss

Excellent! At least this will give the centre’s reception a different feel and look to the rest of the place. The colour goes well with the cork floor as well.

In reception I’m going to reverse the colours for the trims and doors and suggest Light Rice in there.

So what do you think?