Replies

1. 
   Brian55 | May 11, 2009 04:47am | #1

   Am in the process of putting in three archways in my house. My wife and I have talked this over and decided to use something like a sponge technique using the colors from adjoining rooms.

   Brian

2. 
   DonCanDo | May 11, 2009 06:34am | #2

   I usually like to paint them the lighter of the 2 room colors as long as it's an off-white or a pastel.  If they're both dark colors, I think just painting them white works best.  Usually with an eggshell finish so that hand prints don't show up too readily.

3. 
   KenHill3 | May 11, 2009 07:05am | #3

   I would paint the arches the respective room colors- the hallway is 'transitional' and therefore gets no precedence.

1. 
   WayneL5 | May 11, 2009 07:28am | #4

   Thanks.  That's how I started off thinking then wrapped myself into a dilemma.  Suppose I painted the arches in the hallway the room colors.  Then, when standing in the hallway, all the arches are colored with the rooms beyond, which seems fine.  Then, when standing in the kitchen the arch to the hallway would be the kitchen color.  There is another arch in the kitchen, to the dining room, and that is also the kitchen color.  Still fine.  But then, standing in the dining room, which adjoins both the kitchen and the hall, one arch is the color of the far room (the kitchen), and the other arch is the color of the near room (the dining room, not the hallway).  That would bother me.

   Enough thinking for tonight.  I'm going to bed.

1. 
   Piffin | May 11, 2009 12:45pm | #5

   I'd paint them all the same colour - probably what you are using for trim thruout, such as baseboards. 

    

   Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

2. 
   Mongo | May 11, 2009 06:47pm | #6

   I have 14 arches in my own house.I try to break it down into one of the rooms being a "major" room and the other being a "minor" or terminal room. Example, in my house, in the foyer I have four arches leading to four rooms, one being the library. The only way out of the library is to go back into the foyer. In that case I consider the foyer to be the "major" room and the library to be the "minor" room.So for that arch I'd paint the arch jamb the same color as the foyer color.In multi-arched rooms you might not always get the same rule to apply to every arch. Just look for an overall solution. And it is okay if you have different colors in the same room. Sometimes you just gotta do not what you want to do, but what you have to do.

   Edited 5/11/2009 11:58 am ET by Mongo