Paint color for walls in multi-use train room

Matt,

Nice looking layout from what I see in the photos. If it were me, I would paint the "side is against the wall" a sky blue, add some clouds. Ask your partner for their suggestion as to the other walls. Perhaps a light tan or beige. I would stay away from a dark color as the room appears to be small.

But whatever you do, do it for yourself and your partner.

RAY

We painted the walls in the train room light sky blue.  As for as the train layout, the color has not mattered much as the two walls along side the L shape layout are covered with off white painted train shelves and windows.

My wife and I like light blue but all of the walls in the house are off white and beige.

On the left by the round house, part of the original background was left.  The background was used for years when the layout was on the den floor for the Holiday months.  The rest of the background was removed as I liked seeing the train shelves better than the background.  The sky to the right upper corner is the real sky as seen through the window.  The train layout is about four feet from the wall and train shelves to allow access of the train shelves and the back of the train board.

Charlie

Given the situation, room and layout design, i'd tend to stick with the neutral wall colors coupled with a blue/clouds/etc. backdrop attached to the rear of the layout...high enough to compliment the layout and for taking photos but not so high as to overwhelm everything. Just my opinion.

A lot of my layout is up against walls of some sort. After you come down my stairs. There is an aisle way wide enough to walk through to get around the layout to the main operating area which is a bended U shape. I had the wall plastered that borders the aisle way. It’s sort of a stand alone wall. My plan was just to paint it a sky blue. Seeing when you looked across the layout you would see the sky. The transition from the layouts edge to the aisle way then to the wall itself which was all blue just didn’t look right. I read some and watched a few videos on backdrops. At eye level I painted a blueish green color for distant hills. Then on top of that I painted a green color all the way to the floor. You don’t need to be an artist. Now when you look across. The layout blends into the color of the wall and you don’t notice the aisle. If a green or tan color if your modeling the southwest works for the overall room color. You could paint the sky above some hills on the walls where the layout is near the walls and being viewed.

Dave C

Great job, that looks perfect.

Charlie

Hi Matt,

I had the same issue when constructing my "dream" layout. Had never done any of this before, so followed advice from various sources. I suggest using blue hues, going lighter as you descend towards the layout. You can also create clouds fairly easily. I did this by creating stencils, then spraying white paint a few inches from the stencil onto the wall. I did several practice attempts in the garage before moving to the wall.  See photos.
Hope this helps.

Michael