Disclaimer: every camera and computer monitor reads slightly different colors, the time of day, weather, flooring and lots of other things can affect how a color looks –if you think you like this color, try a sample in your own home first knowing that colors react differently on every wall in every house.
We have a new color on our walls. We started out going for a super light neutral and Layla suggested Rice Grain by Sherwin Williams. I have a confession, I’ve never used a super light color on my walls. When I sat that white chair in front of the walls it turned invisible against super light color. Since we’ve decided to slipcover our sofa, I feel like having super light walls makes the room look weak and kind of feminine. But it’s still a beautiful color.
Here’s Rice Grain on the walls. I had it mixed at Lowe’s and it turned out a minty green, I have a feeling if I would have gone to Sherwin Williams and had it mixed there, it would have a little more brown in it. Once we decided this color wasn’t going to work for us, I had to face the daunting task of finding a color that would work.
Dear me,
Please at least hide the laundry and move the stray cushion before you take a photo.
–Love, future, adult me
The first step is eliminating colors. I like to start with that because it makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something. We are renting so I wanted a neutral. I wanted the lightest neutral without it being too light. So I stared light and worked my way dark. So, all colors but neutral tans were out~what a relief.
We also have an 8×10 rug that we will continue to use in this room. Rugs are one of the most expensive items in lots of homes and to replace this big rug would mean an extra expense, besides, I like the rug. However, the colors in the rug greatly dictate the colors I can choose from for the walls. I’m actually glad I have a jumping off point from the rug. Otherwise, I’d get overwhelmed with too many choices. So, since the rug is neutral with slight green undertones {remember, you might not be able to tell the true color online} I wanted to pick a color for the walls with a green undertone.
Now, I’ve eliminated pinky tan neutrals like Macadamia, and yellow tan neutrals like my love, Tobacco Road along with gray tan neutrals like–oops, I forgot, I’ve lost my color wheel someplace in that last week. Just know, gray tan neutrals were out too–as much as I LOVE them.
Put sample colors on your walls. Believe it or not, I was back to the original Rice Grain family thanks to Layla’s first recommendation and its green undertone. I stopped by Sherwin Williams and $10 later I had two pints of Rice Grains darker sisters, Ramie and Favorite Tan. So in the photo above, Rice Grain is painted on the entire wall, behind the left lamp is Favorite Tan, behind the right lamp is Ramie. Ramie was still too light to have that pop I wanted with white furniture so we went with Favorite Tan from Sherwin Williams. Since I knew I’d choose a color similar to my samples, I just slapped it up on my walls. If you are iffy about what family your color will come from, you can paint a poster board and tack that up around the room.
Live with it for at least a day. This is the most difficult part because I want to pick a color NOW. But, you want to make sure the color doesn’t take on some weird glow at night. A 24 hour period lets you see the color in different lights.
Here are the three colors side by side.
What’s interesting is in my foyer, Ramie looks really dark. But in our family room, it looks really light–it all depends on the kind of light your room gets.
My muscular man and I painted the room together the other day, it took us 2 1/2 hours from clean brush to clean brush. He did the cutting in, I rolled. We were a little afraid the color would make the room dark but since we have so much natural light, it looks great. I think that’s part of the reason we needed to go with a darker shade to offset our white.
For those of you who are worried that I’m abandoning my colorful roots to go neutral, let me assure you, one of the reasons I’m going neutral on the walls and sofa is so that I can have a blank canvas to change my colors up whenever I want. This tan wall and white sofa thing will serve as a backdrop to any color I’m in the mood for. I cannot wait to start mixing it up.
By the way, the color I used in the front room is Sherwin Williams, Comfort Gray #6205. It’s a beautiful warm blueish gray that looks nice paired with crisp white trim but still holds it’s own next to tans and cremes.
Now that I have our main living space painted with a color we love, I’m using Favorite Tan as a starting point for the rest of the house. We might use Ramie in the stairwell and foyer–our next painting project.
And because inquiring minds deserve to know, here’s Tobacco Road next to Favorite Tan. The photo isn’t quite true to life but TR has more of a yellow undertone and FT has a green undertone.
Looking for more advice on choosing a paint color that works for you? Find out what Kimba thinks and read the series Holly did about favorite paint colors , AnnNicole just wrote a great post all about Picking a Paint Color You’ll Love , and of course, I love Melissa’s reasons for always wanting lots of color in her world.
So interesting how the colors can look so different based on light and colors around them. I’ve always just painted a whole room and then decided if I liked it but I can see how that may not be a great plan……:o)
Great info but to tell you the truth, the way I like to find MY paint color: See it on someone’s wall. :)
angela–honestly, that’s one of the BEST ways! That’s how I fell in love with Tobacco Road!
Love it! It looks like a brand new house!! Good color choices.
LOVE that color! It’s kind of caramel-y. (I refer to all paint colors in terms of food.)
It’s always so amazing how paint colors look on the screen versus real life. Those colors look absolutely nothing like the chips you lined up side by side! But on your wall, they look great. I was talking to a woman in Home Depot the other day about green paint colors, telling her that the yellow in sunlight makes greens look even more intense, and unless you are doing a kid’s room, go towards a more gray one.
Looks great and love the styling on the mantel!
The Tobacco Road chip has seen many moons : )
Dee
I like the splash of life with the plants. nice touch.
Looks fantastic, Nester! Definitely true about not jumping into the color and living with the samples for a bit. My biggest paint mistakes were when I bought gallons home without testing them in the room first. I’m also interested to see how your red still looks in the room. My whole living room has that same red and yellow/gold toile and check thing going on, so I’m very anxious to see how you worked the white and blue in with that red and gold.
Dianne, I’ll add a photo of the paint color with red, either on this post or upcoming–but I’m not trying to work in my toile sofa because it is in dire need of being recovered. But, Favorite tan looks wonderful with red as well!
I think it looks great! Love your choice! I’d love to see more of the room with it, if you get a chance.
I have a color similar to your Comfort Grey in my master bedroom and I love it there. You’ re right, too, that it works well with browns, which I bring in during the Fall/Winter, and yet also works well with lighter colors, which I tend to stick to in Spring/Summer. Mine is Martha Stewart’s Milk Pail from Sherwin Williams. Love it!
Thanks for this post. I’m in the middle of debating colors for my family room & kitchen (and every other room in our house) and all of this info helps me out a lot. I love your Favorite Tan & it may just be a front runner in our rooms as well. The Comfort Gray may just work in our master bedroom/bath or dining room. You have just simplified my life.
Love your thought process. Thanks for sharing it! Your room looks great so far! Can’t wait to see that sofa all slipcovered!!
You explained the process really well. I think color is one of the hardest things to get right! I love comfort gray…it is in my entry. And how fortunate your man will paint with you, expediting the job. If mine ever worked on a painting project with me we’d still be at it…
Janell
Picking out paint stresses me out, it’s funny! Yours look amazing, I’m so glad so many wonderful bloggers are posting about this, I’m wanting to change the color of the bulk of my house but am scared :)
Take care-
Kristin
It really IS amazing what room conditions can do a paint color. I’m so grateful that paint retailers now sell sample pots! I can remember buying gallons of paint while just keeping my fingers and toes crossed that I’d like the color as much at home as I did on the card.
My Ben Moore fandeck is one of my best friends. :)
i absolutely LOVE the new color!! it is so sophisticated with your furniture! but keeps the lovely warm feeling you had before. great job~! :)
Wow, this is so much better than picking it out in Home Depot on a whim and buying a few gallons. That you, you wouldn’t end up with a purple bedroom that hurts your head.
Love this color and your posts. Just wanted to pop in and say that Dunn Edwards (for all of you out west) Madera is a beautiful yellow paint similar to Tobacco Road – I have used it in two of our homes and always get compliments. This new house I am going a bit more neutral as the cabinets have a blue gray glaze – so I am going to do Dunn Edwards Oatmeal Cookie.
I love Dunn Edwards Suprema paint because it looks like flat paint (hiding all the imperfections in your wall) but scrubs like semi-gloss – you have to do less coats of paint – it is just awesome. I moved to UT from AZ and have it shipped to me through a store in St. George (they also have a store here that doesn’t sell D.E. paint) it is that good!
Love your posts – just had to pop in and tell you my favorite paint colors. :)
we just got comfort gray to paint our laundry room. it’s supposedly the match to restoration hardware’s silver sage. i love that color. and if i love it as much on my walls as i do yours, i think it might make another appearance in one of our bathrooms.
great painting advice, and beautiful blog!
First off I must say that I adore your style…In the blogging world these days everything is so colorless and your blog has splashes of color and I just adore it. The tan color stands out. Great Choice.
Wow! I’ve always loved looking at photos of your home, but I found myself stopping and really staring at the ones showing your new paint color. It’s that perfect.
I really love the direction you’re going in! Can’t wait to see the sofa all slipcovered, the new arrangement, and oooo, the accessories you will pull out of your hat. Everything looks so fresh, not that it didn’t before.
I love the new color. It appeals to me so much more than the lighter color you had painted before even though that was pretty. The new plants are a nice touch too! Love it all!!! Kinda sad you are putting a slip cover over your beautiful sectional (I adore it!) but I know it will look wonderful because pretty much everything you do does! =)
LOVE the color and I really love the laundry! The laundry makes me feel at home! :)
I’m loving the Favorite Tan! It really warms up your room. It’s so similar to the Eddie Bauer Pecan I used in my family room that I thought that might be what it was at first. A shade like that is so easy to work with. I change the colors in my family room every season and they all look great with it.
I felt the same way about Rice Grain. It was funny because the color after Favorite Tan on the card is the one I painted the outside of my old house. And it was SO SO dark and KHAKI, no where near mint. But Rice Grain was minty and feminine — while it was very fresh and pretty, my husband hated it and I didn’t feel warm and at home. So, we went with Tobacco Leaf from Martha Stewart, which is as far as I can tell, very much in the vein of the Favorite Tan card, it goes from brownish to greenish — and feels warm with green undertones.
I’m painting by myself in between other projects, so there will be no 2.5 hour completion, but I almost made it through my kitchen and back hall area, plus our family room! I’ll be posting results soon…so fun to see how things have changed at your place! It is lovely! Way to go girl!
Looks great! I have a question about the slipcover on your red chair. Did you buy that somewhere or did you have it made? So cute~!
Laura, search “slipcover” in the sidebar–hand made girl!
Love Love Love the darker color. It’s so warm and inviting. Your sectional color rocks with the blues and white’s. Makes such a great contrast.
We recently painting our family room in Behrs Pale Wheat. It’s very similar to your Favorite tan. Maybe just a tad more yellow. But like you said it changes with the time of day.
A real estate agent once told me that she had luck with selling houses with Sherwin Williams Basket Beige. So, when we sold our house last year I had the 2 story foyer and upstairs hall painted in said Basket Beige. We sold the house in a week! Yep, last year, crappy market, sold, 1 week. Just thought I’d pass that along to anyone needing to sell a house!
We have Rice Grain in the majority of our home but the front 2 rooms are Favortie Tan…we love them…they really are the perfect color family for a neutral background!
Not gonna lie, I’ll miss seeing the toile sofa. But I know it will still look beautiful all slip-covered up. Good luck with the project!
P.S.
now I really want to paint a room!
don’t hate me for saying this, but you really are a lucky gal to have a hubby who is willing to help like this. And, I am sure he would say he is the lucky one : )
(I’m not complaining, I have a keeper of a hubby too!)
Mary, this is the first time my husband has helped me paint in about 8 years–we tried to figure out how long ago it was. Basically, as soon as I get the painting done,I’m going to start/continue my next ebook–window mistreatments. He knows I’m at a standstill until that’s done so he wants to help me hurry. Usually I just do it all while he’s at work, to surprise him.
Beautiful choice! I live with paint swatches at least a week. Sometimes a month. Until I know in my heart that it’s right.
Of course, for the exterior of my house, I just knew that I wanted a dark tan/really light brown. So I went to the restore, picked up all the tan, white, and brown paint that I could and did my entire exterior for $6 – and saved myself DAYS of “picking the right color drama.” I know you know the entire story, but ya know, I still love the color that I ended up with – funny how we can sometimes get exactly what we want without even knowing what “it” is.
That’s why I love you, Gina…you’re Ralph Lauren on a budget – throw enough good stuff together that you like and eventually it works.
Always such a hard decision. Colors look different on your walls than they do on the paint chips. Enjoyed seeing the picture of all the different choices you tried.
Thanks for the inspiration! We are getting ready to paint the first floor and the color palette is almost EXACTLY like yours! We want to do a tan because we plan on moving in the next year or so. Thanks!
Kim @ http://frostmeblog.blogspot.com
party inspiration
Oh I needed to read this today! We moved into our new home 6 months ago and I’ve still got these boring white walls surrounding me. I’ve had paint chips up on the walls for months, but I’m just not in love w/any of them. I have always been a lover of lots of color in my world, so I’m looking forward to reading ths blogs you linked up. Thanks!
I am seriously going to have to take a picture of my paint & email it to you because I swear it is identical. I thought it was when you were on the TR kick, but now I am convinced. This is my favorite color. And I’m the same way: I paint a neutral wall color, that way I can indulge my color changing mind any time I want. Right now I’m going white, white, white, and you’re right, the way white pops against that color is fantastic. My huge wall cabinets are white, and I’ve always loved the way they pop against the walls. Now, I just need fabulous white slip covers for all of my couches & my massive ottoman! :)
I love your blog. Was wondering if you have a post on painting techniques. I can never get a crisp edge at the ceiling or when I am joining 2 walls with different colors. I don’t see any taping in your painting pictures. Any tips?
A tall husband with a steady hand. That’s another reason why he had to help me with this–he was completely aware of my skilz and impatience and with dark paint, we didn’t want it on the ceiling.
This is so funny and timely. We finally gave in (just last week) and painted our living room after having lived with three long sections painted with varying paint samples for several weeks. I’m so glad we did that though because the color I originally picked from the paint chip turned a disgusting greeny khaki color once it was on our walls.
Actually, we painted the same three colors in blocks down the hallway too so we could get an idea of it in different lighting. Totally worth it.
Clearly, paint stores should offer for “rental” large, poster-board sized “paint chips”. That would make the test so much easier!
That is SUCH a great idea.
Sandra, that’s such a smart idea!
C2 has an amazing 18 x 24 super paint chip. It’s painted with the real thing and are less than $10!
Mary-Frances Cimo
Color Strategist
Hmmm….Excellent post! I have a little trouble seeing the undertones. I think it’s a matter of comparing colors, right?
Thank goodness for sample pots! I’ve got many dollars plunked into them but just imagine if it’d been gallons of paint instead!
I also tried Rice Grain but I stuck with my deeper tones of SW’s Svelte Sage and Latte. Rice Grain was too bright, minty for my taste. Somehow the darker colors are more soothing to live with than the lighter versions.
I’m looking for just the perfect gray. Not blue, not too green; just a soothing gray.
Thank you so much for this post! I swear I was looking at the exact same color that you went with! The couple of spots I painted on my wall are not doing it for me!! I’m glad to see in “large form!”
The colors you have chosen look fantastic in your space. I purchased a color called meadow green about 8 years ago and in the paint store it looked just the right light khaki color I wanted for my living room. The sales person told me that the color would look darker on my walls after it dried, so I shouldn’t go darker. Well, after getting it on the walls, the only way you can tell that it wasn’t white is by looking at the white trim against it. I was sooo… dissapointed and have been afraid to paint since then. I have a lot of light that comes into the room, so maybe I should go a couple shades darker. I’ll try the poster board idea. Thanks so much for all of the information you provided. :-)
Love this post! I am doing the same thing (going neutral with walls, window treatments most furniture) in my main living spaces for the same reasons. I LOVE color and get bored too quickly with color combos (usually when I see a new one that excites me). So I figured the best thing for my sanity & budget would be changing out accessories, etc. I have been planning to check out Rice Grain and her sisters (thanks to Layla), too. I think they might go nicely with my new neutral curtains :).
Thrilled to see your Comfort Grey..that’s the grey I chose in a Behr color and we will be doing white board and batten with it. I can’t wait! Thanks.
Hello sweet Nester – I’ve been out of the loop since January. I’ve enjoyed getting myself caught up with my fave Nester. I really love the way your family room is shaping up! Your new wall color, favorite tan is beautiful and really sets off the other colors in the room. I’m wanting to do white slip covers over my tan-ish couches. May I ask where you found your white curtains? Thank you for all the wonderful inspiration on this post!
Blessings,
Marie
Looks great! :) I think it’s similar to what I have on most of my downstairs walls, but like you said, computer screens give a different view. I love how fearless you are. :)
Wonderful, thanks for sharing. Sometimes I forget that eliminating is a way of chosing.
LOVE. it. :) I love color and my paint choices are mostly on the bright side, but I’m loving what you’re doing with neutrals lately and it’s making me want to re-do every room in my house!
You are my paint hero! Thanks to you T.R. graces the walls of our foyer, halls, stairwells, and bonus room.
Can you believe that 2 days ago I recommended Favorite Tan to a client??
We did our bedroom in Urban Mist (Behr) and it is crisp, clean and calming… if you are ever looking for a good misty-blue.
I like the Favorite Tan. It is so hard choosing colors. It took me a year to figure out what I was going to paint my living room. haha!
I was going to go with the EB Pecan color that Kimba liked so much but it turned out to be too gold when I brought the sample home.
I like the gray color you used as well. Really pretty.