One of the most common questions I get asked are about my paint colors.  And while I am very open with giving out any and all colors~I’ve mentioned them all multiple times, I’m not very organized about it.  So, I thought I’d list them all here in one spot.  I know how obsessed I get over choosing the right color for each room. It’s such a pain to waste money and time picking wrong colors.  But sometimes, picking the wrong colors is the best way to find the right color.

foyer: Sherwin Williams Rice Grain, see how it looks with the office colors and here on the far left you can see the sitting room color, they all work well together

Layla helped me with the jumping off point for color.  She recommended Sherwin Williams Rice Grain.  I tried it in my family room and it looked minty green, but here in the foyer, I love it.  You can read more about how I decided to paint my rental and see the color in Layla’s house here. And if you are wondering, here’s a post about the art of elimination, and how I actually decided on the right paint colors for my house.

Sherwin Williams Comfort Gray

You can see a small wall of this blue gray in the photo of the foyer up there.  This room is supposedly the dining room.  It has picture frame molding under the chair rail so the color is only on the top half and even then it really only has one full wall and then a wall with a window, a tiny wall up against the open foyer and a small wall to the open stair case.  So even though we are renting, I felt ok painting it a non neutral color because I can paint over it in about an hour if I ever need to.  My sister used Oyster Bay {oh and this is the post where I talk about my beloved Tobacco Road that won’t work in our current home} in her home years ago and I loved the color but wanted it a little lighter so I just went one color up on the paint card.  A small room is a great choice to add a little color.

Behr Village Square

In my office, since the bottom was white board and batten, I wanted something darker for the top.  I knew I wanted greens and blues in our house so going with a darkish/khaki/brown/hint of green undertone was a nice choice for a dark neutral.

Favorite Tan

Our family room is Sherwin Williams Favorite Tan, two shades darker than the foyer.  But the color changes depending on the weather and time of day…

And just to make things complicated, our stairwell is Sherwin Williams Ramie. It’s the color in between Rice Grain {our foyer} and Favorite Tan {family room}.  My husband rigged up all of our neighbors ladders and extra wood and small children so he could paint it himself.

Benjamin Moore Simply White {Walls} Sherwin Williams Favorite Tan {sideboard/hutch}

I also painted our kitchen and breakfast area Benjamin Moore Simply White 2140-70 {color matched}.  Believe it or not, this was the color I agonized over the most. I wanted a true white, not something with a hint of yellow or blue or pink.  I did lots of online research googling words like “the perfect white paint” and searching blogs who specialize in pretty white walls.  Most people wouldn’t even notice that I painted this part of the house.  The before paint was “white” to the average person, but to me it was pink, see that arrow up there, I still need to finish painting but, you can see the colors side by side.

For the sideboard and our table, one day I just got fed up with worrying about what color to paint my furniture so I grabbed the leftover, eggshell wall paint from our family room and painted some furniture with it.  I let it dry and then mixed up some leftover Comfort gray with some turquoise craft paint to get a pretty blue for the edges of the hutch.  Then, to seal the table top, I followed Mandie’s advice in her ebook.  It was fast, inexpensive, we use the table every day and it’s holding up perfectly.  And I don’t even have perfect as a goal, good enough would have been fine, but the table top still looks like the day I painted it.  Here’s more information about how I painted my furniture and the ebook.

Halcyon Green

Another color you will see in my home is Sherwin Williams Halcyon Green.  I bought a can and used it for my armiore, shutters and even this dresser.  Ideally, I’d like my pieces to all be a little different version of this color {which is basically a dirty robin’s egg blue, it doesn’t seem green to me at all}.  Sometimes I’ll mix in a little of another color if I’m painting a frame or something small, just to give it a slightly different hue so things are so matchy matchy.  Need more photos of painted pieces I love?

Ready for an update?  We repainted our family room::

Simply White

 

So here are all my downstairs wall colors together::

rice grain, ramie, favorite tan

comfort gray, simply white, village square

And here’s the color of some of my painted furniture Halcyon Green.


Our bedroom is Martha Stewart Flagstone which is a lovely gray.  Our room gets a ton of light in the morning, so I wanted to go a little dark.

Painting Tips

Everyone’s computer monitor is different, the color I see on my screen is not the same as what you see on yours which is probably not the same as what the paint looks like on my wall which is probably not the same as what the paint will look like on YOUR wall.

However, I do think there is value in looking at paint colors online.  It gives you a starting point.  Once you find some colors you like, do a google image search.  For example, if you think you like Comfort Gray, search “Sherwin Williams Comfort Gray” and then on the right side, click on google images.

Oh, look, two of those images are from my house, that is helpful too because you can see the exact same paint in the exact same room in different times of day {the top image third from the left and bottom row, second from the left are both the same wall in my house}.  Be sure to search any color you are considering so you can see how it looks in different houses.

Once you settle on a few choices, get a sample of the color.  Even if it means you have to buy a quart, this is less expensive in the long run than buying a few gallons that don’t work out.  Paint the color on some poster board and use painters tape rolled on the back, or a few tacks to attach it to the wall.  You can move the poster board around to different parts of the room.  Or, if you are like me, just paint patches on the wall being sure not to put the paint on to thick so people will forever see where you tested.

I think this is a great time for a linky, because I know how desperate I was to see photos of paint colors from people I trusted when I was making paint decisions.  If you have a post about your paint colors, feel free to link up.  I’ll leave the linky open for a week if you want to work up a post.