6/03/2010

Paint Picks

Promised long ago, I'm finally delivering the paint tour of our house. I get lots of emails asking me about our wall colors and I apologize for not sharing this information sooner. My paint organization system needed an overhaul and this little project forced me to do that. I went through almost every can of paint on the premises, threw the empties out, and filled a few mason jars with touch-up paint and labeled each according to room of the house. I certainly procrastinated the task, but it's a good feeling to have it done now!

All formulas are either flat/matte or eggshell. Keep in mind that a specific shade will look entirely different from one house to the next. Lighting completely changes colors and paint swatches are deceiving. Because of their small size, it's tough to pick up on the nuances of a color judging from a swatch.

Therefore, my best advice is to test your favorite swatches using a paint sample. You can either paint directly on your walls (hit multiple places in the room so you can get a full perspective of how light affects the color...morning, noon, and night) or you can paint a piece of MDF or foam core board and move that around the room. Even though it looks horrible during the decision making process, I'm a fan of the paint-directly-on-the-walls approach. Home Depot's $4 mini sample jars are perfect for this activity.

Trust me...don't be lazy or cheap here. Get a few samples, especially if you are going for the perfect neutral. Grays, taupes, and whites are super tricky and usually have multiple personalities. It's hard to believe that the paint swatch I ended up using in the den was actually the color on the walls. The color that I initially thought was "the one" ended up looking lavender due to our overhead lighting. It was called Alpaca by Sherwin-Williams, shown first below. The second is the color I ended up using. The latter looks very beige-ish here, but on the walls it gives off a blue-ish gray effect. Very bizarre.

So, I ended up hauling the enormous 5 gallon tub back to the store to be retinted twice. It would've been much easier to have gone the sample route. Luckily, the den/kitchen was one of the first areas we painted in the house so I learned my lesson sooner rather than later!

My final tip is to use good paint. It will save you time and probably ends up costing the same as the cheap stuff because you have to use so much less of it. The Behr Premium Plus Ultra shown in the sample pic above is AMAZING. It's paint and primer in one. Just one coat covered the deep red paint that was in our dining room when we moved in. I painted the dining room and a bathroom with one gallon. The other added bonus with this paint is that the color swatch cards are large which is helpful :)

Enough with the painting pearls of wisdom...onto the tour!

Entry: Shaker Gray 1594 - Benjamin Moore


Front Guest Bedroom: Mindful Gray 7016 - Sherwin-Williams


Master Bedroom and Back Guest Bedroom: Slate - Restoration Hardware

**For those who don't have a Restoration Hardware nearby, Sherwin-Williams Dovetail 7018 and Benjamin Moore Eagle Rock 1469 are pretty comparable substitutes.

Den and Kitchen: Senora Gray 1530 - Benjamin Moore

 **You may not believe me, but the above are all the same color. Like I said, multiple personalities!

Living Room: Wheat Bread 720C-3 - Behr

Dining Room and Guest Bathroom: Fashion Gray UL260-6 - Behr Premium Plus Ultra


Study: Deep Silver 2124-30 - Benjamin Moore


Master Bathroom: Lighthouse Landing 1044 - Benjamin Moore

 

32 comments:

  1. What a great reference guide! Thanks so much for the tour.

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  2. Gorgeous home! Where did you get the rug in your powder bath? Thanks for the tour.

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  3. They're all so perfect in your home. One question for you...did you use the Behr Ultra Premium Plus for all of the rooms and have it matched to the color for the other brands swatches?

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  4. Rachel - I mainly used the Behr Ultra Premium Plus and had Home Depot color match to theother brands swatches. I did use Restoration Hardware's paint for the Slate color.

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  5. I hadn't seen the finished Master Bath! Love it!!

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  6. Not only do I love the colors...but I love the tour of your house you gave! Fun to see it all in one post. Thanks for sharing!

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  7. I have been waiting for your paint colors! I am in process of choosing the "perfect" grays for my house! Thanks for the tour and info.

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  8. Oooh thanks for sharing! We painted our last apartment in various shades of gray and absolutely LOVED it!

    My favorite that you used is definitely the "Fashion Gray" ~ so chic! :)

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  9. Nati Girl - the Greek key rug in the black/gray bath is from Frontgate. It's one of their indoor/outdoor ones so it is perfect for the bathroom!

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  10. Where did you get your black and white bench? It is wonderful!

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  11. Sally, the bench is from Ballard Designs. Sorry for the late response!

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  12. After seeing your tour at Paloma's I had to zip over here and quick search your colors. Thanks for all of the info. Love your grays! Your house is gorgeous.

    -Rene

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  13. I love all of the grey paint! I am wanting to repaint my kitchen from chocolate to grey...but finding 'the one' perfect grey is proving very difficult.

    I love the Ballard Designs bench...but not the price tag. So...what's a girl to do? I made one...from scratch! In case you ever need another 'Ballard Designs' bench...here it is:

    http://221vision.com/2010/10/21/diy-ballard-designs-bench/

    I love your blog and am looking forward to HighGloss Magazine too!

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  14. I know this is an older post, but I'd love to know where your dining chairs are from, as well as the black and white stripe rug beneath them. The room is perfection. Please let me know if you have a chance! Thanks :)

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  15. I am going gray in my living room, and am still in the process of picking ... boy is this post awesome inspiration! You have a BEAUTIFUL home!

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  16. Beautiful home! I have also gone gray and now am trying to decide on wood flooring. Are all your rooms covered in the same wood flooring? In some of the images the floors look a different color.

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  17. What color ceilings did you do with the Restoration Hardware "Slate" walls?

    Great house.

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  18. Your home is beautiful! It would have taken me years to pick that many paint colors...I'm struggling with choosing one.

    What color did you use on the ceilings? If it's not the same color throughout the house, what is the ceiling color in the dining room and the master bath?

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  19. Hi,
    Great interior! Wanted to know
    if your wheat bread wall turns into
    steel gray at dusk/night time?
    I had this color in my bathroom
    and loved it, now painted a whole living room
    and hate it at night. BAH!
    anyhow did u do 2 coats?
    i did and still the same... grrr.

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  20. Love this post! I always seem to keep coming back to it for reference. Your home is absolutely gorgeous, I'm sure you hear that all the time. Love your blog!

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  21. This post is super helpful! I am exploring the "grays" too, so this gives me some great ideas of how different ones might look. Your house is beautiful!

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  22. I was just in mid-panic mode: having chosen Deep Silver as my exterior paint color, the primer looks purple! I was thinking of calling the whole thing off, but seeing your post reassured me that the finished product is truly gray. Thanks!

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  23. Love your selection of colors. Beautiful rooms. I am wondering if you have a recommendation paint color for a nice pure white. I want to repaint the doors and trims in my house. They are that awful builder's yellowish-white color. Yuck. Any ideas? I would appreciate it. Thanks.

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  24. Love your colors! I have a quick question...what is the ceiling color that you selected with the wheat bread paint? I'm looking for a "greige" for my hallway/foyer and I need to paint the ceiling something other than white. thanks!

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  25. I love your colors too! I too am wondering what colors to paint the ceilings when using gray tones? White? My enitire house is painted light tan right now and I want to switch to gray neutrals. Could I keep the ceilings tan? Is there a rule of thumb?

    Thanks,
    Julie

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  26. Where did your black and white armchairs in your den come from? I've been on an endless search for chairs and those are beautiful!

    Thanks,
    Dani

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  27. Can you please share what color you used on the ceiling of the in the bedroom with Slate and in the dining room with Fashion Grey?

    Thank you so very much!!! I just love the colors you chose, every room looks sooooo inviting!!!

    Lisa

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  28. Hello,
    Can you please share the color of the last guest bedroom the smallest of the three
    (blue)
    Thank you for the tour I love it!!
    Saby

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  29. I have to seriously say thank you for your blog. I was in the process of color shopping to redo my entire condo and after going through color after color, I almost gave up. I walked in to Restoration and immediately fell in love with the Slate they used to paint the entire store. I took the swatch home and that's when I found your site. I did my dining room and kitchen in Fashion gray thanks to you, and I couldn't be happier. It looks AMAZING. I could have easily done my bathroom and bedroom with one of the colors from your swatches. I'm doing chocolate in the bedroom (staying with relaxed colors) and a deep dark royal blue in the bathroom (hey, I need one room to mix it up).

    The last room will be my huge living room where I'll be using the Slate color. As much as I want to drive an hour back to the store to buy the paint I think I'm going to have it color matched. I'm not sure how many cans to buy and I would hate to run out mid project. Is the Restoration paint anything special? My fear, even though they said it's a quick turn over, is that the paint has been sitting unmixed for a prolonged period of time.

    Again, thank you so much for sharing. Your color pallete is so inspiring.

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  30. What a great idea! You've inspired me to do a paint tour of our new house. I found your blog from a google search of Mindful Gray, which is the color we used in our great room: http://www.dejongdreamhouse.com/2012/09/great-room-gallery.html.

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  31. Where did you get the wood chairs with the x on the side and white cushions. Really want these.

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