04 November 2011

Oh, the Joy of Paint Colors

We like neutral colors and wanted a subtle color throughout the house. Thought it be easy picking out a simple light tan color, but there are SO many different colors! This was in every room of the house... 
The light grayish looking one is called Balanced Beige, which is just a tad lighter than Tony Taupe by Sherwin Williams (SW). The green one to the left of it is called Victorian Garden by SW also (which we are using in the family room.) The tan one on the far right is Basket Beige by SW. The very first one on the left is Sandy Motif by Behr. I don't remember the other ones.
We paint matched ALL of these at Home Depot (HD) because we wanted primer in the paint and SW doesn't offer that. Plus SW paints are more expensive and we wanted to cut the paint time in half.
We thought we liked Sandy Motif and so we decided to start in the boys room (which was light blue, btw). But a little patch of color on the wall is A LOT different than an entire room. The tan color is nice, but not what we thought it would look like. It's more of a yellowish tan. So it stayed in the boys room and we chose another color for the rest of the house. (I didn't take a pic of the boys room, but I will and post that later)
We decided we wanted more of a taupe tan and were advised by a professional interior designer to go with Tony Taupe, but thought it might be a smidge too dark. So we chose to go with Balanced Beige (one notch up on the color wheel) and started in the master bedroom (which was maroon, yuck). At first, it looked like the perfect color. Then it turned grey. We didn't like it, but didn't want to paint it again, so we left it. I swear over a week, the paint curred and now it is taupe! I think it's pretty, clean, crisp, and I love it. Will look so much better too once we put up crown moulding. There was some up already, but the cut lines were so uneven, we tore it down.
(Balanced Beige by Sherwinn Williams in Satin)
...But what's weird is, the color patch in the hallway still looks grey. And we labeled each color with a pencil on the wall so it for sure is Balanced Beige. The lighting is a little different I guess, but our room never looks grey in any lighting and we have dimmer lights. Hmm.
Since we thought the walls in the master were forever grey, we picked out a different color, and went away from the greyish tans. We chose Basket Beige by SW, but again, matched at HD. I love it. I'm not a very colorful person. I like pops of color, but nothing bold. I wanted something colorfully rich, but subtle at the same time without looking brown. Can't wait to get up the crown moulding, but I'm afraid it won't be til early next year. We've got so many other projects going.
 (Basket Beige by Sherwinn Williams in Satin)
Alas, I got started on Averi's nursery. I went with Mauve Morning by Behr at Home Depot in satin finish. Luckily, there was at least one room in the house without a paint color.
Before...

filthy and missing blinds are coming down. 
And here is...
Mauve Morning by Behr in Satin
I wanted a light lavender something with a greyish tint and this is perfect. It goes great with the new fabric I found for only $1.50/yrd !! I know! You can't even find clearance fabric that cheap. They must have marked it wrong by mistake. ...but finders keepers, hee hee.
Pics of that later.
I looove paint and primer in one. It's de best.
These rollers at Home Depo are WON-DER-FUL. [don't pay any attention to my ugly, kid-friendly carpet] The coverage they give make painting a heckuva lot easier. Spend a little extra and go with better rollers. You'll be painting less coats if you do. You get what you pay for if you choose the crappy cheap ones. They don't paint the same.
Painting Tip:
If you need to take a break on your painting project, put your roller in a large plastic Ziploc bag and put it in the fridge. Squeeze all the air out of the bag and it will keep for a week in there. Plus you're not wasting any expensive paint by cleaning it out. You can also put them in freezer bags and freeze them for 2 months.
Tomorrow's Project-
more painting. surprise surprise.

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