Thursday, October 16, 2008

Paint color woes....

Why is it so difficult to choose something as simple as a paint color? I'm always drawn to yellows, reds and autumn colors, so this should be a breeze, right? No such luck! While I'm drawn to warm colors, my husband prefers ULTRA WHITE, but he can be daring and live with BUILDERS BEIGE. Hmmm, see the problem? A few of months ago I painted our guest room walls with Kelly Moore Quiche Lorraine and the trim is Behr Creamy White. I absolutely loved the colors. I was ready to paint the entire house this color. Unfortunately, once I had finished the room, my DH looked at the color and with a very sheepish look on his face, said "I can't live with this color". Oh no! There is also a bit of a problem with the guest bedroom. It's a loft room & has a wall a little over half way up, with an open area looking out over the living room. I don't like the loft bedroom & would have the whole area drywalled so there isn't an opening but I've been vetoed. I'll get back to this.

Back to my paint dilemma. Last Saturday, my neighbor & I went to an open house to, (I'll be honest), SNOOP. The house is about a half block away, was once a small single story house about 1100 sq ft and had been recently remodeled. (I don't know why they're selling it now). The house is beautiful & well over 3100 sq ft now. (I also don't know how on earth they got away with the size of the addition on that size lot with the city planning board!) Sorry, I'm easily distracted. I OH'd & AH'd over the kitchen, the bathrooms, and the paint colors. They used 2 similar paint colors on different walls and it was just gorgeous! Unfortunately I don't know what paint brand or colors were used. This required a trip to Home Depot. Bella mentioned in a comment on my fall post that her family room is painted with Ralph Lauren Chamois, so this gave me a starting point. It turns out Chamois is very similar to Quiche Lorraine, so that's a no go. I finally resorted to looking at the RL paint samples & selected Cottonwood, Oatmeal, and Devonshire. Check out the pictures of our hallway. I thought about using one of the darker shades in a couple of smaller areas as accent colors but they're kind of dark and I'm waffling here... I'm leaning towards Oatmeal, but have a feeling that my DH is going to veto all 3 colors.

I'm looking for suggestions... Any ideas? Our living room has a very high ceiling so the paint color will be next to the Quiche Lorraine in the loft bedroom. We also have a L-shaped living/dining room, so both rooms and the hallway will be painted.




I'm lost... :0{

7 comments:

Susan (Between Naps On The Porch.net) said...

Hi Diane, I am terrible picking out paint colors, too. I agonize and agonize. I ususally buy a bunch of the large poster board from Walmart and paint a couple of coats of whatever paint I'm considering on the posterboard...then I moved the posterboard all around and try it in different areas of the room so I can see it in different lighting. You may want to go toward a lighter color to start with since DH isn't fond of the bold colors. Hey, I'm the woman who had to paint the hutch on the screen in porch 3 different times 'cause I couldn't pick the right shade of green...so I really shouldn't give advice on paint!
:-} Good thing about paint is you can always paint over it. Wish I were more help. I like all the colors you've picked so far! Susan

santamaker said...

Hi Diane,

My preference is the color on the right.... the one in the middle is so neutral and the one on the left is very nice, but a little too dark for my taste. Any of these would surely be great, just my personal pick.
But if I were you, I'd ask hubby's opinion, or you might be stuck redoing it all over...
( I guess I'm very lucky that my hubby when asked about such things says, "you know best"...LOL)
Good luck and let us know.

Kat said...

Diane...it could be that hubby just doesnt like change. Maybe he would grow to love the color after awhile? How long has the quiche color been on the wall?
Picking out colors for a wall isnt an easy task for me either. I usually splotch all over the room. Because color changes depending on the amount of light any wall gets at any time. It took me 13 splotches on all sides to pick a paint color for the house exterior. I didnt need to prime. LOL!
I had Laura Ashley Golds in my house. The color chips are available at Lowes. Ive since changed to soft camel. A much lighter but still warm color. Hubby likes it better than the golds.
I do like the color to the far right...warm and it also looks great next to the wood frame. The first color is good too. The middle color is taking on a pink tint on my monitor.

Four Paws and Co said...

Update on the paint colors...

All the colors are way too dark in the evening. I don't want to feel like I'm living in a cave. The middle one kind of reminds me of mushrooms. It would probably be pretty with the creamy white trim but I wanted a warmer color. I'm going to try some other paint colors that we have & some that my son has when he went through the selection process. He gave up & went with a Malibu Beach Sand color but I think it's too beige.

Thank you Kat for your ideas. I'm also going to look at Laura Ashley colors at Lowe's.

To answer Kat's question, I painted the guest bedroom in June.

Diane :0}

Kat said...

Diane...Soft Camel is a Waverly Home Classics color sold in Vaspar at Lowes. I can post some pictures of the color in different light for you if youll excuse my construction mess or I could email the pictures to you directly.

Kat said...

Diane...My blog is all about you right now. lol! I am going to share my mess with the world so you can see the soft camel color.
The Laura Ashley Gold in comes in 6colors ranging from light to dark. Gold 1 is very light..my mom painted her kitchen cabs with that one. Number 2 has more color but still very light. I have 3 in my LR and its alot darker than the soft camel. Sometimes the golds can get muddy looking but you wont know until you try. Get thee to Lowes and grab the chips to see in your house.
Maybe this soft camel will be just the ticket.
I will post the pics for you now.

Lynette said...

Diane - I was given the "Kreativ Blogger" award today and would like to present it to you. If you would come over to my place and "pick it up" that would be great!!
I appreciate you welcoming me to "blogland" and keeping in touch.
Lynette

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