Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Choosing Paint Colors


I had a strange and exhausting day yesterday. I closed on my house in Virginia remotely from here in Sarasota, Florida. The attorney emailed the docs on Sunday, I printed them out on my printer and went to my bank in downtown Sarasota to have everything notarized. I had to make an appointment at the bank which was empty except for two bank employees, and we were all masked and gloved with everything being disinfected before and after signing. A strange way to sell a home I raised my daughter in and buried my husband. And of course I have never set eyes on the couple who are purchasing my beloved home. Such hands off closings have been par for the course for years, but even stranger in the Age of Corona. And I locked in my mortgage yesterday and got a wonderful rate with these historically low rates. Yeah!

I treated myself to a trip to Benjamin Moore on the way home, the first non grocery store I have been to since the pandemic began. I love pouring through Benjamin Moore's beautiful brochures of colors.

The new house in Venice has a very open floor plan all on one level with very high ceilings and great light. I am painting all the walls in the same color which is my preference with an open floor plan where you see into all the rooms. I painted this house in my two favorite colors in the world - Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray in matte Aura with the trim in Benjamin Moore Decorator's White in semi - gloss. I am not doing the new house in these colors although I love them - I need to make this house mine. So, I am looking for the most beautiful white or cream or gray in the world for the walls as well as white trim and ceiling color ideas - I would love to hear your recommendations.

I have so much color in my furniture, art, accessories, and all my Chinoiserie of course, and I want a gorgeous soft neutral timeless backdrop. Please help. My painters are meeting me at the new house after the inspections on Friday and I plan to bring paint swatches with me. It is also interesting to me that the home inspection is a team here with the main inspector plus separate roof, pool, termite, and HVAC inspectors and a wind mitigation report.

Paint ideas please! I will share some favorites and of course what I end up choosing.

40 comments:

  1. I’m looking forward to seeing your new house! We painted the interior of our Florida home BM Chantilly Lace with some accent walls in SW Waterly. After living in the NW part of Pennsylvania we wanted to get away from off white and use true whites here in Florida. Chantilly Lace has no undertones, just a great white that holds up to the wonderful light here and looks beautiful with all of our blue and white! I can’t wait to see what you choose!
    Your neighbor,
    Michelle

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    1. Chantilly Lace is such a great white - I love it for trim as well.

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  2. Benjamin Moore White Dove is gorgeous. As they always say, you can't go wrong with the Dove. It has neutral undertones meaning it's rich and complex, yet it doesn't skew towards any particular color. I painted most of my interior rooms White Dove eggshell with White Dove semi gloss trim and I adore it. It is the perfect backdrop for a "forever" home that will allow all your fabulous collections to shine.

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    1. White Dove is indeed timeless and gorgeous. I will absolutely consider it.

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  3. Are you familiar with BM's Simply White? It's a very clean, cheerful white with enough warmth that it also looks great at night and in rooms with limited natural light. Also, if you decide Palladian Blue is a bit to dark for your lanai ceiling, take a look at BM's Glass Slipper.

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    1. Great suggestions - I love Glass Slipper - I used it in my foyer in my last house and it is gorgeous!

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  4. A few moths ago I decided to update, brighten and neutralize our bedroom in order to let the furnishings "do the talking". The look is bright, British Colonial with my favorite blue and white porcelain pieces. I am really pleased with how the color worked out. For several months I had lived with 4 different neutral colors painted on various parts of the wall to see what stood out in different light. Finally had a clear winner: Wall: Ben Moore SILVER SATIN 856 in Aura Eggshell. Trim: Ben Moore SUPER WHITE in Advance High Gloss. (still a sucker for high gloss trim) What I love about the wall color is that it's not too anything--too grayish, or beigeish or bluish...it has that wonderful equilibrium that it can be anything in different light. I know color is extremely subjective but that's where I ended up and with no second thoughts. The experiment of living with different options helped enormously.

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    1. Those sound perfect. Thank you. I really like Advance - used it here on all the trim. Very tempted to use the high gloss- I love that look.

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    2. I wish you would post some before and after pictures. I'm wanting that British Colonial look in my new home!

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  5. Congratulations, Beth! I don't have a specific colour suggestion. I wonder if you might like a white with a hint of warm green rather than grey. You seem to love nature, plants, flowers and nature themes. The slight hint of green is still very neutral, and makes a wonderful backdrop for both nature and chinoiserie.

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  6. I painted my bathroom Chantilly Lace—Ben Moore Aura, still looks great. I prefer trim painted the same as room color, but in a different sheen.Congrats on the closing. I know you closed more than the sale of your lovely Virginia home. Enjoy the journey going forward.

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    1. Chantilly Lace is a wonderful white. Thanks, yes, yesterday was a bit surrealistic.

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  7. I love B Moore "Halo" and have used it in both high and low light situations. It looks great with White Dove trim in my mother's high-rise living room, which gets very strong western light. Restful and un-distracting, and sets off art very well.

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  8. Just started painting all my walls Sherwin Williams Alabaster. Love the color and like you have a lot of color in the rooms to counter balance the white walls.

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    1. I am very familiar with Alabaster and love it. Thanks.

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  9. If you’re interested in a taupe gray try Collingwood 859 in Ben Moore. It’s fabulous!

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  10. I love Chantilly Lace in Flat on Walls with Chantilly Lace in Satin on Trim
    I also like White Dove Flat on Walls with Chantilly Lace in Satin on Trim

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  11. I love Borrowed Light by Farrow and Ball. It's a pretty light blue during the day and at times a beautiful gray.
    I'm in Chicago though and always try to balance my love of Southern decor and colors with the cold climate.

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    1. It is a favorite of mine. I grew up in Lake Forest and I don't miss the winters!

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  12. BM Cotton Balls is one of Laurel Bern's favorites. Her blog is great - as is Maria Killam, The True Color Expert.

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    1. Yes, I have read Laurel Bern's many times - she has great choices.

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  13. If you’re interested in a pale taupe gray I love Collingwood

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    1. I just looked at it and it's beautiful - thank you!

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  14. It might be worth to check out Samplize and get some large peel and stick paint samples of your narrow choices. The samples have the same effect as paint on a wall surface because they are produced with genuine manufacturer paint.

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  15. Ben Moore's Evening White, a pale nude, yet creamy and rich. Architectural Digest featured a WDC home in which it was used in the master BR. Simply heaven. I painted a small bathroom using it, and it too was lovely. So, good in large or small spaces.

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  16. I don't have a paint suggestion all the ones sited above are great! Just wanted to wish you well and as much happiness in your new home as your lovely Virginia home.
    Looking forward to watching the transformation! Best Wishes!

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    1. Thank you so much. I am really looking forward to this and hope you enjoy following.

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  17. I painted my living room and dining room BM Winter Snow OC-63 in a pearl finish. I absolutely love it. As my painter was packing up I was sitting in the LR and each corner was a different "color". I said look at the corner it is blue and that one is pink. His face dropped and I am sure he thought he was going to be repainting the whole room until I exclaimed, I LOVE it! It changes at different times but when you look at it straight on it is clean WHITE. There is a tiny drop of fuschia in the mixture. The pearl is beautiul because we have loads of mouldings and we painted everything the same including the ceiling and it reads like it is wood. The other side of my house is Decorator's White and my last house was White Dove. All great but OC63 feels like a full spectrum color.

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  18. Winter Snow is also a Daryl Carter color called Somerset White.

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  19. But I have had bad luck with Sherwin Williams paint this last year. We redid a house in Seattle where SW is much easier to find than BM and although the two of us are only here part of the year, it is already chipping and looking used. I think I'm going back to BM as soon as possible. Swiss Coffee is a nice cream.

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    1. I use BM exclusively. I think the colors and quality are excellent. I also like Farrow and Ball, but it is pricey and I think BM Aura is just as good.

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