The Fun Part: Paint Colors

It was somebody's birthday celebration this weekend so we took the weekend off from working on the house and had a birthday dinner each night instead. So here's a post for you of the non-Weekend Update variety: 

Now that a lot of the have-to-do-right-away-things like get the house heated, change the locks, take down all the weeds, trim trees that are rubbing against the house, plant bulbs, etc, I have time to think about some of the fun parts of owning a house. For example, painting the walls!

Since the floor plan is so open the colors need to "go" with each other. I don't want the whole house the same color, but I don't want jarring differences between rooms when you can stand in one room and see the 3 main living areas all at once.

After you read this post you may not be surprised to find out that my favorite color is blue. Ahem.

So for the dining room (and once the kitchen is done it will be the same color) I am thinking Ocean Breeze from Benjamin Moore:

It's a light blue because I'm working with the dark wood trim for now and I don't want things to feel too heavy. Tangent: I do have dreams of painting the floor trim & door trim white but leaving the doors and windows dark wood. Here's an idea (from Pinterest of course) of what that looks like:

I love how the door pops, because I love the doors in this house and I want them to stand out. We'll see what happens...

And I want the back of the dining room built-ins (referenced in the Dreaming & Scheming: The Kitchen post) to have a bold color. I'm thinking Deep Ocean from Benjamin Moore: 

It's from the same color sheet as Ocean Breeze, I picked the lightest & darkest colors from the same color range sheet. Here's an inspiration picture from my favorite blog Young House Love:


It's a bold pop of color, but it's not overwhelming because it's just the back of the built-ins.

And for the living room I am less decided. I'm definitely buying test pots of these and painting on the walls to compare:

First up is Benjamin Moore Copper Patina:

Or Benjamin Moore Surf 'n Turf which is very, very, almost comically, similar to Copper Patina:

Or Benjamin Moore Nimbus Gray:

The more I think about it the more I think I'll do Copper Patina for the Living Room and Nimbus Gray for the Craft Room, but I really have to see the test patches on the wall to know for sure.

To compare let's bring the Ocean Breeze back down here so you don't have to scroll up:


For the master bedroom I'm pretty committed. For now we are using Bedroom #1 as our bedroom and I plan on painting the final Master Suite the same color when we move bedrooms. My inspiration was a tissue box. I'm serious. Look:


Light blue for the walls, dark blue for the nightstands & my makeup desk, white bedding, and dark stained floors & bed frame.

Benjamin Moore ironically named "Bright and Early" for the walls:

And Benjamin Moore Kensington Blue for furniture accents:


Here's a little color sheet of them all together for you:

When the living room color is finalized I think I'll pick a deep color for the back of those built-ins that is the darkest version of whichever color I go with.

In case you're wondering where these built-ins are going, they will be on either side of the big opening between the Living & Dining rooms. The Dining Room ones will hold serving dishes and such, and the Living Room ones will have books, DVDs, picture frames, and decorate-y stuff.