One Room Challenge Week 2- Choosing the Right Paint Color

Remember last week’s Week 1 of the One Room Challenge? Where I said, ” Needless to say the Linen White was a drastic change and I was a little startled at first because the 2 story space gets lots of Southern exposure sun alot of the day! I am getting used to it and really starting to love the change, but want some contrast in the space with the interior doors,” ?? Yeah, about that….

If you follow me on Instagram, chances are you saw my original paint samples which were 3 shades of grieges and a soft black. I originally thought the soft black looked beautiful on some Pinterest images I’d pinned, but the black was just too overpowering for the foyer space and I felt would bring a different ambiance to the area.  My goal for this (newly painted)  foyer space was to lighten the walls to provide a soft background for my antique Roe deer antlers and a few antique pieces. I thought a soft greige color on all interior doors in the upstairs and downstairs halls would be perfect. But it just wasn’t! I decided on Sherwin Williams Balanced Beige and thought it was going to work great. Note the change from wet to dry below:

It looks almost the shade I wanted (above), but it had a red/pink undertone at various times throughout the day and I just couldn’t commit to 10 more interior doors with that issue. Something just didn’t feel right in the space with it! It took me the better part of the week to narrow down Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray, Sherwin Williams Intellectual Gray, and Sherwin Williams Amazing Gray. Greiges and beiges are seriously tough! You can read 10 reviews on gray paints and while they are helpful in figuring out undertones, etc. it is almost impossible to determine if the color will be right for your space based on your home’s lighting, exposure, and time of day. Even though I’ve been painting furniture and interior and exterior spaces for over 20 years, there are some colors and hues that just stump you!  I like to use large pieces of foam board to paint samples, then move them around the house throughout the day looking at them with other elements such as carpets, wood tones, furniture, etc. These colors still managed to trick me. 

Next, I narrowed it down to BM Chelsea Gray but didn’t like the intensity, so I asked a paint consultant at Home Depot I’ve worked with for years to soften the color and she created a custom color 2 shades lighter than Chelsea Gray. It was the same formula just made with a white base instead of a deep base. I thought this was going to be better; WRONG! It felt industrial and cold and just like an unwelcome visitor in my home. You just know when it’s wrong…Right?!

Before I share which color I actually chose, I forgot to mention a very simple change recently that made a huge difference! When I had my painter paint the 2-story foyer and upstairs hall, ceilings, trim, etc. I also had him remove the glass panels in our foyer lantern. It was so ridiculous trying to clean the glass all these years, and I wanted to have them removed but we never knew how or bothered with it. It is SO much better, it’s unreal. Lanterns are classic and now this one has a new look! It’s just so clean looking now, I really love it.

So, which paint color did I choose for the interior doors?

Benjamin Moore Linen White. Same as the walls, but in a satin finish. I LOVE them. 

I love this color because it allows the narrow foyer to blend seamlessly. In hindsight, I felt that all the painted doors would distract from the overall look I was going for. The Persian rug is a focal point all on its own, and now the space feels calm and elegant. I finally came to this paint color choice when I decided I wanted my fabrics and furnishings to be the details and the paint color to provide the calm, neutral background to showcase it all. Linen White is the most velvety, creamy white. And just feels really good. 

The pillows I ordered from Etsy came last week. They’re a linen cheetah with a  lighter background and are even prettier in reality. 

A few commissioned abstract pieces from Etsy came in the mail, too. A very good mail week 🙂

I played around with art and frames for the dining room gallery wall that’s in progress. Just need to paint the darker frame gold and not sure which frames I’ll use with the abstract pieces yet.

I’m really excited about using these 2 more modern pieces:

One of the reasons I wanted to rework the existing gallery wall was to add a few Henri Matisse lady portraits I bought at an antique show last year and had framed and to try to work in a more eclectic mix of modern, abstracts, and landscape portraits I’ve collected over the years. The previous wall had a lot of thrift shop finds that really didn’t have much meaning to me, and I wanted more significant pieces that I valued. I love a balance of feminine and masculine and strive for that throughout our home. 

I also found 2 antique mahogany Duncan Phyfe chairs at an antique shop up in our oldest son’s ( aka College Boy) little college town, Dahlonega last weekend. I love the wood sort of “as is,” but the green Naugahyde’s got to go! I look forward to having a little chair in the foyer and finding some pretty fabric to recover it in. 

The kilim pillow cover is sort of fun on it, we’ll see!

I am so glad to have the interior door paint color chosen, and am almost finished with the doors downstairs!  Now for the 7 more upstairs…. 

 Have a great rest of the week and remember to check out the other One Room Challenge Guest Participants and the 20 ORC Fall 2016 Bloggers for their Week 2 updates! So much inspiration and motivation to get a move on. 

xoxo,

Note: I had Benjamin Moore’s Linen White mixed in a Behr Premium Plus Paint & Primer formula. I was not compensated by Home Depot or Behr paints, I honestly just really like the coverage and paint!