Color Palette

I usually try to temper my words with pictures, but in this case, I have way more pictures than anything to say.  So, here’s a little guided tour of the house as it is now – all painted!

 Welcome home!  This is the front of the house.  The front door is painted a light tan color.  I think we’ll paint it darker when we move in so it stands out a little more and doesn’t look so drab.  That color was not the best color choice, but the colors get better once we go in.

Upon entering, the stairs to the second floor are right in front of you.  This view from the top of the stairs shows the large window over the front door.  The wall color is Valley View and the ceiling is Fresh Air, the lightest color on the chip strip.  I am not a big fan of white ceilings – I think they look cold and disconnected.  I am also not a fan of dark painted ceilings (unless it’s on HGTV, but we all know those designers are super-human color know-it-alls).

To the right at the top of the stairs is the master bedroom suite.  What a cozy word – suite.  The color of tan that is on the walls is called Oakwood Manor, and the lighter color of tan that is on the trayed ceiling is French White, and they are very warm colors that look really good with the color of the stained trim and the Tree Bark color of the carpeting that will eventually cover the whole second floor (minus the bathrooms and laundry room).

The doorway in the picture above leads past the closet to the master bathroom.  We chose Oklahoma Wheat for the master bathroom because it matched well with the color of tile that we chose.  It is a warm golden color that looks warm and cheery in the morning – perfect for getting ready for the day – and deep and soothing in the evening – just right for relaxing after a long day’s work.

The bedroom across the hall from the master bedroom is a soft green called Stolen Moments.  This room will be the nursery if life goes according to our plans.  For the meantime, it will probably be just a sitting area – a place to relax and read a book in the warm sun.

The hall bath is a cool turquoisy blue.  The color is called Heavenly Blue and it’s a cool, smooth color that looks really nice with the tile we chose, and will also match well with the chrome faucets and fixtures.  There will be two mirrors on the wall (instead of the big mirror sheet that is so common) so we’ll need a bit more paint.  Also the light fixture box needed to be moved slightly when the cabinets arrived so that the fixture would be centered over the sinks.

The color on the walls of the laundry room is called Cape Blue.  It is a brooding blue that matches really well with the tile on the floor and reminds me of a summer storm rolling in.  We figured the laundry room was a place we could be a little braver with color as it isn’t a room we will have visitors hanging out in, and doing laundry is so boring that we had to brighten it up a bit.  I actually really, really like this color.  Really.

The other two bedrooms are the same color as the living room and dining room on the first floor, so let’s continue our virtual tour down there, shall we? 

At the bottom of the stairs, to the right, is the living room and dining room.  Neither room is huge, so we figured that painting them the same color would help make both rooms look larger, keep the flow going between the rooms, and prevent us from having to choose another color for another room of the house.  The color is called Wood Ash and it is a very neutral beige color that we will probably keep for a long time because it is warm and will go with everything.  The picture showing this color is the view looking into the living room from the dining room.  Notice the fabulous trim decor that our builder put up on the divider between the two rooms.  He had a vision, and I told him to just go with it.  And it worked!

Across the hall from the living room, on the other side of the staircase, is the office.  We wanted something soothing so we chose Manor Blue as the color.  It is a dusty grey blue that is almost a dark periwinkle.  It looks very fancy and important against the brown wood trim and dark bamboo floors.

I think the color we chose that we absolutely like the best is the color we will have to look at the most – Grasslands green – in the kitchen and family room.  I wasn’t sure about the color at first, but my color consultants (ie my husband and my mother) both really liked the color, so I went with it.  Best decision ever!  What I was afraid would be too bright and hard on the eyes is actually a color that feels both cool and warm, fun and cozy, which is pretty much exactly what a family room should be, in my opinion.  The color really draws out the greens in the stone on the fireplace and, though you can’t see it here, softens the dark cherry color of the cabinets.

We think we achieved the balance we were looking for in choosing our colors – nothing too bland, but nothing to shocking.  Enough color to differentiate space, but not so much that you felt dizzy walking from room to room.  So far, we are really happy with our choices.  And if we don’t like it later, well, it’s only paint.

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