April 20, 2008

We’re In The Chips

I wish. The “chips” I’m talking about are of the paint variety.

After a while they all started to look the same. What began as an exciting prospect (having lived in vanilla-walled apartments my whole adult life) soon became a head spinning, overwhelming rainbow of chips and sample jars.

Overall, we’re both pretty happy with the colors we ultimately chose.

Benjamin Moore’s Patriotic White was the pick for our living room and hallways, and I have to say we hit it out of the park with this one. It’s a perfect house-by-the-seashore paint; a neutral with just a hint of color. The color is a very soft blue, with greenish-gray undertones depending on how light hits it.

We’re a little disappointed with BM’s November Skies in the master bedroom. It was one of the last rooms we painted so I think mental paint fatigue had set in – it was the one room color we decided on without taping chips on the walls first, whittling down to a “Top Three,” buying quarts or sample sizes, and painting foam core swatches to move around the room at different times of day and night. (Sounds a little time consuming, right? I assure you, it was.) We were looking for a blueish silver/gray, which the November Skies paint chip matched perfectly. And sites like
this listed it as a “Top Gray Paint Color.” Gray. What we wound up with is more of a, well, BLUE. Super duper blue.


Since someone else painted the room for us (Noel, a wonderfully invaluable floor refinisher who we commandeered for our bedroom painting), we didn’t realize just how blue the “real” paint was until it was too late. So, we’re living with it.

And feeling a little blue.

2 comments:

colorexpert said...

Hi Laura,

I am sorry to hear that the color for the bedroom didn't work out as you had dreamed. You are not alone unfortunately.

It seems that toughest problem with finding the right paint color is getting the beautiful vision you have in your head to be the one that shows up on your walls.

I'm happy to help if there is something you would like me to assist you with. I'm not sure if you want to repaint? Glaze over rather than repaint? Live with it? Borrow my magic want that instantly changes the color...gee I wish I had one of those and I'd sure let you borrow it. Let me know what you are thinking and I'll throw in my two cents.

As for the other color it sounds very much like my signature color 'H2 Ahh!' that I designed for Full Spectrum Paints. It is the perfect beach house color and when I move to the beach I plan to paint every room in this color!

I understand when you say you "hit it out of the park" with that one. Well done!

Best,
Kate

Laura @ the shorehouse. said...

I'll take the magic! :-)

I'm thinking…given the many other projects…we should live with it and maybe play up the gray tone (what there is of it!) by accessorizing (gray pillows, b&w prints with gray tones, etc.) to see how that goes?

But…I have a feeling in the not-too-distant future we may repaint. Any good silvery/gray/hint-o-blues you would recommend?

I love the color name “H2 Ahh!” I can’t wait to check it out.

Thanks, again, Kate!