Blonde is a little tooooo gold for my taste, esp with 24 ft walls. My walls go up 18 ft. I chose one shade lighter for main living area SW Ivoiree. I thought i was going to cry my eyes out after first coat when on. UGH, so yellow in evening light after seeing it with white drywall for so long. I really HATED it. I almost made my hubby take other half of paint back to store to get remixed a tanner shade but didnt want darker like SW whole wheat which worker said it would come out like. I said, oh what the heck whats done is done maybe it didnt look soo bad. Didnt sleep all night over my horrid mistake. After 3 days of painting completed it grew on me. After a few days of moving in I LOOOOVVEEEEE it and everyone compliments on it being the perfect, ivory, beige, shammy color etc. It really takes on different colors different times of the day which is cool. I really really do love it now. I also saw online that BM Pittsfield bluff or powell bluff under decorating forum looks great on one ladys new construction so google that. It looks slightly more neutral tan. Remember, everything looks sooo different full scale than just on a painted swatch on wall. Buy a can and paint a large section of wall to see if you really like it before deciding on whole house paint color. good luck. Whatever you pick it will tone down once furniture is in and not be a focal point but rather a back drop. Good luck.

Blondie, I wanted to find your Ivoiree color, but it isn't on the Sherwin Williams website. Would you happen to know the color number of it? Thanks
Susan

Mlauder, try SW #6127. I think it's spelled Ivoire. I've noticed several colors mentioned on these forums that I can't seem to find either, such as Sea Isles in BM and ---Riverbed in BM (gardenchick1's guest bedroom brown-can't remember the whole name!) I have both SW and BM fan decks that I'm certain are relatively new, but I'm wondering if they rename some colors or do away with them??

Superchick, I did the same thing. I was convinced that SW Blonde was it for me....until I put it on one wall and it looked pumpkinish. I finally settled on SW Ivoire, I believe the next lighter color on the card that has Blonde, and I love it. We used it throughout the house and we get tons of compliments on it.

I think sometimes with the smallest mixing variation, the paint can become from the prettiest to the most horrid.
I had that experience with BM Elephant Tusk.

First, I purchased a quart sample. That was a pleasant light beige. It was a nice contrast with BM Calming Cream on the tray ceiling.
Then when it came time to get 3 gallons, the mixing was weird. All 3 gallons had a different shade in it. All varied from lighter beige to yellowish.

When I placed the paper paint chip against the paints on the wall, ALL could have been Elephant Tusk. How weird. However, the one that was the closest to the undertones on the paper paint chip was the one with the most yellow in it.
It was the most beautiful goldish/ beige color. However, it did not look very well as a contrasting paint with the Calming Cream. Both were too similar, yet different. The first sample looked good because it went more into the beige. The one gallon looked goldish beigey. Very pretty but didn't have the contrast I wanted with the Calming Cream. Go figure.
I took the paints back to the store & showed them. They couldn't believe it themselves.

My point: just a slight variation may make the paint go the opposite way of the paint chip.

Mixed correctly, I would recommend BM Elelphant Tusk as a very beautiful goldish/beigey color.

Superchick, sorry to hear that the blonde didn't work out for you. Picking out colors is very tricky, or at least for me it is. And you're right, a lot of the pictures I've seen on the internet make Blonde look like a great color. I would have even picked it, but went lighter since we will be in the woods and not get a lot of natural light.

We are building a new home and Ivoire is the main color that I picked out since it is a really open floor plan. Allison has some picture on the web of her DD's townhouse that really sold me. I'm including the link in case you haven't seen it.

Blondie and cah3036, what color did you paint your ceilings and trim? I'm thinking about either the ivoire or Navajo White (right above the ivoire on the strip)for the ceilings and haven't even looked at trim colors yet--maybe Dover White or Alabaster?? We also have one room that is over 20' tall. I'd love to see any pictures of your ivoire walls in you have them.

Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: Allison's DD's Ivoire townhouse

We're picking paint colors next. All of the stories on here this week are making me so nervous! Luckily you didn't paint the whole house that color before you realized that you didn't like it! :)

HeHe you're not the only one who has seen Blonde on here and then thought after seeing on wall umm-that really doesnt look good! We will paint our ENTIRE house except the Master in one color because painters want $250/room to change colors. DH painted in another life so he can do it later, but in meantime want a color that wont go yuck every time I see it!
I tried Blonde on walls and thought-now that doesnt look like the other pics. I'll get a sample of Ivoire and try that-want to try Navajo White for ceilings. Has anyone used SW Macadamia?

It is so hard to tell how a color is going to look until the whole room is painted, or at least an entire wall. The wall color around where you painted the sample really effects how it looks. What color was the wall you painted it on?

I painted over a lavender bedroom at my mom's house with a color who's name excapes me right now. As I was painting it I was hating it. I thought it looked horrible. When I was done I fell in love with it. It was so pretty, a very soft warm beige.

The Ivorie color looks very pretty to me.

My wife is a SW Blonde and she looks great in any house. What's your address and I'll send her over to calm your shattered nerves.

dallasbill-too funny! We all need the laugh when we get to serious over paint colors.

superchick-I sympathize about the paint. I just knew I wanted SW Restrained Gold and went and got a sample quart. When it went on the wall it was obviously too dark for my tastes. It looks great in other people's homes but would not have worked in mine. I went with SW Whole Wheat which I still question whether it is a bit too dark but I know it will look different with furniture. Here's a not so great picture but will give you an idea of the color. of course, pics on a monitor are not true to life.

{{gwi:1462610}}

Txgal06...what color trim and ceiling color did you use with your SW Whole Wheat? My great room was just painted yesterday with SW Whole Wheat and I am trying to decide which color trim to use. I never realized there were so many shades of white. Your house looks great!

suelynnb-thanks! I used SW Alabaster, flat on ceilings and semi-gloss on trim. I really like it as it is a creamy white. Looks good (I think) with Whole Wheat, Fenland in the kitchen and several colors upstairs. Another good one is creamy, although it is a bit darker. I couldn't use it because of the pastel shades upstairs. I wanted trim color the same throughout.

Txgal06-that looks lovely on your walls! I don't think it's too dark at all. My GC said he prefers BM paint, so I suppose I'll start all over and look at their colors...

I do like Ivorie and the whole wheat very much, but my cabinets are a color that I think will require a little more rich, golden color-because regular beige is not going to look good with them, I'm afraid.

SIGH...

You can always get BM and SW to mix the competitor's colors. I do that all the time. IMO BM has way more choice than SW does and BM has better interior finishes, not just "satin" and "flat".

You can use this at home to find a match.

Here is a link that might be useful: Color Chart match

Perhaps it's the lighting in your home because I absolutely love my SW Blonde. We do have lots of natural light coming into our bedroom, so perhaps that's the answer.

Superchick, my guest bedroom (brown) is BM Cambridge Riverbed. You left out the first word and perhaps that is why you can't find it. The color number is BM 1035.

We have both SW Blonde and SW Ivoire in our house and like them both. They both will look different depending upon the amount and kind of light that you have. Unfortunately, you won't know what any paint color is going to look like in your house until it's up on all four walls. Our master BR is a mixture of SW Ivoire and SW Blonde, and I love that color too. But if you know exactly what you want to change about the SW Blonde (tanner, lighter, etc.) then post this on the Home Decorating forum because there are lots of color experts over there that can help you find exactly what you are looking for, especially if you have a starting color that you want to tweak.

I don't know why my post didn't include the picture of my MB because it did when I previewed it. This is SW Blonde.

Take a look at SW Softer Tan. We used it throughout the house except for the bathrooms and upstairs bedrooms. IMO, its the perfect background color and goes with anything.

SW Blonde, SW Brunette, SW Redhead, it really doesn't matter, so long as the collar and cuffs match.

As several posters have already mentioned unfortunately you really have to have all four walls painted before you can get a great idea of what the color will look like. But when you are paying someone else to do it that can be hard if not impossible to do so sometimes you have to rely on the opinions and pictures of others and trust that it will work out. We painted ourselves and used 14 different colors in our house and I hated each and every one when only part of the room was painted and once it was done I loved them all. We only had to repaint two rooms because of not liking the final color and now they are perfect. We used SW Blonde in our den and love it and have SW Ivoirie in the halls and that is beautiful too and a little less orange/gold than the Blonde. I almost backed out of using the SW Blonde because it looked so bad when I first started but my sister has it in her entry way so I decided to go on faith that it would look okay. I think it looks best in rooms with natural light and white woodwork.

I'm glad I'm a SE Brunette!

I'm also color defective so I just solved the problem and used a decorator. My hats are off to all of you who can pick colors!

Gardenchick1-I'd love to see your Cambridge Riverbed. They must have updated their colors-I just got this color deck and all the color #'s start with 2! Cambridge R. is not even on here. Either that or they distribute a different deck for us here in the STIX, since we don't get out much, what would we know!! :) HA HA!! Too bad for them, I got myself the world wide web!!!

When I got home tonight, I started looking at the BM colors again. I really keep gravitating towards the more saturated colors in the middle, like cork or roasted sesame seed. Maybe I'm thinking too dark. I just want warm and homey! All the trim will be stained and I'll have wooden shutters on the windows, which is very rich looking, so maybe I should think about something lighter. Since we live in the high plains (aka, hotter than hades in summer), we built our house with practically no windows facing East or West and with big porches, so there's not much direct natural light, which I think is wreaking havoc with the colors. The only west window is DD2's room and everything looks beautiful in there!!

How many quarts of paint can you go buy before you have to take out a second mortgage???? :)

free_at_last, I love your SW softer tan. What sheen is it--eggshell, etc.?? It looks like silk.

Thank you!

Superchick,
I could have written this post myself. I cannot begin to tell you how many different paint colors we tried on sample boards, taped to walls, etc., changed and changed again. We were originally going to go with BM Chestertown Buff in our main living area and halls, and it looked so great on the sample chip. But on the walls . . . it was a way too bright yellow for us. We then thought we needed to go more brown and ended up trying BM Gingerbread Man, which was less yellow, but way too orange! I thought we had everything all set to go so the paint lady could get started, and by the time she arrived on site, I was near to tears with complete frustration. She was very helpful, and we ended up going with BM Wilmington Tan, which is one of their historical colors (HC-34). The painter has started with this color, and it looks SO much better than the others. It is a warm beige color, not too yellow, and not too orange. We like that it is warmer than some of the grayer looking beige tones. We are using BM Vanilla Ice Cream for our trim color, and it blends nicely. SW Blonde was another color we were considering, and we are using it in our back hallway. It is golden looking tan on the wall, and I understand about how you might think it looks "icky", but I really think it will look fine once our darker mixed tile flooring is installed. I know many people have raved about this color.

Anyway, you may want to check out the Wilmington Tan as an option, by Benjamin Moore, or something like it. It is a little less gold and a little more there than the SW Blonde.

By the way, I love BM's cork color as well, but we thought this might be too bright/dark for such a large area of the house.

Jan

Went today and got three more colors: Restrained Gold, Dromedary Camel and Stonebriar. All of which look almost identical on the sample boards I made! But suprisingly, Restrained Gold and D. Camel look pretty good! Much better than the flesh colored crayon SW blonde!! :) I just worry about it being boring looking since we have a large great room with a two story ceiling. (I'd love a faux finish, but I'm too cheap to pay for it and don't have the nerve to get on a scaffold!) But the DR cathedral ceiling and hearth room open up to it, and I was thinking of maybe putting a dark red like fireweed or BM Hot Apple Spice on the ceiling. What do you think?

I feel much better...I thought about that icky SW Blonde all night!!

I'll try a pic of the Cambridge Riverbed (I can't figure out why I am having trouble posting to this particular thread -- I'm not having trouble elsewhere). The shade over the window is truest to the real color. Flash kind of washed out over the bed.

Cambridge Riverbed:

{{gwi:1462614}}

SW Blonde:

{{gwi:1462616}}

Gardenchick1-that is GORGEOUS! That is exactly something I would pick myself if I was going to have painted trim. I always thought I'd have painted trim in all the bedrooms, but not so...sigh...

Another Ivoire house here. But we did the kitchen in restrained gold and the coffered ceiling insets in restrained gold too. Love Ivoire.
Jo

gardenchick-it was your photo of Blonde that I admired so much-I think you are right about the light-it looks absolutely gorgeous in your BR.

For all of you that have used Ivorie-what color did you paint trim and ceilings? Anyone with Ivorie and cherry cabinetry? We will have cherry in great room/kitchen and want to find something that compliments it. Thanks!

Bebetokids,
Someone posted this link the other day and this house has cherry cabinetry and Ivoire. I too would love to know what other Ivoire people have used on their ceilings and trim. The paint schedule for this house said the kitchen ceiling was custom and the trim is Dover White. Right now I'm thinking of maybe Ivoire reduced 50% (stealing that thought from other rooms in this house and other GW'ers).

I was all set on using Ivoire throughout my main level, but after seeing the foyer in the linked home, my DH has decided that we should think about Camelback for our two-story library but keep Ivoire everywhere else. I just wish the paint ferry would come and pick out the perfect colors for me. A girl can dream, right?

Here is a link that might be useful: house with ivoire in kitchen with cherry

Yes, that's eggshell :-) Dh *really* wanted semigloss, but I'm so glad we went with a more matte' finish.

va rosemary-thanks so much for that link-wow that is a beautiful home! The Camelback looks wonderful in the foyer there. My house will not have as much natural light so I think it would look too dark for me-especially in the kitchen. But I really like the Ivoire in the kitchen and think I will stick with it. We went down to the house last pm to paint some Ivoire and it did look nice on the walls. I think we will go with Navajo White on the ceilings but have no clue on the trim. I will look at Dover White!

Yes-I need more than a paint fairy-I need a house fairy! Ready to get all of these decisions done!