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Design Dilemma Paint

Whole house paint scheme

3 years ago

I’m struggling with how to mix 2-3 warm greige/grey neutrals for our new house. I only need to pick the main foyer/hallway colour at this point, but it has to be right the first time around so I want to have a pretty good plan in place for what I’m using in other rooms.

Renovations start the day after we take possession so I don’t have much time to view wall samples in person. So far, I like Revere Pewter, Collingwood, and Cumulus Cloud. We have Stone Harbour in our current place and I’ve come to love it too.

Foyer faces east, is 18’ and opens into large hallways both upstairs and down. There is a decent amount of light -both natural and artificial. My though was to paint foyer/hallway in a more saturated colour and then do some of the adjoining rooms (face south & west) in lighter colours. A few rooms will have bolder walls.

The rug from IKEA in the picture is my happy place in terms of colours so I’m using it for inspiration.

All trim/ceilings will be Simply White
Dark accents are Chelsea Gray and Van Deusen Blue
I love Silver Mink (or something similar perhaps with a wink more green)

I’m lost on what to do with the neutrals. Do I pick one of the ones I love and then do adjoining rooms in other colours on the same strip? I assume I want to mix based on similar undertones? What if the colour I like doesn’t have a colour strip to pick from?

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Comments (5)

calidesign
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
To make it easier for you, look at the paint combinations provided as suggestions by the paint manufacturers. It will ensure all the colors work together. However, you have to see the main colors in your home, with your lighting, and with your furnishings to know if they will work. You also need to consider your floor, which will dramatically impact the look of your walls. If you're changing the floors, do that first. If not, you need to see your paint samples up against that tile.
Laura
Original Author
3 years ago
Calidesign, I hear you and thank you for the tips. The tile will be replaced sometime in the next year or two with the same oak that is throughout the rest of the house. Thankfully I know that the oak works with every single colour I’ve been looking at because we have the same colour in our current house. Only a small section of the foyer will be tile and I’m willing to pick a tile that works with my new paint instead of waiting to paint until we get around to the floor.
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Couple of suggestions for sampling colors Buy a pad of 240 lb watercolor paper Prime one wall or section of wall Paint your samples on the watercolor paper Hang the watercolor paper on the primed wall and look at no more than 2 at a time. Painting samples over your existing color makes you compare the color to the existing color. Colors don't play alone, they play with the other colors in their space. If one of the other colors won't be there you don't want to see how they play together. The color in the middle of each block of color is the same color.
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Natural Cream and Maritime White are so similar I wonder if you'd be able to tell that they're two different colors. They both belong to the Yellow hue family. When it comes to the theory that colors have undertones - especially paint colors - you should know that everyone is making that up as they go. Colors don't *have* undertones. It's not a fact. Undertones are just someone's subjective opinion of how a color looks under unspecified light sources in some random context. Which means no one can get a color's undertone wrong because it's however it actually looks in their opinion. When we compare the factual color attributes (think of it as color DNA) Natural Cream and Maritime White are very similar. You don't have to understand the numbers in the table in order to see just how similar they are. Basically the only difference is Value/LRV which is why I wonder if you'd be able to tell they're two different colors in two different room's inherent lighting.
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@threers definitely not necessary to decide now, but everything else is in an architects hands right now so I need something to think about, right? Haha I'd at least like to have a fairly narrowed down list of similar colors picked ahead of time, while having some flexibility to choose similar colors with different undertones once we start looking at more of our fixed items like countertops and flooring. Once we get to framing (we are a loooooong way away, so I'm def. premature) I'll get the peel and stick samples of our narrowed down lists to take in the house.
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Your question is too broad to be answered. If you are asking HOW to make a home flow with regards to color? There is loads of information on this topic. Nobody expects a child's bedroom to have the same colors as a very public living room: ) If you are asking as to a paint issue? Your question is still too broad. The best way to ensure that a home "flows:" is to hire an interior designer, because color/design is a LOT more than paint on the walls Or do some research : ) and apply to YOUR home. Which has paint, flooring, furniture, (particularly upholstery ), rugs.carpet art and more. There are many many ways....... https://www.bhg.com/decorating/color/basics/5-ways-to-connect-rooms-with-color/
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PRO
Color Zen
3 years ago
I would definitely hold this process until you sample a nice range of options- these are tricky, too hard to call out & a guessing game in lighting :)
Laura
Original Author
3 years ago
I wish I had the option to hold this process and take my time, but I don’t. There has to be someone who can offer feedback on the colours I asked about or the names of a few mid-tone greige colours that might work in east light. Even generalities give me a place to start.
calidesign
3 years ago
Try looking at the BM Affinity collection of paints, which work together. I'm sure you can find colors similar to your current samples.

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