Help choosing Benjamin Moore paint colors for new home

2 years ago

We’re soon moving into our new home and need to quickly choose paint colors, as painters may start as soon as 4-5 days from now. Hoping you guys can offer any advice on colors. The whole main floor has wood floors — kitchen & family room have slightly newer, lighter wood than the hallway and dining room.

We need to paint:

entryway area
dining room
kitchen
hallway
hall doors
trim in dining room, hallway, kitchen (trim in family room is staying wood)

None of the furniture or curtains pictured are staying. We still havent really decided what we are doing for furniture. We need to choose paint first unfortuantely. I know many of these photos aren’t great - and mostly were taken in late afternoon.

We would like something pretty neutral for the hallways, and part of the dining room, and also the kitchen. I’m thinking going with maybe a different color for the family room? And I kind of like how part of the dining room (in dining room, the window wall and fireplace wall are darker than the wall adjacent the kitchen/hall), so may want to keep that scheme, but would like to switch out the colors.

Family room:

Wood ceiling and wood floors. The left side of this photo faces southeast, far wall faces southwest.

Family room:

From kitchen, more daylight

Family room:

Facing kitchen

Kitchen:

Mainly looking for advice on color for that far wall with the window, and the divider between the kitchen/family room. We’re undecided as to whether to paint over the greenish backsplash area, open to any advice.

Entryway and front door:

We‘re painting both sides of the door. Thinking of going with a darkish navy - the exterior is mid-light grey siding. Considering paiting the banisters white but havent yet decided. Open to input on this too!

Another view of entryway:

Dining room:

dont have many pics of here for some reason. This mainly shows skylight. Also a white fireplace on far wall. Hoping to find a better pic of this room soon.

Hallway:

I know not a great photo. Will be replacing the door hardware with silver/nickel finish. The hall doesn’t get much natural light so would like to keep it relatively bright. But I’ve heard it can be counterintuitive to paint a dark hall too bright?

Regarding trim, we plan to paint all trim in the halls, dining room, etc. and want a nice bright white. But I udnerstand there are even tons of options for which shade of white to choose?

We are very new to all this and hoping for literally any advice you can give. I tend to like pale, cool-ish grays for main color, but not sure how well that would work with the wood, particularly darker wood floors in hall/dining room.

I can try to provide more context or even photos if needed. I may also edit post to add some photos if i find more.

Thanks in advance!!!

Featured Answer

Mary Elizabeth

2 years ago

Very pretty house and beautiful wood ceilings and cabinets. I agree with the suggestion to use a warm white for all the walls. I prefer a trim color with a little more contrast, but lots of people just use the same color in a higher sheen.

(I have BM Edgecomb Grey walls (LRV 64) and BM Vapor (LRV 83) for trim.)

If you're planning a Navy for your front door, you might want to find another blue for your backsplash area. Or just paint that white and repaint it later.

I found that narrowing down your color choice to just one of Benjamin Moore's collections was very helpful. Much easier to work with 150 or so colors than a few thousand! (I used the Historical collection.)

Have you selected the line of Benjamin Moore paint you plan to use? Be sure to detail this to your painters with "NO SUBSTITUTE" in your contract. Labor is the most expensive part of painting, so buy the very best paint you can afford. In the long run, better paint covers in fewer coats (less paint), wears better, cleans and touches up easier.

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Comments (12)

jck910
2 years ago
Since you have no furniture or textiles I would choose the white for the trim and then paint all the walls the same white in a different finish. No gray with your entry tile and cabinets. It is open concept so I would not choose different colors. The bedrooms can be different colors though. Definitely paint the backsplash
kandrewspa
2 years ago
I know it's appealing to paint before you move in, but then you're working with little information. That's why jck910 recommended a white. It's really better to choose furniture first. There are literally thousands of different paint colors but when you choose a sofa there will be maybe ten standard colors it's available in.

Based on what I see in your pictures, you should be looking for a warm white because of your floors and kitchen. The most popular BM warm white is probably Simply White. Some people think White Dove is warm, but it depends on the lighting. Sometimes it looks slightly gray. You should start sampling ASAP so you can choose something that works in your space before the painters come. No matter which white you choose it will look slightly different in different rooms depending on which direction the light is coming from. But any white will give you a nice clean look to start with.
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cawaps
2 years ago
I like the idea of white in the family room. I think white walls can look really great in rooms with wood ceilings.

There's nothing wrong with white throughout, but if you want to mix it up, I think a green for the kitchen could look really nice. I tend to like greens on the yellower end, so maybe something like Lewiville Green or Grasshopper.

Lewiville Green

Grasshopper

Or Pale Avocado

My only concern about Navy for the entryway is that the front door is blue. I don't imagine your front door is going to be standing open a lot, but I know it would bug me every time I went in or out if the front door color didn't work with the wall color (maybe you can find a dark blue that works, but the door looks like it leans a bit purple, and it could be hard). I do think a dark dramatic color would be nice, but make sure it works with the front door. But maybe it's not something you would ever notice or think about.
John J.
Original Author
2 years ago
@cawaps thanks for the suggestions. Re: entryway, I meant navy strictly for the door itself, not the walls. We want to keep everything relatively light for entryway/dining/hall walls. But figured painting both sides of the door navy might work well.
PRO
Celery. Visualization, Rendering images
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Ohhhhhhh .. No for so poisoning colors above you can tired very soon please. I would go with neutral classic color for entire house. And then bring some color with decor and furniture. Some warm whites or even better warm off-whites.

Calm BM

American white BM

Gray Mist BM
PRO
Celery. Visualization, Rendering images
2 years ago
If you lean to greens, then may be some muted, calm color such as October Mist BM ( color of 2022 Year)
John J.
Original Author
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Just found a pic of the dinig room.

Those 2 walls are a darker shade than the hall/other wall where the buffet is.

to me this current color has too much brown-grey and is a bit too dark for our taste
John J.
Original Author
2 years ago
PRO
Celery. Visualization, Rendering images
2 years ago
I like existing color.
John J.
Original Author
2 years ago
@Mary Elizabeth

@Celery. Visualization, Rendering images

@cawaps

For those curious, after all the deliberation we ended up going with White Dove for the whole floor (except bedrooms / office, and kitchen backsplash area, which we havent decided on yet).

Overall we really like it. One thing we might change is the window wall and fireplace wall in the north facing dining room with the skylight. I think the color shows a bit too cool on that wall due to the north facing light and lack of light hitting those walls. We may go with something like Revere Pewter (since it is warm without too much yellow); possibly Grey Owl although that may be a tiny bit too cool; or October Mist like @Celery. Visualization, Rendering images suggested (do you still like October Mist for those walls now that you see white dove in here?

We may also consider re-doing the living room wall that faces the kitchen, also Revere Pewter or soemthing. But overall we really like the White Dove all around.

We ended up with Hale Navy for both sides of our front door and i think that turned out great too. Didnt get great pics of that but i think it works well (house exterior is a lightish neutral grey)

These are from around 6pm

And these around 3:30

Any thoughts on paint color for the fireplace? If we go with Revere pewter on the fireplace and window wall, i think we would need ot keep fireplace light, even maybe white dove. But if we keep the wall White Dove, should we do Revere Pewter fireplace?

I’ll try to get some more pics today around midday with more natural light too.
cat_ky
2 years ago
Navy is fine for your front door, if that is what you want, but, the interior part of the door should be painted to match the trim, and not a navy, that may or may not go with anything else in your house.