Help me pick a paint color !!

[honeybee]

Ah, whoever would''ve thought that picking a paint color could be so stressful !! Ok, so we recently moved into a new house, and I''m trying to do a bit of painting to make it really seem like us. We recently did Venetian plaster in our formal dining room that is sort of a burnt orangey color. I love it! the dilemma is that we have a painter coming sometime soon to paint our master bathroom, garage door & side fence. He said he would paint for no cost if I just make him and his crew lunch & maybe throw in a case of beer or two, (he''s a super nice guy & a good friend of my bf''s family) So while we have him here I want to knock out as many project as I can. So, while I normally might have more time to decide, it''s kinda rushed. The areas I really wanted to focus on were the kitchen & the living room. Our kitchen has light maple cabinets and black granite countertops. we have very light floors (porcelain tile that everyone, even the contractors think is marble tile) The Kitchen kinda flows into the living room where we have brown leather couches w/ camel colored & light brown throw pillows . I''ll attach pics asap so you can see what I’m trying to describe. It''s still a little bare, but we''re just starting out, so its a work in progress. Anyway, my painter only uses pitsburgh paints. ( http://www.voiceofcolor.com/en/myproject/vision.asp) (If you click on the "click here to try it now" you can see the colors on a wall)

So, I was thinking maybe a nice frenchy yellow (not bright or pastel yellow, but that slightly orangey yellow) specifically lions mane (216-5) in the kitchen and maybe a really light warm brown for the living room (something in the 313-5 to 319-7 range). I would greatly appreciate ANY suggestions, opinions, etc. (even if you think what I picked would look awful, I really want to hear it!)

 

[Mara]

I just helped my Mom choose paints for her kitchen yesterday....typically I take about a month to hem and haw over colors but she needed urgent help as her kitchen is being redone this week and the colors she liked looked horrible on the wall.

Here are things I have learned in my paint travels...I just redid the guest room a few months ago and went through all of this.

--Paint swatches on paper or internet sites are not remotely accurate. Take with large grain of salt.
--The colors of furniture or accents in your room should definitely be considered as should the paint 'undertones' of what you are considering. For example if you are looking at yellows, what is in the color? Gold? or Green? or Gray? What else is going on in your room for furniture and accents? If you have some green in the room and you get a greeny yellow paint and you get a lot of sun in the room, the paint on the walls could take on a green tinge. Which may or may not be what you really want.
--The room's lighting and exposure is really important. The room will look different in morning and evening. Do you have flourescent lighting or soft lighting in the room? Do you get sun in the room at any point of the day? That affects how light or dark the paint looks. It typically looks lighter in sun and bright daylight and it will look much deeper at night or in soft lighting. Depending on your color, it could look like two totally different rooms.

The most important thing I learned is to only work with a paint company who offers sample pots of their paints...the more the better. Choosing from 5000 paints or whatever is really difficult! And undertones are super hard to gauge until you put the paint on the wall. My mom just experienced this. I told her to use BM paint, she goes to kelly moore and they don't have samples so she buys like 5 quarts of samples! Hates them all! $50 down the tube. So we go to BM and they have paint pot samples for $3 each. She buys 5. Way cheaper that way. There is nothing that beats seeing the actual paint on the wall next to your baseboards and your furniture and seeing it in the morning and the evening. That is how I made my final decision and I vowed never to work off a paper card again for color.

The one other thing I can say re: yellows, as my mom is looking for a light golden yellow as well, is that if it looks yellowish on the paint card, it will look even more YELLOW on the walls. So if you don't want it to be an obvious yellow, stick with something that is a blend of cream and gold. More browns and golds than greens and grays. That will be warmer in more lighting situations and more 'adaptable' and neutral.

Some that my Mom took home with her last nite from BM (though I know you said you can't use these, BM is my fave paint...and you can see color swatches to get an idea of where she started and what she liked)...she loved Philadephia Cream, Rich Cream, and Straw. All three came highly recommended from www.thathomesite.com in the home decorating forum. They are super helpful there by the way. Other recommends were Hawthorne Yellow and another Yellow that just looked too yellow on the swatch card AND the BM guy said would go on much more yellow than on the card.

Mom called last nite and said she thought she loved Philadephia Cream which is interesting since that was one of the colors that on THS the gal said she thought was a color that anyone could use anywhere and that it would pick up colors from other things around it and be a great neutral but pretty color. So we'll see!

Anyway that's what I can offer for help. Just be sure to put your final 2 on the wall to compare and check because it IS different on the wall.

ETA I see you mentioned orange...that's another color to be carefulish with...I got Dorset Gold from BM which looked beautiful in some online pictures, a super warm golden color, and I put it on the wall in the guest room and orange gold city was happening. It was horrible! It is just the way the lighting in that room is....I ended up with Chestertown Buff which was PERFECT for it...but I never would have called that from the paint swatch because it looks too pale and boring but on the wall it is very rich and beautiful and striking. Definitely a case of the whole 'small square of color on a website or paper card not looking remotely how it does on the wall'. That is why I will only do the sample pot colors!! Gotta see it on the wall.

 

[honeybee]

Here are a few pics of the area. Still learning how to post more than one pic in each post so here goes.

 

[honeybee]

dining nook area (would be painted same color as kitchen )

 

[honeybee]

kitchen

 

[honeybee]

another view of the kitchen

 

[Mara]

i actually love the colors that are in there now, but that is because i am a neutral loving whore! i LOVE the sunny yellow in the dining room visible through the kitchen. are you thinking a lighter version of that in the kitchen to bring the ''family'' of colors in but not so strong? that would be lovely, to do the kitchen in a pale golden cream or similar and then have the vivid, bold dining room color showing through the way it is.

in the living room area, what about a soft sage green? i think that would be great with your couches and you could use golden accents. yum.

 

[honeybee]

”--Paint swatches on paper or internet sites are not remotely accurate. Take with large grain of salt.”

Exactly! This is what makes it so hard. They have like 500 shades of brown that might work, but its so hard to tell off a 2x2 swatch of paper b/c so much depends of lighting and surrounding materials just like you said. We found this out the hard way. When we were picking out our options I picked a wall color that I really liked. Its called Happy trails (also Pittsburgh paints) it looked like a nice light tan color on the swatch. What I found out after the fact is that under incandescent lighting it looks pink! Luckily we have all fluorescent in our house, so that helps quite a bit but in some rooms it still has a very slight pink hue. I still like the color, but most definitely would not have were it not for the fluorescents.

“--The room''s lighting and exposure is really important. The room will look different in morning and evening. Do you have flourescent lighting or soft lighting in the room? Do you get sun in the room at any point of the day? That affects how light or dark the paint looks. It typically looks lighter in sun and bright daylight and it will look much deeper at night or in soft lighting. Depending on your color, it could look like two totally different rooms.”

We have all fluorescent lighting right now, but our fans have an amber hue to the glass surround so it gives off a much warmer look. Also, we are going to be putting up pendant lights over the island in the kitchen so that will warm it up also. Right now we have fluorescent cans & above cabinet lighting in there. The light exposure varies in different parts of each of the rooms but while it gets fairly good light it doesn’t have any glaring sun exposure. This is the thing that I like about tans/browns is that at night it gives a darker more cozy feel while in the day it is neutral and calming (if not too dark) My concern with both areas is that I don’t want to pick anything too dark or too bright. I want it to look homey but trendy without being to out there, kind of the feeling you get walking into a Z Gallerie or West Elm store, like everything goes, but its all different. I know, I know, lofty goals, but I’m trying!

The most important thing I learned is to only work with a paint company who offers sample pots of their paints...the more the better. Choosing from 5000 paints or whatever is really difficult!

I totally agree, Pittsburgh does offer sample pots of their paints thank goodness. I got a sample of the Lion’s mane paint yesterday, so I’ll put it up this afternoon and see. I couldn’t decide on any other color though, and didn’t want to buy 50 samples (although I was tempted !) so I took some swatches home to think about it. This is just kind of my first experience picking out paint/color schemes, so I guess I’m a little uneasy that I might get carried away or just pick something really awful. I don’t know why, but its almost a bit scary, because something like paint can totally change the look of a whole room, and this is the first time its been OUR room, not just MY room, so its kinda a strange experience.

I’ll have to go check out that website, it sounds like a big help. Thanks so much Mara, I really appreciate your imput!

 

[honeybee]

Date: 9/14/2006 3:28:17 PM
Author: Mara
i actually love the colors that are in there now, but that is because i am a neutral loving whore! i LOVE the sunny yellow in the dining room visible through the kitchen. are you thinking a lighter version of that in the kitchen to bring the ''family'' of colors in but not so strong? that would be lovely, to do the kitchen in a pale golden cream or similar and then have the vivid, bold dining room color showing through the way it is.

in the living room area, what about a soft sage green? i think that would be great with your couches and you could use golden accents. yum.

Exactly!! That was exactly what I was thinking, was to kind of create a flow of color, something not quite as bold in the kitchen but still similar.

I actually hadn''t thought of doing a green. Hummm...that actually might be really nice..hummm...oh no! 500 more options just opened up

!!

 

[Mara]

another suggestion is to check out Pottery Barn...if you like their stuff typically like their magazine and rooms they setup...they also just came out with their own Benjamin Moore set of PB colors that they use in their catalogs...so if you are a PB fan....then look for colors that are similar to the ones PB has. I figure those are ''no brainer'' colors yanno. They have two really pretty greens. I think you can get a swatch card in the stores and then you could see if your painter''s colors have something similar.

re: greens, stay away from something with too much blue....underlying colors for me that i love in sage and greens is typically gray or maybe gold. not blue IMO. for BM i love a few of their greens but green done right is an amazing color.

 

[eks6426]

I totally agree that you really need to get some samples and paint them on the walls in the room you are looking to paint. Do the samples on more than 1 wall if the lighting varies a lot.

I'm in the process of painting the exterior of my house. The color I wanted was lavender (yes, I know i'm weird). I thought I got a lavender. Even painted part of my garage the color....looked good. We got it on the house (coat #1) and now it looks mauve in some light. Not sure I like mauve...so I go back to the paint store to discuss. They actually gave me paint samples free (I guess when you buy $400 worth of paint you get samples free . They said they could change the colors I already have. They recommended colors that were more blue/grey undertoned which sounded great in theory. Looks beautiful in the can. I painted boards and put them outside. The blue/grey undertoned lavender just turns very light grey and looks washed out. So, now I have to decide whether I can live with the mauvy-lavender or not. Moral of the story....test lots of colors and put them where you are going to see them. The light in my front yard is totally different than my side yard (where I painted the garage colors) and therefore the colors look different.

 

[honeybee]

Date: 9/14/2006 4:37:45 PM
Author: IslandDreams
I totally agree that you really need to get some samples and paint them on the walls in the room you are looking to paint. Do the samples on more than 1 wall if the lighting varies a lot.

I''m in the process of painting the exterior of my house. The color I wanted was lavender (yes, I know i''m weird). I thought I got a lavender. Even painted part of my garage the color....looked good. We got it on the house (coat #1) and now it looks mauve in some light. Not sure I like mauve...so I go back to the paint store to discuss. They actually gave me paint samples free (I guess when you buy $400 worth of paint you get samples free . They said they could change the colors I already have. They recommended colors that were more blue/grey undertoned which sounded great in theory. Looks beautiful in the can. I painted boards and put them outside. The blue/grey undertoned lavender just turns very light grey and looks washed out. So, now I have to decide whether I can live with the mauvy-lavender or not. Moral of the story....test lots of colors and put them where you are going to see them. The light in my front yard is totally different than my side yard (where I painted the garage colors) and therefore the colors look different.

Hehe, actually Lavender doesn''t sound weird at all. My dad lives in this little gated community of colonial style houses & has a house down the street from him that is a pale lavender. They have a huge cherry tree out front that blooms like a mad man & it''s just lovely. I had never consciously thought, "oh, thats a lavender house" until I read this. hehe, I guess thats a test of a good color. There is another example of your dillemma about 2 houses down from him. This neighbor tested out this nice yellow color, kind of a brighter yellow, but looked fine where he tested it & it got approved by the association. So 2 days later this guys house gets painted and it seriously looked like halloween, it was this aweful orangy-looking mess. So the association fought w/ this poor man for like 6 mo. and finally made him change the color & repaint. It''s so hard b/c the lighting changes sooo much more drastically outside than it does inside.

 

[honeybee]

Date: 9/27/2006 4:18:18 PM
Author: SanDiegoLady

Date: 9/14/2006 2:39:52 PM
Author: honeybee
kitchen

Ahhh... what I wouldn''t do for a kitchen that was this large.. my stars.. Mine is smaller than most apartment kitchens I''ve had.. I swear it was designed by some non-cooking man..

Is the floor tile or what? I can''t tell.. its pretty.

hehe,thanks. The kitchen is one of my favorite parts of this house. I love to cook, so it was a definite find for me.

The floor is a porcelain tile with 1/8 in grout line so at first glance it looks like one massive piece of flooring. It''s funny b/c i have gotten subcontractors kneeling down on my floor nose to tile swearing that is marble. I like it, but boy is it a pain to clean.

 

[NYCsparkle]

There is a color called wheat by B Moore that is a beautiful non bright yellow...check it out. The card swatch looks slightly different than it does on the wall. It goes great with neutrals and fall like colors.

 

[moremoremore]

It's so hard to give advice...b/c I really need to *see* a space...and see the light and the entire space...but for some reason, when I look at the kitvhen, I just see a green. A gray/green/sage...Don't know why.....and as long as you stay in the same color values, any colors look good together and flow! Best of luck! Pls give pix of finished products...

As for the right color, I just go and just see what my eye picks up first....no point in stressing over it b/c eyes play tricks and some colors are soooooooo hard to distinguish....I just go with what I'm "feeling" when I look at it...what do I go to first...

BTW, I would also put an area rug under the kitchen table ... I honestly think that that is what's missing...the paint color is actually fine! A rug with some dark and light colors to add visual interest and "ground" the room and pick up the dark counter tops, pardon the pun...My eyes go there and it looks like something is missing...

 

[eks6426]

mmm--good idea on the rug. That will definitely ground the dining area. Just get one with enough colors and dark enough that any dropped items will blend

 

[moremoremore]

Yes! Something with neutrals and hits of black is what I''m thinking....

 

[moremoremore]

I don''t really love this rug...it''s from Ballard...but colors like this....maybe with a little red/brown in there and less black...but this is the idea...I think that that will transform the space regardless of paint color...

 

[firebirdgold]

I totally understand the drive to paint as a way of claiming the house for the both of you. My fi is moving in and I'm repainting a previously un-used bedroom to turn it into our bedroom retreat. (Sanding trim bites).

I really don't see yellow in that kitchen with the maple and the black. Yellow is a good cheery color, but it works better in country kitchens like mine. Yours is already modern and dramatic and I think I'd continue that theme. Have you thought of something different like a velvety red? And there's too much brown in your living room to begin with, and your floor is so light. If I did brown it would be more of a very light beige. Have you thought of something contrasting like blue?

Don't forget to consider what emotions you want the rooms to evoke.

*sigh* back to sanding trim. May I congratulate you on getting someone else to do the work?

ETA: oh, and swiffer is your friend! That floor is perfect for the swiffer vac and the swiffer wet spray thingy. It's so smooth with almost no grout so it'll take just a couple of minutes to touch up each room. I want a floor like that just because it'd be so easy to keep clean.

 

[honeybee]

Date: 9/28/2006 9:20:54 AM
Author: IslandDreams
mmm--good idea on the rug. That will definitely ground the dining area. Just get one with enough colors and dark enough that any dropped items will blend

rofl. you''re a mind reader! my first thought was "oh my god, its gonna get so dirty!" I''m such a neat freak about dining areas.

My BF had mentioned something about getting an area rug for the nook awhile back, but I hadn''t paid much mind to it. Now that I look, i think it would make a bit of a difference.

 

[honeybee]

"ETA: oh, and swiffer is your friend! That floor is perfect for the swiffer vac and the swiffer wet spray thingy. It''s so smooth with almost no grout so it''ll take just a couple of minutes to touch up each room. I want a floor like that just because it''d be so easy to keep clean."


Hehe, oh this takes me back! That what I thought too when I picked out the tile "oh it will be sooo easy to clean" sigh.... At this point I have every cleaning tool known to man to clean this darn floor.....and none of it works properly. I vacum regularly, so that keeps the dust up & wont push anything into the grout like a swifter. (beware of dirty grout! Its my serious pet peeve) But actually cleaning it is a whole ''nother issue. Everything i''ve used (swifter wet, that clorox wet thing, pine sol, windex applied & wiped by hand, janitorial supply floor cleaner, plain water, you name it) leaves streaks or smears & leaves it dulled. The only thing i''ve found that works are the professional floor cleaner machines that wash, rinse, & polish all in one. It takes me a minimum of about 4 hours to clean the downstairs floor, and thats not including the time it takes me to move all the furniture, rugs, dog''s toys, etc.. It is such a pain!