Pressing paint question

[AmandaVT]

 DH finally reached out to the wallpaper/paint guy, and he is coming tomorrow to strip wallpaper, prep walls, paint and install new ceiling fans! Super exciting, but we suddenly have to pick a color for the walls. Anyone up for helping me? We have a Sherwin williams nearby and I think DH is heading there this evening or tomorrow morning to get what we need. 

Here's a slightly messy picture that shows the trim, floor, and furniture colors. Eventually we'll do something with the fireplace too, but right now I'm just worried about paint. Light colors- we've agreed no blue (we had a ton of blue at our old house and need a break) The chairs are a  bit darker and more blue-green in person, the camera took a weird picture. Here's the link to the chairs: chair

[Scarlett]

Nice room!  

Where is AM when you need her.

Are you wanting to go neutral?  I love that chair....lots of deep neutrals will look good with it.

[prairiewindmomma]

If you want something super moody, I'd look at SW7019 Gauntlet Grey. It would make your fireplace brick pop, and pull out the grey in your other sofa and in your rug.

I'd look at Alpaca, Mindful Grey, and Agreeable Grey, Accessible Beige, and Worldly Grey for your midtones.

I'd look at Pure White, Alabaster, and Shoji White for your light tones.

 

[prairiewindmomma]

You have really warm tones in your trim and brick.  If things look weird on the samples, I would assume it has a green or purple undertone, and you need to go creamier. I didn't look at undertones in the colors I picked for you...short on time. 🙂 But, those are colors that have generally worked well for me.

[Scarlett]

I have accessible beige in most of my house.  It looks nice with an accent wall we have in Indigo Batik 7602.  We have balanced beige in our master bedroom.  It is just a tad darker.  

[PeterPan]

You're a brave woman painting without testing. If they're open long enough to get it done tonight, SW has sample quarts they can do for $5. They can also look up and color match Benjamin Moore, etc. if there are other colors you know you like. Do you like Pottery Barn colors? https://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-explore-colors/pottery-barn-collection  

Sherwin Williams used to mark on their fans with little marks codes for their best colors. So my tips are use the codes, use a premade palatte, or use someone else's colors (like Pottery Barn's). 

[PeterPan]

https://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-explore-colors/west-elm-collection  These West Elm colors would look amazing with your craftsman trim. 

If you do the sample quarts, paint them on poster board from Dollar Tree, not your walls. 

[PeterPan]

Are they going to paint the brick? I know it's controversial, but it *can* be done. Is the fireplace functional?

[prairiewindmomma]

YOU REALLY NEED TO DO SAMPLES. TONIGHT. You need the artificial light of night and you need to check morning light.

I honestly cannot imagine painting without looking at samples for at least 24 hours.  Paint can do weird things.

[Scarlett]

1 minute ago, prairiewindmomma said:

YOU REALLY NEED TO DO SAMPLES. TONIGHT. You need the artificial light of night and you need to check morning light.

I honestly cannot imagine painting without looking at samples for at least 24 hours.  Paint can do weird things.

Exactly.  And I remember something from the boards recently about which light affects colors which way.

[PeterPan]

Just now, Scarlett said:

Exactly.  And I remember something from the boards recently about which light affects colors which way.

Yes, you paint the poster board and then you can move it around and see it at different times of day. I have colors that look good upstairs in my house and like total puke in the basement. 

Op, don't let them rush you into mistakes. It's worth the $5 to run a test. This is that handyman's convenience, not common sense making it go so fast. 

[PeterPan]

SW will open very early, like 7am. And google says around here theyre open till 7pm. You really want to go pick up some of those sample quarts.

And when you buy the actual paint, consider no vocs or low vocs. Some of the newest versions from SW are very good. It's all we've used in our house and every time we buy more they've made it better.

[prairiewindmomma]

2 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Yes, you paint the poster board and then you can move it around and see it at different times of day. I have colors that look good upstairs in my house and like total puke in the basement. 

Op, don't let them rush you into mistakes. It's worth the $5 to run a test. This is that handyman's convenience, not common sense making it go so fast. 

It's worth $40 to run 8 tests. 🙂

Seriously. Check all walls. I have colors that look good on west walls that don't look good on north walls. It's all about how light moves in that particular room.  If you are in VT, you have soft light quality that is going to make undertones pop more and be more moody. With all of the red in your floors and trim, you need to be careful. 

[PeterPan]

Just remember to paint the ceiling royal blue to make it all come together.

(just joking)

But seriously, it's another reason to slow this train down or see if you can keep him busy with other things or something. Are you painting the ceilings and trim? Painting is like that, where one thing fresh makes the next thing look like it needs work. So you could drape everything, paint just ceilings or whatever, and then come back after the holiday (which gives you lots of days to deliberate color!) and do the walls.

[PeterPan]

Was the color of that wall paper good in the room? Thinking you should take a piece with you to the paint store to compare to chips. It will help you start to see undertones and you already know what that color feels like when it's large in that room.

[AmandaVT]

Are you guys going to be totally horrified if I confess that I've never done a sample before? I always just pick a color and go with it. 😂 

 

@PeterPan- I love those west elm colors. And @Scarlett and @prairiewindmomma - I am loving the agreeable beige too! 

[AmandaVT]

10 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

It's worth $40 to run 8 tests. 🙂

Seriously. Check all walls. I have colors that look good on west walls that don't look good on north walls. It's all about how light moves in that particular room.  If you are in VT, you have soft light quality that is going to make undertones pop more and be more moody. With all of the red in your floors and trim, you need to be careful. 

Yes - we're in VT. We get lots of light in this room. The sun rises into the back windows and sets right into the front windows.

4 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Just remember to paint the ceiling royal blue to make it all come together.

(just joking)

But seriously, it's another reason to slow this train down or see if you can keep him busy with other things or something. Are you painting the ceilings and trim? Painting is like that, where one thing fresh makes the next thing look like it needs work. So you could drape everything, paint just ceilings or whatever, and then come back after the holiday (which gives you lots of days to deliberate color!) and do the walls.

 

OK - that's a good thought. He's going to do the ceiling and trim (next to the ceiling) first. Unless he's crazy fast, he probably won't be able to finish everything including wall paint tomorrow, so we can get samples and play with them over the weekend! 

[Spy Car]

6 minutes ago, AmandaVT said:

Are you guys going to be totally horrified if I confess that I've never done a sample before? I always just pick a color and go with it. 😂 

Sounds like you are very easy going.

We can help rectify that  

I had similar thoughts to those expressed above, but decided to let others take the heat of saying, "are you mad, bro?" LOL.

Bill

[AmandaVT]

1 minute ago, Spy Car said:

Sounds like you are very easy going.

We can help rectify that  

I had similar thoughts to those expressed above, but decided to let others take the heat of saying, "are you mad, bro?" LOL.

Bill

So I have terrible artistic sensibilities - I can look at a room and say "ooh pretty", but I'm not good at creating the pretty if that makes sense. Which is the reason for my panic post tonight. 😃

[QumaCote]

I definitely agree with the previous posters about samples and how the light in the room totally changes the color. If you are completely unsure, most professional painters I have used or know are very good with color and can often make recommendations. 

[Spy Car]

2 minutes ago, AmandaVT said:

So I have terrible artistic sensibilities - I can look at a room and say "ooh pretty", but I'm not good at creating the pretty if that makes sense. Which is the reason for my panic post tonight. 😃

In this case, I'd say the "panic" is well-justified 

Bill

[prairiewindmomma]

Accessible beige is likely to work well for you. Here’s the LV and other details on the color: https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/colour-review-sherwin-williams-accessible-beige/

[Spy Car]

30 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Accessible beige is likely to work well for you. Here’s the LV and other details on the color: https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/colour-review-sherwin-williams-accessible-beige/

I'd be very reticent to painting such a warm beige w/o sampling it in every room.

A "poster boy" type color for me as the red and to a lesser degree green undertones can go very wrong in the wrong light for my taste.

Maybe too warm for me in most situations? 

Bill

[ktgrok]

1 hour ago, AmandaVT said:

Are you guys going to be totally horrified if I confess that I've never done a sample before? I always just pick a color and go with it. 😂 

 

If it helps, me either, lol. 

I just picked bathroom paint on the internet and sent DH to get it. (to be fair, I'm not picky, and we are going to move, but I've NEVER painted samples)

[prairiewindmomma]

I am with you, Bill. I actually used Worldly Grey in my own house because I needed to tone down the warm. It’s less warm than Agreeable Grey and Balanced Beige, (going down the coolness scale from Accessible Beige).

She doesn’t seem to be afraid of color, though, and I am greatly afeared 😉 she is just going to choose 1-2 samples. Better she aim among colors with cult followings. 

 

[PeterPan]

1 hour ago, AmandaVT said:

Unless he's crazy fast,

If he's good, he may be fast, yes. Ceilings for the whole main floor or one ceiling? I think it buys you at least the morning. So if you get those samples at 7am tomorrow and get the poster board tonight, you can have a sense within a couple hours as it dries. You can also take several of the chips and tape them together to make a larger square. If you're picking colors from a palate (like that West Elm) and just stick within it, probably anything will be fine.

[prairiewindmomma]

Also, I am assuming flat off the shelf white for ceiling? Cool tone or warm tone white? And trim color?
 

What sheen are you doing for your walls? I am team Satin, all the way, but some people prefer eggshell.

Edited May 27, 2021 by prairiewindmomma

[PeterPan]

9 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

colors with cult followings

Yellow, God's color of sunshine and joy. 

I know what you mean. I'm just not a fan of beige, taupe, etc. lol. 

Craftsman colors are actually a thing, and the West Elm palate happens to be pretty close. https://modernbungalow.com/blogs/news/the-ultimate-guide-to-craftsman-color-palettes  This might give her a sense of what some of those types of colors would look like with her floor/doors/trim. I did paint in a different house just using pictures from a magazine for inspiration. It worked out really well and the colors still look nice 20 years later. So it doesn't have to be neutral if the colors chosen make sense for the style of architecture.

Edited May 27, 2021 by PeterPan

[Junie]

Dh painted our master bedroom over Christmas break.  I wish we had done samples first, although we may have still ended up with the same color.  I wanted something neutral that was a creamy beige, but with a bit more color to it than off white.  We chose Sherwin Williams La Luna Amarilla.  It is exactly what I wanted -- for part of the day -- and much more yellow than I wanted at other parts of the day.  It's a really pretty color, but the yellow did take a little bit of getting used to.

[PeterPan]

How did it turn out @AmandaVT ?

[AmandaVT]

20 hours ago, ktgrok said:

If it helps, me either, lol. 

I just picked bathroom paint on the internet and sent DH to get it. (to be fair, I'm not picky, and we are going to move, but I've NEVER painted samples)

OK I am so glad to hear I'm not the only weird one! (or maybe we're not the weird ones?) We painted every room and the exterior of our last house without samples. We just found something we liked and went for it!

20 hours ago, PeterPan said:

If he's good, he may be fast, yes. Ceilings for the whole main floor or one ceiling? I think it buys you at least the morning. So if you get those samples at 7am tomorrow and get the poster board tonight, you can have a sense within a couple hours as it dries. You can also take several of the chips and tape them together to make a larger square. If you're picking colors from a palate (like that West Elm) and just stick within it, probably anything will be fine.

I had a 7am meeting this morning at school, so it was not possible for me to get to Sherwin Williams this morning, unfortunately. However, Wallpaper Man got half of the room stripped before leaving for the weekend, so we have plenty of time to test out colors! 

20 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Also, I am assuming flat off the shelf white for ceiling? Cool tone or warm tone white? And trim color?
 

What sheen are you doing for your walls? I am team Satin, all the way, but some people prefer eggshell.

Yes? They have something called Good for Ceiling white or something along those lines that we use and like. I usually like satin finish too, I think. We get the Emerald line that they have, which leaves a really nice finish on the walls.

[Annie G]

Our SW samples are $8.69 not on sale. They’re on sale this week, but still $6.50. I hope you found a great color. Just wanted to mention the price so others don’t get sticker shock if they think they’re just $5. Or maybe other SW stores have cheaper ones...but the three stores in our town all cost $8+

[PeterPan]

1 hour ago, Annie G said:

sticker shock

Oops, you're right, that $5 was a number of years ago.

[prairiewindmomma]

Fwiw, there’s also always samplize, when you have time to order: https://samplize.com

[prairiewindmomma]

Rumor locally has it that SW is fulfilling its contract to Lowe’s before filling its own stores, so a second place to look if your local store is out is Lowe’s.

Personally, I double puffy heart love Home Depot paint except for Sea Salt and that whole chip line. Home Depot blue greens are a bit less complex than SW, imo.

[popmom]

On 5/27/2021 at 7:05 PM, ktgrok said:

If it helps, me either, lol. 

I just picked bathroom paint on the internet and sent DH to get it. (to be fair, I'm not picky, and we are going to move, but I've NEVER painted samples)

The horror! The horror. 😂

There is a super lazy way to do samples now. I just ordered a bunch from Samplize. They aren’t quite as big as I’d like, but oh so easy!! They have every color from Ben Moore, SW, and others.  I highly recommend. They shipped very fast! And you don’t have to worry about disposing of paint you’ll never use and more plastic in the landfill. 

[AmandaVT]

We have a Sherwin Williams within 5 min of my house and both Lowes and Home Depot are an hour away near Burlington, so my paint preference is mostly lazy convenience. 😁

Thank you for the info on Samplize! We have a lot of rooms to de-wallpaper and paint (think 50's and 60's wallpaper in every room currently). 

I'm going to get paint chips this morning and will report back! 

 

[PeterPan]

Wallpaper is back in. Maybe there’s some you can keep! 😁

Edited May 29, 2021 by PeterPan

[stephanier.1765]

It's funny how the mind works. For a moment, I couldn't figure out why you would want to press paint. Is this a new art or craft I have yet hear about? LOL

Good luck with your decor! You have received some excellent advice and I hope you share the "after" pictures.

[AmandaVT]

2 hours ago, PeterPan said:

Wallpaper is back in. Maybe there’s some you can keep! 😁

The former owners really loved birds. This is from the dining room, but the bird theme extends throughout the house.

 

The Sherwin Williams man was super helpful and clearly loves his job which is awesome! He sent me home with a ton of paint chips and we will report back on Monday to pick out what we want. 

 

Ignore the ugly wall, I put them up against what has been recently stripped. But I wanted to get the trim color in there.

[PeterPan]

That bird paper is amazing!!! I would leave that on one accent/focal wall and do the rest neutral. Wallpaper is back in. 

[PeterPan]

Well in that bottom picture the 6070 (name? can't read) and accessible beige are both nice. The Ibis White is beautiful and white is very in right now. You have kids and hand prints or not an issue? The Dover is nice too. He has good taste!

Were you wanting more moody like that repose gray?

Edited May 29, 2021 by PeterPan

[PeterPan]

If you're keeping some of that wall paper, then you could pull the neutral from there. Zircoin maybe. 

Edited May 29, 2021 by PeterPan

[sassenach]

Repose works in a lot of rooms. It's a decorator favorite.

 

[prairiewindmomma]

I actually love that wallpaper too. I don't know that I'd want to keep an entire house full of wallpaper, but in a room full of wood furniture, with lots of cream elsewhere, that'd be fun...especially if you had a lot of green plants in the room to pull out the sage. It brings lots of memories back of older relatives who have since passed on.

 

[prairiewindmomma]

Of those swatches you have, I've used Dover White and Repose Grey.

Light French Grey and Zircon pull really blue, fwiw, especially in low light. I swatched Light French Grey two houses ago and walked in at night and it looked straight up baby blue.

[KSera]

I like the Repose Gray and the Ibis white against your trim. Depends how white you would want to go. I can imagine the Ibis might be quite bright if the whole room was done in it.

I appreciate you starting this thread, as I am in paint picking mode as well, and the posts have been quite helpful. I’m thinking I should hire @prairiewindmomma to just pick my color for me 😁. 

[Storygirl]

We have Zircon in two bedrooms (facing west-ish and east-ish), and I really like it. I wanted a gray that would reflect light and make the rooms bright, not dim or dusky. Our woodwork is half white (baseboards and around doorframes) and half stained oak with reddish tones (doors and cabinets). It doesn't read light blue to me (but I wouldn't care if it did).

My boys wanted to paint their room black, and I refused, but they have black bed frames and black comforters as a compromise, so I wanted the gray to be a bright and light color.

[ktgrok]

20 hours ago, popmom said:

The horror! The horror. 😂

There is a super lazy way to do samples now. I just ordered a bunch from Samplize. They aren’t quite as big as I’d like, but oh so easy!! They have every color from Ben Moore, SW, and others.  I highly recommend. They shipped very fast! And you don’t have to worry about disposing of paint you’ll never use and more plastic in the landfill. 

What makes it funnier is that I almost forgot that I have a blue light filter that automatically turns on, on my laptop. I almost picked out paint, online, with a color filter applied, lol. Thankfully I did realize. 

But my method of choosing was, "zillow says that homes with blue bathrooms sell for higher prices. I'll gt blue. I want light blue, since it is a small bathroom. DH is picking stuff up at Lowes, so I'll use their paint. Cool, I can filter by color, then sort by light to dark. Ok....that one. Done."

[ktgrok]

21 hours ago, popmom said:

The horror! The horror. 😂

There is a super lazy way to do samples now. I just ordered a bunch from Samplize. They aren’t quite as big as I’d like, but oh so easy!! They have every color from Ben Moore, SW, and others.  I highly recommend. They shipped very fast! And you don’t have to worry about disposing of paint you’ll never use and more plastic in the landfill. 

ugh...just ordered 3 samples from them. I blame you! I was perfectly happy sending DH to get paint via my brief internet glances!