our paint colors

the new house needed to be painted.

 

a lot of painting.

 

when i say a lot, i mean ceilings, windows, walls, trim, doors and cabinets.

 

pretty much everything.

 

so in order to keep the cost down on the painting, because it can easily add up...

 

i selected three paints.

 

- a trim color

 

- a door color

 

- a wall color

 

 

i love White Dove and had actually never used it on any personal projects so i knew i wanted to have it in the new house.

 

i ended up using it for a number of things like:

 

1. all the trim work

2. 95% of the ceilings

3.  all the cabinets (both baths and kitchen)

4. a wall color in some areas like the bathrooms and our master bedroom.

 

the result?

 

i love it. i am so glad i went with White Dove. it's a soft white, not bright white and a perfect compliment to the other colors i selected.

 

as for most of the walls in our house, i chose a paint color i fell in love with after using it in our old master bedroom.

 

Gray Owl.

 

the result?

 

it ended up being the perfect neutral and the perfect backdrop for our furnishings.  

again...love it!

 

after 9 years of living in a house with white doors, i knew i wanted to do something different with our new house.

i had seen countless images with black interior doors and of course loved every image but instead of going with black, i decided to go a little softer.

 

 i went with a charcoal gray color to contrast nicely with the Gray Owl and White Dove.

 

the color i selected was called City Shadow.

 

the result?

 

i was the perfect contrast. it's delicate without being too harsh.

 

now i will say, having your house professionally painted is so much better then painting it yourself (speaking from years of self painting) BUT the one thing i was not happy about was the finishes i received.

 

i had selected the following finishes:

 

trim - Semi Gloss

 

ceilings- Semi Gloss

 

walls- Satin

 

doors- Satin

 

my contractor begged me to change the ceilings to flat...he tried really hard to get me to budge on the walls as well. every other project he's done, he's always used flat paint on the walls and ceilings.

 

i finally budged a little and said fine..do flat on the ceiling BUT i want SATIN on the walls.

he said will do.

 

let me tell you the reason for the finishes i selected.

in our old house, b and i painted our ceilings and trim a flat white when we first moved in.

 we hated it...they looked dull and dirty.

b and i spent many hours repainting the ceilings and trim a white semi gloss

and boy did it make a difference.

they looked polished and clean.

the ceilings reflected so much light which brightened each room.

it was wonderful.

 

when our contractor asked us to change the ceiling finish to flat, we budged because the old house had textured ceiling and our new house had flat sheet rock ceilings. we felt it might not be as bad as the first house.

 

as for the walls, i did not budge because i do not like a flat finish .

flat is hard to clean and shows grime and dirt so easily when you are working with a sheet rock wall.

AND especially when you have a two year old.

 

i like to use a satin finish so that any natural light will bounce off the finish

and help make your room look brighter.

 

the finishes i received were:

 

trim - Semi Gloss

ceilings- flat

walls- flat

doors- Satin

 

i will say again...i do NOT like a flat finish for walls. hate it.

the house was painted just days before we moved in so there was absolutely no time to make a stink about it and have it repainted.

 

we moved in and sure enough...scuff marks, random dirt streaks, grease marks from hands...all over the walls.

 

i was not happy...and honestly it still gets under my skin if i think too much about it.

 

so let me be the one to experience it and encourage those who are contemplating flat walls....

don't do it UNLESS you have plaster walls.

a flat finish will help hide any imperfections in plaster walls but new construction, decent sheet rock walls...don't do flat.

 

you'll thank me later!

 

as for the three paints above...i love how they all turned out so feel free to use them!