New Coat of Paint

When Seth’s parents first bought our house with the intention of renting it out, I had absolutely no intention of living there. But being involved with Seth as I was, his friend and partner in breakup woes at that time, I was happy to help clean the place up and help get it move-in ready. I meticulously bleached every wall and ceiling in the place and his mom was even smart enough to let me work my magic and pick awesome paint colors in the rooms that really needed updating. I was somewhat limited since it wasn’t my house and my penchant for bold color is not appreciated by everyone, but I think I did pretty well. I had a few existing colors to work with so I based my decision making on that and my preference (and Seth’s) for cooler colors. I had to accept this very bold red in the kitchen-similar to Benjamin Moore’s Caliente, and a lavender/gray tone in the downstairs bathroom similar to their Violet Sparkle. I also had green carpet that was staying in the front downstairs bedroom that needed to be considered.

In the dining room I chose a beige with warm undertones for the walls (BM’s creamy beige), and I admit this was my first color mistake. It looked great with the other swatches together, but on the walls in the actual dining room it read much more orange than the swatch looked. I wasn’t happy with it, but Seth’s mom liked it and it wasn’t my house, so I had no choice but to let it be. A few years down the road I decided that the color transition from kitchen to dining room to living room made our tiny house feel too choppy and painted the dining room walls the same color as the living room. Big improvement, let me tell you. But I digress. The dining room has a recessed nook that houses our bar paraphernalia, and for that small space, I chose Benjamin Moore’s Chopped Dill. It’s a deep, earthy green that really works well with the living room color and kitchen color alike. It gave the nook some punch without making the red-and-green combo feel like Christmas every day.

I chose Benjamin Moore’s Dune Grass for the living room, and honestly, I still swoon over this color. For someone who generally prefers bold hues, I always surprises me how this soft green tone just gets me every time. I highly recommend it and it looks great with that in-your-face red in the kitchen. It also now looks great on my dining room walls since I have fixed the color snafu mentioned above (thank goodness). This color also extends into the hallway.

The front bedroom is the one that had brand new green carpet. It’s pretty tough to deal with green carpet as it turns out, but I chose Benjamin Moore’s Mint Chocolate Chip. It’s a soft green with a hint of gray that played off the the green carpet but was different enough not to look too matchy. This is our current roommate’s bedroom and I haven’t really done anything to it since.

The back bedroom had horrible orangey-tan moldings that no one would let me paint white (so awful. SO AWFUL). To try and cool them down a bit, I used Benjamin Moore’s Bath Salts, a kind of sea glass blue-green that was very soft. Against the weird moldings it read as much bluer than it might have otherwise, but it also made the moldings seem more tan than orange, so that was a plus. Kind of. I have since painted the moldings and closet door white (and it is so much BETTER) and I have repainted the room a deeper blue, Behr’s Bid Surf now that it’s my office.

The house looked pretty good that way for a rental. I even kind of enjoyed the lavender in the bathroom. Sadly, the bathroom got a new sink and needed some drywall repair, so when that got done, we had to pick new paint. I chose a seriously teal shade, Mermaid Treasure by Behr, which may be a bit much for the tiny space, but as a self-proclaimed bold color enthusiast, I really enjoy it paired with the white accents in our bathroom.

The only other things left unpainted in the house were the dark purple laundry room (too ugly to even fathom, will discuss later), and the upstairs, which was a dismal gray-brown that highlighted the lack of lighting up there in a very prison-like way. Since I did end up living in that house after all (oops), I got sick of the upstairs (our bedroom) being so depressing. So one week when Seth was camping and I was not, I enlisted my dad’s help to paint it a soft blue-white tone (Behr’s Coastal Mist) with tempestuous navy accents (their Quiet Storm) in two small nooks created by the roof line. It was 100% better even though there was nothing I could do about the stained carpet and ugly vertical blinds and horrible cardboard tile ceiling and all of the other things I have already listed as being awful about our upstairs in my previous renovation post. At least it was light and airy feeling. Obviously now that we have gutted the upstairs to the studs it is slated for some serious upgrades in style and charm, but that’s a post for another time.

How do you like to choose your paint colors? Do you have a favorite? Do you have a color dilemma on your hands? Comment below and tell me all about it!