CHOOSING THE RIGHT PAINT COLOR

When decorating, choosing the right paint color can be difficult.  In my last post I told you that I've been struggling with the correct paint color for the kitchen and my office. I can envision in my mind what I want, but I've been struggling to find that perfect paint.  Paint sets the mood for a room, and it's important to remember the other colors in the room.  Tip: think of upholstered items, counter tops and fabrics in curtains and drapes as the "artist's palette" from which to select potential colors for your walls.

Keeping that in mind, I've found it very difficult in our kitchen because I don't want the color to conflict with the counter.  The counter has dark green, light green, taupe, and a little black in it.

While the vinyl floor covering has shades of green and
taupe in it.

I brought home many paint chips to look at.  My first thought was to pick a paint color that had some shade of green in it.

I highly recommend buying paint samples and paint them on the wall.  View the samples in different light, bright sunshine, overcast daylight and night using the lighting from the room.

My plans for the kitchen is to paint one accent wall (the wall with a new sliding glass door and kitchen cabinets) and have the rest of the room a neutral color.  

My first sample was Rhino (top left) and Dolphin Fin (bottom left) from Behr.  On the paint chip the Rhino had a grayish cast to it and the Dolphin Fin looked like a greige ( mixture of gray and beige).

This seemed like good color combination, but there was problem with the lighting in the room.  Both looked too blue!  In fact, the Dolphin Fin looked baby blue....not the look I'm going for.  The next test was  Portland (Valspar) top center, and Hearth Rug mixed at Menards.  The Portland was too gray and the Hearth Rug too yellow.  I next put up a sample of Seascape (Valspar - left over from the master bedroom.).  I even tried mixing some left over paints (bottom right photos), but color was too blue-gray.  Moving on to the bottom right side of the far right photo, I gave a darker green a try - Smooth Slate (Menards Pittsburgh Paint).  It reminded me to much of the green from the 1970's - I hated it!

After debating over this for several days and talking it over with my husband, he gave the suggestion to forget about the green in the flooring and counters and try more the beige and maybe a brown.  We also decided to not put the accent wall next to the counters and sliding doors but rather on the wall next to it.   This way the accent color is not right next to the counters.  I liked his suggestion, and moved on looking for brown paint and a neutral paint.  I like gray but that didn't work in the room so decided to find a greige paint (a combination of a gray and beige).  It's a more subdued color with a combination of both warm and cool tones.  It has both gray and brown in it making it the perfect color to go with the brown. One thing about paint is that if you hate the color you can always paint a new color over it.

After much agonizing for days over paint colors, we finally came to a decision and could start the painting process. 

Bye...bye stencil and green walls.  Hello primer!

It's going to take several days to paint this area because the kitchen runs into the back entry as well as the hallway.  I'm anxious to see how the room will come together once the painting is finished.