I’m pretty sure at this point my eyes are crossing. I am a natural at color selections. I was raised by a Union painter and I have been looking at color wheels literally my entire life but man — let me tell you picking the colors for the new house has been WORK.
I of course I wanted something with a coastal feeling, but not too too green, and definitely not blue. I’m not actually on the coast, just a few hours from it. I want the feel of nature in my our home, something light, airy, comfortable, but not outdated. You wouldn’t believe how hard a task it is to find just the right mix. I think I finally landed on it.
The hallways were easy. Revere pewter. My go-to greige. Not beige and not gray, except when they are. Love it. I love the lightness of Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams — that’s the lighter square above, but then Frank throws a wrench in by wanting a warmer, deeper, darker color in his den. And if I’m going to do that there, I should probably pick some other rooms as well so his den doesn’t stand out alone. All day I tried different colors…and I thought I had it with SW Silvermist, but as the sun set I liked it less and less. And then simple math occurred to me. Comfort gray is a color I really love. It is literally on the same paint sample strip as Sea Salt, just a step above. And I love the tonality of it. All I need to do is darken it about 25% for Frank’s tastes and voila — we have our palette. I will leave comfort gray alone (not darken it) for all the bedrooms and the fitness room, and I’ll darken it a smidge for Frank’s taste. His den is far enough from the other locations that I’ll be adding it to that no one will ever know. Happiness. Sea Salt will be for the family room, dining room and all bathrooms. It’s all coming together.
We’ve also purchased our pendant lights for the kitchen. The builder didn’t offer anything I was in love with so I simply asked them to cap the outlets and started my search. My tastes tend to run Restoration Hardware, and I thought I had fallen in love with a set there, but then I stumbled upon this beauty…
Found this at Lamps Plus, on sale, $100 less than anything I found at RH. Nice. They should arrive on Friday. It makes me happy looking at it here.
And then the throw rugs. This was a tough one. I wanted something that introduced muted yellows blues and greens. Not sure if I hit the mark so I only bought the rug for the casual dining area to test it.
I think it will work with the colors above, but it’s difficult to tell from a picture.
Three more weeks until close. I feel ready to tackle the adventure that is a new home. As many decisions as there are to make, I can only imagine how much more difficult it is when you build custom from start to finish. I just can’t imagine the pressure of making every intricate decision along the way. This project is plenty for my brain. I just keep chanting…”one room at a time…one room at a time…”
I made a great connection out here in our family photographer, Alisha. We’re meeting for lunch on Friday and we’re going to chat about partnering for accountability in working out. It will be nice to have someone who pushes me and I can push and then on the backside someone to celebrate with when we reach our goals! I’m excited. She lives about 10 minutes from the new house. I’m also going to drag her to the new house to help me with the decisions I listed above. Especially for the paint. I so don’t want to order 40+ gallons to find out it wasn’t quite “it”. I’m looking forward to meeting up with her.
Shrinking Shay 