It’s official. Picking out interior paint for the majority of my house is my least favorite thing to do. Yep, without a doubt.
So this week we are getting our entire house painted (well, pretty much the whole thing). Since we have an open concept and one room flows into the next, we are painting our foyer, hallway, family room, breakfast room, kitchen, stairwell, and upstairs hallway.
I usually do all of the painting myself, but since our stairwell is about 12ft high in some areas I decided to let some professional tackle the job. Plus since I work a full time job outside of this blog and my free time is absolutely non-existent this Fall, I had no problem delegating.
So I started my paint color search my choosing 4 different neutral families: gray tones, browns, a hint of orange, and a hint of red. Then I picked the middle shade on each paint color card to test on my walls at home.
I loved Perfect Griege and Latte, but these two colors seemed a little too dark for my home. So then of course I ended back up at the paint store getting more test pots.
And soon I had 8 different test colors on my wall.
Oh, and I still couldn’t decide.
So I painted the same 8 colors in my foyer.
Different light, same problem. I just couldn’t decide.
I was able to narrow it down to 5 colors, then painted little swatches near my kitchen cabinets. I looked at these colors for about a week straight, during the day and at night. Then I was able to narrow it down to two colors…
The third and fourth colors from above:
Nomadic Desert and Kilim Beige.
We get our house painted on Thursday and Friday of this week so I need to tell our painter by Wednesday so he can buy the paint. OH SO NERVOUS! In the last two homes I’ve picked a paint color that I wasn’t in love with.
Give me a bedroom or any small room to paint and I have no problem picking out a color and never second guessing my decision. Give me an entire house to paint and watch me curl up in the fetal position in the corner for 3 weeks.
So does anyone else have paint picking phobia
or is it just me?
krista says
I really like the Perfect Greige as well….. did you like the color 1 lighter of it?
Of your 2 final choices, I’d go with Kilim Beige.
(and I do understand the anxiety/fear of paint picking in areas that don’t have good ending points!)
Good Luck on the choice 🙂
howtonestforless says
My mom has Perfect Griege in her living room and I love it in there, but my house doesn’t have enough natural light. Bummer. And the one shade lighter seemed to have a purple tint to it. Boo.
Heather says
I’ve just figured out that you have to click on the post title to be able to comment! I have been confused about that for awhile now. Anyway…
I have Kilim Beige all over my house and it seems like a decent color. It reads very light. When I say it’s “all over” my house, though, I really mean it. The previous owners practically baptized this house in it, doing every wall AND ceiling in the place. Ack- too much! I think I will like it better when I can get some white ceillings going here.
howtonestforless says
Whoa, that is ALL OVER your house! You’re right, hopefully painting the ceilings will help break up the color. I like the one tone look when they paint the baseboards and crown moldings in a small room, but doing that in a larger space or adding in the ceiling is overkill. Big time.
And someone else said yesterday they couldn’t figure out the comment thing. UGH. I need to figure out how to fix that so you can comment from the main page.
Jacquelyn says
Both colors are quite nice. Have you thought about using the lighter of the two shades (Kilim Beige) for most of the walls and the darker shade (Nomadic Desert) for an accent wall? Just a thought. I am sure any choice you make will look absolutely lovely.
howtonestforless says
I did think about that actually. The fireplace wall in the family room would have been the best spot, but now we’re thinking about adding built ins there so it would be mostly covered. And thank you 🙂 Our painter needs the color tomorrow morning and I’m still trying to decide!
april says
I have had SW kilm beige and loved the color. I just picked paint colors for my open floor plan and almost went with Kilm Beige, but went with SW Steamed Milk, and I think I wish I’d gone with Kilm Beige!! We will see – haven’t moved in yet so I’m hoping with furniture I will like it better! .
howtonestforless says
Ooh, I do love that Steamed Milk color too!
Kim says
I’ll be there soon with our new build – and I also have one big open space. I’m likely going with White Diamond again since it’s what I just painted our main floor at my current house last fall. It reads pretty white but then looks a bit blue or grey against the bright white trim. I *may* try to find a color that is ever so slightly more saturated but shoot, the white diamond color took me 9 months to decide on last time! It’s not a big deal when it’s a small room, but those 9 ft ceilings and vaulted entries and all the corners, etc, in an open concept make it overwhelming to think of doing on my own!
I’ve seen Kilim beige around for a long time, so I bet you can’t go wrong with that. Good luck!
howtonestforless says
HA, 9 months to pick a color… that sounds like me! Good luck with your new house, too 🙂
Jenny says
That is so hard! I always go to the lighter color, since it can look really dark once up on the walls. Good luck!!
howtonestforless says
IT IS HARD!! Ben just told me to figure out this color thing with my readers because it’s too stressful for him, hah! Well that and I just added a 9th color to our list with Revere Pewter 😉
Cindy says
I am looking at nomadic beige for the exterior if my house with kilim beige or the milk for trim. We hav e a brown tile roof. Do these colors sound like a good choice?
Mary says
What did you end up picking? 🙂