As most of you have probably noticed by now, I love color! I’m not afraid to use it in my wardrobe, and I’m certainly not afraid to use it in my house. It seems I’m an anomaly as I find that when I talk to people about painting a room, they are often afraid to choose a saturated color. I understand why they don’t want a dark room, but I think that there are often misconceptions that deep hues make dark rooms when in fact many of them really brighten up a space. The result is that a lot of people end up choosing paint colors that are in the right hue range, but not the right saturation and end up with a washed out version of the color that they really want.
My latest color selection for our new kitchen (I promise the final pictures will be up soon!) has been garnering much debate. It’s Benjamin Moore’s fresh cut grass, and it’s essentially lime green (although some are calling it yellow which I beg to differ with). I love it, but the first thing my mother said (as only a mother can) was “Well, I don’t love the color.” Others are in love with it, and the bottom line is that it doesn’t matter whether other people like it or not because we’re the ones that have to live with it so as long as we do, it’s great. But I’ll tell you the reason why it works anyway. I chose a bright color partially because I was trying to match the lime green chairs that I bought and partially because my husband was worried that the room wasn’t going to have enough color (boy, did I show him), but also because there isn’t really that much wall space. We have 23 feet of windows in the kitchen as well as two single doorways and a double doorway. Add that to the backsplash, cabinets, fridge, furniture, etc., and there’s not really that much wall space at all so the bright color is well balanced.
So I thought I’d also share the rest of my paint selections with you too, starting with my downstairs colors:
I definitely have an affinity for blues as you can see. Ocean Air is the lightest color in the house (other than the white), and I chose it because we have an eight foot slider to our deck in our living room and I wanted the walls to blend with the vast skyline out the door. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of this color.
In the dining room, I wanted a really deep color that was cozy and promoted long nights around the dining table with friends and family, but I didn’t want to go with a red which is commonly seen in dining rooms so I opted for my favorite dark color, a deep navy that has some brightness to it, and offset it with the linen white below the chair rail.
And for the powder room, I matched the blue to the blue that’s found in nautical charts as I planned to use them in the space as well.
Now secretly, I really love the idea of an all white house, but because that dream can’t even enter the realm of possibilities for at least 14 more years when our children are out of the house, I’m sticking to one all white hallway and lots of bright colors.
So the next time you go to pick a paint color, don’t be afraid to go bold. Chances are you’ll be happier with it than you think.
