Comments on: Painting plans

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 18:30:35 +0000

There are some great tips here! The other thought that I had was to be open to inspiration from everywhere. For our living room, I had a hard time choosing a paint color. One day while reading a book I realized I loved the color combination on the cover, a light teal green-blue with cream and red accents. (It’s this book, if you’re interested: http://www.amazon.com/Homemade-Life-Stories-Recipes-Kitchen/dp/1416551050/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1330194311&sr=8-4). I took the book to Lowe’s and they were great about finding the elusive light teal green-blue. Our trim is cream, and our accents are brown and red. So if you find a color that you love somewhere besides a paint swatch, don’t be afraid to bring it in!

We don’t exactly have an open floor plan, but you can see into most of the other rooms in the downstairs. We’ve decided to use the same cream color of paint for the trim in all these rooms, even if the main colors are different. Also, I am using the one of the accent colors from the living room as the main color in the kitchen.

I wholeheartedly second the painter’s tape and good brushes comments also. Painter’s tape can be a pain to put up and take down, but it makes everything neater, and good brushes make the job much easier and makes your walls look better. Also, don’t put those paint cans too far out of reach once you’ve finished–I noticed lots of little areas that needed touching up the day after I stowed them away.

By: Belinda

Belinda — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:32:06 +0000

My favorite go to color for family spaces is Sherwin Williams Killim Beige. I gave found it goes with everything, not too green, yellow, pink etc. I recommend getting Home Depot to color match in Behr paint.

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:08:17 +0000

All of the other commenters had great tips. I would add to look at Young House Love ‘s blog. They have lots of great painting tips and ways they choose colors. They have a daughter a little older than Judah and are very conscious of safety and durability for little ones.

By: Brittany

Brittany — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:55:42 +0000

It’s funny that I ran across this today because I was just discussing painting with my boyfriend. We just moved into our new house on the 1st of the year and we have a guest bedroom and office that needs to be painted desperately! We did paint our den area already (it was first to be painted) and we taped off a square, primed it and painted it so we could look at it for a few days to make sure it wasn’t going to get annoying. It’s still the same color so I’d do a test area like that. GOOD LUCK :)

By: Amanda

Amanda — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:10:36 +0000

We actually repainted our entire house when we moved in. It was a chore, but completely worth it. My advice: Painter’s tape is your best friend, and don’t be tempted to cheap out on trim brushes.

As far as colors go, we painted our main living area with Olympic’s Simply Elegant (C53-1). It’s a really light blue color, and I love it. Very cheery. We painted our kitchen in Olympic Flax (A14-2), which is a nice buttery yellow color.

When you’re narrowing in on colors, I really recommend getting a little sample container, painting swatches on a couple of different walls and living with it for a couple of days. That way you can see how the color looks in different light throughout the day. Though we thought we were painting our bedroom grey, it actually looks lavender in the afternoon.

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:52:48 +0000

Do you have other items picked for the room? You should pick enerything, even if you don’t purchase it yet. You do not want to paint a room and then pick out the rugs, art, accessories to match the color of the paint. There are hundreds of paint colors and dozens of shades of what you want.

Please please pick out the paint color last. Once you pick your accessories, rugs, art the paint color will almost pick itself!

By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:20:43 +0000

Here’s a site with some good tips on choosing color & getting the painting started: http://mycolortopia.com/blog/nicole-balch. Nicole runs http://www.makingitlovely.com, which is a fabulous shelter blog.

Our living room is a very-very pale blue and our hallway is the color of a pale person (like me). Our bedroom is a very pale mint green. They work fabulously together. We got our colors at Menards, but I think the green was originally the formula for a Martha Stewart color called garden can or something like that.

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:19:34 +0000

In reply to Karen.

I did the same thing in my bathroom…bought a shower curtain I loved and brought the picture in and asked them to color-match the wall color in the picture…turned out perfect.

As far as paint, I swear by Sherwin Williams Duration Home Interior Matte finish. Fair warning – this paint isn’t cheap, but after using brands from Home Depot and Menards on my kitchen, bedrooms & bathrooms – I finally splurged on SW Matte for my Living/Dining rooms and it made a world of difference on the final finish. I love that it’s not too shiny & glossy, resists fingers smears and it cleans well.

If you decide to go with Sherwin Williams, hunt around the web for coupons….I know they have some in the Entertainment book if you or a family member/friend have one of those (or ask for them on craigslist – I’ve given plenty of my book’s coupons away for things I don’t use).

Here’s the current one for February 2012…I think they do one every month:
http://sherwinwilliamscoupons.co/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Sherwin-Williams-coupons-February-20121.pdf

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:19:31 +0000

In reply to Kristy. Awesome tip, Kristy. Thanks! I'm having such a hard time narrowing shades. Maybe this will give me a starting point.

By: Kristy

Kristy — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:14:39 +0000

Since your walls are such intense shades, a primer like Kilz brand might be a good idea. You can get some paints with primer in them, but I’ve found they need two coats anyway. The Kilz primer does the job and is cheaper than painting 2+ thick coats of paint.

Last summer I painted my bedroom. I have potterybarn-esque bedroom furniture and a pb duvet. I was researching paint ideas and how to pick the perfect color because I am a terrible decision maker. I came across this blog that suggested using colors that stores like Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware use in their catalogs. They do all the work, matching the colors with furniture finishes and fabrics. So I went to the closest Benjamin Moore, found the paint sample card, brought it to a hardware store, and had them match the color for me. My walls are affordably wedgewood gray and I feel like I’m walking into a PB catalog whenever I walk into my bedroom. Might not work for everyone, but it worked for me!

http://www.potterybarn.com/shop/accessories-decor/hardware/hardware-paint/?cm_src=productsearch
http://www.restorationhardware.com/catalog/category/products.jsp?categoryId=cat1017001
Hope this helps!