Picking Paint Colors

One of the hardest things to do in home design is to pick the right paint color.  I have been really tired of my dining room paint color for a while.  It's a really pretty sage green, but it's dated now.  I am embarrassed to say that I painted it that color 8 years ago.  It's time for a change.  Green is still my favorite color, but I am ready to try something new.

The Before - the green needs to go.

Slowly be surely my house is becoming grey.  It is just my favorite neutral and you can find it everywhere in design and interiors now.  When we put an addition onto our house and remodeled 3 years ago, I painted my kitchen, laundry room, bedroom and master bath all grey (Benjamin Moore Aura - Nightingale AF- 670).  Then when I decorated my son's room all star wars, I painted his room grey as well (Benjamin Moore - Smoke Embers AC - 28).  And now the girl's room is pink (Benjamin Moore - Elephant Pink 2087-70), but has lot's of grey accents.  Oh, and I got a new area rug for the living room, and it's grey as well.  So, needless to say, I want to paint my dining room a nice dark charcoal grey.

Paint chips taped to the wall, checking out the colors at different times of day.

When I pick a new paint color, I start by bringing home no less then 35 paint chips (no kidding). When you go to pick out a color, you are always surprised by how many shades there are of it. Then I bring them home and look at them in the light of the room the color will be in. This usually weeds out at least half the samples. Then I start taping them up on walls, and they look different again and you can throw away another half of them. Now, I'm usually down to 7 or 8 samples and I start comparing it with other colors in my house. I don't want there to be drastic color changes, so I try to pick colors that compliment each other.

Lots of light in this room.

I want to make sure the new color compliments other colors in my home.

I think I've found the perfect grey.  I'm a big fan of Benjamin Moore paints.  My dad swears by them. And their Aura line, may be on the expensive side, but it goes on beautifully and you only need one coat.  The color is called Cinder AF - 705.  I think it's a true grey, and it's darker then my kitchen.  I think dining rooms can be dramatic and have darker walls.  Plus you can see that this room gets a lot of light and all my built-ins are white.  I think it's really going to make the white built-ins and trim really pop.

This is probably the fastest I've ever painted a room.  When Olivia is asleep, I have been working like a mad women to tape and paint as fast as possible.  I'm really excited about the change.  I'll share pictures tomorrow.   I need to re-hang a few more pictures still.

Please share how you pick out paint colors for your home.  And what colors are you loving right now?