The way many of our projects come about are by Kyle saying something like “I have an idea”. That leads to him proposing an idea that I am totally not interested in because it is totally not necessary and we don’t have time. But somehow he always convinces me it’s a good idea! So when he proposed we paint some of the walls in our house a bold color, I was completely opposed. I love things that are white and simple and am not one for loud colors. A bright colored wall? No thanks. With our light colored floors, white oak kitchen, white and light grey walls, I was not about to throw a bold color into the mix to interrupt the simplicity. Grey was bold enough for me!
Kyle proposed painting the walls continuously from the dining room all the way down the hallway ending in the back of the house at the master bedroom. This would include a continuous wall from the front to the back of the house. I agreed to consider painting just the dining room wall first before committing to all that color. We agreed to paint the baseboard trim the same color as the wall. So we agreed on that at least.
the blue green wall?
My favorite color (besides white and black of course) is green because it signifies nature and is calming. It is also is a common mid-century color choice. Kyle’s color of choice was a dark blue. We looked at various muted navy blues and we liked them, but if he was going to win this battle of painting the walls to begin with, of course I had to win on the color. After almost an hour in Sherwin Williams, we each picked a few sample colors to try out. I was between yellow and green but was leaning towards green, and Kyle stuck with the blues.
test patches. to tape or not to tape?
Naturally, we taped off a nice rectangle for each color sample on the dining room wall and hallway, applied 2 coats of each color within each perfectly taped rectangle, waited for them to dry, peeled off the paint and immediately realized that was a bad idea. The edge of the tape left a ridge which we later had to sand down so it wouldn’t show through on the finished product. At the right angle with the right lighting you can still kind of see the tape lines even after we painted 2 coats! Lesson learned, don’t use tape for test patches. Just paint it on and taper out the edges so it doesn’t leave a harsh line.
From top to bottom, left to right the colors are (Sherwin Williams):
- crispy gold
- verdant
- rural green
- moscow midnight
- indigo batik
- auric
more samples
After testing the initial 6 colors, we still could not decide. Back to Sherwin Williams, and without tape this time we applied 2 more blues and 1 more green.
We added:
- tupelo tree (top left)
- rainstorm (top middle)
- salty dog (top right)
After getting opinions from family and friends, blue was the overwhelming favorite. But i just couldn’t let go of the green. I thought blue would be too dark, especially in the hallway where there isn’t much natural light. So….using my negotiation skills I finally got through to Kyle and we agreed on rural green (bottom left)! Success. We applied 2 coats of rural green in one (long) winter day.
(almost) final product
We did end up extending the color down the hallway and into the 2 spare bedrooms on the walls that are adjacent to the hallway. This creates a block of color on both sides of the interior wall that extends through the center of the house. We are in the process of painting the interior doors to match, but that is another story. Read more about our door project in this post. The doors on the green side of the hallway (garage door, basement door, and 2 bedrooms) will be green and the doors on the white side of the hallway (2 bathrooms and master bedroom) will be white. Well at least it looks finished from the dining room for now! Painting the doors will really complete the look with color floor to ceiling.
I was pleasantly surprised with the end result; especially for someone who prefers white walls. Always. Because our decor is minimal and simple, the color provides a nice warm feeling. I can’t say it’s better than all white walls, but it has grown on me.
mid-century millennials 