color
Blue is by far my favorite color.
It soothes.
It uplifts.
The latest Pantone color for 2020 is blue. A block of blue. I never knew anything about Pantone until my daughter graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in Graphic Design and her graduating class all had a Pantone color block on the top of their graduation caps. It was then and there that I learned about Pantone. Now the Pantone world has entered my vernacular and it pops-up as I pick out a paint color for our project house.
I thought we might paint our restoration house a shade of blue, but we decided to go with a historic yellow. It certainly has been a challenge to find the right shade, one that wasn't too bright or too mustardy. I think it’s near-just-right, although some family members disagree.
Exterior Color Palate
- Siding: Concord Ivory by Benjamin Moore
- Trim: White by Benjamin Moore- ben line
- Front Door, Front Porch and steps: Black Horizon by Benjamin Moore
- Railing and posts: White by Benjamin Moore- ben line
- Foundation: Chelsea Gray or maybe Kendall Charcoal by Benjamin Moore.
I never knew how hard it was to pick out paint colors. I’ve certainly done it in the past, but for some reason, it’s been more of a struggle this time around. Maybe it’s because we’re renovating this house for someone else. A stranger has to like it, not just us. We can live with our choices, and even grow to love a chosen color, but for some reason, I feel pressure to get it right. It has been trial and error. It’s nothing like the HGTV shows when Johanna or Erin puts together a palate of colors that magically works. One thing I have learned from reading and first-hand experience, color is influenced by light.
Light exposes, literally and metaphorically- but I won’t go there today. Here are a few take-aways about color and light.
1) You can and probably should pick a darker color for your exterior paint. There is so much more light outside, even on a cloudy day, so you can easily go darker than you think. Colors that I liked on interior walls were wishy-washy and lost on an exterior wall. Some colors I liked in the back of the house but hated in the front. It truly is a challenge.
2) Natural light is a huge influencer on color. That’s pretty obvious, but if natural light is absent, choosing a light color may not be the answer. Light colors in a dark room create shadows. It may be the perfect opportunity to take a chance and go a little bolder in a dark room. If there is plenty of natural light, colors tend to look lighter or brighter. For instance, in my home, we started using Cloud White by Benjamin Moore for interior trim. Our 80-year-old house has a variety of whites throughout, so we decided moving forward, we would come up with one trim color that would work in our older house. Now Cloud White is a warm white and can look a bit yellow on a cloudy day. However, on a bright sunny day, it is all the white I want on my trim. I am not a fan of super-white trim, especially in an older home. However, in our restoration house, I may switch to a whiter trim since this house doesn’t have the best lighting. The lighting in the downstairs versus the upstairs is night and day.
3) Buy pint-size samples. It’s better to waste $8.00 and get it right than live with a color that you don’t like because you just spent almost $40.00 on a gallon of paint. I only wish they sold smaller quantities and cheaper samples than I’d be less stressed and buy more samples to broaden my options.
4) Read blogs. I’ve invested hours of my time looking for answers and inspiration. I want someone to tell me what the perfect color scheme is for the restoration house. In some ways, it’s a blank slate, so it should be easy, but it is anything but easy. I’m not sure how the floors will turn out once we sand them, that is the ones that are salvageable. I’d like to be somewhat period-appropriate, but wondering if that is necessary? Of course, there hasn’t been one blog that works for every aspect of paint and color, but they have all taught me something.
Here are a few of my favorites.
I’ve learned so much from reading various blogs, not only about paint but about blogging. I certainly don’t have the skill-set of these bloggers, but I do find them inspirational, in the sense of learning what is appealing and works for content and design.
