I have no idea what my style is...

So, we're paying Mr Tommy to paint our walls. We were always going to do that ourselves, but after seeing the shape they were in after the demolition and rebuilding, it's really not a job for people who don't know how to use some serious plaster. The ceilings and all the trim have to be painted too, which just seems overwhelming...especially now that we successfully raised all the ceilings to soaring heights. Also, we can't take our time painting because the floor guys have to get in there soon, and I don't even want to think about how badly we would destroy the newly-polished floors while we repainted our ceilings. So that is my excuse for spending money on it. I just feel terrible about doing that, but at this point it's all coming out of our retirement anyway, so who cares...Sammy is going to owe me so big by that time that he'll just have to take care of us in our old age.


The problem is that I have only EVER painted our walls ONE color. All of these pictures show our present house painted with Benjamin Moore Sierra Hills. It's beige. So beige. A good beige, but I really thought I'd venture out a little in our real "family home".  But the thought of paying these guys big bucks to paint our living room/dining room/foyer/staircase some trendy color seems ridiculous.


I know I'm going to end up with something like this "Natural Wicker" by Glidden probably...at least in the living/dining/stairs area.


I used to want gray blue maybe. But in the Chicago winter, will I feel like I live in a little dark cloud?


Then there are greens. Maybe for the kitchen? I like the dark wood and the green for the kitchen maybe.

But sometimes, to get away from anything country-ish, I like the sorta old school New York apartment look (is that a look? Can I call it that at least for now?) of more neutrals...even sorta gray neutral rather than the warmer creamy neutral that I was thinking at first with the "Natural Wicker".

And the living room, instead of being more warm/rustic-y would be more gray and urban-y. Not decorated like this picture necessarily which is far to shiny and fancy for having a Sammy around, but the wall color is Edgecomb Gray by Benjamin Moore (it's a Pottery Barn color I think) so I thought it might be a nice color that could go several ways.



Either a little "New York-y" like this lady's house that I found on Apartment Therapy.....




...or it could be warmed up and made more like my typical wannabe Pottery Barn look.

HELP! I need to know this soon...like yesterday.

Comments

really.truly said…
We had our house mostly painted by a professional. We were painting in Dec. I must have lost my mind because we painted our dining area cranberry and the rest of the downstairs a cool green. It felt like the "christmas house" all year. When my husband went out of town, I painted the dining area "bread basket beige"...I feel so much better now. Colored walls are great, just be careful about the combinations. Add color somewhere :)HTH
Robin said…
I'm thinking you should stick with the neutral warmer tones-maybe less dark brown and more light yellowy. Although, I like greens too. I agree that you'll feel a little too Chicago cold & cloudy with the New Yorky grey look.
Anonymous said…
Edgecomb is hard to screw up, nothing looks bad with it and if you're sick of the yellowy beiges from few years ago its much more contemporary and crisp against white trim. (BM Cloud White or BM Mayonaise)

Its so neutral that it won't clash with anything, so you can go super bold with an accent wall or art.

The downside is that it doesn't really make anything 'pop' either. Edgecomb on its own can read boring and a little cold.

Spring for the test pots. I spent over $100 on test pots when painting our house, but when you're spending way more on that for paint and painters its worth it. Some of my favorite colors in the store or on a chip looked dreadful in the light of our house.

A fantastic bedroom color is Montgomery White, also from BM - its actually more like a warm light yellow, but is very cheerful and sunny.

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