Progress by Painting

In a never-ending mission to continue updating and improving our old house, we decided to have the main level of the house painted last weekend.  I never thought choosing paint colors would be so incredibly hard!  Now, I generally feel like I have good taste, and I can definitely pick out what I like and don't like, but hand me a Benjamin Moore swatch book filled with hundreds of colors, and I go a little nuts!  I'm not the best at making decisions, and this one really threw me for a loop.  With the help of Wendy next door, two guys at the paint store, my sister, and a couple other friends, I finally narrowed down my choices and went with my gut. We were gone for the majority of the day while the guys were painting, but we did come back midway through the sun room and I almost made him redo it a different color.  However, decided to let him apply the second coat, live with it for a week, and then decide if I want to make a switch.  So far, I am really happy with our color choices.  I tend to always second guess myself, but I think when it's all completed, I will be really pleased.  The painter comes back later this week to finish the brick/mantel and built-in, and then I'll post pics of the finished project!

Here are our color choices, but please note that these are really not true to actual colors.  In fact, even after searching the exact names, I was surprised at how unlike the colors they really are.  Oh well!  They will just give you an idea.

Main Colors:

Soft Fern in the Sun Room

Chestertown Buff in the Living and Dining Rooms, up the stairs, and in the hallway.  Brad's parents used this color in their house, and we really like it.  Very warm!  It ranks as the 6th top Benjamin Moore seller for living room colors and the 14th top Benjamin Moore seller for dining rooms.

Olive Branch in the Kitchen.  This looks nothing like the actual color.  It is much more green.  We are going to do a backsplash of beige/tan ceramic tile with a terra cotta border around the middle.  I think it will look great with the green.  (Then you won't see all those pics of Leyton with exposed electrical outlets behind him!)

Accent Colors:

Clinton Brown for the fireplace mantel and tops of the built-in buffet.  It is much darker in real life.

Georgian Brick for the brick fireplace and bricks on the built-in in the dining room.  Much deeper and redder than you see here.

We will finish our painting project in a few months when we'll have all the wood trim repainted a nice, warm white.  Right now it is a very bright, blah white.  Since we removed carpets in all rooms of the house, we have to paint the trim anyway, so we've decided to warm it up a bit with a better white.  Still deciding on what that will be, but if anyone has any suggestions, I would love them!