Would love to see pics from your space! I’m really not sure why boring white ceiling paint seems standard… I guess it is a cost decision? Looks so much more cohesive to have it all one colour though!

I’m thinking of doing something more fun in the powder room, mudroom, study, upstairs bedrooms/bathrooms. I looove deep greens in the olive direction, like Pewter Green or Palm Leaf (SW). Also love colours like marigold or turmeric, ochre, deep plum/burgundy… drool.

Which black did you use on your doors? Pics if you can!

Also, I was wondering about doing satin trim as well. It is less durable than semi-gloss, have you found that to be an issue? Semi-gloss just seems so… glossy. How do you find it?

I guess I’ll see how the white of the pot light trim and the fan white looks against these off-white paints.

In tract homes the builder sometimes only lets the homeowner choose between a couple colors (usually whites or off whites) which is why a lot of new homes are painted white. The upside to that is that it can be easier to choose when there are only a couple of options. When you have the whole palette of colors to choose from it's hard to decide if you don't love white. I suggest you use a color consultant. Someone should see the house in person and know what furniture you're going to be bringing in order to make the best suggestions.

If you have a SW company store nearby you are likely to find one there, or if the builder is agreeable to sharing the name of the painting subcontractor, some of them have color consultants also. They're not really interested in painting rooms twice because you change your mind anymore than you are. They want to move on to their next job in a timely fashion.

It's always important to sample. Get to know Samplize.com. If the process becomes too overwhelming (so many decisions to make when you build a house), it probably isn't a bad idea to just paint everything Alabaster or Pure White and then have some rooms repainted different colors after you live there a while and have time to really think about what you want. It will add cost, but you can do it over time.

Where to start @2rickies… definitely agree with your choice for a nice neutral white-ish colour in your great room and hallway(s) as your main base paint. I should have posted colours I’m thinking but it’s soo early, I haven’t looked into it much yet.

I’ve used SW in the past but BM seems great too so I would do either one. I forget if you were the one on here also interested in non-toxic stuff for your build? I’m in Canada and I don’t see the BM Eco Spec paint on the site anymore so I’m not sure if it was discontinued. I don’t know if they have another zero VOC option but I’ll have to find out. I like the Emerald paint from SW because it’s zero VOC and Greenguard Gold certified.

So on your walls, something like Oxford White - are you thinking to do the same colour for your baseboards or something else?

I feel like you have 2 approaches for the rooms with colourful millwork - do the walls and millwork all one colour (this is what I’m leaning toward myself) or do the coloured millwork and keep the walls the same standard white you’re choosing for the other areas. It would save $ to have less paints, I assume the one they put on millwork is different than the walls so using one white throughout the house would be easy.

Your colour choices are so fun! Do you have a lot of colourful decor? I feel like those vibrant colours would be great with colourful textiles if you have a more playful style. I definitely lean toward much more muted versions of most colours for paint, just to play it safe. Depends on the lighting and room direction but I find in bright spaces colours can be way too saturated. Muted greens and blues are practically neutrals as far as I’m concerned 😂

Old blue jeans and denim wash are so similar - if that’s what you’re thinking, just do the same colour and make it easier!

For your bedroom, I would go for something more muted for sure if you’re doing a colour. Or dark! Our bedroom is at the southeast corner so super sunny morning light paradise, no idea what I will do yet.

Not sure what your stair design is… but would you consider going much darker? Dark nearly blacks look nice in natural light, also neutral! Looks really modern and crisp behind wall art. Could pull a warm black tone from your stonework, also your black window frames.

I’m leaning toward painting our door slabs black now 🙃 basically it seems really annoying to figure out the door colours if they are white-ish because some rooms will be painted dark, like I’m thinking walls and ceiling and millwork all moss green in the mudroom so I wouldn’t want a random white door in there. Black doors look modern against light walls, and I think they look better with dark colours too. Gahhhh luckily I have lots of time for paint still.

I am thinking to try the samplize sheets so I can order like 30 (lol) and then if I narrow it down to maybe a couple for each space I can buy the actual paint samples for just those. The samplize sheets do seem expensive and kind of useless but I don’t want to be messing around testing infinite paint samples on the walls and somehow washing brushes between.

For me, main areas are easier - one light colour on everything. But then do I carry that colour as the baseboards in rooms with dark colourful walls? I love matching trim but it seems truly so annoying to have to paint the trim if I eventually want to change it. Like in the study I was thinking of some kind of jewel tone - a deep green, amber, burgundy, and walnut wood desk and storage unit. Seems weird to have white or white-ish baseboards in a room with this much drama! And there are so many rooms like that, so at that point I’m basically doing like 5 different trim colours in the house to match 5 different wall colours. And in the rooms with colourful walls, ceiling has to match so then I need matte ceiling paint. This will be interesting.

With our new build (custom transitional), I used SW Aesthetic White on all the walls/ceiling/trim in different sheens. It's a "soft" white that is a great neutral base for everything else and despite SW's description of it, I have never seen a purple undertone (thank goodness). Our interior doors are matte black (SW Tricorn Black, I think) and the handles are also black. It matches the black window trim. Floor is light-medium wide plank. You can bring in all the color with furniture and accessories.

I worked with a designer (not affiliated with the GC). She came to the house to see the lighting. We have a wall of windows in the great room that face the west. We choose SW Drift of Mist for the walls and ceiling. It has a slight green undertone. SW Accessible beige for the trim and doors. I have SW Pewter (green) on an accent wall in the GR and our BR. The trim is being painted now. I am happy with how it’s turning out. The only exception is my office where the trim will be SW Charcoal Blue to accent a wallpaper mural on one wall. Our floors are medium brown birch hardwood. Kitchen cabinets are white except the island which is stained dark, along with the wine bar cabinets and fireplace shelves. I definitely felt more confident about my color choices after working with the designer.

I have seen several high end interior decorators say to paint the walls ceiling and trim all the same color but different sheens which I also plan on doing. I would love to know what you end up going with as I am also trying to decide my main area color along with the kitchen cabinet color as well. We sound like we want basically the same thing so do please share what you decide to on! You may help me decide as well.

Yeah I feel like doing the ceiling is the way to go! I went to SW today and got some of their peel and stick paint swatches for some of my faves (alabaster, shoji white, pearly white) there were a couple more I wanted but they didn’t have them so I’d have to get samplize stickers or actual samples. Heron plume was the other one I liked.

Here is a photo showing some of the options I like - this is in front of a window, it’s a gloomy overcast evening here. I can post more photos in sunlight.

For the wall/trim/ceilings I love shoji and pearly! But I wonder if they are too dark to carry as the trim and/or ceiling colour in other rooms with different wall colours! It might look kind of dirty! Or with dark colours maybe it looks fine because it’s like whitest colour.

For kitchen cabs I’m thinking the island stained oak but the perimeter and pantry area maybe just a light neutral like taupe? Kind of boring but the kitchen will be super sunny and beautiful, plus being so open concept it might be too much doing a colour.

I do like the Shoji as well and I think it would work on the ceilings and trim in all spaces because it is lighter, but you would need to try it in the different areas. Boring can equal timeless so I would not worry about that so much. You can bring color with your decorations. Keep us posted on what you decide!

@izzieo, I like that shoji white, too! And if by taupe you mean the taupe that's pictured for the painted cabs, it looks like it works nicely with the oak--but it is so hard to tell exactly from a photo! I would say that if you're using white or very light colors, i'd paint the ceilng, walls and trim the same. And/or if you have high ceilings. I don't think your selections are boring! I think the quality of the paint can provide depth even with neutral colors.

For me, I think in the rooms that are a color (as opposed to white), I'm keeping the ceilings white. If the ceiling gets too dark I always feel kind of claustrophobic, but that's me! After being on site today, I've decided to keep the trim the same throughout the house, so it will all be oxford white but in semigloss (the walls will be matte).

It's hard to tell what colors really look like anywhere but in the actual room and actual lighting! I knew this but got a real lesson today in the fact that my current house's light is nothing like the house-in-progress. I tried to edit my post but deleted by accident! oops... I was going to add that when I went there with all my paint sample boards today, almost all the colors looked wrong in the space. Many of the blues read too purple, and many of the colors I picked were too dark. The one I was looking at for my office cabs looked too "crayola"--it needs more gray in it or something. And even though I actually really like November Rain, it read as more yellow than I wanted in my office.

What I did choose, though-- BM Silver half dollar actually looks great in the stairwell. I'm still set on Oxford White for the halls and the great room and trim. I chose a different green for one of the bedrooms, BM Spring Valley, it's light and warm, and I really like it. I might also use it in the laundry room, because I want something soft but cheerful in there. (My laundry room is also my dog grooming room, so I spend significant time in there!)

Will be back at the paint store tomorrow, I'm afraid. Now I'm thinking that I might want to do something totally different in my office, like light melon on the walls and dark gray built-ins. At least BM has half-price samples right now!

I can’t remember who originally recommended Maria Killam on the building a new home thread, but I’ll post the link here. https://mariakillam.com/ I ordered the color wheel and the e-book bundle and I feel like it’s been very helpful looking at undertones when considering color choices. We will likely be going with an off-white throughout our house and I was concerned that the painted cabinets and tile playing nice. We are still far from needing to choose paint colors, but are in the thick of choosing cabinets and tile.

@TDinNC feel free to share what you decide to choose as well, especially cabinet colors as I am in the middle of those choices and love hearing what others are enjoying.

Thank you!

Cabinetry is a struggle! I was originally wanting a green kitchen but we had a first meeting at the cabinetry place and I thought doing a basic beige on perimeter cabs with an oak island would be safest… turns out beige is really difficult colour to coordinate with countertops! My favourite one is the ‘Matterhorn’ quartz below. But it makes beige look super yellow beside so it would have to be with more grey/white cabs or wood.

At this point I might go back to the colourful kitchen… green perimeter cabs with a wood island. What are you guys thinking?

2rickies yes personally I would look for very muted versions of the colours you shared. When it’s in a space the lighting and sunshine makes even muted colours look more vibrant. My biggest past paint regret was choosing overly saturated colours because they look too much in the space. Whereas muted shades look far more natural and timeless. But it’s personal opinion!

@izzieo, I see what you mean about the cabinets looking yellow next to the Matterhorn quartz. You could go in the direction of a light taupe or soft white instead if you are hesitant about the green.

We are thinking of more neutrals for colors and plan on decorating with color instead. I need to do a post of our space along with the vibe I am going for to see if I can get some suggestions as well. I AM NOT a designer and we are owner builders so these decisions STRESS me out! That is why I love to see what everyone else is choosing.

Flooring will be white oak, a medium wheat tone shown below. It does have the slightest green undertone in person with the sample, I think it looks very good in natural lighting.

"White Oak" is a common color name and IMO it belongs to the Green-Yellow hue family. Which is ideal. Because whites, off-white, light near neutrals, neutrals from the GY hue family are often perceived as having no hue bias, looking the most neutral despite the fact that they do indeed hold some color. What you'll find is that is somehow magically blends and works with almost everything you through at it.

My favourite one is the ‘Matterhorn’ quartz below. But it makes beige look super yellow beside so it would have to be with more grey/white cabs or wood.

Comparing side-by-side laying flat could emphasize that yellowness. It could look less yellow in a vertical position to the counter top - just like it will be installed - which of course matters. Side-by-side laying flat isn't conveying that matters.

Thanks! It occurs to me now that the cabinetry place didn’t have much selection as far as painted cabinet samples, but they can do any custom colour. So I was all bothered by how yellow this beige was, but I have no commitment to that one in particular, and there are about a million shades of beige so I think if I want to go that direction it is still an option.

Good point about comparing side by side laying flat! I looked at inspiration images and realized plenty of gorgeous kitchens use beige cabinetry with greyish/whiteish countertops and although they are different tones they still look good.