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joan_cameron51

Need help picking paint colors

10 months ago

Bought home with walls painted in grey tones, kitchen has white cabinets, black granite
counter tops and black tile backsplash. Flooring is dark walnut. What would you suggest.
Also have a black beam.

Comments (6)

  • 10 months ago

    Colors for what? Also please post pictures.

  • 10 months ago

    Walls. House is painted three different shades of grey. Too dark for my liking.

  • PRO
    10 months ago

    It's too dark because there is no real lighting in the rooms. Address the lighting, so you can actually SEE things. Then it will look better by adding art and COLOR, with the extra lighting.

  • 10 months ago
    last modified: 10 months ago

    Minardi is correct, you have very poor lighting in there. Paint wont make it so it looks lighter, only lighting will do that. Improve your lighting, and you just might like the paint you already have. When you do lighting, pick daylight type bulbs, in at least led 3500k, and in the kitchen, 4000k, also daylight type bulbs.

  • 10 months ago

    Sorry I am late to the party, but it is not just lighting. Your flooring is dark, your walls are dark and your furniture is dark. The black and gray are also not very hopeful or uplifting.


    I have a very specific roadmap that I follow to select a whole home color palette.

    Step one - decide what must stay (don't want to change, can't afford to change). In your case it may be the flooring, furniture and kitchen cabinets , countertops, art in the entry. You have to tell us what must stay. If you only want to work with updating wall colors and don't want to paint trim it is fine, we just need to keep the black trim in mind while working through the process.


    Step two - determine your signature colors - those colors that draw you to them and make you buy things. Colors that make your heart sing. Walking through a home I will often notice that someone has the same 2 or 3 colors represented over and over in decorative items they have purchased and in their closets. For me it is purple and teal and wine reds. My sister is fall colors, greens and golds and orange reds. My sister in law has tons of cornflower blues and peach and cream.



    Step 3 - Determine the neutral color family that will work with what must stay and the colors that you love. In most cases the walls will act as a backdrop for our art and furnishings, not the main focus. There are some exceptions, like some Victorian homes, where the wall coverings can be the focus.


    Neutral color families include:

    Pink beige, orange beige, yellow beige, green beige, greige (green gray beige), green gray, blue gray, violet gray and taupe (purple/pink gray beige).


    My colors look best with taupe and violet gray. My sister's look best with green undertones (green grays, greige and green beige and can work with yellow beige.


    My sister in law's colors work with the neutrals from yellow beige through blue gray - no orange, pink or purple undertones.


    Step 4 - Decide how to use the colors that you love and neutrals throughout the home.

    General rule of thumb is to use the neutral through the main public areas of the house - Entry, living room, family room, hallways. Add colors or use continue with the neutral in the bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry room . . . You have to figure out where there are architectural breaks that make color change possible. For each room you want to think about how the colors are going to flow from room to room to make the whole home feel harmonious.


    2 examples:

    The accent colors in the main living area are used in the bedrooms and bathrooms to tie everything together.


    The dining room has both the greens from the living room and the purples from the bedroom.



    For my own home I started with the entry and painted the walls my chosen neutral. The flooring is a purple, red and green slate and there is a pink brick wall. I painted the off white light a teal green that goes with the flooring and painted the guest bedroom a slightly darker version of the same teal green.




    My home is a work in progress - renovating one room at a time, but here is my overall plan.



    Step 5 - once you know how you want the colors to flow it is time to pick the actual wall colors. Pick the neutral that works best with your flooring, colors that must stay.


    For me it was the slate floor and the pink brick wall that drove the neutral color selection. The pink brick needed a heavy dose of pink in the neutral to not make the walls look dingy.


    For you the drivers will be the flooring and the brown furniture and the kitchen cabinets. Whites have undertones and they can suddenly look yellow or green or blue if placed next to a neutral with contrasting undertones. For your home I would go with light or mid toned neutrals. Too light and it will contrast too much the black trim.


    here are some links to the most popular BM and SW colors. It is a good place to start when you don't have a clue what you want.


    https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/color-overview/color-palettes/most-popular-colors


    https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/color/color-collections/top-50-colors


    Start by getting the small paper samples from the paint stores, narrow your choices down and then order large samples from Samplize.


    https://samplize.com/


    I generally pick the white next, picking the white that works best with the neutral, but your white is already selected in the white kitchen cabinets, so you have to work the other direction.


    Once the neutral is selected you can add color to the surrounding rooms based on the neutral selection and the color flow you designed in step 4.


    I just helped my niece pick colors for her new home. This is the pallet we selected.


    Edgecomb Gray was the main neutral - White Haron the trim. She loves blues and greens. Her daughters wanted pink and purple. October mist and Labrador Blue are repeated wall colors. Her sofa and dining room seats are very similar to Labrador Blue, but darker and her area rug in the living room has blues and greens and the green is very similar to October Mist.




    Hope this helped.

  • 10 months ago

    Thanks for your info