Hi there! Please tell me that you’ve never painted your walls the wrong colour. Me either … until now.
Let’s just say that my DIY skills have seriously tried to murder me when it comes to picking paint colours. There was that one time I painted Mason’s room yellow and it actually looked like someone hacked up mustard all over his walls. (Don’t worry friends, Mason’s room is looking great now!) And I’ll never forget when I attempted to match a navy colour that I saw on Pinterest. Spoiler alert: it ended up looking like we painted our walls black funeral sheet fabric.
Hang with me here while I explain how learning to love beige and grey saved my life. Okay, hear me out.
Painting your walls is basically the worst.
You see this beautiful colour at Home Depot and it looks like heaven in the lighting there, it matches perfectly on that teeny paint sample square they give you, and you autumn in love thinking how Becky-from-instagram would paint that colour….THEN you actually paint it on your wall and watch in horror as it transforms into an entirely different colour. What you thought was going to be the perfect greige turns purple at lunchtime, green at 3 pm, and dirty dishwater by the time you make dinner. Trust.
Let me tell you about the time I learned this lesson the hard way. When we moved into our house in Kannapolis, there was this horrendous yellow wallpaper border around the living room that had to go. So, per usual, I spent hours and hours on Pinterest and Instagram trying to find the “perfect” colour to paint over it.
Low and behold I stumbled upon this beautiful warm grey and dove right in. Grey was BEING TOTALLY RELEVANT ON INSTAGRAM AND ALL MY DESIGN INSPO BOARDS. So I purchased the paint (should’ve known something was fishy there), scraped off the hideous wallpaper border (story for another day, but let’s just say the glue they used could’ve erected a house), and painted all weekend long with Tyler watching Mason like a hawk.
Fast forward to Monday morning and all I could think about was slitting my wrists. WHY did I choose THAT colour?! It was drastically different colours based on where you viewed it in the room and at what time of day.
During the morning hours when the east facing window was blasting us with light, it looked completely blue. By nap time the colour changed to this awful shade of green that made me want to hurl. And under the florescent light of our lamps at night?
Purple. What the actual heck?! At that point, I seriously questioned my own intelligence.
Once I picked my brain back together, I started researching true paint colours. Instead of going by what “looked cute” on Instagram I dove into the science of paint. Turns out there are certain paints that will actually stay the same colour regardless of your natural and artificial lighting.
Sure, they might not be “popular” on instagram but hey…they won’t make you want to throw paint at your walls either. The first paint that I fell IN LOVE with was Benjamin Moore’s Revere Pewter. GUYS…every blogger and instagramer is always saying how boring this colour is BUT girl let me tell you why it’s so popular!
Benjamin Moore really nailed it with this paint colour. Revere Pewter is what’s called a light grey with warm undertones that doesn’t try to turn into another colour every time you sneeze. It’s been used in so many homes because it’s just that… a good neutral colour that goes with EVERYTHING.
Doesn’t compete with your furniture and actually looks good in any room of your house. I used it after the Great Grey Disaster of 2022 to repaint our living room and have never looked back. It looks amazing when we wake up in the morning rolling out of bed, it still looks great when the sun is shining bright at noon, and it even looks lovely when the sun goes down and we’re cozy on the couch with our lamps on.
Don’t believe me? Cheque out how it looks in my own home! ! The next trusty neutral that you should always go with is Sherwin Williams Accessible Beige.
This colour is hands down the perfect warm colour. The shade of beige isn’t super yellow or pink like other beige paint colours tend to do. It’s the perfect “greyish beige” with warm undertones.
Painted my bedroom a few months ago when I was super pregnant with baby girl and OVER having ugly walls in my house. I was itching to paint something and decided since I was kind of miserable trying to take care of Mason myself that I would paint our bedroom while he was at the grandparents. BTW…don’t try painting yourself when pregnant.
Once I started, I couldn’t stop so I basically painted until my body gave out and it was time for Mason to go to bed. Lesson learned. Anyways, I painted Accessible Beige (ugh, they should rename this paint) and loved how it looked in our bedroom.
It looked exactly the same colour as the paint sample in our dimly lit room and has stayed true to colour ALL DAY LONG regardless of where you’re sitting in the room. When it comes to white paint, there are very few out there that are TRUE white. My go-to for white paint is Benjamin Moore’s White Dove.
Once I tried the “nice white” paint at Lowe’s and instantly regretted it. It seemed like a solid white during the day, but come nighttime our light bulbs made it look like mustard yellow. Don’t get me wrong… White Dove isn’t the brightest white either, but it’s NOT yellow or blue.
It’s a solid white that complements any furniture instead of making your rooms look dingy. Painted Mason’s room with this colour when we first moved in because it needed to lighten up from the forest green builder wallpaper that was in there. Wallpapering story for another day…had to Hulk smash that trash out of there.
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Painted White Dove while Mason took his afternoon nap, which means I had about 2 hours to get it done. But holy smokes, it went up so smooth and was the exact colour I was expecting. No brassy yellow hues or dark grey tones.
Just flat true white. And now for some fun colours. As I’ve said before, coloured paints are tricky because you never really know how it’s going to look until it’s up on your wall.
BUT…there are certain stand-by colours that I love and know will work every time. Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue is this beautiful muted blue-green shade that doesn’t try to turn mint at breakfast and navy blue by the time you make dinner. This is literally the perfect blue-grey colour.
Trust. I haven’t had the chance to use this colour in our house (husband not so much on board with colours) but I helped my friend paint her bathroom last year and fell head over heels for this colour. She has TINY window in her bathroom that doesn’t allow ANY natural light and is forced to use gross fluorescent light bulbs over her vanity.
But the Palladian Blue stayed true to colour throughout the whole bathroom. It didn’t fade to white, turn weird colours or look like toothpaste. It just STAYED this gorgeous muted blue-green.
When it comes to darker colours, I ALWAYS trust Sherwin Williams Naval. This is a deep blue paint that actually STAYS blue colour. It doesn’t turn black or a dark purple depending on your lights.
I’ve been trying to convince Tyler that we should paint our dining room this gorgeous colour because it’s SO rich and cozy. But alas, husband is still living in “safe” colour choices. Last trustworthy green paint I swear BY is Benjamin Moores October Mist.
Every green paint out there is the worst. You see a beautiful green online and it either turns grey, yellow, or some random colour that isn’t even on the colour wheel. October Mist is this greyish sage green that literally stays put.
Seriously considering painting our cabinets this colour because I’m SO OVER builder grade oak cabinets. I will say… painting while 8 months pregnant may not be the best idea with this one. Lots of reaching and bending over.
Okay friends, let me give you the ULTIMATE paint colour tip when it comes to testing paint colours. Those small paint sample squares that you get at the store? USELESS.
The lighting in paint stores try their hardest to NOT match your home’s lighting and that tiny square doesn’t show you how the colour will actually look on YOUR wall. Even paint samples that you can buy to test don’t offer enough paint to really tell you the true colour. You need a larger area to paint.
WHAT DOES WORK is heading to the dollar store and purchasing poster board. Buy a bunch of them and paint large sections with your paint samples. Once dry, you can tape them up around your house to view at different times of the day and get a feel for how your furniture will look with the paint.
It takes longer, but you won’t have to paint an entire room to determine that your “dream” colour looks like poop once it’s on your wall. Bought into this life hack after making yet another paint boo-boo. Friends, the wall colour in our girls nursery is that coral that I swore was gonna be pink.
Lesson learned. Buy the poster boards, test out that colour at home first, and save yourself the headache (and baby, YOUR MONEY)! Paint Tip #2 that no one tells you about is that colours look different based on what’s around it.
That beautiful grey that matches your beige carpet might look horrible once you actually replace your hideous carpet. Also, take note of what kind of lighting you have in your home. Yes, natural lighting makes a difference but so do light bulbs.
Do you have floor lamps vs. overhead lights? All these things play a factor on how your paint colours will look on your walls. We have an interesting mix of lights in our home.
When we bought our house, we went with whatever light fixtures were on sale at Lowes. Now we have some homes with the original fixtures from the 80s and others with random lamps we found on Facebook Marketplace.
Let’s not even discuss our kitchen lights.
FLUORESCENT. Like the ones at school. It made everything GREEN.
Took me a while to finally figure out what paint colours worked with our crazy blend of light but these tried and true colours have never let me down. The nursery needs to be painted again before baby girl arrives so I will def be using one of these colours. Most likely white dove or maybe I’ll go crazy and try the Accessible Beige.
I’m not wanting to take any risks with trendy colours that “everyone’s doing” or weird colours I see on Pinterest. Nope-just boring colours that I KNOW will look amazing in my house. Boring paint colours are boring for a reason friends- THEY WORK.
Stop overthinking paint and just stick with a colour you KNOW you love. I promise you (and your significant other) will thank me later!
