23 Favorite Paint Colors + Paint Sheens Explained

By far the most asked question I get is what are your favorite paint colors?! So today I'm answering the big question + addressing what the different sheen options are and when you should use each sheen. If you haven't read this first post about how to select paint colors, go here then come back ;)   First, we need to understand paint sheens:
High Gloss: very shiny, highly durable, shows wall imperfections because of the reflective nature. Be sure to paint multiple thin coats for high gloss, semi-gloss and satin to ensure no brush strokes are seen.
*Best use: cabinets, doors, trim & possibly used elsewhere for a bold effect (like in the picture below), but I have never painted interior walls with this sheen.

via

Semi-Gloss: not quite as shiny as High Gloss, but still reflective, very durable, great for spaces with lots of moisture.
*Best Use: bathrooms, cabinets, trim work, doors.
Satin: has a great sheen to it called "luster" and described as "velvety". Still very durable and shows some wall imperfections, but not as much as high or semi-gloss. Great for high-traffic areas.
*Best use: entryway, hallways, bedrooms
Eggshell: this is a flat paint, but still has some "luster", which is why it's great for any space. Its medium durability is balanced by the fact that it's easy to touch up, doesn't show wall imperfections and is a cheaper paint option.
*Best use: public living spaces

Flat / Matte: doesn't show wall imperfections, but not as durable (we have flat paint in our entire apartment and it shows scuffs and water marks like crazy!) Least expensive paint option and doesn't show brush strokes, which is a huge plus!
*Best Use: depends on if you don't mind touching paint up, but this can go anywhere except rooms that have a lot of moisture (bathroom, kitchen, laundry room, basements). I don't love it from living in a place with it now, and will always suggest Eggshell before flat. Ceilings are also usually flat, unless otherwise specified.
Alright, now on to my favorite paint colors!  You can easily pin this to come back to for future reference. 

Here are a few of my favorite colors in action in some client's homes!
Revere Pewter: this is showing up a little lighter in the pictures and this home gets tons of natural light, typically this is a little darker.

Collingwood:

Stonington: this typically reads a little blue / gray.

Edgecomb:

Don't forget to ALWAYS test out your colors on different spots in your room (either on the wall or on foam board) before going for it! Be sure to look at the colors at different times of day, as the light will change the color, sometimes dramatically.
What are YOUR favorite paint colors?! If you have any specific paint questions, drop them below and I'll answer in another follow-up post! xoxo interior design website / services / portfolio

3

{Before & After} From Dark + Dated to Light + Bright Kitchen Reveal

A couple months ago I started a kitchen remodel with one of my favorite clients (am I allowed to say that?! ha!) She found me after we both got our puppies from the same breeder last summer and we were added to the same Facebook group. I posted a picture of our dog, Lincoln, into the group and she eventually found my instagram and realized I was an interior designer in Grand Rapids, where she also lives! Gotta love this aspect of social media :)
Anyways, she reached out to me via Facebook to see if we could get the dogs together and have a consultation for her home. When I went over to her house, she explained how sad her house made her because just two years prior to this, they hired another designer in the area to help them decorate and update the builder grade kitchen. I was honestly sort of surprised, too, because of how my client described the way she wanted her home to feel. She kept repeating "light and bright, cozy, yet not dark at all. Beautiful, comfortable and fresh. Just like your instagram!" ;) Ha! I loved her already.
What the other designer did was the opposite of all of those things! I am always puzzled when people don't get what they want when working with a designer. My main goal is to listen to what my client's want and then help them make well-informed design decisions based on my skill and knowledge, but also based on how they tell me they want their home to look and feel. The feeling aspect of the question is really important to me because our homes are where we LIVE. It's where our most joyful and most tender moments take place and because of that, these four walls are precious and should be a reflection of you, your family, and be the backdrop to living a meaningful life.
No disrespect meant to this other designer (I don't even know who it is), but this backsplash she had them put in...does it read light, bright, updated, and comfortable/fresh to anyone?! My poor client was distraught, so I was quick to remind her that this can be fixed! Every step of the way she was SO happy with the progress. Even JUST changing the backsplash was the biggest improvement!
Here's what we started with:

We changed out the backsplash and the countertops first, since we didn't want the installers to mess up the freshly painted cabinets. This order worked really well for us and I highly suggest doing this if you're doing a kitchen refresh that includes backsplash and painting cabinets.

The subway tile we chose has a pretty sheen and little bevel detail to give it some depth and texture. We went with a light gray grout to pick up the gray tones in the beautiful new quartz countertops.  

Before, the kitchen was dark and had a very orange-y shadow because of the orange cabinets. Now it's light and bright, just like my client wanted! To avoid it being sterile, I headed over to her house last week to decorate and style the countertops. Keep scrolling to see how it turned out.

The wall color here is BM Stonington Gray at 75%, which we chose strategically for its blue undertone. The previous color was a medium to dark gray with a subtle green undertone, but with the skylights they have in the room and the way the recessed cans and windows were positioned in the room, the color went VERY green in the afternoon and evening. They hated it and wanted something that would look more like a TRUE gray. So we found a lighter gray paint with a blue undertone to help counteract the green shadows in the living room. It worked like a charm and now they love their wall color throughout their main level! You can see here it really is a true gray.

And now with it styled...

We kept it simple by doing a few key vignettes and also pulled in the colors from the living room which the kitchen opens to on the left. The blues and greens marry the two spaces perfectly. One day we'll get them all professionally photographed so you can see the whole space!

 dish towel 

 pineapple cutting board / blue spiral bowls / patterned bowl (sold out, but here's a link to the collection)

tiered fruit stand 

plant mister  

 cake stand  / glasses 

tea pot / small victories cookbook / 30 minute one pot meals / host cookbook 

So there you have it! A few key pieces in thoughtful vignettes across the counter to bring some interest and homey-ness to the kitchen! The goal was to bounce some color intentionally around on the counter top, but still have it feel like a white, neutral kitchen overall. I love how it turned out, and most importantly, so does my client and her husband! 
Remember how I mentioned we met through out puppies?! It'd be a diservice NOT to show them to you here ;) 

 Lincoln, Jake, Quinn

Ahh, melts my heart! 


Hope you enjoy your week, friends!
xoxo



interior design website / services / portfolio

5

FAQ: How to Choose a Paint Color for Your Home

The other day I was working on one of my client's design projects and it occurred to me how generous my parents were in letting me use their house as an experiment of sorts! Whenever I had an idea, they usually let me try it. I remember painting the guest room headboard wall a coral color as an accent 8 years ago (it was so crazy bold...I can't believe I did it! So glad I have my blog to document this...ha) It is now a nice neutral color. Then I volunteered to take down the old floral wallpaper in our bathroom (bad idea...I cried real tears, it was so hard!) and painted it yellow. Yep. A few years later, I thought a pale blue would be nice so they let me change it. And just last year we all agreed it needed to go more neutral, so it's now a pretty greige color (Malibu Beige by Kelly Moore). My room has been purple (thankfully I don't have pictures of this!), blue and green (so bad), mint green (which I loved!) and now a neutral color as well.
They let me be creative and always supported me and I'll forever be grateful for that! But I'm also so sorry for all the paint color changes ;) Ha! I just had to tell open with that, before I share a few of my best tips for choosing a paint color for your home since I've got years of experience from trial and error. This is one of the most frequent questions I get, along with asking for paint color suggestions (saving that for another post!) so hopefully I can help! This is the process I always suggest my clients follow when choosing paint.

Paint is probably the cheapest way to drastically change the look of your room, so this is one of the first decorating updates to consider! Just wanted to note, paint will look very different on a swatch than on your actual walls. I'm mentioning this because I think people are often surprised by their wall color when it's up if they don't follow some of these tips.
1. Consider the lighting in your space. Natural light will make the color appear in it's truest form! If you get lots of natural light then you could go a little darker with your paint color and not have it feel TOO dark. Fleurescent lights will cast a blue shadow on your paint and can cause the color to have a blue undertone, while incandescent bulbs will cause a yellow and warm tone to the walls and room in general. 
If you have incandescent bulbs everywhere and no natural light to help balance it out and want to paint your walls yellow, the lighting will only intensify the yellow paint. It might be too overwhelming! Something to think about when choosing colors. If you want to downplay the color the lighting in the space is casting into the room, try to choose a color that will offset the lighting. For example, one of my current client's walls was a medium to dark gray with a subtle green undertone, but with the skylight they had in the room and the way the recessed cans and windows were positioned in the room, the color went VERY green in the afternoon and evening. They hated it and wanted something that would look more like a TRUE gray. So we found a lighter gray paint with a blue undertone to help counteract the green shadows in the living room (Stongington Gray by Benjamin Moore, in case you're wondering!) It worked like a charm and now they love their wall color.

 BEFORE:

AFTER:

If you love the HUE of a color, but think it's too light or dark, you can actually get it lightened or darkened by the paint store. For example, this Stonginton Gray paint above is actually at 75%, because the true hue was a little dark, which we were trying to avoid. 
2. Consider the mood you want to set.
Warm colors like red, orange, yellow, coral, beige peach, or anything that has those undertones, tends to make a room feel more intimate. Cool colors like blue, green, purple, and grays with cool undertones tend to make your space recede and feel larger. I could do a whole separate post on color psychology, but for now, I'll keep it at this: every color comes with a slew of psychological pieces to it that you might want to consider when painting your walls! 

A neutral backdrop for black and white touches throughout...

or a seaglass blue on the walls for more punch....

via

3. Consider the function of the space.
This is more to help you figure out the sheen of the paint you'll want. If you have kids, you'll want higher sheens for cleanability. If you get a ton of traffic in your house you'll also want a higher sheen. 
Flat (no sheen, hardest to clean)- Matte - Eggshell - Satin - Semigloss - Hi-Gloss (highest sheen)
For public spaces like family rooms, kitchens and hallways, eggshell or satin is great. Bedrooms can also go eggshell or satin, but some people prefer semigloss because it's easy to clean because of the high sheen. For trim, doors and molding I suggest satin or semigloss (but typically lean to semigloss). For bathrooms, I usually do satin or semigloss. Ceilings are flat. 

via

3. Once you have an idea of a few colors, put them to the test.
This is the most important step! I BEG YOU to try out the paint on your walls or hold up huge samples of the color on the walls. This is the only way you'll know if the color will work or not. I have my clients get samples of 2-3 colors we're considering, put them in big swatches on different walls in all the rooms so we can see what the light is doing to the color in the actual space. We leave them for a day or two and then make our final selection.
Another note here: anytime you're selecting materials or paint for your home (cabinets, backsplash, countertops, etc.) it's imperative that you hold the sample in the correct orientation to see how it looks. In the case of paint, you'll want to hold the paint swatch up vertically on the wall as opposed to holding it flat in your hands. To get the full effect, you need to see the color in the orientation it will actually be in in the space. Backsplashes you'd hold vertically, while countertops you'd lay horizontally...make sense?!
4. Don't overwhelm yourself with too many options! 
This is one of the biggest mistakes I see in my clients if I come in halfway through a project because they realized they can't do this alone. Often they are deciding between 10 shades. Look, there's no way you'll be able to make a decision between 10 shades that are so similar! I always suggest a max of 3-4 colors going up on the walls to decide between. If you hate all of those options, THEN go back to the drawing board and get a few more options. 
5. Consider the function of the space & how to add dimension.
Once you've decided on colors, it's time to nail down the sheen. If you have kids, you'll want higher sheens for cleanability. If you get a ton of traffic in your house you'll also want a higher sheen. 
Flat (no sheen, hardest to clean)- Matte - Eggshell - Satin - Semigloss - Hi-Gloss (highest sheen)
For public spaces like family rooms, kitchens and hallways, eggshell or satin is great. Bedrooms can also go eggshell or satin, but some people prefer semigloss because it's easy to clean because of the high sheen. For bathrooms I usually do satin or semigloss. Ceilings are flat. 
To add dimension I like to do the trim, doors, and molding in a higher sheen. I suggest satin or semigloss (but typically lean to semigloss). If you're painting a room all white, it's a good idea to use a different sheen, like eggshell on the walls, and the same color but in semigloss for the molding, to create that dimension!

via

6. Create flow with the rest of your house. 
Do this by making sure the colors blend from room to room. One way I do this is usually by painting the walls a neutral color and accenting with pops of color in the fabric choices, pillows, curtains, artwork, and accessories. Like my client's house example above, we have gray walls with some blues and greens through the rug and the pillows (coming soon). Even though the kitchen is a separate room, they still need to flow together, so we will be bringing a few touches of blues and greens to the kitchen as well, but can also add in other colors as accents if we wanted. Just be sure to pick a dominant color that you might see in a few places throughout your home, but then each room can have it's own accents. 
Hopefully these tips help you in selecting a paint color for your home! Let me know if you have ANY paint color questions. I'll be sure to answer them in my next paint post! xoxo
interior design website / services / portfolio

6