Choosing Paint Colors part I

As I mentioned before, I am picky particular about the colors in our home.  (Doesn't the word particular make it sound better?)  For months now, I've been looking at paint colors online, saving pictures of them, and envisioning those colors on the walls in our new home.  I continually gravitate toward cool color schemes like these that I pinned on Pinterest.

I love the dark gray and the green! via

Loving the blues.  (original link broken)

Hmmm...would that orange color be too much? via

I'm not in love with the first two blues, but the green and orange are nice.  via

It goes without saying that at least one (if not many more) rooms in our house will be blue.  I love the color blue.  I think it is calming and serene.  Perfect for bedrooms and bathrooms, but I also like it in other rooms.  Our dining room in our first house was an amazing medium shade of blue that we loved (see below) despite the fact that the color supposedly suppresses your appetite.

We also had a light shade of blue in our kitchen and I can personally say I never felt any appetite suppression in either room.  :)

In fact, we loved the color of our old dining room so much that there was no doubt in our minds what color our new dining room would be.

Ok.  Dining room = medium to dark blue.  Check.

After some contemplation and a few paint samples, we chose Valspar's Evening Eclipse 4007-3C.  It's a nice silvery blue.  Our new dining room doesn't get as much natural light as our old one so we decided to go lighter with the paint this time.

covering up that moss green

of course, the trim will one day be white - not looking forward to that job

I also knew that I wanted the master bedroom to be a darker color than our first master.  This was because:

1. I wanted the cream colored headboard that my mother and I made last year to pop against the wall color (it was a labor of money-saving-love that we are pretty proud of)
2. I wanted our white nightstands to stand out
3. I think a dark bedroom is a bit more romantic
4. I was inspired by these photos

http://www.sfgirlbybay.com/2011/04/13/gravel-gray/

http://www.lifeingraceblog.com/2012/07/the-sultry-master/

In the first photo, the accent wall is actually Gravel Gray by Benjamin Moore.  The second one features Graphite by Ben Moore on all the walls.  I love how dramatic the colors are.  After some contemplation, I decided a dark color on all the walls might be a bit much for us.  We have a lot of trees on our lot and I was concerned about how much natural light the bedroom would get.  I didn't want to feel like I was in a cave all the time - maybe at night, but not during the day.

So...master bedroom = very dark blue or dark gray accent wall with remaining walls white or very light gray.  Check.

The master bedroom was the first painting project that we tackled after moving in.  The first step was choosing the accent wall color.  We settled on Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore (color matched to Valspar Ultra No-VOC Paint and Primer in One in eggshell).

Hale Navy by Ben Moore (HC-154)

Next, we had to choose a color for the remaining walls.  I don't know if you've ever tried to choose a white or light gray, but there are about a MILLION choices and they all look super similar at first.  It's all about undertones (something that I understand the concept of, but can't always figure out just by looking at a color on a paint card).

Here is our sample line-up.  (We are firm believers in spending the money on samples before making a final decision.  We painted the kitchen in our last house 3 times in the 15 months that we lived there.  Seth was NOT happy.  So he is fine with spending the money on samples, too.)  We didn't want anything too dark (remember, we were trying to replicate the look of the inspiration picture above) so the first and third options were out.  We narrowed it down to the three options below.  

Then I decided the top one was too blue.  So, down to two.  Amos was playing on the bed while we agonized over the decision.  Oh, to have his life.

We eventually settled on Valspar's Anthem White (the lower sample).  It actually looks really light gray on the walls.  Here is the finished transformation.

The cream molding may not be around for too long.  I think a nice crisp white is usually the way to go with all molding, but we'll see.

See how nice the white nightstands look against that navy blue accent wall?  I'm lovin' it! (Not in that annoying McDonald's commercial way though.)

What do you think?  Does anyone have a go-to, favorite paint color that seems to pop up in every house you've lived in?