A Measured Word: Color

I took the week off from gardening and cooking to focus on painting. My younger daughter was out of town, and I wanted to paint her study. It was once her playroom, but now has converted to her study as she grows up and school continues to become more serious each year. I thought I might share the color choices I have made as NOLD is undergoing a makeover.

When we bought NOLD two years ago, the entire house was painted a cream color except the bathrooms which were painted an institutional blue. I know plenty of people choose whites and neutrals for flexibility and a uniform look. I am not one of them. In fact, raising a family, I am astonished at how much white paint now pervades home magazines, including white kitchens and baths. I think the work it would take to keep it clean around here would kill me.

As such, we are repainting with plenty of color. However, I have tried to stick to historic shades to remain true to the age and style of our British Tudor Revival home. Don't get me wrong -- it takes me a long time to choose colors, but I do get a strong sense of what appeals to me in a given space. I like to live in a new home for a while first. And, I like to have a visual flow such that the colors meld as you look through entryways from one side of the house to the other.

I use Sherwin Williams paint and am now partial to painting swatches to see how a color really looks. I want to make sure I like it and know that dark colors, in particular, take several coats (and sometimes primer). After I tried to photograph small bits of the colors already gracing NOLD, I was reminded how much light plays into how a color is seen as well. It was challenging with my camera, but I hope you get a feel for what I am trying to accomplish. Oh, and I hope you enjoy the names of the colors, too.