<p>arabrab-
Yes, sure WISH that I had done the notebook for paint colors.
I’m a very detailed oriented scientist, so routinely keep meticulous records at work.
At home, not so much. My excuse must be that I’ve used it all up by the time I get home!</p>
<p>I have adopted the trim color idea for the last 10 years or so…that’s why I know that the trim in our bedroom will be BM Decorator’s white semigloss. DH lobbies for other choices but I’ve resisted so far. Makes at least one choice easy.</p>
<p>If you like a dove grey Benjamin Moore 1555 (now called Winter Orchard) is a really nice color: [Winter</a> Orchard-1555 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/benjaminmoorecolors/4754584839/]Winter”>Winter Orchard-1555 | Benjamin Moore Colors | Flickr) It’s in my son’s bedroom and my former interior decorator boss had half her office in that color.</p>
<p>One of the most popular trim colors these days is BM’s Dove White (or is it White Dove?).</p>
<p>As for other neutrals, here are some of the ones most used by the color consultant at our local BM dealer:
Hush
Bennington Gray
Shaker Beige
Shenandoah Taupe
Bleaker Beige
Dry Sage
Silver Fox
Manchester Tan
Smokey Taupe.
Aura Harmony - warm or cool
Camouflage (neutral green)
Powell Buff
Monroe Bisque</p>
<p>I personally dislike Monroe Bisque, it was a little too mustardy for me. I like Alpaca instead.</p>
<p>Anyway, those are also colors which are (according to the color specialist) used a lot by one of the HGTV shows as neutrals. My personal favorite gray green is Aganthus, which is a really peaceful color.</p>
<p>Good luck. Hope you and H don’t end up as the gingham dog and the calico cat.</p>
<p>A “neutral” Ben Moore shade I am very fond of is Abingdon Putty.</p>
<p>Paint color is such a personal preference. Choosing fabrics first is so much easier than trying to find fabrics that go with the paint color as I did years ago. I also wished I had known that the paint store can match another brand’s colors with your brand of paint. Learned this when I wanted to duplicate the “China White” for ceilings but in another brand. I also learned how many different shades of white and tan/beige there are. They all have different appearances- some seem pink, blue, green, gray, yellow, peach… Look at a series of whites, for example. Another consideration is how they arrive at the color- when using some of an old paint can plus another I made sure they used the same pigments to arrive at the color- surprising how, within a brand, they can use three or more formulations to end up with the same color.</p>
<p>My talented friend whose house looks like a page out of a magazine painted her bedroom in the Silver Sage. It looks like a muted robin’s egg blue in her room. She said she painted her daughter’s kitchen in the same color and it looks green there. Definitely test the colors in your room.</p>
<p>I recently painted my son’s room after it had been a deep blue-green for years. I was going to change out his bedding with an old quilt I already had which was blue chambray, navy, red and ivory, but I wanted a neutral wall so I just went with Behr’s antique white. It was so refreshing that I made special trips down the hall just to admire it!</p>
<p>We used BM Navaho White Eggshell in our bedroom. Not really on your list, but very neutral and very nice!</p>
<p>Navaho White is really nice. We have it on all our exterior trim.
It is very creamy and rich looking.</p>
<p>My favorite Creamy White is Marscopone by Benjamin Moore…I saw entire home interiors done it this color by a great architect in the Washington State…in modern fifties ranch updates and also in a beautiful Craftsman home with ebonized woodwork and trim. Doing a lot of the public rooms in one color is my new goal so that the modern art I like will be the focal point. I really love color and need to tone it down with too much pattern in fabrics and rugs</p>
<p>We recently had painters redo a summer place. The colors we used: Marble White (OC-34) and Nightingale (AF-670) Sea Froth (2107) and Sandy Beaches (946). All very muted colors.</p>
<p>I also suggest picking that you both love your bedding first. Then pick a neutral for the wall that looks fantastic for that new bedding… but could match other bedding choices in the future too.</p>
<p>I love Navaho white. Neutral with personality.</p>
<p>I found this link very helpful…</p>
<p>[Top</a> Selling Paint Colors By Room | Top Colors](<a href=“http://www.breslow.com/index.php/Top-Colors/Top-Selling-Paint-Colors-By-Room.html]Top”>Breslow Home Design | A NJ Benjamin Moore Signature Store)</p>
<p>Hope this helps…good luck!</p>
<p>One caution - it is possible to have one manufacturer’s colors copied in another line, and I’ve done it, but it is not exact.</p>
<p>I used to have almost all walls painted BM Antique White, but when we moved to a different house, white walls no longer worked. I went to pale yellows and greens. As I’ve gotten older I’ve moved to deeper colors. Our sunroom is now Farrow and Ball Orangery (I can’t believe I have an orange room, but this is a wonderful, almost neutral, color), the living room is RH Butter, the foyer and hallway are a Donald Kaufman blue/green, and the diriing room is a soft red. </p>
<p>I never bother with those tiny samples. I need to have several large poster boards, with two coats, and live with them for a while. I lived with the Orangery for months before daring to use it.</p>
<p>(Sorry, worknprogress - I agree that the abbreviation with some of the paint colors brings an unfortunate image to mind!)</p>
<p>Your situation sounds similar to mine, except my husband is the one that loves barely there colors while I prefer more saturated colors. When we remodeled our new home, he told me he did not care what color I painted the master bedroom as long as it wasn’t pink. I painted it a lovely Benjamin Moore color, Coral Reef. Well, apparently his sense of color is not as sophisticated as mine because it is pink to him! He really dislikes it, while I adore it. It has been on the walls two years and I still smile when I walk in the room. My husband cannot wait until the day it gets repainted! If it weren’t for the 15 foot ceiling, he would have probably done so already. So, my suggestion is to try to find a color that you are both happy with.</p>
<p>A big piece of posterboard is great for trying out the feel of a color on the room’s walls.</p>
<p>But a suggestion from a friend that worked well for me: if you want to match fabrics, pillows, etc. to a wall color, paint a large paper plate with 2 coats. Paper plates are a lot easier to carry around than poster board, and they are bigger and easier to see than little paint chips.</p>
<p>For cooler neutrals, I like Ben Moore’s barely tinted grays. I painted our kitchen in Silver Cloud (blue undertones), and the teen room above the garage was done in Gray Cashmere, offering a very subtle green palate. Lily White is another barely gray/blue that I liked a lot. </p>
<p>On the warmer side, I have used Melted Ice Cream as a slight contrast for the recessed tray ceiling in the dining room… and Goldtone (butter yellow) for the front hall. I also like Durango Dust in the barely peachy/yellow tones…as an alternative to beige.</p>
<p>I have tried very hard to steer clear of ‘boring beige,’ - mostly because I feel it is so overused. But I am about to take the plunge, doing my sunroom in Light Khaki. I also liked Sandy White (on the same paint chip card), but Light Khaki just looked better in that particular room.</p>
<p>Have fun with your project!</p>
<p>I think that neutrals have become much more interesting, MaryOC. Good luck with your sunroom!</p>
<p>I do want to mention one thing…in a bedroom as in a bathroom, make sure that the color on the walls doesn’t cast funny tones onto your skin. This is especially important as you age. </p>
<p>For this reason, I tend toward warmer tones in these rooms, saving blues, grays and greens for more public areas.</p>
<p>^^ I totally agree, Novelisto.</p>