Finalizing the Paint Colors for My Newly Renovated Boston Condo!

 

I began writing about the paint colors and selection in these two posts, here and here. But from now on, I’ll be adding information to this one, diary-style, with the newest entries at the top. I hope it won’t be [too] confusing.

 

Sunday August 25, 2024

 

Hi Everyone,

This will be a relatively short entry, but it contains some good information about the paint colors that will be used in my newly renovated home.

 

We will resume the paint colors in a sec, but first, a brief update about the hardwood floor finish.

 

I met with Gary, the floor guy, last week, and we decided that after the painting is done, he’ll sand off the new board finish and restain it to better blend in with the old wood. Then, the current finish will be screened. If you don’t know, that’s where they take off the top layer of poly, buffing it until it’s perfectly smooth.

Then, they are going to finish the entire floor with semi-gloss oil-based poly—yeah, the super-stinky stuff. I will give my neighbors plenty of warning and then vacate the premises for a few days. I’ve decided. I love the depth and rich luster of oil-based poly. Water-based is fine and essential for white floors.

 

Oil-based poly also adds a translucent amber color, which will also help to create a richer finish.

 

Alas, our oil-based polys are not what they used to be, either. I adored our fabulous Fabulon in our townhouse in New York. However, I have read that it, too, has changed.

Gary recommends Woodline Poly, another Bona product. I need to research this one. Gary will also make some samples with scraps of the old and new wood. I am sure the floor will be much better when finished.

 

Okay, Chris brought over several test quarts of paint.

 

Yes, test quarts. We feel they’re more accurate.

But remember when I said I always specify the paint color AND number? Well, I did so this time, but when he went to buy the paint, he didn’t specify the name, only the number. However, he forgot the OC in front of the number.

 

Hence, four of the colors were quite wrong. So he went back to the paint store. Fortunately, it was only about 3/4 of a mile away.

 

Young Alex expertly painted on the colors. Resting on the floor are Benjamin Moore Windsor Green and Dark Harbor.

Beautiful, aren’t they?

I think so, but these colors will not look like this on your vertical wall.

 

On the right is Dark Harbor csp-720. In the middle is Fair Isle Blue csp-715. And, on the left is one of the 144 Laurel Home paint collection colors, Galapagos Turquoise.

Dark Harbor, is gorgeous, but way too dark for what I’m looking for, in the den. Although it looks lovely to hear, Fair Isle fell flat because the pink light sucked out its green undertone. However, Galapagos, one of the highly saturated dark teals in the Color Preview fan deck, was gorgeous.

Below, you can see it on my new closet doors! Please also notice the new wainscoting!

 

Muuuuuuch better, don’t you think? Below are the Motel 6 doors some misguided soul put into this historical 19th-century gem.

 

A previous owner added the beautiful plaster crown but left these horrid doors. So, we narrowed the doorways by one foot. There are jib doors up top and the beautiful new panel doors on the bottom. The door casing is a composite of three separate pieces.

 

It is as close as I could get to the original window casing, using only stock mouldings from Anderson & McQuaid in Cambridge, MA.

 

Okay, back to the den paint colors.

 

I was all set until I saw the color at night.

 

This was only at 6:30, and the sun had over an hour to set. By the time it was dark, Galapagos Turquoise looked like navy blue with the recessed downlights only.

However, today, at 4:00 PM, you can see Galapagos below, with a sliver of Dark Harbor draped over my Zuber vintage screen.

 

The smaller sample in front is a color that took my breath away the instant I saw it. It’s Cerulean from House of Hackney. Yes, they’re the company that manufactures the exquisite Plantasia wallpaper. (for sale, here).

 

Anywho, I went back to the Johnson Paint store this afternoon and picked up four more test quarts of teal paint colors. These all have more green in them and are either a hair brighter or a little more than that.

 

 

One of them is beautiful Benjamin Moore Beau Green 2054-20, one of their featured colors in 2019.

Please stay tuned for more!

o,

 

***Please check out the recently updated HOT SALES!

There is now an Amazon link on my home page and below. Thank you for the suggestion!

Please note that I have decided not to create a membership site. However, this website is very expensive to run. To provide this content, I rely on you, the kind readers of my blog, to use my affiliate links whenever possible for items you need and want. There is no extra charge to you. The vendor you’re purchasing from pays me a small commission.

To facilitate this, some readers have asked me to put

A link to Amazon.com is on my home page.

Please click the link before items go into your shopping cart. Some people save their purchases in their “save for later folder.” Then, if you remember, please come back and click my Amazon link, and then you’re free to place your orders. While most vendor links have a cookie that lasts a while, Amazon’s cookies only last up to 24 hours.

Thank you so much!

I very much appreciate your help and support!

 

***

Wednesday August 21, 2024

 

Hi Everyone,

Thank you, as always, for your kind words of encouragement.

The emphasis these days is on painting. Therefore, this is going on a page in diary style, which began last April.

The prep is taking a long time, but the painters have far exceeded my expectations going into this project. At this point, we will not make our August 30th deadline. However, I think one month from now is realistic.

 

In the meantime, Chris is bringing over more samples for the new paint colors tomorrow.

 

He is getting quarts of the samples. While I realize that’s much more expensive, the one-cup test samples have proven unreliable.

In addition, based on my observations and research, the formulation of some of the colors appears to have changed.

 

Let’s take White Dove oc-17. The old LRV was 90 and now it’s 83. That means White Dove is 7% darker than it was about 10 years ago, give or take.

 

 

 

Above, in a side-by-side comparison, the old White Dove (left) was taken from the Internet in 2016, and on the right is the new White Dove. Well, I’ll be. It does look darker!

I mean, I know many of these colors so well that I’m pretty sure I could pick them out of a line-up.

We’ve already been duped twice.

First with Swiss Coffee and then with their plain White. oc-151.

Swiss looked like a golden light beige, and OC-151 is a grayed-down, very pale lavender. The worst is the crown moulding.

 

In fact, every shade of white paint I’ve looked at is off!

 

When I look at my old fan deck, oc-151 is entirely different from what I have in my bedroom.

Let’s look at a side-by-side comparison of both White oc-151 and Super White oc-152.

 

 

The fan deck on the left is old, and the one on the right is new. Can you see the difference?

Indeed, the old fan deck colors are significantly warmer than the new fan deck on the right.

I realize I recently wrote a post about the perfect shade of white for my bedroom. I was purposely ambiguous because OC-151 is not the perfect shade for my room. Please see below. If you can’t see it in the image, unless you are color-blind, it is obvious in person.

 

 

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a hideous color; it’s just not right for my space because of the oft-mentioned red brick reflection.

Some of you would love it, and that’s fine. The biggest problem is that the crown moulding accentuates this purple color, and it looks terrible juxtaposed against my pretty aqua ceiling.  I love it as it’s constantly changing colors and always looks beautiful.

The other issue, which is more obvious in some areas than others, is that the satin trim is a different color from the wall in flat. The walls are a lot less purple. Please notice that in the image above.

Italian Ice Green is wonderful! However, it does not help OC-151 look less purple but rather accentuates it.

 

 

What went wrong for us is the white oc-151 wasn’t tested.

 

There wasn’t time because I had to move back into my room the next day. Of course, that was a mistake. I was going from my memory after living with it for several years in Bronxville, plus Chris’ recommendation.

 

Here’s the proof. That chair is ivory white. Behind it is the trim painted in oc-151. However, that was painted well before I moved there at least 15 years ago.  Below, the ceiling was also painted oc-151. Even though the walls are Tropical Dusk and definitely a deep purple, the ceiling and cove where it meets the wall are sans purple.

 

 

Now that we’ve had two failures, this baseline tells me exactly what’s required.

 

The lesson here is to do the necessary sampling before painting. If you are still not sure, painting a small wall and letting it dry is a lot better than painting the entire room and getting it wrong.

Below is another image showing the wall and trim on the far left. Then comes the primed panel wall and another off-color shade of white paint.

Our lovely cotton balls looks very lemon-y in the big poster board and like it should on the smaller square sample.

 

Please also observe, that the oc-151 trim is a very close match to the paint color in the new fan deck.  (Please see below.)

 

So, what IS the best shade of white for my bedroom?

 

For the bedroom, Cotton Balls oc-122 will be perfect as long as it’s close to the original formulation. It will not look purple or pink.

However, one thing I like about the oc-151 is its depth. So, I am thinking about a slightly deeper color on the big fan deck, one page over. And that is Cloud Nine oc-119 or 2144-40

 

So, that combination is what I’m 95% sure I’m doing for my bedroom.

 

 

Cloud White oc-130 might work too, for the trim. I’m fairly positive I’d like Cloud White oc-130 for the embrasure hall and bathroom.  Please note that Italian Ice Green typically looks lighter on the ceiling than it appears here. However, it would look best with a clean white, like Cotton Balls, near it. I would continue cotton balls for the frieze and switch below the picture rail to Cloud Nine.

 

We are doing the Scuff-X formulation with the walls in matte and the trim in Satin.

 

Above, we can compare Simply White to Cloud White and see the subtle difference. Simply is more beige by comparison, and White Dove, below, is a little more gray and a bit deeper.

 

 

It’s not that Simply White and White Dove aren’t great colors—they are. However, I have a red brick issue outside my two bedroom windows, and it’s like my windows were tinted a deep pink.

While I have that issue in the living room, it is far less pronounced because we don’t have the red bricks from my little garden. Also, we’re getting more sky reflection in the living room.

Interestingly, for most of my career, in Westchester County, New York, I had the opposite problem. Westchester is heavily forested and many homes I worked on skewed green.

 

Please note that Benjamin Moore makes an off-white color named White Cloud, which is actually a buttery yellow.

 

 

Oy! They sure know how to sock it to us!  Aren’t clouds typically white? I would call that Whipped Butter.

It is a different color. It’s horrible of them to do that to us. I wonder how often someone has wanted Cloud White but instead asked for White Cloud. After all, it’s White Dove.

 

Chris is going to make some samples for the lower level entry, and upstairs den colors as well.

 

We need to stop for today, but we’ll continue with the upstairs colors either early Friday or Sunday morning. I hope that after Chris makes the big samples for me tomorrow, I can make some concrete decisions.

Many of the colors we’re trying are from the Laurel Home Paint and Palette Collection.

 

Laurel, do you have a new deadline?

 

Yes, I think everything major should be finished by Friday, September 27th. Of course, it still won’t be fully done. However, I’ll no longer have workers in my home every day.

Now, I must sort out the polished nickel exposed plumbing for the bathroom sink!

There is also news coming up soon about the hardwood floor and more!

xo,

 

***Please check out the recently updated HOT SALES!

There is now an Amazon link on my home page and below. Thank you for the suggestion!

Please note that I have decided not to create a membership site. However, this website is very expensive to run. To provide this content, I rely on you, the kind readers of my blog, to use my affiliate links whenever possible for items you need and want. There is no extra charge to you. The vendor you’re purchasing from pays me a small commission.

To facilitate this, some readers have asked me to put

A link to Amazon.com is on my home page.

Please click the link before items go into your shopping cart. Some people save their purchases in their “save for later folder.” Then, if you remember, please come back and click my Amazon link, and then you’re free to place your orders. While most vendor links have a cookie that lasts a while, Amazon’s cookies only last up to 24 hours.

Thank you so much!

I very much appreciate your help and support!

 

***

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

In case you’re wondering where I am, everything’s fine. I needed a couple of days to get some things done. I’ll be back tomorrow with some wonderful news about the bathroom.

 

Monday, April 8, 2024

 

This is going to be the shortest post I’ve ever written. haha

Well, almost

 

I got to thinking… After reading your comments for the last couple of weeks about my “moody bathroom.”

 

Maybe I need to go back to my original idea. Remember? 

Yes, from one year ago!

Of course, this was before the embrasure hall idea had fully jelled.

The bathroom isn’t the same. The niche is only 48″. In one of the iterations, it was 60″; however, with this layout, that wasn’t possible.

 

Presenting the 2024 version of my primary bathroom.

 

Order in the court!!! Order in the court!!!

Guys, geezzz. Please calm down! haha! I know some of you are breathing a massive sigh of relief. Others might be disappointed. Please don’t be. I’ve come up with some big changes I think pretty much everyone will like. Everyone means me, myself, and I. Haha. No, I’m only kidding.

 

However, many of you may not have considered what the mirror will be reflecting.

 

While the image above doesn’t convey the embrasure door hall accurately, it will be seen in the reflection in the mirror, particularly if I mirror the entire four-foot niche.

I think I should not do this light fixture in the bathroom. It would be better in the bedroom as it will blend in better, which I want it to do.

Laurel, what is that gorgeous console?

Yeah, I love it too.

I will explain more in Wednesday’s post. However, as far as I know, it’s from Kohler but it says “discontinued.”

Yes, this was one of the sources of my moody bathroom inspo. No one does a gorgeous, moody room better than Jean.

Please stay tuned when I reveal more of my plans.

I hope many of you got to enjoy the eclipse!

xo,

 

***Please check out the recently updated HOT SALES!

There is now an Amazon link on my home page and below. Thank you for the suggestion!

Please note that I have decided not to create a membership site. However, this website is very expensive to run. To provide this content, I rely on you, the kind readers of my blog, to use my affiliate links whenever possible for items you need and want. There is no extra charge to you. The vendor you’re purchasing from pays me a small commission.

To facilitate this, some readers have asked me to put

A link to Amazon.com is on my home page.

Please click the link before items go into your shopping cart. Some people save their purchases in their “save for later folder.” Then, if you remember, please come back and click my Amazon link, and then you’re free to place your orders. While most vendor links have a cookie that lasts a while, Amazon’s cookies only last up to 24 hours.

Thank you so much!

I very much appreciate your help and support!

 

***

Sunday, April 7, 2024

Hi Everyone,

We’re back to paint colors today because, yes, my Samplize samples arrived on my doorstep only 20 hours after I ordered them this past Friday.

Naturally, I dropped everything and ripped open the package.

 

Before I get into it, some of you mentioned that I am entitled to free samples from Benjamin Moore.

 

Yes, I suppose I am. However, I am still recovering from 2016. I contacted my rep numerous times when creating my paint and palette collection. I never got them. Finally, I went over her head, which I hated doing, but after months of waiting, I had no choice. I was not going to pay for new fan decks and larger samples.

That did the trick, and they sent over many more samples than I wanted or needed. In the meantime, I love my Samplize samples, especially the matte Farrow & Ball samples. Some of the Benjamin Moore samples are matte, but many have a plastic sheen that can cause glare and difficulty seeing the color. That’s my only complaint. The samples are as rugged as can be.

While a backing comes off, I don’t bother; I just tape them to the wall because otherwise, it’s more difficult.

The larger sizes help to bring out the colors.

 

So, what is the verdict, Laurel? Does Down Pipe live up to your expectations?

 

Yes, it did. Most of the time. Sometimes, it looks vaguely teal, blue, or even olive. But sometimes, it just looks like charcoal gray.

As for Kitty Gray. It is actually a lot lighter and greener than Down Pipe.

 

However, I also liked the color below.

 

 

Narragansett Green hc-157 AKA  Navy Masterpiece 1652.

Why, oh, why did they do that?

Theyz messin with us, obvs. (My spell checker is hyperventilating.)

 

Oh, I can’t decide. And what’s more is, although I was in denial,  there needs to be a thread of white in the bathroom.

 

A big thread.

Because of its proximity, the bathroom is like the head on a body. The embrasure hall is the neck, and the bedroom is the rest of the body. They need to be in dialogue with each other.

 

Bath says:

 

Hey Bed, I see you found your white. Have you seen mine? It seems to be missing.

No answer.

 

What about the staircase entry, Laurel?

 

I think it’s fine to keep the white confined to the black and white floor for that area and the washer/dryer. lol

I also don’t think the bathroom should be all white.

So, here’s the plan so far.

haha

It’s haha, because I’ve hit the proverbial wall.

 

Let me show you a few vanity elevations.

 

These are a little rough, but I think they convey the idea. Oh, before I show you. Last night, I had to dig through a mountain of boxes, and I found the Visual Comfort Huntingdon sconces I bought last summer. I specked these for a client once.

I cannot begin to tell you how beautiful they are in person.

 

 

This doesn’t even come close. They sparkle like you can’t believe.  They also come in gold, as you can see below. Both are on open box sale as of yesterday. You can see them on the Hot Sales Lighting Page. 

 

For this one, I filled up the entire area above the vanity with a framed mirror. I think it looks a little blah.

This one is Narragansett Green, all the way. Ballard Designs carries this mirror in a size that’s 20″ x 50″. That’s a very unusual size but perfect for this vanity. It leaves 18″ on each side for the sconces.

Above is the Farrow & Ball Down Pipe.

It’s not bad—none of these are bad—but it’s not knocking my booties off, either.

 

 

Above, I did Narragansett for the wainscoting only. It seems a little off. I would make the side cabinets also white.

Above is Narragansett Green with white wainscoting.

Stunning. Although the white does kill the moody feeling.

 

The last one is Windsor Green or something just a tad more olive. I also tried Artichoke, but it is too brown

I also made some more mood boards.

What do you think?

 

I like them both, but for these reasons, I lean a little more towards the green:

 

• There’s already a lot of blue, and there will be a blue den. I decided that one months ago.
• It’s also a little more interesting because it’s not blue. Please remember that the Plantasia wallpaper is only going in the toilet area. It’s a tiny accent, not the same proportion seen on the board.
• I am not going to do a blue casing around the bedroom door. No worries.

Please also remember that the shower is lined with light gray dolomite.

The olive green will look beautiful with that.

I need to wrap this up. But did I tell you we don’t seem to have the legs for the vanity?

It’s been quite a week!

xo,

 

***Please check out the recently updated HOT SALES!

There is now an Amazon link on my home page and below. Thank you for the suggestion!

Please note that I have decided not to create a membership site. However, this website is very expensive to run. To provide this content, I rely on you, the kind readers of my blog, to use my affiliate links whenever possible for items you need and want. There is no extra charge to you. The vendor you’re purchasing from pays me a small commission.

To facilitate this, some readers have asked me to put

A link to Amazon.com is on my home page.

Please click the link before items go into your shopping cart. Some people save their purchases in their “save for later folder.” Then, if you remember, please come back and click my Amazon link, and then you’re free to place your orders. While most vendor links have a cookie that lasts a while, Amazon’s cookies only last up to 24 hours.

Thank you so much!

I very much appreciate your help and support!

 

 

***

Tuesday April 2, 2024

 

Hi Everyone,

This is exceedingly rare, but it is 9:36 PM on a Tuesday evening, and I haven’t written a word for the blog post.

That’s because I’ve been busy obsessing working on my paint colors.

 

Laurel, I still don’t understand. You wrote that guide you’re always talking about. So, just go pick your own paint colors. Done.

 

Well, sorry, no, it isn’t done. It’s not done for anyone, not usually. The guides are a starting point. Yes, they might be an endpoint, but it really depends. There are so many variables when choosing paint colors. It’s a lot more—and I mean a lot more than just getting the undertones right.

It’s the actual color. And that color in relation to the other colors.

Plus, there’s the lightness or darkness of a color. (It’s Value.)

And the brightness known as chroma.Finally, well, not finally, because this is only a small part of it. But, the paint colors need to fit together and make sense.

 

The good news is that there isn’t only one way of doing things.

 

That’s also the bad news.

There’s too much choice! This is why I created the Laurel Home Paint & Palette Collectio, which includes 40 paint palettes with mood boards.

In the last few weeks, I’ve taken dozens of photos of samples hanging on the wall and created dozens of color boards.

 

The best thing to do is begin by looking at the givens.

 

Givens are things that aren’t changing. They are things like tile, flooring, art, and furnishings that you wish to incorporate. I find that it’s good to be flexible whenever possible. If stuck, throw your initial idea out and try going in a different direction.

For me, I know I have to have this lovely wallpaper (Solitude in the White colorway) in the bedroom from the Mural Source.

 

Please note that while the paper has blue birds, from a distance, it reads more teal than blue. The birds are a true blue, but there aren’t many.

It’s also important to try not to have everything match PERFECTLY.

That’s right. Don’t try too hard to make everything match in a clone-like fashion. It’s boring.

 

House of Hackney – Plantasia. (Anthropologie)
You can also find it at Perigold

This paper is only going in the WC niche in the bathroom. There are so many shades of green in this wallpaper, but I adore the deep olive shades the best. Well, I love all of them, but those deep notes are my favorite. It’s the same for me in an orchestra.

Other givens are a pale gray dolomite tile in the shower.

The vanity is also light gray marble. (Unless I put the one I have upstairs and get something else for downstairs.)

My toilet is white.

The floor will most likely be black and white or a very light gray.

 

Okay, let’s begin with the new garden-level entry.

 

Above is a floor plan to help make things more clear.

I have looked at dozens of shades of teal in the mid-range.

 

 

I mean – DOZENS of shades of blue in Benjamin Moore, and Farrow & Ball.

I want this little room to be like a warm hug, welcoming and restorative.

After much deliberation, my final choice for the wall color is Apollo Blue cw-645 by Benjamin Moore.

 

I love it because it has a lot of gray in it.

Many years ago, I read something a designer wrote, that has stuck with me.

It was something like, “Most people wimp out when choosing paint colors. So, don’t be afraid. Go with a shade that’s one darker and grayer than you think it should be, and you should be fine.”

 

This is the best advice advice for choosing paint colors

 

Sometimes it’s going with a color two shades deeper and grayer. Mid-tones are often the most difficult shades to get right.

In my case, except for the bedroom, all other areas have only indirect lighting during the day, if that.

The other problem for me is the LED lights. Right now, I have a mix of incandescent and LEDs. I find the LEDs tend to suck the color out. Maybe I need better bulbs that render paint colors more clearly.

Every time I go downstairs, it’s a nightmare because of the lighting. So, I’ve been mostly looking at the paint color samples in the kitchen.

So, now we have this reach muted historical teal for the entry. The doors will be black.

Chic.

So far, so good.

 

Then, we come to the embrasure hall. All along, I’ve been envisioning it being white.

 

There are no walls unless the embrasure doors are closed. The white embrasure hall will be lovely with the bedroom wallpaper.

However, I’m not as keen on it with the cozy Apollo Blue entry.

The bathroom color has been my biggest struggle.

It needs to be moody. It’s not an option. While it was slow in telling me what it wanted to be, now it’s positively screaming at me.

 

Dark and moody!!!

 

There are enough white or very light items in the room. Plus, I’d love to put some simple sepia prints on the six-foot-long wall across from the shower and toilet.

There will also be a towel bar and white towels, + accessories, and light fixtures. Let’s not forget those.

So, after reviewing dozens more moody paint colors, everything from Narragansett Green to every moody blue-gray-green you can think of and some you’ve never heard of, most likely.

 

My favorite every time is Farrow & Ball Downpipe.

 

I’ve never used it, although I’m so well-acquainted with this legendary color I feel like I have.

After staring at it in all kinds of light, I’ve realized why it’s so beloved.

In this case, it is the undertones. They are chameleon-like and pop out beautifully. I see blue, green, and olive. Oh, I looked at a lot of olive greens, too. Super deep ones are so dark, you’d swear they are pure black at first.

Still, I’ve searched in vain for a Benjamin Moore substitute. On my conversion chart, I have Flint from the Affinity collection. It’s right there in terms of value. However, it lacks the complexity of Downpipe. Another close call is Rocky Coast, which I put in the Laurel Home Collection.

However, there’s another color that is very close to Downpipe but it is a hair more blue-green. That’s okay.

Below are two boards:

One with Kitty Gray

And the second with Downpipe.

 

I like the Kitty Gray, but I adore the Downpipe.

Still, I must get some samples. I’ll order those tomorrow from Samplize.

 

In the meantime, there’s still a problem.

 

Do you know what it is?

Oh dear, sorry. We’re out of time. Well, it’s fine to guess. I’ll have the answer for you on Thursday evening, and a solution I like a lot.

xo,

 

***Please check out the recently updated HOT SALES!

There is now an Amazon link on my home page and below. Thank you for the suggestion!

Please note that I have decided not to create a membership site. However, this website is very expensive to run. To provide this content, I rely on you, the kind readers of my blog, to use my affiliate links whenever possible for items you need and want. There is no extra charge to you. The vendor you’re purchasing from pays me a small commission.

To facilitate this, some readers have asked me to put

A link to Amazon.com is on my home page.

Please click the link before items go into your shopping cart. Some people save their purchases in their “save for later folder.” Then, if you remember, please come back and click my Amazon link, and then you’re free to place your orders. While most vendor links have a cookie that lasts a while, Amazon’s cookies only last up to 24 hours.

Thank you so much!

I very much appreciate your help and support!