The Shocking Deep Paint Color In My Den!

Hi Everyone,

Whoa, Mom Nature sure let us know that summer is over this weekend. The rain was desperately needed in these parts, but the sudden blast of noticeably cooler weather came as a bit of a shock.

However, nothing in recent days has shocked me as much as the transformation of the den after it was painted with Benjamin Moore North Sea Green, a beautiful deep paint color.

 

Oh, Laurel. Are you saying you made another mistake?

 

No. I’m saying it’s a shock. Of course, it’s a shock.

 

We went from pastel barf to a deep ocean blue. I’ve been dreaming about this color for years.

So, what color IS Benjamin Moore North Sea Green?

 

shifaaz-shamoon Unsplash

 

It’s teal. However, just like the ocean, this color CHANGES with the light like MAD.

When the light hits it just right, it can go nearly pastel, but sometimes it looks dark and inky.

It is mostly in between. Still, this is a testament to the need to try out colors in numerous spots.

Coincidentally, Benjamin Moore featured both North Sea Green and Mayo Teal in 2023. I only discovered this after I had selected the two colors.

I also looked at Dark Harbor, and Twilight is a Laurel Home Paint & Palette Collection color.

Okay, I came back upstairs on Tuesday in time to see Alex and Paulo off to spray the second coat of paint on the ceiling.

 

By the way, young Alex isn’t quite as young as I thought. He has a 15-year-old son!

Below is the finished Mayo Teal ceiling, coving, and frieze.

This shot was taken on Tuesday afternoon. North Sea Green is below in one of the darkest spots in the room. Even though it faces the window, it is set back, which doesn’t allow the light to escape as it does over the closet.

Not only is it darker in this area, it is a fair amount more blue.

But look at this paint job.

Unfortunately, I had to put a stop to the spraying on Wednesday morning. Despite everything all covered up, there was blue paint dust everwhere. I know. I’m not happy about that, to put it mildly, but we put on the air scrubber to clean the air.

 

I know that some of you are curious about the air scrubber.

 

Here’s what it looks like. It soaks up fumes, dust, and VOCs and then spits out the air, passing through a hefty HEPA filter and activated charcoal. At least, that’s what I think it does.

This is an industrial-strength machine. There are some powerful air filters for residential use. If any of you know of one or have one, please feel free to share in the comments.

On Wednesday, I dragged myself upstairs around 11:30 AM, and the guys had already put the first coat of paint on everything, including the trim and walls!

 

Holy crap!!!  See what I mean?

 

Above, Alex and Paulo are applying the second coat on Wednesday afternoon.

 

Except for things like the baseboard heaters on Thursday, the den was DONE.

However, I was out until 6:00 PM, so I had the briefest window to take some quick pics.

One of them I posted to Instagram.

 

 

Here is the thing with saturated, deep, rich paint colors.

 

They need two things.

1. Great lighting

and

2. Stuff.

And by stuff, I mean furniture and beautiful art on the walls—lots of things to break up the color. So, if you go for drama, please don’t freak out—the room isn’t finished!

And like a white room loves pops of color, a deep paint color loves pops of white.

So, right now, the room suffers from bad lighting and no furnishings unless you consider a painter’s ladder to be furniture.

 

The above and below were taken about one hour before sunset on Thursday. But notice how dark the Mayo Teal looks on the ceiling, crown, and frieze!

 

I took some night-time shots, too.

 

Okay, now you’re going to see a superb example of why you should never select a color based on a photograph you saw somewhere.

When I took the shot below, my camera added a lot more light into the space, thus completely washing out the paint color.

I even darkened it a bit. However, this is not what my eye saw.

Below is how this image really looked at 8:30 at night with only the halogen downlights on dimly.

It is interesting. Below is how Benjamin Moore represents this normally enigmatic, deep paint color. The room would have to be flooded with bright light, and even then, I don’t think North Sea Green would ever be this uniformly bright.

 

 

Yesterday, Milton and his brother, Peter (both electricians), came and worked on the lighting and finished installing the living room picture lights.

 

I have to stop here because I can’t. I mean, I can, but I can’t.

 

What I’m trying to say is that after nearly ten months (!) of living in the DARK, the light in the living room with only these five picture lights is already almost other-worldly. And this is only the five picture lights. We still have the four Anglo-Indian sconces, a large alabaster chandelier, and two lamps by the windows.

Plus, there’s a big mirror coming soon that goes over the fireplace!

 

Below are my fabulous picture lights. I promise you’ll get to see them in situ very soon.

I got these at Visual Comfort in an open-box sale! They don’t currently have this finish on sale, but they have it. Please go here to find other finishes and dozens of other styles of picture lights on sale!

And if you would like to see more of my favorite light fixtures currently on sale at Visual Comfort, please visit the Hot Sales Lighting page.

Okay, I need to sign off now for real.

 

But, wait, Laurel. Don’t go yet!

 

Yes?

 

You said “picture lights,” right?

 

Yes.

 

Are you using them as picture lights or sconces? Can you use them as sconces with no pictures below?

 

Yes, you can definitely use the picture lights as sconces or both. No worries. We will go over all of it Monday evening, most likely.

xo,

 

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