Choosing Paint Colors for Our House, Round Two!

Choosing Paint Colors for Our House, Round Two!

Today should be the six-week update on the new baby’s room, but the fact is, there’s nothing new to report! We’re STILL waiting on the dresser. Supposedly it shipped last week so maybe soon?? We also went ahead and ordered a rug. After your votes in last week’s poll, we went with the bleached jute braided rug from Rugs USA, and it ended up being 70% plus 20% off bringing the price of an 8×10 rug down to only $190 — what a steal! (for a rug.) I think it’s a great choice for the room. That means now we’re waiting for the rug and the dresser and everything else is on hold. Ugh.

So while we wait let’s finally start thinking again about choosing a paint color for our house!

As you may remember, we’re planning on getting our house painted, and we hit you up for your exterior paint-color opinions way back in May. MAY! It’s almost July and we hadn’t done a thing in all this time! So this past weekend we picked up the two colors that got the most votes — Sherwin Williams Gray October (SWVS 419) and Prime Time (SWVS 429), both of which are in their line of vinyl siding-safe colors. We would do the darker color on the vinyl siding and then a lighter color on the brick, most likely a white, like Sherwin Williams Snowbound (SW 7004) that we have below.

Gray October has blue and green undertones that make it almost teal-grey, and Prime Time has a blue-almost-purple undertone. Of the two, we like Gray October more … but not really that much. It’s too dark. Too heavy. It doesn’t really go with the rest of our things, doesn’t match the interior of our house, and most of all doesn’t feel like us.

So of course I got really stressed out. As I do.

Then I got out my trusty Sherwin Williams paint deck and started flipping through, thinking maybe it’s time to go in a completely different direction. If the first plan isn’t working, try something else, right?! I started looking at much lighter greys. Our painter said that when it comes to vinyl siding we don’t necessarily have to stick with just the vinyl-approved colors. However, the darker you go, the more risk there is of the paint peeling or the siding buckling due to heat absorption. If we choose a light color, though, that’s not a concern.

I spent pretty much every available moment (i.e. all of naptime) on Monday looking at the paint chips, looking at Sherwin Williams’s website, and looking at Pinterest to come up with new paint-color options. I even had Joey looking at colors while we ate lunch! I made a big list, then Andy and I went through it together that night to narrow it down, and I picked up four new paint samples yesterday….

What do you think?!

I’m feeling WAY better about these. North Star (SW 6246) is a light blue-grey; Misty (SW 6232) is a cool grey; and Rain (SW 6219) is a grey-green — a little different for us but it reminds me of sea glass. We also tested Sherwin Williams Extra White (SW 7006) which is a cooler white than the creamy Snowbound (it’s looking creamy here because it’s just one coat and the underneath color is peeking through.)

We haven’t picked a favorite yet, but these colors in general feel more like us. I like that they have a beachy vibe that goes with the interior of our house. They’re lighter and fresher, and since our house is not big, these colors wouldn’t weigh it down the way a darker color might.

I’m super inspired by the grey and mint color palettes of these houses.

(top left via Addison’s Wonderland | top left via HomeBunch | bottom via Houzz)

It just goes to show sometimes you think you know what you want and you end up with something completely different. That’s why it’s so important to try paint samples!

Here are all the colors together for comparison…

That strip down the middle is literally all the same color (Extra White), so it’s really funny how it looks like three different colors. I’d say the top is the most accurate.

Let us know what you think!! Do you have a favorite? Do you like this new direction?