Hi there and welcome back to week five of the One Room Challenge! As as reminder, for this year’s One Room Challenge, I am doing a surprise whole house renovation for my mom who is moving to North Carolina and doesn’t read my blog frequently. This week in the Coastal Grandmother’s Cottage, let’s chat paint.
For this post I received product from Clare Paint, however all opinions are 100% my own. Thank you for continuing to support the brands that support PrepFord Wife
Choosing paint colors
I teamed up with one of my favorite company’s for the paint, Clare. We’ve used and loved Clare before in this house so I loved reaching out to Clare to include it again. My favorite thing about them is how easy it is to select colors. I’m working on this house between work trips and in the evenings which means I have a limited window to actually select and pick up paint. I ordered their genius samples which are stickers and ordered paint from there. Because my color palette is such a simple one that will bleed throughout the house, it was super easy to move the stickers from room to room to see where they could be a good fit.
Color Palette For the Coastal Grandmother’s Cottage
First thing’s first, this is my general color palette for this house. The obvious colors in here were pulled from the kitchen floor tile which I had no intent to change. The other prominent color was rattan. You can’t really have a coastal set up without jute and rattan. From there, the obvious white and navy came into play. The one thing not accounted for here that I have a whopping three weeks to figure out is incorporating a black and white polka dot and the color green. My mom is the QUEEN of a black and white polka dot and it would be such a short coming on my part to not incorporate it somewhere. And then blue and green are her favorite colors to decorate with. See? We are way too similar. Now, into the rooms.
Living Room Paint Color Choices
The living room is bright white and admittedly a little sterile in its current state. But it wraps around all the way to the kitchen so I have to choose colors carefully. There’s no wall or break in the color I chose. I want this space to feel fresh and breezy. Step one to that was pulling down the shelves in here which we talked about in week 4. By pulling them, I created more visual space and openness. Step two was choosing a new white. The current white in this room is Lilac Muse by Valspar. Like its name, it has a hint of purple in it. It’s not really visible to the naked eye but I tell you that to say, we need to keep a cooler white in here. Otherwise it ends up feeling like bad rental white.
I ordered the Light & Whites swatch set which includes their selection of exactly that. I pulled my favorites and lined them up above the furniture that will live in this space. One tip I always, always, always- did I mention always- give people is to choose paint last. It’s a low cost, high effort way to liven up a space versus furniture which is high cost, low effort. Why? Because if you already own the furniture or have furniture selected, then you already have colors set. They won’t be changing but you have the power to pick paint after.
I do this by gathering the pieces that I know for a fact will live with the paint color. That can be furniture, key fabrics like rugs and curtains. It can even be lighting if I have a huge statement making piece like a lamp shade. In this space, key fabrics and pieces are still rolling in the mail so I used the furniture alone.
From left to right you’re looking at Like Buttah, Timeless, Snow Day, Whipped and Fresh Kicks. Snow Day and Fresh Kicks were both very strong contenders in this space. But I’ve used Fresh Kicks in this house in the upstairs bathroom and I know from experience that they mean it when they say untinted white. I was hoping for cool. Snow Day it is.
Kitchen Paint Color Choice
I love this kitchen in bright white but let’s be real here. Way too hard to manage in a home where I will have a “renter”. The floor is the dominant pattern and color in this space so my choice is to match to it. Hence the blue swatch here being placed next to the floor. I weighed between several colors and fell in love with Good Jeans, the perfect gray-blue for the cabinets. The inside of the door will go back to it’s original white.. Though, I considered a fun color like yellow. I would do it if I lived here but won’t for my mom.
To save the paint from having to do too much heavy lifting, I painted the primed the cabinets with Zinsser tinted to a color very close to the paint color. Clare sells primer but for cabinetry, I didn’t want to come close to risking it. This primer always gets it done. I used these Whizz paint rollers for the cabinet doors as well.
Primary Bedroom Paint Color Choice
This room was a bit more difficult than the living room. I had a moodboard and changed my mind a number of times. All I knew was that this bed was the right choice. Also how cute is this bed? My mom has always wanted a wood bed and a local boutique hotel was selling a few of their furnishings during a remodel so I snagged it. I love a cannonball bed and in spite of cherry wood coming and going out of style, I think it will be perfect for my mom. Anyway, the bed is the item that I am matching to in this room. I wanted something that would be complimentary and still fit the overall color palette.
I narrowed my chooses down to Frozen, Views and Make Waves (listed from top to bottom). From there I proceeded to chose literally none of those colors. Wild times over here. None of these colors quite fit the mood of this space. I wanted a soothing, sophisticated, haven. I want it to scream lady of the house without too much work from me. Queue me selecting Penthouse, a soft griege, for the walls and Good Jeans, for the trim to flow from the kitchen.
Upstairs Guest Room
This room is going to be the most fun for experimenting I have a lead fabric for this room that is amazing. Instead of matching to it, I want to introduce contrast. The color currently in this space is Views by Clare. We loved it and wrote about it in our previous bedroom but ready to let it go in favor of something that will be more to my mom’s speed. This room is going Frozen, an icy blue. For the trim walls and ceiling. I can not wait. One of my favorite tricks is to use the same color throughout and just vary the finish. Semigloss on the trim, eggshell for the walls.
Okay, that’s week five already! See you in like two days for another update. In the meantime, check out the other rooms, in the One Room Challenge!
XO Victoria