Colors for the New House

One of the fun parts of getting a new house is a whole new blank canvas to chose the colors I want - since every single surface in the house needs to be painted...  In our old house I kinda got stuck after the first baby and never got back to painting or redecorating other rooms.  In this house I want colors I won't grow tired of right away and have to redo often once we have furniture in it but I don't want just all bland neutrals - its time for a little punch here and there.  I also wanted colors my husband would be happy with (of course, they always say they don't care until they see it on the wall, right?).  We both love the shades of nature - blues, mossy greens, grays, wood tones and most of our current furniture blends well with those tones.  The house has a lot of open sight lines between rooms on the first floor so its important that the colors work well together from room to room.

We have used Lowe's primarily (gotta love the MyLowe's tracking system!) and I fell in love with the natural and historical colors offered by Valspar.  Here is what I have so far:


Kitchen - the walls will be Silver Leaf, the cabinets are all Lincoln Cottage Lattice Green and the inside of the open cabinets and highlights will be in the Hematite.

Fireplace Room - this room is open to the kitchen and the real highlight will be the wood beams and build-ins so the walls and trim will be kept bright and simple with the Silver Leaf:

Dining Room and Living Room - these rooms sort of flow together with the circular shape of the majority of the main floor so I wanted cohesive colors but I wanted the dining room to be a little lighter and brighter while the living room will be a sort of reading/homework den for my daughter and I.  The trim in both will again be the Silver Leaf.

Hallways - The hallways on both floors will be Silver Leaf as well.  The hubby has been working on finishing his stairwell repairs and I'll be posting a finished picture of that soon - it is looking fantastic.  The upstairs hallway has an upgraded trim and wainscoting but it was unstained and unsealed so its dingy like everything else and there are some pieces that don't quite match.  We are debating on whether to try a gray stain or just paint it and whether to go white or dark gray if we paint it...

Laundry Room and First Floor Bathroom - these are currently painted a bright terra cotta and dark burgundy so I knew it would be tough to paint over.  Not that I mind the colors themselves but they are too dark for the small spaces of the rooms so I've picked with this Winter Calm.  Its hard to see in the pictures but it actually has a slightly plum tint to the gray so I'm hoping that will help mask any of the hue of reds that might show through after we prime.

Little Man's Room - its currently a dark blue that makes it look like a cave.  While I'm sure he will sleep better, its just way too dark.  But he is insistent that he wants blue so I picked this lighter tone of blue that should go well with his array of sports memorabilia and the trim will all be in Silver Leaf to help brighten it a bit too.

Master Bedroom - our current bedroom is horrible shades of greens.  Not nice greens.  Ugly greens.  It was that way when we moved in and its just such a pain once you get furniture in there - we just never got to it.  So I am very much looking forward to this fuzzy gray color and even the name seems appropriate when I think about waking up in the morning looking over the hay field.  It looks blue here but it is really a sort of medium-darkish gray.  The trim here - again - Silver Leaf - I bought a lot of it.  :)

Master Bathroom - currently looks like someone threw up - on the walls...  No really - see..

So it will be getting a makeover in the form of Silver Leaf and the cabinets, wood light frame and mirror cabinet will all be Kettle Black in a gloss finish.

The Princess' room is last and still under debate.  She likes brighter, bolder colors but since she is 9, I know we will still be transitioning from littler girl stuff to teen stuff over the next few years so I'd like her to pick a color we can work with for a few different looks.  Right now she has some beautiful butterfly's in sherbet colors picked out to put on the wall and she wants to do a canopy in a bright color over the bed.  The room is currently a bright shade of coral on the top half and a weird tan on the bottom - not an easy combo to work with but since its already that color she kinda has that stuck in her heads.  So that may be the last room we paint and will require a mother-daughter shopping trip to make the decision.

What do you think of my choices?