paint colors
We've had so many requests for colors, brands and finishes of the paint we used throughout the house, we've set up a separate page for them. So here it is, the one-stop shop for all the paint we've used throughout Brickman House.
We're warning you in advance-- we like the house to be attractive, but we also keep it simple. For you decorating gurus who have the visual acuity and sensitive color aesthetic to spend days agonizing over the precise shade of white with the exact overtones that your room demands, just move on-- don't waste your time on us! We're just not that good. We suggest a subscription to Architectural Digest.
With that in mind, here are a few quick housekeeping matters out of the way:
First: We don't knock any other brand of paint, but from our personal experience of seven years, three houses, and over 40 rooms (and counting!), we are fans of Valspar paints-- we have always had every wall color, no matter where, how or why it comes to us, computer color matched into Lowe's One and Only Low Lustre for our walls. Unfortunately, the One and Only line was discontinued in late 2003. We're now using American Heritage Eggshell for the walls, with equally good results.
Literally without exception, we use American Heritage High Gloss for the trim. We neither recommend or diasapprove of any other paint brand (aside from Behr, which we hate with a passion, but that's a whole 'nother story). Anyway, we just don't have time to mess around with another brand, finish, or time-intensive application process that might or might not work. We've got a 160-year old house, and we don't know what nine generations of prior owners might have done or put on the walls. Our circumstances demand a brand that produces consistently good results, no matter what the conditions, at a reasonable price, and Valspar products fit the bill for us.
Second: Every piece of trim in the house, including casing, doors, baseboards, crown moulding, you name it... if it isn't a wall or a floor, it's painted in American Heritage High Gloss Bright White. We adore white trim-- it sets off every paint color, every wood tone, every piece of furniture and every accessory we own. Every single thing we own looks great against crisp white, so we stick with it. It also makes the inevitable touch-ups in high use and abuse areas easy. It's white? It's American Tradition High Gloss Bright White... no brain power need be expended. Not that it's necessarily the design choice for everyone, but fair warning: don't email us asking what the trim color is in each room, because we promise the answer will be the same!
Third: Same goes for all the white walls in the house. There aren't many pure, plain white rooms in the house (the studio being a notable exception), but those that are, have been painted Lowe's One and Only Low Lustre White. We use the exact same white for all closets, basement stairwells, attic stairwells, utility areas, or any area that just needs plain white. It's a good crisp, clear white, and keeping it simple and consistent saves us hours of hunting in the basement amongst five shades of white to try to remember exactly which shade we used in the first closet of the second guest room... and no matter how close they look in the can, if you pick the wrong shade, the touch-up shows up as glaringly as our mangy old Doberman at an offical State dinner. Ugh... how frustrating.
That said, here's the list of colors we used in each room of the house:
Walls: Martha Stewart Everyday Colors G07 "Quaking Aspen"
Ceiling: Martha Stewart Everyday Colors H10, no name specified
Walls: Martha Stewart Everyday Colors G18, no name specified
Ceiling: Martha Stewart Everyday Colors H19, no name specified
Two walls: Martha Stewart Signature Colors 8076, "Pale Earth"
Two walls and ceiling: Martha Stewart Signature Colors 8020, "Stoneware"
Three walls downstairs: Sherwin Williams 6273, "Nouvelle White"
Common wall upstairs and upstairs hall: Sherwin Williams 6274, "Destiny"
NOTE: We repainted the hall, upstairs and down, in February 2004, using:
Wall: Valspar, "Woodlawn Colonial Grey"
Ceiling: Valspar, "Montpelier Madison White"
You can see preliminary photos of the new colors in our February 2004 journal entry.
Walls: Martha Stewart Signature Colors 8054, "Pudding Mold"
Ceiling: Valspar, American Tradition, "Aegean Mist"
Walls and Ceiling: Martha Stewart Signature Colors 8007, "Bone China"
Walls and Ceilling: Benjamin Moore 2067-70 "White Satin"
Floor: White Checks-- off the shelf Porch and Floor enamel "White"
Floor: Blue Checks-- Benjamin Moore 2067-50 "Summer Blue"
Floor: Grout lines-- Benjamin Moore 2067-70 "White Satin"
Three walls, and darker stripes on accent wall: Valspar "Ancestral"
Ceiling, and lighter stripes on accent wall: Valspar "Snow Ballet"
We don't remember what we ultimately ended up with. We played with the Sherwin Williams fan deck to find a neutral for the walls, and an even lighter one for the ceiling. We chose one, then another, then another... and ended up repainting the room several times until we discovered a neutral that didn't look like, well... human skin, on the walls. In the process, we lost track of what color we actually ended up with on the walls and ceiling. Sorry folks, no help here!
Walls: Ralph Lauren SS08, Sea and Sky "Fog"
Ceiling: Valspar "Arctic Breeze"
Walls: Generic white moisture-retardant paint
Floor: Behr Premium Plus Porch&Floor Colors, PPPF-02 "Front Porch"
Stairs, Wood and Accents: Behr Premium Plus Porch&Floor Colors, PPPF-10 "Red Rock"
Walls and Ceiling: Lowe's One and Only stock White (now American Heritage stock White)
We hope this helps those who are interested. As we remodel each room, we will add the paint colors to this page.
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