Master Bedroom and Living Room Paint Colors

With our closing on Monday, Mike and I decided to spend some time today getting our appliances ordered and final paint colors selected for our master bedroom and living room, the two rooms we plan to tackle first. I know I want the whole house to be painted in soft neutrals and shades of gray, blue and greige, that delightful gray area being gray and beige. (No pun intended.) The house is only around 1600 square feet so I know I want to limit the number of paint colors to about four so all the spaces have great continuity and flow from room to room. With that in mind, picking the colors for two of the spaces that will get the most use was an important step in determining the direction things will go.

I knew right away that I wanted gray walls in the master bedroom, a nice medium shade that was decidedly gray as opposed to an off white shade that read a bit gray. Without too much difficulty I settled on Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray HC-170. It’s a beautiful neutral gray with just a tiny hint of blue undertone that is just gorgeous. Keeping in mind that every monitor is different, here is a bedroom painted in Stonington Gray:

{Photo from decor pad.}

Deciding on the living room paint was only slightly more difficult. I thought I had wanted a shade of cream or light tan, something akin to Benjamin Moore French White 1093, but when I played with the swatches against a throw pillow from our soft aquamarine couch, I knew those shades weren’t going to work. They were alternately reading too pink, too yellow, too orange, just too warm in general. After playing around with a couple of ideas, Mike and I both gravitated toward Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray HC-173 so that was the winner. Here is a living room painted in Edgecomb Gray:

{Photo from Blossom Interiors.}

The two colors look beautiful together, but are different enough that I think the rooms will read very differently. Stonington Gray is definitely a bit darker and a decidedly cooler gray, while the Edgecomb Gray reads more like a soft greige hue.

{Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray HC-170 from my perfect color.}

{Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray HC-173 from my perfect color.}

I also decided on a shade of white for the kitchen cabinets, which I’ll be painting next Tuesday. Without much deliberation I opted for perennial Benjamin Moore favorite Cloud White OC-130. I’ll be posting full details on the products I used for the kitchen cabinets plus complete before and after photos next week. Let the games begin!