Our home's colour palette

Now that hall and stairway painting is happening (not quickly, but happening), we’re DONE picking paint colours. For walls, anyway. Since I usually show you bits and pieces of a room at a time, I thought it would be fun to see all of our colour choices together. I’m not claiming to be an expert (ha!); this is just what works for us.

main floor and hallway: SICO’s clouds of volcanic ashes
This is the most-used colour in our open-concept house. It runs through our entry, living room, dining room, kitchen and hallway. It feels very calm to me, but also happy. And blue is my favourite colour, so.

bathroom: SICO’s crosshatch
I’ve actually repainted our bathroom twice since we moved in (one colour only lasted a day), but it was worth it to end up here. I love the dark, moody grey in our little bathroom; it feels very cozy, and a little bit preppy with the white trim and dark-stained doors.

guest room: Behr’s heavy cream
I maybe, sort of wish that we’d gone with a whiter white, but not enough to want to repaint this room. Like, even a little. This colour is also very calm to me, and I hope it helps our guests feel relaxed in this space.

our bedroom: Martha Stewart’s whetstone gray
The swatch really doesn’t do this colour justice. It’s so calming and I love how it reacts to the light – sometimes more grey, sometimes more beige, sometimes almost purple, depending on the time of day. We used a flat finish, because our walls have all kinds of imperfections (ahem, character) and I swear it feels like we have fabric on our walls (not literally, of course). Soothing.

Hannah’s room: SICO’s inkling
I swear this post isn’t sponsored by SICO, apparently I just really like their paint colours. I’d describe ‘inkling’ as a white with a hint of blue and grey (I didn’t say I’d describe it well). It’s calming (you’re sensing a theme) and helps the small room feel bright.

We didn’t choose our paint colours all at once. We started with ‘clouds of volcanic ashes’ because we wanted something calm and fresh and bright for the main floor. I like neutrals because they’re a good backdrop when you’re still figuring out your decorating style. You can experiment.

That was basically the thinking behind all our colour choices. Plus, we have a really small house, so I think too much contrast from room to room would feel overwhelming. Instead, I’ve tried to add personality to each room with furniture, accessories and art.

I’m almost sad that we won’t get to paint any more rooms…until I think about the actual work of painting. There’s a reason the hallway painting is taking so long, and it’s not just the high ceilings, toddler and full-time job (OK, it’s mostly those things). And then there are all the other projects on our list. Actually, thank goodness we’re out of rooms to paint