Young House Love

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Our Benjamin Moore Collection Of Favorite Paint Colors

Aw yeah, you know we love a good Britney reference. And you know we love painting (walls, paneling, brick, large ceramic roosters…). A big part of that is picking a paint color. Paint chips are kind of like potato chips to us (we can’t pop just one), and Benjamin Moore has been our snack of choice for a while now. Their color catalog is massive so it’s no wonder we’ve used their tones in nearly every room (Sesame in the kitchen, Moonshine in the living room and dining room, Proposal in Clara’s room, and Dragonfly on the back of our dining room built-ins). Then we used their Advance paint when it came to painting our office built-ins and kitchen cabinets since we’d heard so many good things about it (contractors and readers alike were always such enthusiastic Benjamin Moore fans). We even used their paint for a bunch of secret book projects (both on the walls and on a number of furniture pieces).

So, long story short, when Benjamin Moore invited us to curate a collection of our favorite colors… ummm, it was pretty much a dream of ours. I can’t even tell you how crazy it is for us to see our header on their site.

BenMoore Homepage

So after months of development, we’re crazy-excited to share our Benjamin Moore collection with you guys. Our job was essentially to sift through gobs of swatches (literally thousands of them) to pluck out 32 of our favorites in the hopes of helping anyone who is suffering from the dreaded paint paralysis. So yeah, picture us covering the entire sectional (poor Karl!) with paint swatches and creating different combos and switching things in and out until we landed on a collection to call our own. This partnership is just like any other side gig that helps pay the bills – like writing our magazine column or our book – except we got to play with paint chips for this one, so… score!

BenMoore Color Gallery

Some of the colors in our collection are tried and true choices of ours that we’ve already got on our own walls and some are colors that we’ve eyed forever (and haven’t used in our own house yet… but it’s probably only a matter of time). And some of them are colors that we used for our book – so we’ve seen them on the walls and on furniture, but the walls have since been painted over and the furniture has been hidden because that stuff has to stay secret until our book’s out this fall. So while many of them would be great on walls, we also split or collection into some suggested uses to help you out (like for trim/doors or as accents), so you can check that out here. We love the idea of using the bolder accent colors to wake up a room by:

  • painting a media cabinet, dresser, bed, desk, or chair
  • making some homemade art on a large canvas to fill an entire wall
  • painting a collection of frames to unify them and add drama
  • adding color to a lamp base, basket, or tabletop accessory
  • painting the back wall of a bookcase or built in for added interest

You can read a little intro to the collection here, check out all of our colors here, see them split by suggested application here, and read more thought behind the collection here (if you told us five years ago that we’d end up on the BM website, we’d have laughed at you for at least ten minutes). And you can pop over to view our collection whenever you’d like by following this little sidebar button.

BenMoore Out Button

Now can we just take a moment to talk about how INSANE it is to see our mugs right under Candice Olson’s? There might have been a series of ten to fifteen shrieks that scared a certain dog and delighted a certain toddler (who joined in on the last five to ten of them).

BenMoore Candice Olson Page

So that’s our latest secret project, which we couldn’t wait to share with you guys! I hope anyone out there who is overwhelmed by a giant wall full of swatches might find comfort in a smaller little collection of favorites to peruse and potentially use in their home. And since we’re on the subject of color, do you have an absolute favorite paint color? Is it the perfect neutral? A bold bright hue? Or a color that reminds you of a special place or time?

Comments

  1. Denise says

    Wow, how nice for the both of you. I love Benjamin Moore paint, it goes on like velvet. I used the same paint colour you used in your bedroom but I put it in our small bathroom with no window, it doesn’t even resemble the colour on the paint can. I don’t want to say exactly what it looks like but think of something in a diaper….. I have to pick another colour now, so I will head on over to Benjamin Moore and check out lighter colours.

    Reply

  2. Carla T says

    yee haw!!! congrats! I never say yee haw, but sounds like a fun thing to say, lol!! You truely deserve this honor…I’m a big fan of BM too! Let me tell you, new house with cheap white paint doesn’t do well with the other brands. I love the coverage and colors of BM. I painted my terra cotta kitchen with the Aura line in one coat and a quick light 2nd. I’ve also painted my pine dining table an espresso color with their line…love!
    Congrats again!

    Reply

  4. Angie says

    I love the colors! This is also super helpful, because our kitchen is about that shade of orange and it’s hard to find complementary colors. Thank you!

    Have you ever regretted painting wood? Our home is a 1920’s bungalow and half of the trim is white and the other half is stained. I don’t think we’d paint all the trim, but we’re considering painting the stair trim and a banister. It’s hard to pull the trigger, since there is no going back, but it would really make it much easier to patch up a few dings!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I haven’t but it’s such a personal thing and it’s hard to undo! So we always say to wait until you literally can’t stand one more day and must do it! Then you hopefully won’t regret it!

      xo,
      s

  5. April Anderson says

    Love BM colours too! I wonder if you can help clarify some of the paint #’s. I have a bunch of the colour fans here and I’m trying to match up your colours to them. What collection are the numbers with CSP from as in CSP 720 Dark Harbor? Also the ones with out letters as in Ashen Tan 996? Do you think I am missing another colour system? Or maybe the numbers are different up here in Canada? Yes, I’m from the land up north which will explain my spelling of COLOR:) By the way, I absolutely love your site — it’s my fav blog!!!

    Reply

    • April Anderson says

      I should mention that I have the systems that include these colour numbers: Affinity (AF-###) Designer Classics (CC-###) Historical (HC-###) Off White (OC-###) Colour Preview (2###-##) Thanks!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      The ones with CSP in them are their new Color Stories colors! They just came out about a month ago and are full of lots of depth. The ones without letters, we have no idea! They’re in a deck I’ve had forever (over five years now) so maybe they’re just their basic colors that they’ve had forever so they don’t have numbers in the front? They’re in decks with letters in front of some of the swatches (just peppered in there) so maybe it’s a mix? Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

    • April Anderson says

      Thank you!!! Off to their store to check it out today. I’m so excited to have even more fan decks to go through!!!

    • Kim says

      I can clarify the colours a little (I work for a Canadian BM dealer)! The ones without letters (like Ashen Tan) are from the ‘old’ BM colour system. In Canada, it was replaced in 2004 with the HCs, CCs, OCs, and the xxxx-xx numbers, but it remains standard in the States. Ashen Tan probably just has a different number in Canada, so just get your BM dealer to pop the name into their computer and see what it’s ‘other’ name is.

      The CSP colours are part of the new Colour Stories line. It’s really new, so a lot of dealers don’t have them/won’t have them in for a myriad of reasons. One thing to know is that you can only get the CSPs in Aura, which is a spendier paint because of the colourant load that goes into tinting them. Hope this helps!

    • April Anderson says

      Thanks Kim!!! This helps:) Just noticed your comment now…email notice skipped;)

  6. Tirsa says

    Congratulations on the Benjamin Moore collection!!!! We actually have several BM colors in most of our home. Among them are our kitchen which is Pale Avocado -which is a bit greener than your Sesame, our bedroom is Majestic Blue-also a tad darker than your Antiqued Aqua, and Nantucket Breeze in the guest room. (found a gallon of that paint in the discounted bin!!!)

    Reply

  8. Shavonda @ AHomeFullOfColor says

    I actually was on the Ben Moore website on Friday and saw you guys on there. I thought to myself, “is there anywhere these guys aren’t!!!” I was looking up colors for my kitchen cabinet redo. I opted for Aura in Simply White on my upper cabs and Advance in Arbor Grey on my lower cabs. I figure I may as well give both formulas a try and see how they compare. Congrats on your many new endeavors!!

    Reply

  10. Dawn G. says

    Congratulations! That is really awesome and I love, love love the colors you chose!

    My fave is the antiqued aqua. Even though I didn’t use BM paint (I used Ralph Lauren – sorry!) it is pretty much the same color as the antiqued aqua. I just love that color!

    You guys rock!

    Reply

  11. abby says

    This is awesome!! One of my friends and I were just talking about how we love your color scheme in your house. (Kinda weird that we’re sitting around talking about you all like we know you and you’re a friend of ours. HA!) I’m so excited to get some ideas and get inside your “brain” to see some other colors that you like!!

    Reply

  13. Jillian {Her Split Ends} says

    THAT IS SO EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m so pumped for you guys and FAB job on the color selection, I’m loving!

    {p.s. I didn’t realize your sectional is named Karl…we have a bonsai named Karl…maybe they should meet}

    Happy Painting!!
    ~ Jillian

    Reply

  14. Jessica@HomewithBaxter says

    Umm that is seriously so awesome! I have checked out Candace Olsen’s color picks on the BM site several times now looking for a little inspiration. I am so glad you guys have one now too. I love your color choices!

    Reply

  17. Sally says

    Seriously? Ben Moore couldn’t have picker better spokesmen (spokespersons?) than you two. For crying out loud, you even decorated a Christmas tree with paint chips.

    Reply

  18. Diana says

    When we recently had several rooms painted, I hired a decorator for 1 hour to help me select colors. I decided on BM Montgomery White for our bedroom. It is actually a pale yellow. This decorator said it is her “go to” color and she said it has actually helped her sell houses after repainting with Montgomery White. Check it out.

    Reply

  19. Leanette says

    Just wanted to tell you both how proud I am of you!! I know that probably sounds way weird but I am! I have been reading your blog for about a couple of years now. Your wedding inspired my wedding and your house projects have of course inspired my house projects! My husband and I, along with our two furry children, live in a ranch home similar to your first home (but smaller- ugh). Keep up the amazing hard work! :)

    Reply

  20. Jill says

    OH MY WORD! This is so HUGE! You guyyyysssss!!! I am so tickled for yall! Woweee. A lot of colors you suggested are hanging on my wall right now (except they are Valpsar), so I might just have to trek over to BenMoore and see these in person.

    THIS IS RAD. THIS IS BAD. BAAAAAAAD TO THE BONE. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you got to actually name and create your own palette? Wowzers. That would be overload. I’m getting verklempt just thinking about it.

    CONGRATULATIONSSSSSSS!!!!!

    Reply

  23. Holly says

    I have noticed that some collections are not available in stores and you can only buy them online. Will your collection colors be at stores that sell BM paint? I sure hope so! I really want to check out some of those grays and darker blues!!

    Always looking for professionals to tell me what colors to use! So glad I can just pick one of these colors and know I am safe!! :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, I believe all the swatches are already on that big wall o’ paint chips at any Benjamin Moore store, so as long as you have the name and number you should be able to hunt them all down.

      xo,
      s

  24. Amy says

    We bought the same exact TV for the same exact reason! We have a gi-ormous bedroom (15×18) and we were squinting at a 26″ TV all the way on the other side of the room. I love the TV (and the little glowing “Vizio” light on the bottom). I laughed about your comment on the cover photo. I have the box in my garage, cuz I just can’t bring myself to toss the boxes stuff comes in, and EVERY day I see it when I pull the car in and I have commented to my husband numerous times how ridiculous that lady looks! So funny you thought the same thing! And way to go with the paint color collection – that is super exciting! I just painted my living and dining room focal walls with Martha Stewart’s Plumage due to you recent post and pics from your guest room. I can’t wait to check out the new collection and paint more rooms in my house with your suggestions!

    Reply

  26. Lisa Moran says

    This is so awesome!!! Congrats…I’ve been a reader since the early years and I’m so happy you guys are finally getting the attention you deserve! And…you picked one of my favorite neutrals…Ashen Tan – my whole apartment is painted this color. Love.

    Reply

  27. cali says

    This could not have been timed more perfectly! We are moving and started talking about paint colors and got overwhelmed right away…can’t wait to pull these swatches!!

    Reply

  28. Jen says

    You totally deserve to be hanging with Candace Olson! You have such an incredible eye for color and selecting the right ones! Congrats on such a cool opportunity!

    xoxo!
    Jen

    Reply

  29. Amanda says

    Oh this is so great! I’ve admired Moonshine for a while but was never able to find the paint chip at our Ben Moore store (I guess I could have asked.) I could have sworn that Seasame in your kitchen was a green color! I guess it’s just how it comes across on the screen! Love that you have your own official collection of colors now! Congrats!

    Reply

  30. Sarah says

    My mom is thinking of adding some open shelves to their home to display her collection of white pitchers (she has an addiction!). We love the brackets you used on your shelves but I can’t find the post back that went into detail on them. Can you remind me where you found them? Thanks! I LOVE you new kitchen and all that for such a great price!!!

    Reply

  31. Kim says

    I was so excited to see this post! We repainted our entire condo with BM Aura after having major paint disasters with two different (and supposedly good) brands. While the BM Aura paint is expensive, it covered at least twice as well as the more affordable big box paints. And, if I’m anything, I’m cheap – but not having to paint 3 coats (the people before us liked wine and turquoise a lot) and the time savings for dry time was amazing. I am sold on BM paints for life!

    I wish we’d had your color selection help back in January however! We knew what we wanted, but finding it was the hardest part, and after a few missteps (which we are living with and actually enjoying), we learned that buying the sample paint was a necessary part of the process. And to know they came out with even more exciting colors – cool!

    Thanks for the great posts, and the encouragement that, while it may take time to get there, DIY can be fun and look great in the end. Sometimes, while buried under unpacked boxes and tripping over paint cans, it’s hard to remember!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We actually planned to but then held some up and it looked really crazy and overdone. We don’t know why, maybe because we don’t have many upper cabinets (just two) so since the rest of the kitchen is sort of low-lying the tall parts looked odd with molding!

      xo,
      s

  33. Amber says

    This is awesome! I must say that I never see a paint swatch without thinking of YHL. It’s kind of weird actually, haha. I was just watching TV and saw a Sherwin Williams ad where the whole world is made of paint swatches and guess who I thought of? Then I came and saw this-amazing!!!! You guys rock!

    Reply

  34. Sally says

    Congrats! I found your blog when I was looking for paint colors three years ago. I used some of your recommendations – including Hibiscus – and still love them.

    Reply

  37. Alyssa Wine says

    That’s insane, congratulations! That must have been a challenge to choose a color without knowing what it would be used on. And I love that your picture is under Candace’s, in fact I revel in the contrast of Candace and Darryl’s professional, styled, hair & make up shots compared to your real life candid shot on the beach :P Way to represent!

    Reply

  40. Cristina S. says

    Do you guys realize you are on the same page with Candice Olson!?! OMG! I’m so happy for you! Thinking of finally getting around to painting that guest bedroom… hmmm I wonder where I will choose a color from :)

    Reply

  41. Stephanie says

    We used Benjamin Moore paints for our entire house!! In fact, the paint color we used for the master bedroom is one your list – quiet moments. The dining room is adirondack green, the living room is senora gray, one of the spare bedroom is new hope gray… we have a red accent wall in the kitchen, but for the life of me I can’t remember what the name of the color is, and I’m at work so I can’t check the can… But picking out paint colors was simultaneously the most fun and most frustrating thing I’ve ever done, because there are SO many colors to choose from!

    Reply

  42. Amy says

    OMG! Davenport Tan! That has been the feature wall in my bedroom for the last 5 years… and in my bestfriends last 2 bedrooms! She used it again in her newest house b/c we love it soooo much! Brown without being chocolate, mocha or too tan. Awesome paint picks – I don’t know how you managed to narrow down your choices, so many fabulous colours to choose from with B.M.!

    Reply

  43. Oona says

    My new favorite paint color is Driftwood by Martha Stewart. I just painted our Master Bedroom and I just love how the putty gray pops against the white trim, sky blue ceiling, and navy drapes… Fabulous!

    Reply

  44. Katie says

    Hi Guys,

    Sorry to bother you, but I have a quick painting question. I’m planning to use your paint pick, ‘intuition’ (love it!) in my bathroom. My husband wants to paint the ceiling a complimentary color. Are there a few options from your new line that you would suggest?

    Also, we don’t have crown molding so do you think a ceiling color would even look good?

    I really trust your opinion. Thanks for taking the time to help me with this.

    Katie

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I would ask them to cut the color in half with white (meaning they’ll add a nice dose of white to the can and mix up a lighter toned color that relates perfectly) for the ceiling! Hope it helps! You can also just go with the same exact wall color on the ceiling (which we did on our master bathroom and our hall bathroom in our first house) since you don’t have crown molding to break it up. It sounds like it could make a room dark or be risky, but it’s a great way to avoid chopping up a room with a differently colored ceiling and we love how open it feels since the color never stops! Good luck!

      xo,
      s

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