Young House Love

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Our 32 Favorite Home Paint Colors

Alternate punny post title: Gimme Some Moore. Yes, that was a Busta Rhymes reference. Dude, that song was my junior year jam. And speaking of jams, our new nail gun is our latest. John’s totally ready to get his crown molding install on this weekend, assuming he can wrestle it out of my hands. Just gotta let these guys acclimate a little bit longer…

Crown Molding Acclimating

So while the crown molding gets to know our house a little better (and I dreamily gaze at it while whispering sweet nothings) we’re excited to share our 2013 Benjamin Moore paint picks! We’re a little tardy for the party with this – and a big thanks to everyone who has been asking about it! – but we just didn’t want to pull them out of a hat. So we took our sweet time finding the colors we wanted to marry. All 32 of them. It’s going to be the wedding of the century, guys.

BenMoore All Colors

We thought it would be fun to toss out some more specific ideas for using a few of our picks right in this post, so here’s one now:

BenMoore Calypso Blue

And here’s another one (you’ll find four more peppered throughout the post).

BenMoore Cool Breeze

Some of the colors in the collection are tried and true tones that we’ve already used, some are colors that we’ve eyed forever, and some are colors that we used for our book (so we’ve seen those in action as well). You can check out all of our colors here (if you told us five years ago that we’d end up on the Benjamin Moore website, we’d have laughed at you for five minutes, gained our composure, and laughed at you for five more). And you can pop over to view our collection whenever you’d like by following this little sidebar button of ours…

BenMoore Button On Page

We’ve been using Benjamin Moore colors for around half a decade, and we’ve been buying their actual paint since 2011 (we first tried it out on our office built-ins), so when they invited us to curate a collection of our favorite colors last year, it was pretty much a dream of ours. And jumping back in to choose 32 new colors for 2013 was just as much fun. This partnership is just like any other side gig that helps pay the bills – like writing a magazine column or our book – except we get to play with paint chips for this one, so… yeah buddy.

BenMoore Geranium

Our process was pretty simple. If by simple you mean splaying out 561 paint swatches (you think I’m kidding) in order to choose our favorite 32 colors. It was beautiful chaos, I tell ya. And I loved every undertone-investigating minute of it.

BenMoore Quicksand

The goal is simple too. We just hope anyone out there who’s overwhelmed by a giant wall full of swatches will find comfort in a smaller collection of favorites to peruse and potentially use in their home. And we hope that some of the suggestions spattered throughout this post get your motors running. You know, in that exciting I-want-to-paint-something-right-this-second way. Or in that I-want-to-paint-something-but-first-I-need-a-marshmallow way. Either one.

BenMoore Bright Yellow

And since we’re on the subject of color, have you guys used any paint colors that you’ve loved lately? Do you keep a little folder of your favorite swatches? Or a pinterest board full of ’em? How do you keep track of them all?

BenMoore Pinch Of Spice

When we were choosing this collection we discovered that cutting out swatches individually and laying them all out on a neutral background (dark charcoal colored Karl, haha!) was a great way to see how they all worked together. And it helped us “balance” things by being sure we had enough dark choices, bold ones, neutrals, and soft and serene colors that weren’t too bright or too neutral. In short: if you have a few spare weekends and a neutral colored sofa, I highly recommend playing around with paint swatches instead of watching TV. Seriously, it’s right up there with a marathon of The Walking Dead (albeit a lot less bloody).

Psst- We picked a winner for this week’s giveaway, so you can find out if it’s you right here.

Comments

  1. Ainhoa says

    This is awesome! Looking forward to browsing your whole collection. Can you believe they don’t give out swatches in Spain?!?! You have to buy a paint deck or choose the color at the store (definitely not ideal).!

    Reply

  2. Megan says

    This makes me want to repaint everything in our house… Love the geranium frames. Maybe in your new hallway with the board and batten?
    Also, my nailgun and I are still going stong on the honeymoon phase, 4 years later :)

    Reply

  3. Diane @ Vintage Zest says

    Ooh! Wow, whittling down 561 paint swatches to these only 32! There’s nothing that intimidates me more than picking paint. After a while, all the colors just start to look the same… Thanks for the pretty paint options!

    Reply

    • Ryan Hart says

      Unless you’re a color pro like John and Sherry, picking paint colors can be intimidating. It helps to narrow down your paint choices to a select few before you find yourself facing a wall of swatches. I would like to hear their thoughts on how to avoid this ‘paint paralysis’ that haunts most of us.

  4. Lindsay says

    So can we expect to see Pinch of Spice on your walls in the near future since you’re toying with the idea of potentially repainting?!?

    Reply

  5. Jess @ Little House. Big Heart. says

    What a fun gig! I can just imagine spreading them all out on the floor and picking the ones you love! Fun!

    I’m loving the Moroccan Spice! It would look awesome in my dream kitchen: all white with pops of a tomato-y, spicy red and Jadeite green (since I collect Jadeite)!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We actually used that for an entire wall of our playroom back for the book (and then painted it back so no one saw it before the book came out). It’s a gorgeous color!

      xo
      s

  7. [email protected] says

    A while back you suggested Benjamin Moore paint colors to me. I went into the city a few weekends ago to pick out a Benjamin Color. I just wish that Benjamin Moore was sold in the big box stores like Lowes. :) Such a distance to drive for such a wide selection of pretty colors! … maybe since you work so closely with them you can drop them a hint for me. ;)

    Reply

    • Aimee says

      Benjamin Moore is sold at our local OSH store, it’s not super big box, but it still has all the regular hardware things so you don’t have to go to HD or Lowes to get the rest of the stuff for your project. Although I do think it’s just a CA chain. Unhelpful comment of the day…

    • Linda says

      In my area, certain Ace Hardware stores carry Benjamin Moore – including the Aura line. The Ace guys are very knowledgeable, but the folks at my local BM store just rock with advice and how-to tips. Got me through my master bath wallpaper removal and paint job.

  8. Penelope @ A Word With Penelope says

    We used Behr colors on our walls (just posted a room reveal today!) and many of our color choices were inspired by you guys. I used light gray as our backdrop/neutral and some people thought I was crazy to use a “cool color.” But ya know what… now they’re changing their tune!

    Reply

  10. Emily F. says

    Love these! Especially that Calypso Blue…I see a test pot of that in my future. It’d be great to paint some frames for an accent color in our living room.

    Thinking about your bedroom color made me go with a darker gray in our new master bedroom. It’s Pavestone by SW, a darkish gray with brown undertones, and I lurve it. So comfy and cozy feeling!

    Reply

  13. Ashley says

    I spy with my little eye…a new teal cart in the dining room! I’m loving your new collection of paint colors. They have me itching to paint something!

    Reply

  14. Kristen says

    After two houses replacing all the quarter round…our nail gun sleeps in his own bed and is served wine and cheese every evening…

    Our nursery is actually painted something very close to pinch of spice (little more purple maybe?), with black and white, and bright yellow accents. Love it.

    Reply

  15. Rebecca @This Nest is Best says

    We’ll be painting our dining room next weekend – a nice light gray on three walls, one chalkboard wall and an accent color in the entry and on a bump out (emerald? mulberry? peacock? jury’s out on the accent color!). Huh…now it sounds a bit crazy! I think it will come together well, though!

    Reply

  17. Katie says

    I saw the button on your sidebar last night and wondered when we’d get the scoop! Love your suggestions. We just painted our bathroom a color very similar to Calypso Blue with white board and batten. That Geranium color is fantastic…need to brainstorm a place to use it! Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Your bathroom sounds so pretty! And definitely send us photos with Geranium in action if you use it. In person it’s so pretty and rich looking!

      xo
      s

  18. Abby says

    Love the color choices! Hubby and I bought our first house in June and we have been painting rooms right and left. It has definitely made the house feel like “ours.” Out of all the colors we’ve used, I’m most in love with our living room, which is painted Cedar Green by Benjamin Moore. To me, the name kind of sounds like a forest green sort of color, but it’s really more of a vibrant spring-like green. It’s just gorgeous and makes me feel happy and peaceful whenever I walk in that room. We haven’t done much accessorizing yet, but I’m feeling some goldenrod yellow and magenta!

    Reply

  19. Janet says

    Great choices!! I painted my dining room Balsam about 3 years ago and I still get tons of compliments on it whenever I have guests over! It’s a great bold color without being too obtrusive. Now I’ll just have to find 31 other surfaces to try all the other colors :-P

    Reply

  20. Jill says

    Ooh Sherry and John,

    How did you know I am picking nursery colors this weekend! Do you have any gender neutral baby’s room color suggestions?

    Word!

    Jill

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Congrats for the bean on the way! Wahoo! I love Stanhope Yellow and Cool Breeze for a soft gender neutral nursery. And if you’re going for bold, Balsam would look amazing for a girl or a boy’s room!

      xo
      s

  21. heather says

    I always in theory *love* a bold color on the walls and then when I actually try it I immediately reel since I feel too boxed in haha. I do love the idea of having pops of colors in accessories throughout. I like to take all the brighter paint colors I like and use them to help decide what accent colors in accessories I want in my room. Right now I’m leaning towards creme/navy and bright pops of green for our living room!

    Reply

  23. Meredith says

    Great choices! I’m in the process of picking the right shade of deep emerald to paint my kitchen cabinets so I know how serious paint selection can be!

    Reply

  25. rachael says

    I debated between Lucerne and Bellbottom Blues for the back of my book case and went with the the latter! But Lucerne is a beautiful color, too!
    I am wondering if we are going to see pinch of spice on your kitchen walls soon??? You did mention going a little darker and moodier, did you not?

    Reply

  27. Kristen Swift says

    I’m itching for a kitchen re-do after your latest posts! First, the board and batten (because I loathe the chair-railing in our small kitchen), and now the Pinch of Spice?! Then of course, I’ll have to paint the cabinets white. If I paint the cabinets white, I’ll need all new stainless steel appliances to match. Then we’ll need to replace the linoleum floor…

    My husband is going to hate me :)

    Reply

  28. Gretchen@BoxyColonial says

    Benjamin Moore doesn’t pay me anything, but I will still talk all day about how completely in love with them and their fabulous paint colors I am :). I’ve been looking for a great purple for a little hallway and maybe my half bath….I’ve got my eye on Super Nova now–thanks!

    Reply

  29. Katie says

    You all know I love Clara’s Alaskan Skies…err…Edgecomb Gray…Baby Fawn :) Question–is Decorator’s White a white white white? We are inspired by your Board and Batten and we are going to attempt soon but we want a true white, I think. This whole comment makes little sense in rereading it, ha.

    Reply

  30. Ali B. says

    We totally used your 2012 picks TO DEATH. Richmond Green became the wall color in our bathroom (which has almost no wall to actually paint). And I think the white we chose for the kitchen cabinets was one of your picks too, but I don’t have the color handy and I can’t find the 2012 picks online any more so I can’t check. Oh well. Anyway, thanks for narrowing it down for us again. I have a whole huge swatchbook, but it’s totally overwhelming sometimes!

    Reply

  31. katie says

    Love your new collection. We need to repaint a few rooms, and seeing your picks and ideas has me thinking… it’s painting time, y’all!!

    Reply

  32. Aimee says

    Awesome! The line starting with Lucerne is the color scheme for our nursery. We painted the walls Rockport Grey, and the dresser is a bright yellow. (not that one though, we picked BM’s abstracta, very similiar) And the fabric I picked for the bedding I’m making is blue/beige combo with yellow accents. Although the blue is closer to water’s edge then Lucerne. I’m feeling all validated about my colors working well together all of a sudden. <3

    Reply

  33. Michelle (aka mybelle101) says

    Woohoo! Lucerne is the color I’ve been planning for an accent wall behind our bed in our master bedroom…something deep and mysterious and moody, with a mid-tone gray (hmmm, maybe Hearthstone?) on the other walls. I love seeing it on your list! And I’m also loving Geranium…need to find a place for that.

    Reply

  34. Erin says

    This post couldn’t have come at a better time! We are in the process of buying a house and I’ve been looking at colors to paint the master bedroom and an accent wall in the kitchen. I had bookmarked Gunmetal for the bedroom two nights ago when searching online. Now I’m considering Pinch of Spice for the kitchen. (Seems fitting, right?!)

    Great choices! Love this partnership because sometimes looking at the WHOLE WALL OF COLOR CHOICES seems so overwhelming you may need to put it in all caps…

    Reply

  35. Melanie says

    We’ve been peeping a lot of paint chips lately. Nothing for home improvement but trying to nail down (ha, pun!) what sort of color pallet we want for our wedding!

    A couple that we’ve been favoring lately are ones like that Bright Yellow above, and a rich grassy green. Nothing too lady-like or overly masculine :)

    Reply

  37. Kristen says

    We had to totally redo our downstairs after Sandy hit and we painted all of our rooms with YHL colors! They look so nice and clean and fresh! We love your choices!!!

    Reply

  38. Naomi says

    I wish we had white cabinets, pinch of spice looks great! Instead we have barely 5 year old dark burgundy fake cherry stained cabinets that I really dine want to repaint and a very open main level. Ugh what I wouldn’t give for a trimmed doorway to separate room colors…
    On another note in love your picks so nice to have a smaller group to peruse.

    Reply

  41. Melissa says

    Can I ask you guys for HUGE favor? We bought our first house 10 months ago and haven’t painted a thing. Why? Because we’re scared we’ll use the wrong type of paint.

    We want to paint our cabinets, we want to paint a few walls and we need to touch up some of the moldings and threshold boards– the problem is that it’s an older house and 1)We don’t know what type of paint to use and/or how to match the color 2)We don’t know all the ins and outs and benefits of one type of paint over another. Do you have a resource or blog about the different types of paints and what to use for which projects and which ones to avoid?

    Thank you so SO much :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, here’s a post all about finishes and here’s one full of tips for how we choose colors. And here’s one about how we actually paint a room. As for matching the color, I’d just bring home a ton of swatches that look similar and hold them up to see which one’s a match (you can also cut a piece of drywall and bring it to the store to color match it, but it’s a lot more involved). Good luck with everything!

      xo
      s

  42. Stephanie H says

    Oh, Benjamin Moore! We really wanted to use their paint in our bedroom makeover, but just couldn’t find a grey that didn’t read blue in there (it seemed to be a trick of the light, since our tests turned out blue in every other room, go figure!). We ended up going with Para Paints Rocketman with a feature wall stencil in Shapeshifter overtop. Aaand, I couldn’t make that up if I tried! The wall looks amazing, but I think I get a little extra pleasure from the Star Trek/True Blood vibes I get from the names, haha.

    Reply

  43. Sarah says

    We just spend most of our staycation painting the last three rooms in our house (only the hallway to go!) and it was completely awesome. Our bedroom is now a dark, moody, aloe-ish green with lots of blue undertones. Our office and bathroom are one of my favorite colors I’ve ever used. It’s called Cumulus Cloud by Martha Stewart and it’s a light, airy sometimes blue, sometimes gray, sometimes green that looks EXACTLY what clouds look like. Even my husband is mesmerized by its range. Lastly, our guest room was painted Tahini, which is a yellow with a little gray and a lot of buttery warmth. This is the first time I’ve lived in a house with a color I love on every wall and I can’t get enough of it!

    Reply

  44. Sarah says

    Mmmmm paint…

    Now I’m wavering on my choice to paint my front door bright yellow. Those teals are just so gorgeous. Yellow or teal door on my reddish brick house. Such a major decision!

    Reply

  46. Laura says

    Oooh- I love the Calypso Blue- and the idea of doing an all white bathroom with a Calypso Blue vanity! We’re about to repaint our bathroom- I’m tempted to try this!

    I also love the idea of the Geranium Frame collage- especially with high contrast black and white photos/posters. I have a stack of black metal frames- I might have to find a similar color spray paint and try it out!

    Reply

  47. Amy K says

    When picking colors for our house I pulled dozens and dozens of blues, greens, tan and white…poured over them for hours, matched them with fabrics…analyzed and agonized.
    I whittled them down to 5 favs of each color layed them out for my husband to look at when he got home from work for a final approval. He looked them over for 30 seconds and said…this blue, this green, that tan and that white. Ha! Gotta love men!
    What size crown moulding did you buy? From where? Im excited to see the install since we failed our first attempt.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, I love that about the paint picking and men. John was much more decisive than I was with this collection too! As for the molding, we’ll share all those details in the post on Monday!

      xo
      s

  48. Brittney says

    Love the color selections. We recently used Rockport Gray in our main bathroom and it looks amazing with our tub to ceiling bright white subway tiles in the bath area.
    Can’t wait to see the crown installed!! If only I could get my hubby to take on that project. :)

    Reply

  49. Jenn says

    Hey guys! <3 the board and batten tut. and both last year and this year's color palette. Congrats on a great partnership. We don't buy BM paint because we would have to drive 1.75 hrs to buy some, but I totally take print outs with me to my local SW store and have them color copy. :)

    Quick question–when you say "acclimate" the crown moulding, what does that mean? I noticed you said that about the wood for the batten, too, which is something I might need to know 'cause I'm gonna attempt my own mudroom redo this weekend!! Thanks for your oh-so-marvelous blog.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It basically means wood should sit in your house for about a week so it can get “acclimated” (if you install it right away before letting it sit, it might contract or expand from the temp in your house and cause cracks and stuff). So letting it sit will let all of the expanding and contracting happen and then when you hand it it’ll stay put and not try to expand/contract on your walls (resulting in cracks). Hope it helps!

      xo
      s

    • Jenn says

      Oooooh!! Thanks SO much for writing back. You saved me from making a big mistake, as I was just going down to buy my wood tomorrow and begin nailing away. :/ Whoops.

  50. Starr @ The Kiefer Cottage says

    Behr’s Cayman Bay is my favorite color of all time. I have it in the living room as well as our coat closet. And our little hallway. Can’t get enough of it!

    (and I also like Olympic’s Winter Wheat. It’s technically a beige, but is more light yellow. I’ve used it in two houses)

    Reply

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