Hey again everyone! A question that we get literally all the time, is what paint colors do we use in our rental homes? I know that sounds like a strange question, but you would be so surprised by how many Instagram messages, emails, and text messages flood our inboxes just because our followers want to know what color our walls are!
When we first started renovating, we figured the best way to upgrade our first home in a budget-friendly way was to add accent walls. We laugh now looking back because the way we painted our houses was very random from room to room. One room had a dark navy wall, our master bedroom had a deep purple, and we had another room with a yellow wall! Looking back, we would have done things a lot differently but that’s how you learn, right? And in my defense, it was a trend at one point in time, ok!? Paint is a great foundation to add personality and originality to a space, so let’s get into how to do it the right way!
What Not to Do
Ever heard the expression, “mistakes are the best teacher”? Well, it’s true! We definitely have made our fair share of mistakes that have cost us money. Our trial and error-journey began when we started painting Deep Creek. We picked an interior color, ‘Simply White’ by Benjamin Moore, but we used Sherwin Williams to color match it. The two of us and our friend, Marisa, painted the interior ourselves.
Deep Creek Before
Deep Creek After
We didn’t realize until we were pretty much done that it was the wrong color! The color ended up drying with a green tint, and it wasn’t until we really stepped back and looked at it that we realized it was the wrong color. Oh my gosh, when I say that my heart sank after seeing that it wasn’t the right color! You should have seen Matt’s face! So, we had to buy the paint all over again and repaint the entire interior! Again. This time, our friend didn’t go with us. We felt bad and we didn’t want to ask her anymore because painting is a hard job, so we had to do it all again ourselves.
On the same property, we had our painter paint the exterior color called, ‘Soji White’. I found it from following different bloggers, and in a filtered picture it looked very white and pretty. More than halfway, he sent me a picture of a color we had never seen before, and when he sent it, we told him to stop painting. That night, we packed up the car, drove up to Deep Creek, and right when we turned the corner we saw that it was not the color we wanted! We were so disappointed and frustrated. We spent a ton of money, and we were already behind on our renovation. We had to go down and get all-new paint, which ended up being Sherwin-Williams, Pure White!
Our Go-To Colors
Our go-to color now tends to be Simply White by Benjamin Moore. We pick white because it’s so neutral that you can decorate anything around it. It sets an easy tone for you to add any colors that you want in the furniture and decorations. It is a personal preference, some people don’t like white walls, but we like their simplicity and clean look (we suspect, however, that we are not the only ones who prefer white based on all the questions we get!) Lisa loves white because it is a design color that allows her designs to show up really well and pop off the surface.
Some other colors we use are Iron Ore by Sherwin-Williams, a charcoal black/gray, a new color called Green Black, which will be featured in our next house, and Agreeable Gray by Sherwin-Williams. Typically when we do our accent wall, we use color to pop and create a nice contrast to the white!
As far as exteriors go, most of our homes now use white and we use Crystal White by LaHabra Stucco. We just painted the Club House that color as well, and it’s something we’ll always use in our brand.
The Den Before
The Den After
Three Painting Tips and Tricks
Obviously over the years, we’ve had our fair share of mistakes. After painting a handful of houses and seeing how they come to life with a fresh layer of paint, we thought it would be best if we share with you some of the lessons we have learned!
- Sample your paint - Okay, an obvious tip right? But looking at a small square swatch is different from putting it on the wall. How it looks depends on the texture and the lighting that you have in the house, whether that’s natural light or artificial light. Don’t test just one space in your home, test your colors in different lighting at different times of the day!
- Avoid color match - It’s important if you’re using a color designed by a certain brand that you go with their brand. It’s not going to show up the same from different paint stores, so it’s very important that if it’s a Benjamin Moore product, for example, to use a Benjamin Moore paint product (lest you end up with a green tint like us!)
- Use a flat or low-sheen eggshell on your walls - Eggshell hides a lot of imperfections and makes things look very smooth and soft. For your trim, use one to two steps up in the sheen. If you use flat, use satin on all of your trim. If you use low-sheen, use semi-gloss. You don’t want it too glossy, and you don’t want too much shine on the walls. If you use a very low-sheen eggshell you can still wipe walls down if you need, but typically you’ll just go back and touch them up with paint!
We hope that this answers some of your questions that we get so often, and gives the new homeowners some insights into how to choose the right colors for their homes!