Color Our World

I should preface this post with a bit about my past experience with paint.

I love painting. It's probably one of my favorite home improvement projects because I get to see instant results and it's a project I can tackle by myself. Prior to building this house, we completely renovated a Cape Cod 4 years ago. That was a huge project and I distinctly remember sitting on the side porch, almost in tears because I couldn't decide on all the colors for the house. I ended up choosing a basic tan (Bamboo by American Traditions) for the majority of the interior because I knew we would eventually sell that house and buyers usually look for neutrals. But I branched out and chose Asparagus by Behr (think Kermit Frog green) for our kitchen and LOVED it. Not all of our friends loved it but it made me happy to be in my kitchen. I used a blue for the bathrooms and the dining room went through two colors (a Dewalt-colored orange and then a calmer purple-gray).

With the new house, I won't be painting (at least not soon, I hope). Our builder's contract stipulated we could choose 3 colors for the interior. If we add another color, he charges extra. The folks at Sherwin-Williams were kind enough to give me a paint fan to help me "color our world." My goal is to find one neutral (a warm light tan) that I love that I can use in the common spaces (living room, dining room, kitchen, hallway, stairway, and upstairs landing), one color that I can use in the bathrooms and laundry room, and another color I can use in the bedrooms. Although I'm used to having more than 3 colors in a house, I'm actually looking forward to having a more consistent palette throughout.

I don't plan on painting the stairway for a while once I choose the initial color because it has walls that are 2 stories tall. I'm fine if I don't love-love the colors for the other parts of the house but I need to love the common area color. So while the leaders of our country weigh big decisions, I'm worrying about paint colors.

Here's the paint fan, tabbed up. The blue with 2 arrows is the blue for our porch ceilings (Atmospheric). No other definites yet...you'll see why.

To date, I've purchased 5 sample cans from SW. Here are three of the tans. UGGHHH. Too dark! Maybe nice colors but not what I'm looking for (from top down: Harmonic Tan, Whole Wheat, and Favorite Tan). I'm using our rental house's bare white walls as the test surface. We're renting from friends and a while back I agreed we would paint their master bedroom and bathroom. Lucky to have this canvas!

I painted Anew Gray in the bathroom (too purple) and Useful Gray on the wall near the sink. I really like Useful Gray. It's light but it's a warm gray with green undertones.

Useful Gray on the left, Favorite Tan on the right.

So I'm still deciding. I think Useful Gray is probably my bathroom/laundry room color (maybe even for some of the bedrooms, too). Which leaves me on the hunt for that perfect common area light tan and a bedroom color. Hmm....any recommendations would be appreciated (esp. if they are Sherwin-Williams paints).