Richard Felt: Whole House Paint Color Palette Using One Undertone

How to Match Undertones for a Whole House Paint Palette

by Cyndy from The Creativity Exchange, for Remodelaholic

Hi Remodelaholics! It’s Cyndy from The Creativity Exchange back with my monthly paint color post. If you happened to miss my post last month, where I shared a Color Spotlight highlighting Hale Navy (Benjamin Moore), you can find that post here.

Today, I wanted to share a sure-fire/shortcut trick to ensuring that all of the colors in your home transition and coordinate room-to-room beautifully. It makes such a huge difference if paint colors transition well and the best way to do this is by using the same undertone as you move from each room. This is also one of the easiest ways to narrow your color choices and it makes choosing colors almost automatic and so much easier.

For instance, if you are trying to decide on a master bathroom paint color and you know you want to go blue, choose a blue that you like and ask the paint store to mix your new blue with 25% of your bedroom color. This will guarantee that the color transition from one room to the next room will coordinate, even if they are two completely different colors.

Another way to ensure and guaranteed that the same undertone is carried through each room of your home is to only use colors on one paint color strip like this:

It may seem by looking at the color strip to be boring and almost the same shades but as the lighting changes in each room, you will see how much variation you can get in color. However, the undertone is still the same so even if a warm gray goes blue-ish in a room with a lot of natural light (which it will), your undertone is exactly the same in the next room, so it will coordinate.

I have used a lot of these colors of the Eider White Sherwin Williams paint strip (above) myself in my own home to carry the same undertone throughout my home. I like to use the whitest color on the paint strip for the ceilings mixed with 50% additional bright ceiling white.

Wall color is Eider White Sherwin Williams source:Natalme

I always recommend using the two darkest shades on a paint strip for furniture paint colors or cabinet colors. For example, here is Gauntlet Gray from the paint strip I’m highlighting today painted on a buffet:

Gauntlet Grey Sherwin Williams source: The Weathered Door

Related: Popular Paint Cabinet Colors

I use the other colors in between for various rooms, depending on how much natural lighting the room receives.

The darkest color on a paint strip is also a great color to incorporate for interior doors like Megan from Honey We’re Home did using Black Fox:

Black Fox Sherwin Williams source: Honey We’re Home

You can see here in my craft/family room, I used colors from the same paint strip I’m highlighting today; Repose Gray for the walls, Mindful Gray on my cabinets and Eider White (with 50% bright ceiling white) on my ceilings:

Eider Sherwin Williams source: The Creativity Exchange

You can even use the same paint color strip for exterior colors as well, carrying your undertone both inside and outside of the home. It sure makes choosing colors so much easier!

Dorian Gray Sherwin Williams source: Holly Mathis Interiors

If you want to make it easier on yourself and take away the agony of choosing a paint color, think about working off of one paint color strip. It makes the process automatic and pretty much a no-brainer. Remember, if you want to work in a color that is not on your paint strip, just have the paint store mix in 25% of the paint color used in the room next to the room you want to paint. As always, please be sure and paint a sample on a poster board before you choose a paint color, just to make sure the color is exactly what you’re looking for.

For more of my favorite tips and tricks for choosing paint colors, you can see my method for choosing colors here on my blog. If you would like to see more paint color inspiration, you can check out my “Pick a Paint Color” board on Pinterest here, where I have over 600 rooms with paint color names.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Cyndy

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