It's Not Easy Seeing Green



From top going clockwise: BM Dill Pickle, Pale Avocado, Palladian Blue

 Who knew choosing a kitchen paint color would take me approximately 3 months? At first, I was set on a warm gold or yellow, something like Straw or Hawthorne Yellow, maybe Restoration Hardware's lovely Butter. Straw and Butter (which are both more brownish yellows) looked nice with the gold tones in the granite, but didn't quite pop the way I hoped. Hawthorne Yellow, a nice true yellow, looked garish next to the muted granite flecks.

So on with the show. Next, I settled on a latte shade, Papaya, which played well with the granite. If the painters had come two weeks ago, I'd have a nice coffee-and-cream colored kitchen. Which would be gorgeous, but I fear a little boring. Then I decided that Palladian Blue it was! It's a color I've been dying to use, and I love browns and aquas. Except. When I painted a swatch on the wall it didn't look like pale aqua at all ... it looked like baby blue. And that would not do.



From left, BM Grasshopper, Guilford Green



Georgian Green

On to the greens. I painted 5 different swatches and hated them all. Dill Pickle (actually the perfect apple green) was TOO green. Pale Avocado too yellow (though I have to admit that it grew on me). Guilford Green looked minty. Georgian Green was my early favorite, along with Grasshopper, which on second glance turned out to be almost identical to Georgian Green (maybe a touch browner).

What to do, what to do? I have stared at the swatches in morning natural light, morning artificial light, afternoon natural light, early evening natural light with artificial light ... you name it. And I decided I hated them all. Until this morning, when I walked in to the kitchen and settled on Guilford Green, the dark horse of the group. It's not nearly as aqua as it looks in the photo here. It's more of a milky green. I think it strikes the right compromise between giving the kitchen its own "look" while still complementing the living/dining room color (which will soon be Wythe Blue). Georgian Green is probably the best "match" to the granite, but it doesn't work as well with the other colors in the house.

Now the painters better hurry up and get started -- I can't stare at all these swatches any longer!

P.S. Decided to change things around a bit on the blog too ... don't be surprised to see me playing with the colors and template fairly often. I get bored easily...