I think I’ve mentioned my Dad is a painter and decorator. With James away in New Zealand this week my parents have been staying with me. They’ve done a sterling job of helping me with a very long to-do list, one of those jobs being the starting of the nursery project.
My go-to white paint is always Supermatt White from Dulux. You can see the results from the first time I used in it in the header image above. As the name suggests it’s a flat, matt paint with a true white appearance. The plan was always for my dad to paint the ceiling with my favourite white leaving the walls to be done at a later date leaving me plenty of time to choose a shade.
Forgetting my dad is a professional, he finished the ceiling in about an hour and was then sat twiddling his thumbs. Paint choices take me AGES and the prospect of nipping off to B&Q to get 2.5 litres of paint unresearched was quite daunting.
My usual process for choosing paint goes as follows:
- Scour the paint charts, taking into consideration where the swatch sits. If you’re planning on getting a shade mixed and have to choose from hundreds of clour chips then pay attention to where it’s been placed amongst the rest of the range. If it’s a grey that sits amongst the blues then it’s likely to have a blue undertone.
- Trawl Pinterest and Google to see the shade in use. I always try to delve a bit deeper to find out which aspect the room has as it can dramatically alter the finished appearance of the shade
- Consider existing furnishings and carpets to check the shade complements them
- Buy testers and paint large sheets of paper moving them around the room to see how the light is cast/
Luckily I had a half day so after a minuscule bit of research I narrowed it down to two selections; Dulux White Mist and Dulux Polished Pebble both recommended for their very subtle grey hue.
Testers went on the wall and paralysis struck. Polished Pebble looked perfect in a small swatch but would it be darker than I wanted when the whole wall was smothered in a couple of coats? Let’s go for White Mist. Or wait, should be it be Polished Pebble? Yes, that one. Actually, no.
In the end I went for White Mist and truth be told, it’s too flipping pale. If anyone is looking for a super subtle whisper of grey I can highly recommend it. The room looks really fresh but I was hoping to have a greater contrast between the walls and my favourite feature of the room, the quirky sloping ceiling. My general rule of thumb is to go lighter than you actually think to make the space seem larger but in thi,s case I shouldn’t have taken my advice.
I think my record for room painting is three consecutive applications. It was my first foray into grey and I ended up with a lilac. It was not a good look.
