Colouring my world...

Colour is basically my job. I mean, I'm a painter - the artist kind, not the house kind - and I spend my days looking at colour, mixing colour, playing with colour. So it is a mystery to me why it's so hard to pick paint colours for our walls at home!

My last house was a 1920's brick house with warm wood floors. I ended up painting every single room a variation on yellow - which was perfect for that house and made it feel very warm and sunny inside, even in the rooms with small windows. My favourite was the kitchen, which I painted a pale yellow and I did the cabinets in a warm "Squirrel Grey", with new brushed nickel knobs, which looked both modern and classic at the same time.

This house is a new build and we have been living with builder beige since we moved in nearly two years ago! Finally today I went around and picked some colours. Unfortunately my husband has a say (I'm joking, I don't mind - we do both have to live with it!). So I have set out my colours in a list, room by room, and hope when he comes home he will like them. I'm going for mostly pale shades of tan, pale blue-grey, a pale grey-green, and two darker colours - a dark grey-brown and a dark grey-teal. That last sounds weird but I'm not sure how else to describe the colour (I could mix it with oil paints, but I can't name it!). Kind of... natural, sand, rock and water colours. The darks are for the powder room, which I want to feel like a jewel box with its chrome hardware and accessories, and for our great room, which has grey-blue curtains with a gold sheen (prettier than it sounds) and beige carpet and sofas. I think the dark paint will make it feel cozier in there and better for tv watching.
It's hard to pick and I confess I used the paint brochures with the colour sets - then added my own colours to the four in the set. Yeah, I've chosen about 7 colours for the house, but all in the same family. I hope it looks good. We're probably going to hire someone, since we have tall ceilings, especially in the hall with the stairs. I don't mind tackling the smaller rooms myself at all, though! I kind of like painting walls, it's so satisfying and amazing to me that such a small thing can make such a big difference to a room.

The one thing I'm not looking forward to is moving all the furniture!

Do you have a method of choosing paint colours? What are your favourite colours for a house?

Okay, on to some giveaways for today...

For the ladies:

• Win a $25 gift certificate to Layers Clothing at Outnumbered 3 to 1. Ends August 1st.
• Win a 2-pack of RibbedTees at My Mom's View. 5 winners! Ends July 31st.