You may have read my admission in our โHow to select white paintโ tips article that I once painted a room baby poo colour. No joke, it was so bad I immediately redid it.
A little scared I could repeat history, I brought in the professionals to help select the colours for our new home and Iโm pleased to report, the results are fabulous ๐
Related article: Colour and emotion: How to select colour for the mood you want to achieve
Related article: How to select white paint: Tips on getting the right white paint
Colour consultation
Iโd never had a colour consultation before and was a little unsure what to expect but the lovely Erin at Haymes had me reassured I was in the best hands.
To start the process, I shared photos of my mood board and of our house in progress. I also answered a range of questions from Erin about how I wanted to feel in my home and the style Iโm working towards.
We chatted on the phone (as Iโm based in Canberra) and once she had a good idea of style I wanted to achieve โ crisp, modern and airy in the living areas, and more moody and luxe in the master bedroom โ she posted me a selection of large A5 colour swatches.
Erin admitted she got a bit excited picking the colours for my home so I had a โshortlistโ of around 15 colours, he he. It really highlighted just how different white and grey paints can look depending on how they are tinted.
Luckily I could immediately rule out some of the colours as I knew I didnโt want any brownish hues, and others I took to site and to see how they looked.
Erin called me again to help make the final selections. This time she asked me about the specifics. What other materials are being used in each room? What tiles have I selected? Kitchen benchtop? Placement of windows and orientation of rooms? She explained how colours, textures and amount of natural light could affect the paint colours we were considering.
With her expert advice we locked in the following colours:
- Greyology 2 (used inside both houses)
- Silhouette (used in the master bedroom and guest bedroom)
- Marble Mist (used outside on rendered sections).
Funnily enough, Marble Mist is the colour we originally painted the interiors of our old house that we demolished to make way for this one!
Painting
So with the colours locked in we blitzed ahead!
At this stage only the small house has been sheeted but we (mainly our friend but I did pick up a paint brush too!) fully painted the interiors with the exception of doors and skirting that havenโt been installed yet ๐
What do you think of our choice of Greyology 2 in the photo above? Donโt laugh, white paint is totally a colour, ha ha! Personally I love it because it feels cool and contemporary and I canโt wait to see how it will look in our house against our polished concrete floors.
Our house is a little bit behind this oneโฆ As itโs a double storey building, we had scaffolding up to access the upper level but this got in the way of some sections of roof being installed. With the scaffold now gone, our roofer has been doing an amazing job finishing off the outside cladding. Now that it’s watertight (HOORAY) our carpenter can go back to pre-sheet, getting it ready for our plasterer to sheet all the internal walls.
Fingers crossed in a months or so our house will be ready to paint inside too!
Weโve also painted some sections outside using Marble Mist. Unlike inside where we opted for cool whites, Marble Mist is a warm white. Erin advised that outdoors itโs best to go for a slightly warm white to avoid the colour appearing blueish in direct sunlight. And of course, she was right, just check out the photo above of how it’s coming along.
Check out more from Gina’s home build
I totally understand a short list of 15. I’m currently trying to narrow ours down to 5 so that I don’t have to buy half the shop’s sample pots. I love your cool white. I’m going for cool inside too (but slightly grey).
Ha ha, glad it’s not just me then Johanne! I love grey whites and the Greyology colour I opted for also has a soft hint of grey… in our house we’ll use a darker grey in some of the bedrooms for a bit more warmth. How is your house by the water coming along?
Interior colour looks nice and fresh – are they high ceilings?
Thanks Jane, that’s exactly the look I was going for ๐ Yes, we opted for 2.7m high ceilings in both houses and in the upstairs of our house there is a raked ceiling that goes from 2.4 to 3.3 (I think?).
All the electrical wiring for our house is happening this Monday, then the carpenter will pre-sheet and hopefully in 2-3 weeks we’ll have walls in our house!
Nice! I love high ceilings. We’re doing 3m to ground and standard 2.4 for upstairs (3 of the bedrooms & 2 bathrooms) – I hope the difference isn’t going to be too stifling. I wanted the upstairs bedrooms to feel cosy. Love the sound of the raked ceilings to your upstairs though.
Are you doing anything in the way of home automation? Pretty light switches? We’ve only just started speaking to the sparky about an electrical plan. Any tips?
Love hearing about your house plans, Jane! I’m sure it’ll feel lovely to have those cosy bedrooms upstairs. I forgot to mention in this post but Erin also suggested using the same colour for the ceilings and walls for a more contemporary look (unless of course you’re going for a really strong colour!). So in our bedroom upstairs we’re going to have that same Silhouette grey colour on the ceilings and walls. I’ll be sure to post pics so you can see if it’s something you’d like to try in your house.
Good timing to ask about electrical plan, we’re meeting our electrician on site tomorrow ๐ I’ll let you know how that goes and if I learn any hot new tips!
That’s interesting – so the quarter strength ceilings are out from the sounds of it! Looking forward to the next instalment ๐
Wow! It’s looking great – bet you cant wait to move in!!
Seriously cannot wait, Esterban! Fingers crossed it won’t be too much longer because I’m already stockpiling new things for the house where we are and our spare room is full to the brim ๐
Hi Gina.
It’s looking great! This post is really helpful and very timely for us. Part of our house is also being rendered and I’ve been stressing about what color to paint it – it sounds like the Haynes color consultation would be very worthwhile.
Love your internal color also – really fresh and airy.
Hope the kitchen for the little house goes really well.
Cheers Anthea
Thanks Anthea ๐
So glad this post was helpful for you and I can’t recommend the Haymes colour consultant service highly enough – they took all doubt and stress out of my mind!
The shell of the kitchen went in yesterday (woot!) and today the flooring is going in ๐ We opted for coffee bamboo in the little house because it’s hardwearing and an affordable option for a rental.
Can’t wait to show you more progress pics soon, xx
Looks like coming along well ๐ That interior colour is very crisp, great choice!
It seems like things are more on track now which is great but still can’t move fast enough for me because I just want to move in so badly, ha ha! Yay, glad you like the colours ๐
Looking great Gina! Can’t wait to see more of the interiors!
Thanks Julia! Fingers crossed the kitchen will be going in the little house today – aahhhhh!!!! And won’t be long until the flooring is in either!