SW Natural Choice or SW Pearly White (and more updates!)

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Choosing paint colors can be hard but once you pick the right one, it can make all the difference in how your home looks and feels! With so many to choose from, we finally narrowed it down to SW Natural Choice or SW Pearly White.

SW Natural Choice and SW Pearly White artsychicksrule.com #sherwinwilliams #SWNaturalChoice @SWPearlyWhite #paintcolors #housepaintcolors #neutralwallcolor #perfectneutral

Today I’m sharing a few colors I picked out for the dining room, study and possibly, kitchen.

Okay, before we get into the paint, let me tell ya about that crown molding. Well, it came down.
It had those corner pieces, ( I have no idea what those are called but we really didn’t love those) and it just wasn’t done very well, so we finally decided to just bite the bullet and replace.

Here’s a shot of it the day we walked through (before buying).
You can see the corner piece there I’m speaking of and the old pink wallpaper that’s underneath, too!

SW Natural Choice and SW Pearly White artsychicksrule.com #sherwinwilliams #SWNaturalChoice @SWPearlyWhite #paintcolors #housepaintcolors #neutralwallcolor #perfectneutral

We’re going to put up a wider molding this time. Can’t wait!

Not only that, but I’m moving things around in this space a bit.
I think I’ll be adding this yet to be made over piece……

SW Natural Choice and SW Pearly White artsychicksrule.com #sherwinwilliams #SWNaturalChoice @SWPearlyWhite #paintcolors #housepaintcolors #neutralwallcolor #perfectneutral

…to my dining room as my new “coffee bar”. I know, it will be the 3rd one I’ve had/created!
But hey, I have a blog and I need to keep y’all filled with ideas and inspiration. That’s my excuse anyway!
Here’s the first one I had. (it was also a dresser)
I haven’t decided how I’ll paint/refinish this dresser just yet but I know it’s getting new hardware…and it will be going over on the left where my thrifty gold cart is now.
And the gold cart is going over on the right where the current “coffee bar” is located. My knots nautical dresser is going upstairs.
The gold bar cart is going to be just that, more useful for that type of thing. So it’s getting a little change up too. (usage-wise)
I love using dressers for coffee bars. The drawers are so great for storage and accessing that storage.
I love that this one has a couple of really deep drawers for taller items.

What do you think I should do with it? Paint it? If so, what color?
If not paint, stain? Weathered? I have an idea of what I want to do….but let’s see what you guys come up with! 

I also bought new artwork for the dining room where the farmhouse chalkboard is now.
This is the artwork I bought for the space….

SW Natural Choice and SW Pearly White artsychicksrule.com #sherwinwilliams #SWNaturalChoice @SWPearlyWhite #paintcolors #housepaintcolors #neutralwallcolor #perfectneutral

I love it and it didn’t break the bank!
You can find it, here.

Hopefully, it will look good with the paint I chose. I guess we will see.

Now, speaking of paint, picking out paint is hard, y’all!! SO HARD.
It looks different on the wall than on the chip, it looks different at night than in the day, it looks different with lights on and with them off and it looks different in each room! Oh my.

BUT….we have found a winner. 

I really wanted to keep things “bright and light and airy” so wanted to try to go as light as possible but still blend nicely with the Sea Salt in adjoining rooms.
And I wanted to step away from the yellow and warmth of the SW Navajo White that originally went with the SW Blonde I used to have in our other rooms.
I originally thought I’d use SW Spare White, which is the lightest color on the Sea Salt paint chip. That’d be an easy winner, right?

WRONG.

It looked like gray, dead skin to me or alien skin, something along those lines.
In my home and lighting, anyway. Ick, not what I was going for!

So back to the drawing board.

I narrowed it down to SW Pearly White and SW Natural Choice.

SW Natural Choice and SW Pearly White artsychicksrule.com #sherwinwilliams #SWNaturalChoice #SWPearlyWhite #paintcolors #housepaintcolors #neutralwallcolor #perfectneutral

You can see a splotch of the “alien white”, I mean Spare White paint, to the right of the shutter by my watermark.
Ew, no.
Just did not work in my home.
I repainted these shutters in Sea Salt, by the way.

SW Natural Choice and SW Pearly White artsychicksrule.com #sherwinwilliams #SWNaturalChoice #SWPearlyWhite #paintcolors #housepaintcolors #neutralwallcolor #perfectneutral

And…..the winner is…… SW Natural Choice!

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UPDATE:… I decided to use neither. I went with PURE WHITE by Benjamin Moore. I think it’s the perfect white. Not too warm and not too cool. Perfect!! You can see it in our kitchen, dining room, and morning room.

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I loved the neutrality of it and that it didn’t pull warm or too cool. It’s a really wonderful neutral.
The SW Natural Choice, although, still nice and light and bright, gives a good contrast with the white trim, which my husband and I both like.
The SW Natural Choice just …. looked perfect.
And like my husband joked, it was just the “natural choice”, obviously!! haha

Are you looking for a good neutral? Definitely check this one out!

As I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, we are also replacing our 40+-year-old cabinets and the laminate countertops we installed back when we moved in.

Here’s the style of cabinets we are planning to use…

Source

I can not wait to have new cabinets. I mean, I can NOT wait!
We plan to use the ready-to-assemble type to save since cabinets can be so pricey. (these are also RTA cabinets)
Thankfully we don’t have a lot of cabinetry to buy for our kitchen though.
Plus we don’t plan on replacing the island we built. It’s in great condition and is only getting new paint.

I love this granite counter top but not 100% positive this is the one, yet.

SW Natural Choice and SW Pearly White artsychicksrule.com #fantasybrowngranite #sherwinwilliams #SWNaturalChoice #SWPearlyWhite #paintcolors #housepaintcolors #neutralwallcolor #perfectneutral

But the white swirling through it and the slight tan color would bring the white cabinets and brown flooring together.
I know marble and the marble look is all the rage right now, and something I absolutely considered. (and am still considering)
But I have to say, I am always just smitten with the variations in natural stone.
It’s mesmerizing to me.
Plus, this particular piece had sparkly iridescence all over it. Can you see all the tiny little specks that look white? Those are sparkly little spots.
So pretty in person but I love sparkly things.
We put granite on top of the island when we built it and have always wanted to come back and replace the old laminate in the rest of the kitchen when we could but never got around to it. Maybe now is the time.

What do you think? Marble-look, style (not actual marble), or granite?

New appliances…yes.

Stainless will go much better with all of the new changes.  Like these from The Home Depot.
If we had not had to replace each appliance one at a time, we probably would have gone for stainless a long time ago.

Now …. onto flooring plans…..

SW Natural Choice and SW Pearly White artsychicksrule.com #sherwinwilliams #SWNaturalChoice #SWPearlyWhite #paintcolors #housepaintcolors #neutralwallcolor #perfectneutral #SWSeaSalt

We are considering replacing the flooring in all the rooms in our downstairs so that it flows.
When you step into the front door, you see one type of flooring to the left (original oak, which we refinished ourselves years ago and it’s again turned yellowish/golden, ugh), vinyl floor tiles straight ahead, we installed about 9 years ago, and engineered wood flooring to the right in the family room that we also installed at some varying stage of renovations.

I would LOVE to have it all be one type of flooring since the rooms are so connected and open now.
I know I don’t want any orange-y, or yellow as I don’t feel that would go as well with the colors in my home. I personally do not like the way those stair treads look with the new paint, etc. (see in the photo above)
I think a darker stain would look nicer but I understand that is a personal choice. Although, I don’t want it quite as dark as the top one in the photo and I don’t really love the “red” that appears in the bottom one of the two samples I have. :/

Actually, I really love the color of the flooring in the new cabinet photo I shared above. (which I just found as I was writing this post)
It’s dark but not overly so. And doesn’t that dark make a really nice contrast to all the white?
That’s pretty much what I’m looking for that I haven’t found yet!

I do know that the dark will be harder to keep clean as it will most likely show everything…like my Ryder boy’s blonde hair! ;)
But I love the contrast of it with the Sea Salt and white trim/decor.

I also don’t know if I want to do luxury vinyl for durability or stick with prefinished hardwood. Hmm, what to do?

Thoughts? Does anyone know of any flooring that might match what I’m looking for that you’d like to share?
I know I can get close to that color with finish on-site but that would be a nightmare since it’s our entire first floor….and we live here. ;)
I’d very much welcome any ideas or thoughts you have on this. 

So that’s it around here. I’ll be a busy, busy girl in the coming weeks (and months!).
Spring fever has surely gotten a hold of me!! ;) Lots of changes going on over here and I’m excited to share it with you as we go.

Plus furniture, whew…in the middle of all this painting mess, I have 4 pieces of furniture, yes 4,  just waiting for some love!

I ordered some pretty tissue paper and may use some of it on one of the pieces…

SW Natural Choice and SW Pearly White artsychicksrule.com #sherwinwilliams #SWNaturalChoice #SWPearlyWhite #paintcolors #housepaintcolors #neutralwallcolor #perfectneutral

Stay tuned!

UPDATE: See what I used that pretty paper on, here!

Have a wonderful weekend friends….and woohoo for the time change this weekend! So ready for extra daylight! Bet you are too.

xoxo


33 Comments

  1. Hi Nancy,
    Love your blog and the pops of colour you add to spaces. Love the new paint colour. Think I need to check it out for my home.
    Where do you order your tissue paper ? Have been looking for something fairly inexpensive to put on a board to make a back on a console table. Need to hide tv cables and such. Tissue paper would be perfect. What some pop and multi colour against the dark blue and the mid blue tealish shelf.
    Kind Regards
    Lisa

    1. Thanks Lisa! :) Yes, do check it out, it’s a great color! I picked up both of these at Amazon, you can find them in my shop, here. Other than that, I can usually find some good ones at places like Hobby Lobby. Large decorative napkins work too applied in a decoupage style. So be sure to keep an eye out for those too! xo

  2. I love the darker plank, distressed flooring that I ordered from Lowe’s. It has been 4 years and I still get comments from people. We have 2 pom’s that shed, but easy dust mop or get the vac out, floor clean. I painted my walls in the great room living room/kitchen & dinning, all a soft light coffee with cream color. I pulled up all the baseboard, went to garage and distressed and stained to match the floor, am so glad I took that extra step! And it kept me busy with my claw hammer and screwdriver! That is how I distressed the baseboard!

    1. Oh that sounds pretty Joan! Do you have a name for it? I’d love to see it, if they still carry it. Sounds beautiful! xo

    1. Oh they are!! ;) Yep, I liked that one and actually grabbed one of those paint chips. I didn’t choose it because it ended up looking pretty similar to the color that’s already in my kitchen, (SW Ivoire) and I’m trying to change things up a little! Thanks so much for the suggestion though!! xo

  3. Nancy–

    On the flooring… I let my contractor talk me into espresso flooring throughout my 2 year old townhouse, and it’s the one decision I’ve ever made that I truly regret. (His wife is my hair dresser, and you can bet I told her not to let him talk her into it!). While it’s beautiful when spotlessly clean, it looks AWFUL otherwise. Every.little.speck of stuff makes it look like I have a dirty and gross floor. I spend more quality time with my vacuum than a person should.

    Go as light as you can without being unhappy! I wish I didn’t have the personal (and expensive) experience to relay my regrets. It’s not just annoying. I’m truly miserable.

    Former Virginia girl now a Coloradan (and faithful reader)
    Betsey

    1. Oh Betsey!! That is what I do hear a lot of! :/ I’m so sorry, I know that must be frustrating. I have decided it needs to be on the lighter side of the brown, not as dark as the samples I’ve gotten so far. I do really worry about it looking bad and showing everything. And hey Virginia girl!! Colorado is a beautiful state too…would love to visit there one of these days! :) xo

  4. How exciting!!! It must be such a relief to be able to enjoy personalizing your spaces for yourselves instead of having to think about selling. LOVE the granite choice!! Love the wall color. I have to second what your reader above said about the dark floors…they DO show everything! Unless maybe you can get something with a little more variation? The dark solid is a pain to keep clean. Canā€™t wait to see all these spaces with your new ideas in place! XOXO

    1. Exciting yes, I’m already tired thinking of it all!! ;) Well, not really, I sort of feel re-energized. So that’s good!! I do think we should finish this house 100% (which we have not yet done in almost 14 years here) and actually have the chance to enjoy it before we sell. I feel like all we’ve done here is raise kids and DIY. ;) And yes, I’m thinking more medium brown where you can see the lighter and darker variations. (which I haven’t found/seen in a finished floor, only finished on site :/ ) Thanks, me too! xo

    1. Oh me too Robyn!!! I swooned like you would not believe in person when I saw it!! ;) It think it may have to make an appearance in my house! lol xo

  5. Great post, Nancy! Hadn’t seen this until just now! I’m really looking forward to all you are going to be posting about. Thank you for sharing so much of your plans. I love the Sea Salt (as you know), and can’t wait to see the Natural Choice!
    Have you brought in any samples of a medium/light flooring (or is that just a silly question)? I’m thinking that it might not only help with the light hair of your pup (and YOU!) but, it may lend to the lighter coastal feel you seem to be going for. :-) Maybe even a reclaimed look? Just my 2 cents. :-) Looking forward to the coffee station, too! I’ve got a Coffee Cubby on my horizon! ;-)

    1. Thanks Julie! I have not, no. I haven’t really found any I like. :/ I have seen more than a few “on site” finishes that I adore, that would be perfect! Not too light and with nice variation. BUT…have found nothing like that prefinished…yet. Thanks for the suggestions! Much appreciated and yes, I can’t wait to get busy on that! :) Can’t wait to see yours!xoxo

  6. Hi Nancy –

    I love all your great ideas on your blog!

    I have 2 recommendations about flooring:
    1. I would strongly urge you to go for the engineered hardwood flooring. It’s not exactly pergo, but it does not scratch at all! Never needs to be refinished and almost never scratches.
    2. I agree that the dark color is lovely, but it shows every tiny speck of lint, dust, etc. I went with a medium color with lots of “hand scraped” colors. It is awesome – doesn’t show dust or dog hair very much or dirt much at all – best decision I’ve ever made!

    Happy choices –
    Donna

    1. Hi Donna!
      Thanks so very much! :) I think you are so right, I need something that resists scratching especially with my big pup!
      And thank you, that is good to know. I am leaning more medium brownish and with some variations like you mentioned (if I can find it!). I think a dark, dark might drive me crazy trying to keep it looking clean. Thanks for the input, so appreciate it!! xoxo

  7. I think you made the right choice in your paint color. As far as countertops, unless the granite is super simple (one color), to me they are out of style. Personally, I’d go with quartz and you can’t beat zero maintenance. A solid or marble-look would be pretty. For floors, having it continuous throughout is the way to go. Don’t go really dark. It shows everything! I have red maple that have also turned orangey. My plan is to strip, bleach and seal them. I saw them do it on Property Brothers and they turned out beautiful. For the dresser, my standard answer is ASCP Pure White with distressing. :)

    1. Thanks Lizzy! I’m so thrilled that I found that color. It seems like the perfect neutral to me. And boohoo, I really loved that granite! ;) But I can see what you are saying. I do really love the simple, solid, slightly “marble-ish” look too. I need to go look at a few. And the flooring, I can just envision it with the same flooring throughout and that is the one thing I’m probably most excited about as I think it’s really going to change the look and feel of my home. I had no idea you could bleach the wood, wow, sounds interesting! And yes, Pure White is tops of the list…and one other idea I’m still mulling around! :) Happy weekend to you Lizzy!xo

      1. It is a very nice granite. It’s your house. Do what you like. :)
        I didn’t know you could bleach wood either. When I saw it on TV, I was amazed!

        Have a nice weekend!

        1. Oh yes, I know! I do love to hear other’s ideas or opinions. Sometimes it gets me thinking! ;) Hope you had a great weekend! xo

  8. I’m so with you and love natural stone counter tops, I think the one you pictured is lovely! As far as flooring we recently put in vinyl wood planks and I can’t say enough good things about them! So easy to maintain and clean (I have 2 pit bulls and 1 cat) I originally wanted a dark color but last minute opted for a mixed dark brown and cherry color and I’m so glad I did. While still being on the darker side the mixed colors help to camouflage some of the stuff that ends up on the floor. After living in it for 1 year I’m sure that the dark wood would have shown too much of the animal fur. Have fun! :)

    1. Hi Kristina,
      I just love some of the variations and different colors in some of these stones, too. So pretty! :) I think you are so right and that is a bit of what I’m leaning towards now. Something that still has some brown and depth, but also has some variations in color to hide! ;) I also think the vinyl planks might be a better choice with my large, 65 pounder too! Thanks for the input, much appreciated! xoxo

  9. I just settled on Natural Choice as well! So fun to see others discovering this lovely greige….It’s going in my den above duck egg blue (lightened) beadboard, my entry, and possibly my great room. We’re currently redoing the entire downstairs, so every surface is getting refreshed (and son in law is building all new mouldings and trim for us!)

    1. I really love the Natural Choice but….I think I may have changed my mind! ;) Well, sort of. I’m still planning on using the Natural Choice, just not where I was originally. It will be going in the hallway and rooms upstairs since it’s such an awesome neutral. We are basically doing the same exact thing you are, refreshing everything, walls, trim, doors and even the ceilings which have never been painted (by us). So that alone will brighten things up tremendously as they are dingy looking now. But…I have decided to use the lighter color downstairs as our house is somewhat dark and I really, really want to brighten things up more than I think the Natural Choice will. The Pearly White has a nice reflective quality that I think will very much help with that. Can’t go wrong with either color though!! xo

  10. Hi there,

    I subscribe to your blog and got my PW for the printable but it isn’t working. I’ve tried it a number of times and made sure I was entering it accurately. Can you help?

    Thanks

    1. Hi Rebecca! Hmm, I’m not sure why it wouldn’t be working? Is this the page you are trying to enter it on?
      I just tried it again and it works fine for me. Can you maybe copy/paste from the email newsletter? That’s usually what I suggest if someone has trouble with it. :)

  11. Do you have pictures of your home after using pearly white? My home is currently being painted that color. I always second guess myself right after making those type of decisions. Would love to see how it turned out for you!

        1. Hi Terri! I didn’t end up with either of these. I decided to go with BM Pure White (color matched at Sherwin Williams).

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