After seeing Farrow & Ball colours paired with art and sculpture at a museum in Vienna last summer I made a vow to use these colours if I ever had another chance to choose a whole home palette.
The light and shadows of each room in that museum bounced off the pigments in the paint, creating different shades and feelings throughout the space. It wasn't just that the colours had amazing depth, there was also a natural saturated tone to them, they were the perfect backdrop to all of the different artworks because they seemed an extension of the natural world.
When we bought our stone house I had an idea that these paints would play off the light and the stone of the property perfectly: the old windows, the cedar trees and the slightly amber tone of our local limestone could be subtly enhanced.
It would be choosing the colours that would be the trick!
Fortunately F&B has a very limited colour palette: we all know choices are more difficult to make when there are thousands of options to choose from.
I started with the largest spaces on the main floor, the rooms that really demanded more neutral tones due to the variety of wood tones, fabrics and art that would be filling them.
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| Joa's White for the Living Room |
Our living room is actually a huge space that also includes the dining room, as well as two fireplaces, large windows and a door to the outdoor courtyard. Joa's White is a neutral with a red-base, making it warm, but it also has a bit of black pigment in it, which means it pairs well with the limestone exterior.
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| Dimity for the Entry and Hallways |
Dimity will cover a really large space: the entry and hallways in the house (which has a centre-hall plan... which means that it feeds into many of the rooms). I wanted another red-based neutral but something very pale and almost vintage in feeling.
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| Wimborne White: All the Trim and Ceilings! |
Wimborne White is a really popular choice for trim and ceilings, it's a warm off-white (due to a yellow/amber pigment) and is very close to All White... just warmer, and more suitable to an older house I think. We're using it in an eggshell (almost pearl) finish on the trim and in a dead flat formula for the ceilings.
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| Ball Green |
Ball Green is one of my favourite F&B colours. It is described as an almost silvery green and I would say that's true. As I write this it is already up on the walls of what will be our family room/den and the colour does change throughout the day, and it is surprisingly warm for a very natural green.
Even though we are not touching the kitchen or the powder room on the main floor I had to include the main colour of those spaces: it's very nearly identical to F&B's Cook's Blue! How cheery is this colour? It's so clean and pairs really well with white, with pottery and with copper... perfect for a kitchen.
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| Cook's Blue |
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| Pairs well with Copper! |
The hallway off the kitchen leads into the back staircase, and another hallway space at the top of those stairs. I thought it would be a good opportunity to use Green Blue, another favourite shade of mine.
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| Green Blue |
The large main bathroom is filled with light due to three large windows, and has a very traditional feel with an old claw-foot tub and matching antique sinks.
Oval Room Blue really has a vintage look, this due to the fact that it is a blackened blue, it's not that it looks grey exactly, rather it's almost stormy looking.
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| Oval Room Blue in the Main Bathroom |
We have a few closets that needed paint and for these I chose Dix Blue, a blue that is very green and has a slight bit of black in it. It pairs well with the other colours in the palette even though it is quite distinctive. It even pairs well with very different wallpaper accent walls I'm using in the bedroom closets.
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Dix Blue
A relaxed blue which plays well with others. |
Okay the next colour may actually be my favourite: Breakfast Room Green!
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| Breakfast Room Green |
It is a stunning, vibrant green that is recommended for east-facing rooms and so this is where we have used it, on the lower walls (chair rail and below) of the guest room.
This room is really fun because it is the one space (besides a couple of closets) where we are using wallpaper.
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Breakfast Room Green on the lower walls.
Wallpaper will go above! |
I am so looking forward to seeing the Master Bedroom colour go up: Pale Powder, which is actually a very light aqua. We'll be putting it on the ceiling as well as the walls.
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| Pale Powder |
The other bedroom will have perhaps the most beautifully named paint in the whole range: Elephant's Breath.
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| Elephant's Breath: warm with a bit of lilac! |
My daughter had a special request for the ensuite and closet to this bedroom: a colour that veered towards lilac or lavender. We went with something a bit subtle, Peignoir, which is a pink base darkened with grey. It looks quite lilac when paired with Elephant's Breath.
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| Peignoir, such a pretty colour. |
So there you have it, a whole home palette consisting of a dozen colours. You can see that greens and blues are favourites, and in choosing neutrals I tried to find colours with lots of warmth to them.
Stay tuned for progress as the rooms get completed one by one. First up will be the guest room!
xoxDani
