Anyone surprised I’m painting AGAIN today? We’re making over our closet, and since we’re installing white cabinetry and towers, I am painting walls a gentle neutral for contrast. Choosing colors for spaces without windows? Not the easiest. It helps to view photos online, and it’s always an inspiring collection of interiors and decorating ideas inside each year’s Southeastern Designer Showhouse! Will you be visiting this year’s showhouse? Do let me know and share any pics in case I can’t get there before June 4th! I have admired this springtime traditional event in Atlanta from afar (thanks to designer Sherry Hart’s coverage each year!). The paint colors contributing designers share is always a highlight. I hope these Gentle Neutral Paint Colors Used in Designer Showhouses are helpful you as you choose colors for your own spaces at home.
Gentle Neutral Paint Colors to Try Now!
It helps to have a place to begin when you’re seeking gentle neutral paint colors to sample. Why not start with ones that got the the thumbs up from an interior designer? In this particular collection of paint colors, we’ll explore showhouse paint colors from a handful of beautiful interiors and exteriors.
1. Sherwin-Williams PURE WHITE
What was wonderful about this white paint color on the walls of 2022’s Southeastern Showhouse kitchen is how we can see it with the warmth of wood cabinetry as well as cool and boldly blue painted cabinetry.
To see more interiors with SW Pure White, see THIS helpful paint color story!
2. Benjamin Moore OYSTERSHELL
How serene is this tone on tone bedroom from 2021’s showhouse!?!
These neutrals with soft green undertones are so gorgeous with natural linen when you want a cozy cocoon retreat.
3. Neutral Paint Color Idea: SW First Star
The newly constructed 8,000-sf showhouse from 2021 located steps from Buckhead’s Chastain Park, had five bedrooms, seven baths, pool, loggia, gardens and a finished basement. Completed by design-build team Benecki, SOURCE, William T. Baker Residential Design and Land Plus, here is the beautiful exterior:
Sherwin-Williams First Star is the name of the paint color on the home’s exterior cornice above. Care to see a little more of that beautiful home? Tour it here:
So beautiful, and I have even more paint colors for you to consider!
4. Benjamin Moore SEAPEARL
It can be a tricky challenge to choose the right white for an exterior so it helps so much to watch design professionals at the top of their game guide us!
(Above) 2020 Southeastern Showhouse exterior (Builder: Jason Cole, Cole Construction | Interior Specifications and Selections: Cydney Mitchell and Brittany Stafford, Source
Beneficiary: The Atlanta History Center). It’s so sophisticated and the picture of timeless tranquility thanks to Seapearl and Pashmina.
Easiest way to see if a color is right? Order samples to be delivered to your door with Samplize (a peel and stick sheet of “paint” to stick on your wall and easily move around to other walls!).
Care to see more Seapearl?
Go inside for the 2020 tour!
The style? “As close to Santa Barbara as you can get without moving” with plaster walls, unique finishes, pools, and a turfed rear courtyard as well as trails punctuated by original sculpture.
Here’s the neutral color in a bedroom:
Not a paint color, but a pretty detail to note!
Traditional Style White Bedroom With Seapearl
Do you love Seapearl with these warm wood tones?
It’s pretty amazing in this bath with glazed tile and brass hardware:
Ever seen a curvy shower like this one?
SEAPEARL Paint Color With BM Stonington Gray
5. Benjamin Moore PASHMINA
6. Benjamin Moore MARITIME WHITE
See Maritime White Outside of a Showhouse
Pause for a personal note…
As I mentioned at the beginning, we have turned out attention to making over our bedroom closet. While it is a good size, I have never liked it so never moved a thing into it and let my husband live with it as is. I also never used our bathroom and claimed another one across the hall. Finally it’s time to give ourselves a beautiful closet now that the bath is done, and he may even let me have a little room in it. 🙂
My husband also has autoimmune issues so our DIY takes longer now, and that’s just fine. We have come to embrace a new normal where rest and recovery are essential. And we don’t take any of the small stuff for granted. As we do the impossible, we celebrate the victories with wonder. How can two people muddling through somehow complete challenging projects and chapters?
He models courage, perseverance, and strength. And I help with vision, balance, and perspective. To become too attached to outcomes is to set ourselves up for disappointment. Yet we are all tempted to cling. Holy indifference for me, is a part of daily life including my chronic illness and even renovation.
When I consider the wise words of BBT above, I think of my husband and our sons and how I long to love them more purely in this way. How I long to stop fixing and convincing and allow myself to be freed. I am a broken record these days when it comes to talking about wanting to live more freely. It is possible, but usually not without changing our habits, boundaries, and relationship dynamics. Not without growing and doing the hard work of inward journeying.
Thank you for visiting this blog. What a strange wilderness the internet and social media have become. I hold all of it rather loosely, knowing the landscape could change in an instant. Helping with paint colors is a small thing, yet I can help in small ways with great love.
A Look Back at Past Showhouses
Inspiration from 2018’s Southeastern Designer Showhouse
My favorite Atlanta designer, Sherry Hart of Design Indulgence, snapped these photos in 2018:
Traditional Style Living Room by Beth Webb
I shared my fondness for the designer’s gorgeous book An Eye for Beauty right here in this story.
English Country Mud Room by Helen Davis Hanavich
I spy hardworking Savannah Utility Baskets to store essentials beautifully in this gorgeous mud room!
Traditional English Country Kitchen by Matthew Quinn
I may or may not have three timeless marble bowls upon my counter this very instant…classic indeed.
English Country Style Butler Pantry
Easiest way to see if a color is right? Order samples to be delivered to your door with Samplize (a peel and stick sheet of “paint” to stick on your wall and easily move around to other walls!).
Also see THIS and THIS in case you missed ’em!
Peace to you right where you are.
-michele
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