The new owner of this townhouse was looking forward to changing the colours. When they bought it the bedrooms, bathrooms and part of the living room had dark brown walls. A gray with a strong violet undertone was throughout the kitchen, hallway and the other portion of the living room. The violet colour didn’t work well with the warm amber tones of the flooring and other elements in the home. Overall they wanted to make the home feel updated and brighter.
When looking at lighter sample colours for the walls it became apparent that the trim work was not as white as the owner initially thought. It was too yellow to work with many of the wall colours being considered. In the end the client decided to have us paint all of the trim work and doors with Simply White, a bright white colour from Benjamin Moore. It is a crisp white, but has a slight yellow undertone that gives it some warmth. By changing the trim work to Simply White it gave the customer a much wider variety of colours to choose for the walls. After contemplating and sampling a few colours they ended up choosing Benjamin Moore’s Pale Oak. It’s described as a versatile neutral, with warm gray undertones.
What a difference it made by changing the dark brown primary bedroom walls to a lighter colour.
The new look is bright and inviting, but the Pale Oak colour has enough depth and warmth that the bedroom still feels comfortable.
In the photo below the trim work surrounding the door has been painted in the new simply white colour. You can see how white it is in comparison to the door. The colour of the trim work can be deceiving when it’s viewed next to darker walls. It can appear much whiter than it actually is. Find something that you know is close to true white and hold it up to your trim work and doors. It will help you to see how white or in this case off-white they are.
The original yellow toned doors and trim work would not have worked well with the Pale Oak colour or many of the other colours the client was considering. It looked very off putting when we painted a sample of Pale Oak next to it and it barely had any contrast.
