That’s the new bedroom color. The name isn’t catchy, but the paint looks great on the walls. We chose the middle shade from the Valspar swatch shown at the top of the photos and had it color-matched to Olympic’s no-VOC satin. We liked that it’s a green with a bit more saturation than the shade we picked for our last house.
Here’s one last look at the room before paint (and mostly before furniture). And yes, poor Ed the Bed sat semi-disassembled — we removed a top slat so he could slide into the center of the room without hitting the fan while we painted around him.
Thanks to a few hours and two coats of Carolina Inn Club Aqua on the walls, the room felt transformed. Surprisingly, one gallon covered the space — we’re not used to rooms this large and expected to run out mid-project, so that was a pleasant surprise.
The new color has echoes of our previous bedroom hue (Glidden’s Gentle Tide) but reads noticeably darker and greener in person. It moves us toward a bolder palette for this house while still staying restrained enough that the walls won’t compete with curtains, art, or painted secondhand furniture if we choose to add those elements later.
We did hesitate about painting the small bathroom nook the same color because we briefly considered going darker, lighter, or using an accent treatment like wallpaper or a tone-on-tone stencil. Ultimately, to visually connect the bathroom nook with the main bedroom and de-emphasize its “bathroom” feel, we painted it the same shade. We used a semi-gloss finish in that area for durability and easy cleaning near the sink. It photographs a bit lighter there, but in person the color is consistent with the rest of the room.
We’re still debating what to do with the mirror — whether to paint it gray, white, or let the room evolve a bit more before deciding. We’ll share photos once we get to it.
The color photographs a touch lighter than it reads in real life. It sits in a comfortable mid-range: not pale, but not dark either. From the swatch you can see it isn’t ultra-subtle nor highly saturated, and that middle ground is exactly what we wanted. The crown molding, trim, and Ed the Bed all pop against it, yet the walls won’t overpower bolder curtains and artwork we plan to introduce.
Furniture placement is temporary — some pieces might be replaced, like the old IKEA dresser currently in the room. Sherry wants to find two secondhand dressers that coordinate without matching, refinish or paint them in bold colors, and place them on either side of the bathroom doorway for balance and practical his-and-hers storage. The chair will likely live in the corner to the left of the bed.
We also like how the wall color picks up tones from the duvet without matching it exactly, which keeps the overall look cohesive without feeling overdone.
You can see the wall saturation more clearly in photos taken with the lights off — the color reads truer to life and works nicely with the duvet, neither competing nor looking flat.
And yes, that’s still our Christmas tree in the background — it’s on the to-do list.
Painting this room felt like a big step toward making this new house feel like our home. Consider us bitten by the painting bug — a large living space might be next, if we can agree on a color.
P.S. We shared one of our favorite money- and space-saving baby tips on BabyCenter, including a video of Clara making a memorable noise. Good times.