Picking Neutral Paint Colors – From Bold to Normal errr Neutral.

Big thanks to Behr for sponsoring this post! My positive opinion of their high quality (and time saving) paint is totally my own.

When I first laid eyes on the Florida house my first thought was, “yikes!” For real. We bought the housing knowing that we would be painting it the day we received the keys. Once the bank accepted our offer I began looking for the perfect neutral to calm this space. My daughter couldn’t understand why we would cover up the walls when they were already painted my favorite color, purple. Ha. Now, I do love purple but purple walls is a bit too bold, even for me.

Because the living room only had that slider as a source of natural light, the bold and dark wall color really made the space feel dark and cave like. Right away I craved light and bright – I needed to get to a neutral space with this house before I could even consider decor.

Right away, I started pulling paint samples like it was my job. We went through quite a few but these are the ones that made it to the wall o’ choices. I was really naive and thought it would be an easy decision to pick a paint color for all of the common living spaces in our house. It was not an easy task. I knew for sure I wanted to use the a shade of Behr Marquee paint because I love their formula and love the coverage. On such dark walls and such a large space having to do coat after coat of paint was out of the question (did I mention we painted just a week after I had Millie?).

I ended up choosing the third color in, Crisp Linen by Behr. Guys! The difference is stunning.

After day one of painting I was practically hugging the walls – I was so excited about the color.

By simply painting we had a lighter and brighter space that immediately felt larger.

We changed out the slider for french doors and that allows so much more light to come in. French doors plus a neutral paint color make this space so bright, you wouldn’t believe that the only source of natural light in this room comes from those doors!

We painted the living room, dining room, kitchen, and entryway Crisp Linen by Behr. It’s really the perfect neutral paint color and goes well with whites and grays. Having that perfect go to neutral is everything!

I love the contrast between it and the bright white trim.

There you have it! We painted about 1000 square feet with in the Crisp Linen color. We covered not only our purply living room but also the green kitchen and breakfast area (see kitchen before photos). When covering bold colored walls you want to make sure you have high quality paint. I was so happy with my decision to go with the Behr Marquee line of paint. We were able to cover the purple walls with one coat of paint (plus touch ups) but no primer (look ma, no primer!) and I was so grateful because let’s be real, painting an entire house is no joke.

Here’s a glance of our breakfast area + a sneak peek at the window seat we just built – more on that soon. Do you have a go to neutral you love? I’d love to hear about it!

More house updates here and here.