Last week, we said goodbye to our dark and moody bedroom. We painted over the Chelsea Gray we had for three years and introduced a brighter beige with some warm, gray undertones called Olympic Mountains by Benjamin Moore–an appropriate name for this time of year, yes?
We initially picked up two paint samples for the walls: Edgecomb Gray and Classic Gray, but I wasn’t sold on either of them. Edgecomb was a bit darker and was reading very peach next to our bed frame, and Classic Gray was reading too cool. And although I feel like I preach this often, it’s worth a reminder: don’t try to pick a paint color based on anything else other than what it looks like in YOUR room with your furnishings and your light.Â
While both were really close to what we wanted, neither was perfect. So I pulled out my swatches to search for a paint color that was a nice marriage of both. Olympic Mountains checked all the boxes. In fact, even Chris immediately said, “That’s it!” He went and picked up a gallon, color-matched it in Valspar Optimus (we don’t have a Benjamin Moore store around here and LOVE the coverage of Valspar) in a matte finish–which I think is just really the best sheen for a soothing bedroom.
When I say, “We used flat paint” I usually get a bunch of questions about durability and wipeability. Paint has come so far. So far. We have used this Valspar paint in flat a dozen times and it always wipes up great.
In an afternoon, with me edging (with this brush and a steady hand–no taping ever!) and Chris rolling we got the room all painted. Â It took two coats and we didn’t use a primer, because the paint has an excellent built-in primer.
Verdict: We’re in love with the new color. And while it doesn’t look like much now, we have started to intentionally bring back in (and leave out) pieces to our room and couldn’t love it more. Olympic Mountains is the kind of color we could and would paint our whole house. It’s light. It’s warm. It’s comforting and feels fresh–Beige is back!
There’s a few things that we’ve changed our minds on–lamps–and some things I’m still not sure of, like, should we nix curtains and just go with a nice roman shade? We’re taking our time and testing things out–meaning, you probably won’t see an after of this space next week! But! As always, we’ll keep you in the loop and share as we go.
See more of where we’re headed in our bedroom in this post!
Hi Julia,
What type of paint/color do you use on your base boards/ceiling/trim? I’m looking into lightening up our bedroom and love this Olympic Mountains color. Just curious when painting walls some version of white if you typically use the same color on trim, etc. Thank you!
Hi,
This room is a huge inspiration for how I would like my new master bedroom. Would love to know how you actually went about with the colour match for the wall paint….did you just show them a swatch or do they match by the colour name? Thank you so much!
Sometimes they can look up the formula for specific colors, but I you can also just bring in a swatch and almost ANY paint store will color match it.
Hi! Love your house!!
Can you share where you purchased the console you did use before? Personally I like the old ones better!
Do you mean the nightstands? We found them on Craigslist.
Can you recommend a starting point for our bedroom paint color? We want a warm soft and light color. We have black furniture (except we just sold our big black bedframe) and we just purchased this rug: https://www.allmodern.com/rugs/pdp/ovid-orange-area-rug-lnpk5343.html. Figuring out paint colors is not my strength!
Try pulling the lightest color from the rug!
Thanks! Maybe I’ll have to take the (huge) rug down with me. At least it’s light weight!
Always bring the swatches into the room you’re painting. Save your back from hauling that rug, too.
Where did you get your bed frame?? I love your style!
West Elm!