ORC Week 2: Finding the Perfect Shade of Blush

Happy Week 2, ORC fans!

This was a huge week for us in home renovation land as we finally started construction on our new home!

Demo week is always my favorite because progress is so fast and satisfying – knock out a wall there, rip out cabinets there and boom! you have a brand new floor plan.

Without a doubt, I am impatient when it comes to the entire process (more so this time, being gigantically pregnant and all) and one thing I usually spend zero time on is paint colors. I know it sounds crazy, but I never, ever swatch paint colors before I commit to them.I know what color families we like – greys in the blue family, no creams/taupes/off whites – and I stand at the giant paint chip wall and pick from there. Once I see a color I love, I usually choose one shade lighter and search that shade in Pinterest.

After that, off it goes to the painter and onto to my walls. I’ve actually never had to re-paint a space to date (see some of my faves here)….but I may have just narrowly avoided breaking my own winning streak thanks to a single shade of paint: blush pink.

The minute I found out we were having a girl, I knew I wanted white walls and a soft blush pink ceiling in her nursery. I could imagine a gorgeous light fixture drawing the eye up and the sweet pop of pink keeping her space playful and fun.I had a feeling it would be tough to find just the right shade of pink but my suspicions were confirmed when I hit up my fave group of people for advice: Instagram. So, so many people reported struggling forEVER to find just the right shade of pink that wasn’t too bright, too bubblegum, too Pepto Bismal or just too much.

Many had great suggestions so I combined their recs with my faves from paint chips across town – I actually ended up at two different retailers and pulled paint samples from three different brands.

cream puff | intimate white | naivete | fair maiden

The first day we were able to get into our new home (last week, nothing like cutting it close), I took a piece of white foam board and all of my sample cans to her room and got to swatching.I chose to paint on the white foam board instead of her walls because the shade of pink will be painted over her already white ceiling and not the deep shade of tan currently on the walls – plus I could move the foam board around the house to see the shades in various levels of natural light.

I’m so glad that I did – look at the color variations from indirect sunlight, direct sunlight and her room, which at the time wasn’t exposed to much natural light.

Sigh, this was not going to be an easy decision. I must have looked at that sample board one hundred times, polled my husband, polled the internet and still couldn’t decide.After a few days (and with our contractor hounding me for paint colors) I finally pulled the trigger on Cream Puff. I think it has just the right combination of light pink tones with a white base to compliment the wall color (Benjamin Moore Wedding Veil).

If you are thinking about using any shade of pink paint, I highly, highly recommend you sample a handful of colors – I am particularly shocked at how much I dislike Intimate White as I thought that would be the clear winner!

And now, a few pics of her room in it’s naked Before state:

Want to see how it all turned out?? Take a peak here!

Don’t forget to check out all of the other ORC spaces – so many amazing projects are in the works!