Painting Ps Sugar Box: A Neutral yet Playful Color Scheme

Happy New Year! This year is one we are very much looking forward to! Last year was an incredible year of growth and big changes, all that made us stronger. This year will be the year we move into our new home and begin making memories, and what’s even better?! We will be helping our clients do the same with each of our projects on the horizon for 2019 and we couldn’t be more excited!

This weekend we are going to begin painting the sugar box (the name we lovingly use to refer to our Jersey City row house), and I thought I would share with you the neutral, light and colorful scheme we have put together for the home. I’m really excited for this palette to get up on the walls, it has an air of playfulness, especially upstairs, so while we prepare to paint, here is a look at the space and a look at the colors.

Right when you walk in the door, you are in the living room, and your eye stretches through all the way through the stairway and beyond into the kitchen. From certain angles, you can see right through to the back room as well, so it was really important that all of our choices are really symbiotic. This is something we are mindful of in all of our client projects too, we want to make sure the whole home has a flow and feels like it really all fits and works well together, like the rooms all get along, but it’s even more important when you can see all of the rooms from one another-the challenge and beauty of an open floor plan ;)

Up the stairs, the hallway splits off in both directions left to Eleanor’s room and my office/guest room; and right to the master bedroom. Again, if all the doorways are open you can see from our room all of the adjoining spaces off of the hallway, but additionally up here, we wanted to let the rooms be a little more personal through their colors. Eleanor chose the color for hers, and even though she is only 2 when she looked at the options (about 20 colors in front of her) she consistently chose the same color every time… so that’s what we are going with.

Our master bedroom color was the same and Pat and I just landed on it time and again, so we knew that was the right choice. For my office though, I had a harder time. I knew I wanted it to feel like a color, but I also wanted it to be grounding, peaceful and neutral enough not to distort any samples I may be working with in the space. We did find a really pretty color and I’ll say, Pat actually found it’s sister color and I chose a shade lighter to get it to where I envisioned it for the space.

Here are the colors again altogether and I’m really pleased with how they flow. They are as follows, left to right (all Benjamin Moore): Kitchen Cabinets (Salamander), Kitchen and Family Room Walls (Cloud White), Living Room Walls (Balboa Mist), Stairway and Halls (La Paloma Gray), Office/Guest Room (Oyster), Eleanor’s Room (Woodlawn Blue), Master Bedroom (Black Pepper).

Other paint and finish details for our modern color scheme in an old house…We are going to paint any remaining trim work cloud white and then as we work through the rooms upgrading the moldings that may change. For the doors facing the hallway, I am envisioning them being stripped and wood tone but on the interior side of the room I imagine they will be white or the trim color. The powder room and basement door (the only interior doors on the first floor right now) will likely also be stripped down to wood and those can be wood on both sides.

With the whole house we are trying to balance the character and charm of the original house (built in 1896), while also updating everything to work with our more warm modern style. I think this color palette keeps things warm and harmonious throughout the space, and details like moldings and the wooden doors echo back to the original house and the history there.

What do you think of our updated color scheme? Would you use any or all of these colors in your home? I can’t wait to share updated photos of the house and the progress in the next week or so…be sure to follow along on Instagram Stories for updates while we are painting over the weekend and I will try to share some of the details to Facebook as well!