The most enjoyable part of doing new home construction (theoretically) is choosing the colors for your new house.
This was actually still stressful for us. You get a bit overwhelmed looking at 26 shades of “off white” and wondering if there really is a fundamental difference between “Pure White” and “Shell White” (there isn’t). You can’t picture what it will look like when the house is finished. You have to weigh “Gee, that laminate looks cheap” against “Gee, the LVP upgrade looks expensive.” Ultimately, it’s a little bit of a shot in the dark.
Also, my husband and I had only gotten married a couple of years before, and I was still in this “am I secretly making him miserable with my choice of grey-and-white with cranberry splashes granite, or does he just genuinely not care?” So, I was neurotic, he was neurotic, the builder agent was sick of us, and eventually I chose something just to choose it.
Paint: Sherwin Williams – Downy (SW 7002)
Carpet: Shaw – Linen (100)
Laminate: InHaus – Nelson (33276)
Cabinets: This, uh, dark brown Alder cabinet. I have no idea what brand.
Countertops: Santa Cecilia granite (black and white with reddish garnets throughout)
I know that it’s more popular to do grays and whites in houses these days, but I always felt like those types of houses were so cold and impersonal. I couldn’t deal with the starkness of it. Which is a little funny because I’m also a minimalist in terms of home decor… the only reason I have paintings on my wall now is because the new house is so big that it feels ridiculous not to put something up there.
We decided against things like two-tone paint and other upgrades, because we figure we’ll be doing our own work in the future.