THE ONLY CREAMY WHITE PAINT COLOR YOU’LL EVER NEED (ORC Week 3)

Week 1 // Week 2

If you’re new here, my husband and I purchased our first home (a generic, 1960’s bi-level) two years ago in Northern NJ. Little by little, I’m adding personality and style to our builder-grade home and for this Fall’s One Room Challenge™, I’m tackling my office and have a goal to furnish most of the room with Facebook Marketplace finds (see previous One Room Challenge reveals here and here).

I encourage you to sit back and follow along with a glass of vino while I dedicate nearly 98% of my free time to making over this space. The other 2% of my free time? That’s for showering and the occasional snack. Check back each week until the final reveal on November 7th!

After two weeks of struggling with my decisions and wondering if I’ll ever see the light at the end of the tunnel, I broke free. I knew this would happen because I experienced the same feelings of paint-color uncertainty while I made over the bathroom and then again with the bedroom.

But this week, I saw the light and it shined upon the perfect shade of creamy white. 

We all know that sometimes (all the time), it can be nothing short of a nightmare to choose the perfect shade of white. But that tough decision becomes magnified x1000 when you need to match that white to a wallpaper in a short time period.

I tested ~9 Farrow and Ball samples – some I intentionally wanted to go darker than the wallpaper (a deep taupe as shown below) and others, I tried to match exactly the creamy white shade of the Bird & Thistle wallpaper. 

After the 8th F&B sample, I tested one more: White Tie.

I couldn’t test another…I was starting to lose my mind. This had to be it.

And it was. 

Guys…Farrow and Ball White Tie is the most gorgeous creamiest white I ever did see. 

And it’s perfect against bird and thistle. PERFECT. Bad photo/lighting – pictures don’t do it justice. 

PAINT TIP: 

The black walls have been tough to cover up and I knew I’d need at least two gallons of White Tie. But F&B paint is a bit pricey, so to save some $$$, I used my  favorite paint resource Encycolorpedia to find an almost perfect match to White Tie: Behr Eggshell Cream. 

To start covering up the black, I used Eggshell Cream as the first coat and then I’ll use actual F&B paint for the last two coats because it’s way more pigmented and TBH, photographs much better. 

I use Encycolorpedia allll the  time because it tells me everything I need to know in order to choose the right color (because there are a 1.2 million factors that go into choosing the  perfect paint color)!  

Shameless plug: See this post for the only gray paint color you’ll ever need (which just happens to be my most popular blog post). Who doesn’t love a good gray paint?! 

Back to the office…

I still need to paint 1-2 more coats, but here’s how the room currently looks:

The ceiling is going to be Benjamin Moore White Dove, which is the same color as our living room.

As a reminder, this is how the room looked just a few short weeks ago:

So, one of the most stressful parts of designing a room has been crossed off my list. I shouldn’t hold my breath, because I still have a ton of things to find on marketplace!

Here’s my Facebook Marketplace checklist (already found items that are bolded):

1. Desk 
2. Mirror 
3. Marble top chest 
4. Storage/dresser (for closet)
5. Set of identical lamps
6. Single lamp
7. Cowhide rug 
8. Desk chair
9. Corner chair 
10. Corner lamp
11. Curtains
12. Curtain rods 
13. Ottoman 
14. Console table
15. Bench 

I’m keeping most of the items a secret until the big reveal. I know, lame, but I did that for the Spring ORC and I think the anticipation made the reveal that much better!

To-do list updates:

• Choose the perfect paint/wallpaper combo – DONE! WOO!!!
• Cut, install and caulk Metrie molding (the usual – crown, base, wall) – finished installing molding, just started caulking and filling in the nail holes.
• Prep and paint the desk – done!! Needs about 2-3 weeks to cure.
• Paint the ceiling, walls and trim – in progress
• Install wallpaper in molding boxes 
• Install window treatments (shades discounted from Select Blinds)
• Install ceiling medallion (sponsored by Ekena) and light (discounted from Capitol Lighting) – ordered, just need to schedule my electrician to install!
• Hit refresh on FB MP every 11 minutes – yep, still  refreshing every 11 minutes. 
• Drive all over NJ/NY/CT/PA to pick up items from strangers houses (this will need to happen at least 15 times based on how many items I am trying to source from MP). – So far, sourced 7 items out of the ~15. 
• Setup and photograph the room
• /fin

That’s it for this week!

If you’re on Instagram, follow me @aglassofbovino to watch my progress in my “ORC Office” Instagram story highlights! I’ll be sharing a lot more there.

Thank you SO much to Linda from Calling it Home, for creating and organizing the One Room Challenge!

Also a huge thank you generous brands I’ve partnered with who provided discounted/sponsored items for this makeover:

• Metrie –  molding (sponsored)
• Loloi – area rug (sponsored)
• Capitol Lighting – ceiling light  (discounted)
• Emtek – desk pulls (sponsored)
• Ekena Millwork – ceiling medallion (sponsored)

Don’t forget to check out the featured designers and guest designers to support them and see the awesome things they are doing in their rooms too!