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scwren_gw

The color of a melted Hershey kiss

scwren
16 years ago

This forum has been so, so helpful to me in my house-building process. Here's yet another plea for help!

I found the yummiest shade of brown.

BM Davenport tan.

I'm considering painting my whole great room/entry/dining room this color but am concerned b/c it really is a dark color. What do you think?(Excuse the construction mess)

Here's a pic of the color. It's the big swatch of brown(not the lighter tans)

Here's the room. This is the front of the room, the entrance.


This is the back of the room, what you see when you walk in the front door.

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The things I have to coordinate with are: the floor color, which will be natural white oak.

THe trim will be all painted white. The fireplace will have a dry stack stone fireplace w/ an oak mantle and white bookcases on either side. The ceilings are painted white.



Do you think I can pull off a dark color in this space? DO you have any other color suggestions for me? Pizzaz? I'm not scared of color...at least I don't think so. I started out looking at SW Ivorie, but it was too bland. Plus too yellow to go well with the floor. I've tried SW Dormer brown and SW Mexican sand, but they just look like a yucky tan. Any other suggestions? I'm starting from scratch on this room. I don't have furniture for it yet. It gets lots of natural filtered light, it's a southernish exposure. It's not going to be a formal room, but a comfortable family-filled room...

Comments (31)

  • msrose
    16 years ago

    Have you looked at SW Latte?

    Laurie

  • houscrzy
    16 years ago

    I actually just painted my mudroom and office, and my fireplace that color. It is quite dark, but it really pops with white trim and ceilings.I think it looks quite sophisticated. I find it really changes in different lights quite dramatically. It often has a bit of a greenish cast to it (so I don't really think it looks like a melted Hershey's kiss on the wall at all).
    I can try to dig out my digital camera and take a picture for you if you'd like. Might be a little bit because we're in the process of moving in, there is still construction all over and we can't get to a bunch of boxes. I must say that the color in your picture doesn't read at all true on my monitor, so I don't know how helpful pictures will really be. I would definitely try a big swatch on the wall and look at it in different lights

  • johnmari
    16 years ago

    WRT whether the dark tone can be carried off in this room, I think much depends on your furniture, the stone that'll go on the fireplace, other colors that will be used in the room like upholstery, rugs, window treatments, etc. To be completely honest I'm not entirely sure it will play all that well with the flooring and stained wood door/arches, with those golden tones (especially if the southernish exposure gives you a warm-toned sunlight through those enormous windows rather than the cooler light more typical to northern light) I would consider trying out a warmer color with less green in it.

  • love-my-lilhome
    16 years ago

    May be my moniter but it looks like it has a dash of purple and green.
    I think color depends alot on the personality of a person.

    I am happy and upbeat 99% of the time.
    I had my LR painted a deep red (not my idea!) and I hated it. It depressed me and I even had beautiful furniture and light in there. It lasted 6 months.
    Now it is a "creamy" yellow.

    Deep dark colors are "in" so to speak, but are they happy, good feeling colors for you ?

    You have beautiful windows with lots of light so how about
    Pittsburgh Paints Golden Ecru or Applesauce Cake or
    Earthy Ocher.
    I keep looking at the fire place and I don't see yellow but I don't see deep dark brown either.
    Help Les!

  • oceanna
    16 years ago

    You have two things going for you if you want to use a dark color. One is the room is huge and the other is you're getting plenty of light in there. If you do a dark brown on the walls, what will you do with the ceiling? Also, have you looked at the thread about brown colors in the Gallery?

  • mls0520
    16 years ago

    Hello!

    I too, find this site so helpful. We are building right now and I just turned paint colors into the GC today. I have literally STUDIED Ben Moore's and SW's chip books for the last 6 months. Plus, I have an embarrasing number of empty BM paint sample pots and sample SW quarts. So, I do have a few suggestions for you.

    First of all, I have to say that I love what you've got going on. Your home looks cozy, yet still airy and light. I adore your front door too!

    I love Davenport Tan. My living room now is almost that exact color. I've gotten lots of compliments on it. In our new house, we've chosen Ivoire as the color for our main living spaces. I'm ready for a change, I guess.

    Looking at your space, the first two colors that came to mind were SW Hopsack- more of a Hershey Kiss mixed with a Melted Caramel :p (just keeping with the yummy food descriptions), and the other color is Shelburne Buff which looks like the inside of a peanut butter cup ;) I included a link which I hope works, that shows a bathroom done in Latte, Hopsack, and the color one down from Hopsack on the Strip (steady brown) I think. This pic will really give you an idea on the tones these browns give- they're really warm and pleasant.

    Also, I think that whatever stone you use on the fireplace needs to play a big part of your final color choice. I'm not afraid of color either, and you have a lot of wall expanse taken up by windows and trim- which to me means that you can do a dark color and not get overwhelmed by it. I think that your floors and your door are asking for a dark graham cracker color that plays with the honey colored tones within your wood, one with enough contrast to make the stone and the floors "pop".

    If you don't use Davenport Tan in your living area, maybe it would work as a backdrop for a slumberful bedroom. I'm worried about the Ivoire being a little bland for my taste too, but we've went with walnut floors, chocolate hickory cabinets, and dark caramel carpeting, so I needed to lighten it up on the walls.

    Well, this post made me want a midnight snack. Maybe there's some Hershey's around here somewhere....

    Michelle

    Here is a link that might be useful: Hopsack is the Middle strip

  • scwren
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Thanks for your thoughts guys! Yes, I have looked at SW latte. My SIL has that in her great room and it is a good shade. Just - I don't know. It doesn't really strike me. I want to LOVE the color I pick...this room will get alot of living, so I want to feel good when I'm in there. Dh says I am entirely too emotional over paint - just pick one!

    Michelle- thanks for the pic. I am going to run down and get my color chart. I will check out that Hopsack shade.

    Housecrazy - it does have a greenish undertone, now that you mention it. I took a sample to a friends house and was very surprised at how different it looked in different light.

    johnmari- This room does have golden tones. I haven't been sure whether to add to that and do a goldish shade, or contrast it and do something different. The walls are currently primed with Ivorie (very light gold) and I didn't really like it with the all the gold tones in the floor.

    lovemylilhome - I worry about people opening the front door and walking into this deep dark brown. Will it be depressing? Will it feel like a cave?

    Oceana - I have looked at the brown thread. I'm going to go look again!:)
    Here is a pic of the stone we are using...it's what's on the exterior.

    Here's a pic of the room at noon (different light)

    PIcture of the exterior

  • oceanna
    16 years ago

    Wow, your house is beautiful!

    The pic of your house with the Tyvec reminds me of a friend of mine whose house was covered in a silver paper prior to attaching new siding. The little boy next door called her the lady who lived in the tinfoil house!

    Congrats on your new house. It's wonderful and your stone work is just gorgeous.

    On those Gallery color threads, I wish more people would go put their pictures and their color names in there. Those are great threads, very helpful at least in narrowing things down for what color chips and samples to seek out.

  • jojoco
    16 years ago

    Here is the color of my den. It is SW Tea Chest. It does look like melted chocolate. I love it. It is warm and lair-like.

    JO

    another:

  • jerseygirl_1
    16 years ago

    WOW! Gorgeous house. Love, Love, Love the stone colors.

    Dark colors make a room look elegant. I had a black foyer 8 years ago. My friends thought I was crazy to use black in a small foyer until they saw it. It had a definite WOW factor. My home was very warm to walk into.

    Darker Browns are very striking. With all the light you have your rooms can take on any color and wear them well.

    Michele, thank you for sharing all the great colors of your home. I like the tiering effect of the colors. I think I saw something like that on HGTV with Kenneth Brown sometime back minus the white. Now you got me going. I think I will do that effect in my Master Bedroom using silver for the strips and various shades of gray.

  • teach2007
    16 years ago

    I could not believe it when I saw this thread. I have been painting squares on my sheetrock of every medium/dark brown paint color that Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore make. I have gone from Huntington Beige, which is more gold, to Portobello to Alexandria Beige and Davenport Tan with a few in between. I am now leaning toward SW Down Home. Has anyone tried that? For a while everyone around here was painting their rooms gold. Now browns are the "in" color and I love it. I am using Antique White for my trim and kitchen cabinets. My great room has a cathedral ceiling also and opens to the kitchen and dining room. I am so ready to decide on a color and never look back!!!

  • scwren
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I know I love dark, dark colors in a small space. In our current house, I have teensy powder room that is dark red & I love it. Dark & small = cozy & warm which is good. But does it work to go dark in a large room?

    Jojoco- Thanks so much for posting your pictures. That color is luscious and it looks great, great in your den. A very welcoming room. I even see you have it paired with dark leather, which is what I'm considering for our new sofa. I think I like the shades of your Tea Chest color even better than my Davenport Tan.
    Teach 2007- LOL, We must be at similar stages in the build process. The paint choices are about to drive me over the edge!

  • littledog
    16 years ago

    FWIW, a warmer dark brown that actually *is* the color of a melted Hershey's Kiss is availanble at good old Walmart; Color Place card #621. The shade you want is called "Hickory", #96214. You can always go by and pick up a color chip and have the paint mixed somewhere else, but I think that color will work better with your oak/white/rock combo than the cold, greyed down brown you have up there now.

  • teach2007
    16 years ago

    Scwren,
    We are for sure at the same place in our builds. I go to sleep thinking about brown paint, dream about it, and wake up thinking about it. This decision is almost as bad as picking out brick. I went to a house the other night that had SW Safari Brown. It was a dark brown, but it doesn't seem too dark. It was cozy and warm. I just don't want to paint something that I will HATE in five years. I think I will go for it, though. What is your deadline for picking out a color? Mine is RIGHT NOW! My painters are finishing up prep work and will need to know my colors today!!! AHHHHH!!!!

    Another thing to think about is your ceiling color? What will you do? I am thinking I will do 50% of the color on the cathedral ceiling. I think Antique white will be too bright and everything dark will not look good at all.

  • scwren
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    My paint deadline is Monday. Argh. The painters are coming TODAY to start filling nail holes and caulking. Gulp. We went with SW alabaster on the ceilings & trim. It's a white, but not too stark. I just couldn't talk myself into color on that big old vaulted ceiling.

    However, I just went to the gallery thread and saw a great room in dark, dark brown with lighter tan on the vaulted ceiling and it looks wonderful. So - it just goes to prove the more I think I know, the more I don't know.

    Sigh. What other colors are you going with? I have SW Ivorie for the halls, & bonus room. SW Truepenny for the laundry - LOVE that color. BM Georgian green in the kitchen w/ Kraftmaid Kaffe cabinets. I have to figure out something purple for my daughters room...Clemson Tiger orange for my sons and SW Quietude in the master suite. Our house will not be boring at any rate.

  • nami
    16 years ago

    Yummy title - makes me want to have a cookie right away. Its been 10 days since the new year started and there go my resolutions!

    I sampled Davenport tan for a guest br and found it too dark gray instead of chocolatey. Even at 50% strength it was distinctly gray and would look very depressing on an overcast day.

    I have big size chips of SW Dormer brown it is a cool brown in my lighting. I also have Hopsack but it reads a lot greener (Florida's natural light AARRRRGGGHHHH)

    The color that comes closest to melted chocolate is Valspar's Milk Chocolate 2007-9B.

    Jo, Love the Tea chest in your den. Very welcoming. How many coats did you need to achieve the depth of that color?

    Nami

  • teach2007
    16 years ago

    Well, whatever dark color I do for the living/dining/kitchen, I'm going to do 50% for a landing and gameroom upstairs that can be seen from downstairs. I will probably use the 50% for a hall and laundry downstairs. I THINK I putting BM gloucester sage in the master and a half bath. My daughter's room will be BM Homestead Green, and my son's will be one of the browns... light or dark. I'm keeping it simple on the number of colors.

  • gardenergwen
    16 years ago

    We're going with Davenport Tan in our "Game Room" which is used primarilly as a home theater. Our trim is also a pure white and we think the cozy color of the chocolate brown with the white trim will have just the right amount of balance for this space. Unforuntely, we have the paint but it's not up on the walls yet so no pics.

    Here's a pic of a Pottery Barn bedroom someone posted the other day with Davenport Tan on the walls.

  • ummm
    16 years ago

    i like it! but i like dark colors.

    some browns/gray browns i'm using are:

    BM taos taupe
    Pittsburg Paint - seal skin
    Pittsburg Paint - granite

  • msrose
    16 years ago

    Gosh, the magazine picture of Davenport Tan doesn't look anything like it does on your wall. On one of the decorating shows, they painted a room in BM Norwich Brown and it looked alot like the magazine picture, more of a caramel than chocolate.

    Laurie

  • gardenergwen
    16 years ago

    MSrose - You're right . . . In our room samples the Davenport Tan is closer to the section of paint in the Pottery Barn picture near the white drapery panel. The sections behind the bed are quite a bit lighter than the result in our home.

  • les917
    16 years ago

    What a terrific house!

    I am probably too late to the party, but I think a dark brown could be wonderful in the space. I am not sure that I like the Davenport Tan with the floor and the stone. It is reading grey, even a bit purple, undertone to me, which I think is going to fight the oak and the warmer brown in the stone.

    Did you try taking a piece of the stone, the color that is the really rich brown, and using that to find your paint color?

    Did you look at BM Glenwood Brown or Charleston Brown? The color viewer from BM can be deceptive, but on my monitor those would seem to be a deeper, warmer brown that would work with the stone and oak.

    One other thing that occurs to me, if I am understanding correctly. If the windows near the fireplace face south, the windows at the other end face north, and that will tend to bring out grey tones in the paint.

  • gardenchick1
    16 years ago

    I, too, am probably late to the party but our guest room has a very beautiful, melted chocolate color. It's BM 1035 Cambridge Riverbed. Our trim is BM OC-39 Timid White which is a soft off-white. We love our guest room and get many compliments on it. Many of the accents are off-white which provides a nice contrast to the warm walls.

    The camera flash seems to distort the color above the bed. A truer representation of the color would be above the window curtains.

    {{!gwi}}

  • scwren
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    The painters got delayed! So I have a bit of a reprieve. Whew! I got a sample of Jojoco's SW Tea Chest and tried that yesterday. Definetly a warmer brown. I had to leave before it was totally dry...I'll check back over the weekend.

    Les- thanks for your input. I always look forward to reading your comments. I'll have a look at those colors.

    msrose - you are so very right about Davenport tan looking completly different in the Pottery Barn version. Here's my experience with that.

    Earlier this year I bought some PB bedding and the exact paint that they had it paired with. When I got home and painted, it didn't even come close to pairing well with the bedding. They looked awful together in real life. THe bedding was a weird green and Philipsburg blue was almost a 80's country blue. I returned the bedding and complained to the store. The manager told me that PB photo shoots use very complex lighting, plus all their pictures are retouched and manipulated. She said their catalog colors do not at all accurately represent reality. Hmph! But it's true - their catalog pic of Davenport Tan looks nothing like the actual product.

  • jojoco
    16 years ago

    Nami,
    I think our Tea Chest took 2 or 3 coats. It was painted by a pro, (new house, everything was painted) so I don't know exactly. I vaguely remember paying extra for a third coat.
    Hope this helps.

    Jo

  • cburch
    16 years ago

    jojoco - I love your tea chest ..... beautiful! So striking and rich looking!!!

    Christy

  • justnotmartha
    16 years ago

    The truest chocolate brown I've ever worked with is Cocoa by Devine. It is the richest brown - almost seems to sparkle on the walls. I have a bath done with it I adore - sorry I have no pictures I can post from work. With a creamy white trim it truly warms a room. - I plan to use it in a great room with Ivory wainscotting soon.

    My favorite color ever!

  • nami
    16 years ago

    Is chocolate brown a good color for a formal dining room or does that sound unappetising(no pun intended)

    Thanks
    Nami

  • busygirl
    16 years ago

    gardenchick - Your color is also stunning, especially with the white bedding!

  • squirrelheaven
    16 years ago

    I didn't post after re-reading that it is a Southern exposure. But I've been thinking the color looks too gray (and dark) for the lighting shown in the pics -- thought maybe it was Northern gray light. Maybe it's what Les just said, the other windows from the North are graying the color. ??? Maybe it's just the pics too.

    Have you thought of a great soothing green with your outside views? It would be gorgeous with the browns and golds, too.

    What are you planning for furnishings? Light upholstery?

    (P.S. I want your other house :) Has it sold yet?)

  • winters4
    11 years ago

    This is really late but scwren what is the stone you used on the exterior, it looks great!