Alternate punny post title: Gimme Some Moore. Yes, that was a Busta Rhymes reference — that song was my junior year jam. And speaking of jams, our new nail gun is the latest household favorite. John’s gearing up to tackle crown molding this weekend, assuming he can wrestle it from my hands. First we’re letting the tool acclimate a little longer, though.
While the crown molding gets to know our house a bit better (and I admire it from afar), we’re excited to share our 2013 Benjamin Moore paint picks. We’re a little late to post them — thanks to everyone who asked! — but we didn’t want to rush. We took our time selecting the colors we truly love: all 32 of them. Think of it as a very colorful wedding.
To make these picks more useful, we’re offering a few specific ideas for how to use some of the shades right here in this post. Here’s one example:
And here’s another idea (you’ll find four more sprinkled through the rest of the post).
Some of these tones are familiar favorites we’ve used before, some are colors we’ve admired for years, and a few were developed for our book, so we’ve seen them in real rooms. You can view all of our selected colors on the Benjamin Moore gallery. We still grin at the idea that we ended up on their site — five years ago that would have been laugh-out-loud surprising.
We’ve trusted Benjamin Moore colors for around half a decade and have been using their actual paint since 2011, first trying it on our office built-ins. So when they asked us to curate a collection of favorite hues last year, it felt like a dream. Picking 32 new shades for 2013 was just as fun. This collaboration is one of those side projects that helps pay the bills — like writing a magazine column or our book — but with the perk of playing with paint chips.
Our selection process was delightfully messy: we spread out hundreds of swatches to narrow the list down to our top 32. It was beautiful chaos, and I loved every minute of investigating undertones and combinations.
We hope this curated set helps anyone overwhelmed by a wall of endless swatches. A smaller, edited collection can make it easier to choose colors that work together in your home. We also included usage suggestions throughout the post to spark ideas — whether you’re ready to paint immediately or need a cozy excuse to take a snack break first.
What paint colors have you loved recently? Do you keep a folder of swatches or a Pinterest board of inspiration? How do you organize your favorite shades?
While curating, we found that cutting individual swatches and arranging them on a neutral background made it easy to see how they played together. Laying choices out this way helped us balance dark tones, bold options, neutrals, and softer, serene hues that aren’t too bright. If you have a few free weekends and a neutral sofa, try playing with paint swatches instead of streaming TV — it’s surprisingly satisfying and much less gory than a Walking Dead marathon.
Psst — we picked a winner for this week’s giveaway, so you can find out if it’s you on our giveaway post.