A room-by-room look at the paint colors we’ve used throughout our 900 sq ft cottage, from the blue living room and green pantry to the softer neutrals and playful built-ins throughout our home.

When we first moved into our little blue cottage, I was very much a white cottage/farmhouse kind of gal.

The house came with what people describe as the landlord special — gray walls, white trim, and not a whole lot of personality. So naturally, one of the first things I did was paint almost the entire house white.

And for a while, I loved it.

But the longer we lived here, the more my style started changing.

Some of my earliest memories are thrifting with my parents, or going to garage sales on Saturday mornings. I’ve always thrifted and bought secondhand furniture.

But as I got older, my style started shifting away from that more styled farmhouse-antique look and toward a home that felt more collected, layered, and full of story. I started mixing in more pattern, caring less about what was trending, and choosing pieces because they felt personal and like they truly belonged in our home.

The more my home started to feel collected instead of styled, the more I wanted to add color and character back into this little cottage.

Instead of choosing paint colors just because I thought they were pretty, I started thinking more about how I wanted each room to feel.

One room at a time, the white started disappearing.

And because “What paint color is that?” is easily one of the questions I get asked most, I figured it was finally time to put all of our cottage paint colors in one place for you guys.

The Color of Our Little Blue Cottage

Sherwin-Williams — Illusive Green

Before we ever painted a single room inside, there was already one color that had completely shaped the identity of our home — the color of the cottage itself.

When we bought the house, the exterior was already painted Elusive Green by Sherwin-Williams, so we didn’t actually choose it.

And funny enough, people seem to see it completely differently.

Some people swear it reads gray. Some see green. I’ve always seen blue.

That’s actually how Our Little Blue Cottage got its name.

There’s something about the way the color shifts with the light that makes it hard to pin down, and I think that’s part of why I’ve always loved it so much. Depending on the time of day, it can look softer, greener, grayer, or more blue — but to me, it has always been our little blue cottage.

Living Room

Valspar — Seafoam Storm

I actually painted our living room Seafoam Storm before we ever found our red gingham couch.

So when I found the gingham couch (after searching marketplace for months!) I drove to pick it up immediately.

And then immediately thought, Oh no. I’m going to have to repaint the living room.

I genuinely thought the red and blue were going to compete with each other, and I even had plans to change the wall color.

Then we brought the couch home. Somehow, they just worked.

Now the combination of the blue walls with the red gingham couch is one of the things people comment on most. I get messages all the time from people telling me how much they love the red and blue together, which is funny because I was convinced I had just sent a full patriotic Americana theme across my living room.

Instead, it ended up feeling collected, cozy, and exactly right for the cottage.

before

after

It’s become one of my favorite examples of letting a room evolve instead of feeling like I have to have the entire thing figured out from the beginning.

I wanted this room to feel soft, airy, timeless, elegant, and almost sculptural. I wanted it to feel calm and grown-up without becoming plain or boring.

Wax Sculpture gave me exactly that.

It has enough warmth that the room feels cozy, but it still works beautifully with the lighter textiles, stripes, soft colors, and cottage details I’ve been adding.

This is one of those rooms where the feeling mattered just as much to me as the actual paint color.

Built-ins + Trim — Benjamin Moore Wedgewood Gray at 75%

This is the room where I really wanted to have fun with color.

Because it’s a shared bedroom and play space for a boy and a girl, I wanted something that felt gender-neutral but still gave me plenty of room to layer in more color.

I didn’t want the room to feel like a rainbow, but I definitely didn’t want it to feel plain either.

The goal has always been fun, whimsical, and very storybook cottage.

And I have to tell you — when I first started painting the built-ins blue, I was nervous.

It did not read like the color I thought I had chosen at all.

There was definitely a moment where I stood there wondering what in the world I had done. 😂

But this was one of those trust-the-process projects because once the room started coming together, it turned into quite possibly the most perfect blue I’ve ever used.

And we aren’t even finished in here yet.

We still plan to add wallpaper, lighting, and a few more little details, so this room is continuing to evolve right along with the rest of the cottage.

Our Kitchen Pantry

Benjamin Moore — Backwoods

Color-matched at Sherwin-Williams

Backwoods actually started in our son’s nursery — which, funny enough, was previously a bathroom.

That room is probably one of the best examples of how we’ve lived in this little house: letting a space work for us in one season, and then completely changing it when our needs changed.

It went from a bathroom, to our son’s nursery, and now it’s being completely transformed again into a twin bedroom (will share soon!)

The laundry room has officially been moved outside too, but that is a whole other story for another day. 😂

When we painted the nursery, Backwoods was one of my first real experiments with color in the house, and afterward I had almost an entire can of paint left over.

Then one day I woke up and decided to rip the doors off our original pantry and turn it into an exposed pantry.

As one does.

Instead of buying more paint, I used what I already had.

And I was nervous.

Our kitchen is tiny — genuinely one of the smallest rooms in the house — and I worried that such a deep green would make the whole space feel too dark and moody.

And honestly? Sometimes it does.

When we eventually completely redo the kitchen, this may be one of the colors that changes for that reason. But it is beautiful, and I still really love the character it gave that little pantry.

I shared the entire process of turning this little corner into our pantry + coffee bar here.

Kitchen Cabinets

Farrow & Ball — Mouse’s Back

For the kitchen cabinets, we went with Mouse’s Back by Farrow & Ball.

It’s one of those wonderfully muddy, hard-to-describe colors that shifts depending on the light, which is probably why I love it so much.

It brings warmth into our tiny kitchen without feeling like a stark brown or gray, and it works really beautifully beside all of the older, collected pieces we have around the room.

It has that slightly aged, lived-in quality that feels right at home in the cottage. That said, the kitchen is also one of the last rooms in the cottage that still needs a full remodel. At this point, it’s probably one of the most unfinished spaces in the house.

So while I do think Mouse’s Back is a beautiful color, this whole room will eventually look very different. The cabinets, layout, and overall feel of the space are all things we plan to change when we finally tackle the kitchen.

For now, it’s one of those spaces that has worked for us in this season, even if it isn’t the finished version yet.

Laundry Room

Walls — Benjamin Moore Natural Cream

Doors & Bench — Farrow & Ball Light Blue

Natural Cream is exactly what the name sounds like — creamy, warm, and soft without reading yellow.

It gives the room a gentle, lived-in backdrop and lets all of the cottage details do the talking.

Then I added Farrow & Ball Light Blue to the doors because, of course, I couldn’t leave the entire room neutral.

It’s such a pretty contrast against the creamy walls and gives that little space just enough color.

Bathroom

Walls- Benjamin Moore Natural Cream

Doors- Light Blue by Farrow & Ball

We carried Natural Cream into the bathroom too.

I love how creamy and warm it feels in here, especially with all of the older cottage-style details. It keeps the room light without giving me that stark-white feeling I was slowly moving away from throughout the rest of the house.

It’s still neutral, but it feels much softer and warmer than the bright whites I used to automatically reach for.

Letting Our Cottage Change With Us

I think one of the biggest things this little house has taught me is that your home doesn’t have to stay exactly how you first imagined it.

Mine certainly didn’t.

I went from wanting everything white and matching to wanting color, pattern, old things, little imperfections, and rooms that look like they’ve been collected over time.

Sometimes making a home you love isn’t about changing the house.

It’s about giving yourself permission to keep discovering what you love inside of it.

Our little cottage has changed right along with us, and I have a feeling it isn’t finished changing yet.

Learning to see the possibilities in the home we already had is a big part of what eventually became Making Room — my guide to helping you make the most of the home you have and make room for the life you want to live there.

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