Choosing colours and paints

We decided pretty much immediately that the first thing to go had to be the blue paint that covered 75% of our walls (see the "Before" pics in our House Tour). The outside of our house is blue, and most of the inside is too (including some trim, oof). Way. Too. Much. Blue. But, what colour was going to replace it? This grainy cell phone pic shows just how many paint chips I brought home (and this was after I pitched some a few days earlier):

The chip in the bottom left is the one we chose for most of the house (it will cover most of the parts that are blue). It's Olympic's Tightrope (middle of the chip), but we've had it colour matched to Para Lifestyles. It's very similar to the colour we had throughout the old house. Old habits die hard, I suppose. 

The second from the left on the bottom is Para's Snappy Dresser (second from top on the chip), and it's what we chose for the kitchen walls. It looks really close to Tightrope in this pic, and it definitely is, but it's more green. I wanted it for the main house, but Justin wanted something a bit warmer so Snappy Dresser was relegated to the kitchen. I'm not 100% sold on it for in there, but I just love the colour. We'll see. The big white chip is Valspar's Du Jour, and we plan to paint the kitchen cabinetry with it. 

The blue Para chip is for the master bedroom and bathroom. It's blue, I know, but I just couldn't get it out of my head. We'll be putting Book Worm (second from top) in the bedroom, and Sublime (second from bottom) in the bathroom. 

Overall, I'm going for muddy colours in this house so far. I might change my mind - the only colour that's been purchased so far is Tightrope - but I'm feeling pretty confident in the direction things are going colour-wise. I want it to feel cozy but not frumpy or old; modern, but not too trendy. I want it to be comfortable. 

You'll also notice that I don't concern myself too much with the brand when I'm choosing colours. We've used Valspar, Behr, Olympic, and Para paints in the past. We know now what we like and don't like (paint and primer in one = not for us), and we also know that any of them can be colour matched to the other. We really loved Para Lifestyles when we used it in our last house, and a year and a half after painting, it still looked brand new, so we'll be going that route again. 

Wish us luck on all this painting - as we're starting, I'm realizing just how much bigger than our old house this one really is (which was the point of moving, but still, it's taking much longer than it used to)!