pass the mustard

as you know, my house is white.


when we first moved in, i was pretty certain i wanted medium to dark gray shutters, and a very dark door. after living here a while, and looking at pictures of white houses, i realized how often i gravitate to CLASSIC white houses with black shutters. i mean, i could practically rename my "architecture" board on pinterest "i LOVE white houses with black shutters"...cuz that is a majority of what is there!

anyway, i have decided that i want the shutters (when we add them) to be black.
so, that leaves the front door....
black is a classic look:



and so is red:



i am not really a "red" girl though---i tend to be drawn to darker, more subdued tones like peacock blue and pumpkin and mustard yellow. i started looking at white houses with yellow doors, and something inside of me KNEW this was the answer!


ahhhh! now, to find the RIGHT shade of mustard...


i held up my paint deck to the door and came up with 3 options:


"leap of faith"..."stuart gold" and "autumn gold"



now, i have a kinda weird system that i occasionally use when selecting colors for my own house. first, i will pick out 2-3 colors from the benjamin moore deck...then, when i go to lowes or home depot to mix up my samples, i will choose 1-2 "wild card" options from whatever line that they carry. these are colors that i *think might be similar to the colors i have already chosen, but different enough that i get some variety.

here are the final colors i sampled:

(it was pretty clear that my "wild card" valspar colors (the colors in the middle row)were too orange and dark for what i wanted.)

a look at the color standing out farther...i think this is a better representation of what the colors really look like:


and the winner?
what do you think??
please leave a comment!