Navy Baby!

I’m having a huge navy moment. I love navy couches, navy nail polish, navy weddings and last but not least navy wall paint! Making the decision to paint the walls navy above the wainscoting was easy. However, picking out the RIGHT navy color was a lot tougher than I expected.

I’m like any typical woman, I turned to the ever-loving Pinterest to start the paint color selection process. I spent hours online and in the store looking at swatches, learned a lot and I want to share my navy knowledge to make your choice easy. Let’s start off with the colors I decided to try.

First up, Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore. This color is highly praised by home bloggers and designers alike. I convinced myself I didn’t need to look into any other color! I marched into my local Home Depot on a mission, confidently stated I needed a sample of Hale Navy. I was so excited when I got home. I opened the sample with tingling anticipation, and it appeared…..VERY DARK. Meaning, one shade darker and it’d be black. It’s most definitely a chic color with lots of gray undertones that I like. However, I can’t lie – it did scare me a little.

I bravely reached for my paint brush and painted a swatch on the wall. Needless to say, it went on as dark as it appeared. I convinced myself surely it’d dry lighter. I headed to bed and looked forward to checking my master sample piece in the morning. It was almost as dark as it was when I went to bed. Back to square one, I decided to try Sherwin Williams Naval and the red-headed step child, Benjamin  Moore Newburyport Blue. By that I mean Newburyport Blue gets no love in the Pinterestsphere.

The Sherwin Williams Naval was very dark again like Hale Navy, although with a slightly bluer undertone. I quickly threw that out of the running (and don’t have any pics to show a painted swatch of Naval). The Newburyport Blue was the Goldilocks of the group….plenty of blue, still a deep jewel tone with tons of character. (Newburyport Blue on left, Hale Navy on right and pictured at night on top and during daylight on bottom). That was the winner winner chicken dinner and the end result turned out fantastic.

For all of the blogs and articles I’ve read that knock Newburyport blue,  hopefully this will change your mind or at least inspire you to try it out and take a dip into the navy pond. It’s already inspired my bestie, Stephanie, to paint a navy accent wall in her basement in the Newburyport blue and hit the nail on the head again!

Let me know what your navy experiences are and where you’re planning to try out navy in your home!

Keep it navy baby,

MRDW