Bookworm Cottage Style

When we moved in, our entire house was staged and painted a calm off-white color all throughout. We knew we wanted to incorporate more bold colors, but it took many months before we felt ready to make a decision for the living room scheme. Once we had a delivery date set for our large sectional sofa (more on that soon!) we decided to just go for it, so that we didn’t risk getting paint on the new furniture. Our old sofa was also much smaller and much easier to move away from the wall.

I am forever drawn to blues and greens. Knowing that we planned on getting a navy sofa and knowing that the only other room in the house we’ve painted is also navy blue (Benjamin Moore’s Newburyport Blue — gorgeous!) my husband suggested going with something in the green family, so that we don’t overdo it on blue.

I think we made the right choice. Just look at this dreamy view!

We sampled over a dozen different greens to see which one played well with our abstract painting and our floral rug and didn’t feel too dark in our North facing room, and Benjamin Moore Cedar Grove was the winner for us. BM Cedar Grove is one shade lighter on the color card than BM Greenwich Village, a close relative of the beautiful F&B Breakfast Room Green. We also loved BM Kensington Green, but it was a little too blue for our purposes.

When trying to pick paint colors I tried to find as many different photos of it online used in *real* houses (not AI generated) to see how it might look in different lighting and alongside different color schemes. BM Cedar Grove seems to be pretty underrated/underutilized in the design world, but I am so happy with how the walls turned out and would definitely recommend it. If you’re looking for something in the sage green family and are considering BM Cedar Grove, I hope you find this post helpful!

I still have a few more updates I want to make before I do a full reveal post with sources. Over the next few months, I’m hoping to do new window treatments and buy some new throw pillows. While there will be more to share soon, this already looks like a completely different room!