Colors From The Garden

When designer Kendall Wilkinson wants to warm up a room, she paints the trim in Benjamin Moore's creamy white. It gently sets off the blue walls in this bedroom.

Kendall Wilkinson
BENJAMIN MOORE JET STREAM 814 LINEN WHITE 70
"This is a cool shade that wavers between blue and lavender, a color you see in delphinium and hyacinth. It reads as blue on the wall, but the lilac undertones warm it up and make it more soothing. I used it in a master bedroom with a view of San Francisco Bay, and on a sunny day it's almost robin's egg blue. In the fog it turns a soft blue-gray."

Randall Beale
BENJAMIN MOORE PEONY 2079-30
"Why not paint a powder room in the hot pink of a Gerber daisy? There's nothing more chic than hot pink walls with a white marble floor and countertop. I would use this in high-gloss lacquer, because it's all about shine today."

Michael Whaley
BENJAMIN MOORE CEDAR GROVE 444
"In my cutting garden I have morning glories climbing over a lattice obelisk painted this wonderful silvery sage green. Gertrude Jekyll always painted her garden furniture this color — an interesting change from white. It reminds me of lavender leaves, which takes me right to the south of France, and who would want to be anywhere else?"

Kenneth Brown
BENJAMIN MOORE STRAW 2154-50
"If you look into a calla lily, you'll see those little pollen stems in exactly this color — a golden yellow with a little apricot and peach to take off the edge. Pure yellow walls can start bouncing off each other and bounce you right out of the room. This is more subtle, and would work equally well in a modern space or a French country living room."

Dan Carithers
BENJAMIN MOORE BRAZILIAN BLUE 817
"Plumbago has tiny flowers, like phlox, and they're purplish blue, which has a cooling effect in a garden as well as a room. It's the prettiest color, so intense. An intense color can still be soft as long as it has a few shadows in it. This is a peaceful, late-evening blue."

In a Boston living room, designer James Swan matched the color on the walls to the pale gray-green of lamb's ears and painted the trim a Pratt & Lambert POR2343 FB, subtler than a stark white.

James Swan
PRATT & LAMBERT PEARL WHITE 29-29
"I wanted that milky gray-green you see on lamb's ears, with an undertone of silver as the light hits it. Even in winter, it keeps that ethereal, dreamy feeling. And one day I'm going to find a place for the pink, because I love the combination of pink and gray-green."

Ann Dupuy
FARROW & BALL PINK GROUND 202
"This is a very serene pink, the color of an old French rose called Cuisse de Nymphe, which translates as the thigh of a nymph. So charming. And everybody looks good against pink — that's why men wear pink shirts."

Patricia Healing
BENJAMIN MOORE FRENCH LILAC 1403
"My wisteria never bloomed until this year, when it went absolutely crazy and gave me a whole new way of looking at lavender. There's no reason why you couldn't use this pale lilac in a living room, with brown and white fabric, or navy blue. Very sophisticated."

S. Russell Groves
PRATT & LAMBERT MOSS GREEN 16-29
"This is a great mossy green, very soft because of all the gray in it. There's nothing softer on bare feet than a carpet of moss. It feels like kitten fur. And you don't need to mow it."

Amy Lau
BENJAMIN MOORE RUMBA ORANGE 2014-20
"It looks just like those dancing orange nasturtiums that climb and spill and ramble all over the garden. But I'd only use it in a low dose, as an accent color behind a bed or on a wall in a beach house, à la Barragán. Otherwise it would be overpowering."