Home & Garden

Paint by Flower

Six room colors to match your favorite Southern blooms

Photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library


If you’re anything like me, spring and summer are high times for house projects—the sense of renewal unfurling outside initiates indoor rebirth, too. While I was sitting on my porch the other morning, mulling over paint color ideas, it occurred to me that all the inspiration I needed was growing in my garden. After all, the romance of Southern flowers is hard to resist, be it via a showstopping camellia or the fragrant bloom of a Noisette rose. So why not try to reflect that beauty in paint form? Below are a few ideas for doing just that.

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Love: Camellias

Try: Farrow & Ball’s Rectory Red

This shade looks slightly raspberry-ish, and so do the red-pink petals of some of my favorite camellias.

photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library

Love: Noisette Roses

Try: Benjamin Moore’s Tissue Pink

I can’t think of a more delicate, intoxicating rose, and this shade of light pink captures it just so.

photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library

Love: Honeysuckle

Try: Backdrop’s Disco Nap

The honeysuckle vine depicted here may not be invasive, but many of the other varieties are. Still, I love them. 

photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library

Love: Magnolia Leaves

Try: Sherwin Williams’s Tradd Street Green

This hue from Sherwin Williams’s Colors of Historic Charleston line captures these glossy leaves perfectly. 

photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library

Love: Plumbago

Try: Backdrop’s Stromboli Chess Club

When I think of plumbago, I picture it sweeping over fences in Charleston and also dotting scenes in the Italy of the 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley. This version nearly glows just like the real thing.

photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library

Love: Wisteria

Try: Farrow & Ball’s Brassica

This sophisticated purple feels moody, not sweet. And it’s right in line with the speckles in those ephemeral wisteria flowers.

photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library