For this post I received gifted products from Clare in exchange for my honest review and opinion. All opinions are my own.

So we finished a kitchen renovation and jumped right into our next project - updating our living room. We knew that we wanted to create some sort of statement wall in here, but there were two things I was struggling with when designing the space: 

1. How to design around the closet door. Our living room is the first room you enter when coming into our home. We don’t have a defined entryway, but thankfully have a closet where we store our shoes, sports equipment, coats, etc. The closet isn’t in the most ideal location, but instead of fighting against it, I wanted to find a way to work with it and incorporate it into the design. The solution: create a statement wall with an integrated or “hidden” door. 

2. How to choose a color that didn’t compete with the colors in our dining room and kitchen. Blue is a dominant color in our kitchen and dining room, so I knew that I wanted to go with a more earth tone color palette in our living room. Our living room, kitchen and dining room are all connected, and I didn’t want these three rooms to compete, but instead complement one another. I felt that creating a more neutral living room would help balance out the more rich and moody colors in the other two rooms in our home. 

Now, I’m all about using high quality paint, and I’ve had years of experience painting with the worst of the worst and what I consider the best of the best in paint brands. And friends....I say FRIENDS, gather round because omg, Clare is most definitely one of the best of the best paints I’ve used so far. If you’re not familiar with the brand here is a quick synopsis. Clare is a modern paint company that makes paint shopping easier than ever with premium, Zero VOC paint, designer-curated colors and quality painting supplies — delivered to your door. Plus it’s a Black, woman owned company, founded by interior designer, Nicole Gibbons. Over the years, I’ve heard nothing but positive things about Clare and I’m super excited to share my experience using their product in our home. 

The Before

I started off ordering a few different paint swatches (which I highly recommend!), and chose colors that fell within a more neutral palette. Each paint swatch is peel and stick which makes it so easy to move around the room and gain a better idea of how the color reads at different times of the day. I narrowed it down to two colors and ultimately chose Neutral Territory (the top swatch in the photos). It’s the perfect shade of taupe and it felt like the color that would work best with the vision I had for this wall.

Clare has everything you need to complete your paint project, and I’m talking EVERYTHING. You need a paint tray? They have it. You need a paint roller or brush? They have those. Are you looking for painters tape? Guess what? They have that too. All your paint and supplies can be ordered online and shipped directly to your home. And shipping is so fast! I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly the items arrived and was honestly confused when I saw a huge yellow box being carried to our front door by FedEx. I just wasn’t expecting our order to arrive so quickly! They aren’t playing when they say “paint shopping simplified” because it was so so seamless. 

You know what is one of the worst feelings when it comes to preparing for a paint project? Getting samples, testing colors, choosing a color, ordering your paint, and then BOOM the paint doesn’t match the sample color exactly. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve ordered paint and the color is either much lighter or darker than the sample. Well, I’m happy to report that was NOT the case with Clare. The paint I received matched the color swatch exactly, which saves so much time, money, emotions...If you know, you know. 

Another thing I appreciated about Clare was the ease of paint application. As I was painting I kept thinking “like butter baby” lol because it legit went on so smoothly. I didn’t have to press hard on the roller handle to get full coverage, it just felt so effortless to paint. I used the roller to paint both the wall and the wood slats and the coverage was consistent on both surfaces. On a personal note, I noticed that there weren’t any strong, overpowering paint odors, which, as a migraine sufferer, I REALLY appreciated. Sometimes my migraines can be triggered by smells, such as paint, and not once was our home filled with the smell of paint, nor did I experience a migraine triggered by paint fumes. 

Overall, I’m incredibly happy with Clare and highly recommend their paint. From the ordering process, shipping, color matching, paint consistency, and overall ease of painting, Clare provided one of the most seamless painting experiences I’ve had thus far. And the best part...I didn’t have to leave the house once to receive high quality paint and supplies delivered directly to my door.