Have no fear! No one died in the making of this post...except maybe my pride.
I want to be done with a room. As much as I love trying out ideas, I'd like at least one room to just be done. You know? And I thought I was almost there with the living room.
So, here's what happened. I found this picture on Pinterest:
And I knew that I was thinking grey and this looked perfect! I headed over to my local Ben Moore paint store and asked for help locating the color...and...
it was totally beige.
And it's not just me. The color is in the neutrals, but not next to the distinctly grey colors. I looked at it in various light, and even in our house it still looked beige.
Like this picture.
My accents are similar, and see how beige and not grey that looks?
All greys are going to lean towards a color family. It's the whole black being the sum of all pigments thing. Given the orange accents, I decided to pick a grey that would lean toward blue.(For why, check out this post.) I went with Coventry Grey:
Well, it doesn't seem so in this picture or the color sample, but it leans toward blue. It's weird. It depends on which wall you are looking at, how the light hits it, whether it looks blue or grey. And when it looks blue it feels really cold.
I wasn't completely convinced, but I was busy with school and we thought we'd live with it for awhile. We did like it better than the yellow we had before.
Then I finally painted the hallway. The hallway just looks blue. Which makes me think the whole living room looks blue every time I see it now. Sigh.
I scurried over to Home Depot. Sorry Ben Moore, but if I'm changing my mind this much, I don't need fancy-pants expensive paint. I decided to look over their greys. Every time I selected a warm grey, it looked very beige to me. I finally settled on 'Ashes.' It looked grey, but slightly warmer, definitely not blue, it leans toward violet, but you have to really stare at it to see that.
I bought a quart. A sample is cheaper, but I needed to paint whole walls to decide. However, I wasn't going to paint everything - just a wall in the living room and a wall in the hall.
And I can't decide! It's grey and not blue, so that is good. Otherwise it's bascially the same color.
As if it's not hard enough to decide, I was looking at this pin:
Argh! Tonight I feel like I still like 'Ashes' so I'm back to the beginning. But if I'm bothering to repaint maybe I should be more dramatic and really warm up the grey. Care to weigh in? I hate being indecisive.
I also hate that it depends on the computer monitor how the color appears, so this whole post might be moot, but I needed to vent.
So, here's what happened. I found this picture on Pinterest:
 |
| It's called Revere Pewter. |
And I knew that I was thinking grey and this looked perfect! I headed over to my local Ben Moore paint store and asked for help locating the color...and...
it was totally beige.
And it's not just me. The color is in the neutrals, but not next to the distinctly grey colors. I looked at it in various light, and even in our house it still looked beige.
Like this picture.
My accents are similar, and see how beige and not grey that looks?
All greys are going to lean towards a color family. It's the whole black being the sum of all pigments thing. Given the orange accents, I decided to pick a grey that would lean toward blue.(For why, check out this post.) I went with Coventry Grey:
Well, it doesn't seem so in this picture or the color sample, but it leans toward blue. It's weird. It depends on which wall you are looking at, how the light hits it, whether it looks blue or grey. And when it looks blue it feels really cold.
 |
| Sorry, for once this winter we were having a super sunny day, but the walls I haven't touched are the window walls. |
I wasn't completely convinced, but I was busy with school and we thought we'd live with it for awhile. We did like it better than the yellow we had before.
Then I finally painted the hallway. The hallway just looks blue. Which makes me think the whole living room looks blue every time I see it now. Sigh.
I scurried over to Home Depot. Sorry Ben Moore, but if I'm changing my mind this much, I don't need fancy-pants expensive paint. I decided to look over their greys. Every time I selected a warm grey, it looked very beige to me. I finally settled on 'Ashes.' It looked grey, but slightly warmer, definitely not blue, it leans toward violet, but you have to really stare at it to see that.
I bought a quart. A sample is cheaper, but I needed to paint whole walls to decide. However, I wasn't going to paint everything - just a wall in the living room and a wall in the hall.
 |
| Here's a corner where I painted both walls Ashes, the green is the kitchen. Let's not discuss the half done crown molding. ;) |
And I can't decide! It's grey and not blue, so that is good. Otherwise it's bascially the same color.
As if it's not hard enough to decide, I was looking at this pin:
Argh! Tonight I feel like I still like 'Ashes' so I'm back to the beginning. But if I'm bothering to repaint maybe I should be more dramatic and really warm up the grey. Care to weigh in? I hate being indecisive.
I also hate that it depends on the computer monitor how the color appears, so this whole post might be moot, but I needed to vent.
I know how you feel! Greys are hard. My fave from the clip above is Rockport Grey. The light one seems too light to me and the bottom right seems very beige. But...I like darker paint colors.
ReplyDeleteWe just painted our powder room bath and I used a really dark green. It looked almost dark green but on the walls, it looks like a dark brown.
I don't know about you, but I tend to throw the paint up there and reflect on it later, which doesn't always bode well for me. :) Grey will look great!!
I like Rockport Grey the best too! It is what makes me hesitate about keeping Ashes. I like dark colors as well, but I was really trying to keep the living room light and airy. But, I was also trying to not go too cold, if that makes sense.
DeleteWe went through the same thing last year and it took at least 14 samples to find our right color. I think we tried every 'greige' out there and our walls looked like patchwork because, like you, I had to paint giant sections to be really able to tell. I wanted more of a gray and less of a beige but couldn't find a gray that didn't look too cold or had the right hue in our house. We ended up choosing Oat Bran (Valspar), which is more beige, and having it color matched to Sherwin Williams paint. Good Luck on finding your right color. Don't give up!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragemnt, Charisa! Mateo tells me that at the rate I'm going I'm going to shrink our rooms one layer of paint at a time. :) It sounds like we are having the exact same problem. I might lean towards less warm to keep the grey just because the grey looks really good with the furniture.
DeleteI've played with a bunch of these colors. Rockport Grey was very very dark. Too dark for my small space. My bedroom is painted Revere Pewter and I assure you, it is grey, with an almost purple undertone. Very much like the first picure and not at all like the second. I love it. Try it!
ReplyDelete