My moods have been on a roller coaster ever since we started this “simple” painting project a week ago. Yes, the house has now been in painting-prep disarray for over a week, and it’s driving me batty.
Yesterday I told you that I thought we’d found a good compromise with a pale gray – Sherwin Williams Lazy Gray. I stayed up painting last night because I wanted to get it done and be able to put the kitchen and dining room back together today. At 1 am I stopped working on the second coat and went to bed because I was too tired to be focused and careful. I’m glad I didn’t push myself to finish, because today the house seems to be glowing blue all over and I can’t stand it.
In the past I’ve settled for “good enough” in my design, or I’ve gotten distracted and never truly finished rooms. But I’m tired of not having finished spaces that I love, and I want to change that this year.
I think even harder than the upheaval of our rooms is the crush to my ego that this has caused. I never thought I was a professional decorator, but I did think I was better at picking colors. After googling for advice on gray paints, I felt a little better when I found legit designers talking about how tricky gray can be.
My favorite is this excerpt from Emily Henderson’s post on the best gray paints. She perfectly sums up how I feel about our house today:
Most of you who have experimented with gray’s know that they go blue very, very fast – often you think you are choosing a blue-ish gray and then when its up on your walls it looks like you are welcoming your first son. In 1992.
So what do I want? I want the walls (both dark gray and light gray walls to complement the sea of brown furniture in the living room. I want them to be neutral enough that I can switch out colorful, jewel-tone accessories and change things up without having to repaint. And I want them to allow framed large photos I’ve taken to stand out.
Right now I feel like the blue is such a predominant tone that I won’t be able to add dark teal or emerald or berry colored accessories without it looking absurd. I also feel like it’s so blue that the dining and kitchen walls stand out rather than fading into the background.
I also want it neutral so that I can photograph my products in the space as needed.
Ryan and I are going to make a new game plan tonight. I’m wondering if I should try bringing different fabric swatches into the room to see how they look against the current colors. I know the feel of an unfinished space can change dramatically once it’s accessorized.
I’d love to have other opinions. What would you do? Would you accept the color and try living with it for a while? Or would you trust your gut and continue to look for the right color? I know that prepping to paint is the most tedious part of the task, and since we’ve already done that I’d hate to have to do it again in a few months.
PS: I’m considering trying some of the paints mentioned here.
12 Comments
i would look for the right color. You want something that works for you!!! if you don’t find it, you’re gonna be lamenting.
I love the color from behr — pencil point. it’s truly a dark gray. Neutral, no undertones! and then we took a little bit of that gray and put into the white can to make lighter gray.
Erin, thanks so much for the feedback and the suggestion! What a great idea to use one solid color to tint a white. No guessing! I just picked up a few color samples but if we don’t like them I’m going back for Pencil Point.
Well I think it looks GREAT !!
Gray is tough. We’re using it throughout our house, and I settled on Cliffside Gray from Benjamin Moore. They have the best variety of grays I’ve found anywhere. You’ll probably want something darker for your living room, but it might work for the kitchen. The Oystershell and Owl Gray also look like they could work. With all the warm tones in your furniture and cabinets, I think you’re going to be better off with a warmer gray than the ones you’ve been trying.
No matter how convinced I am that I have the right color, I ALWAYS paint several large swatches on different walls in the room and look at them over the course of a couple of days to see how they change in the light. We’ve painted 3 rooms very different colors in this house so far and none of them has been an oops which is a first for me ever! I hope you figure it out soon! I definitely feel your pain!
I agree, I like to paint large patches on the wall. We did large boards that we moved around the space, but either way – it’s been interesting this time because the large patches didn’t compare to the finished effect! I really like the BM gray colors. Thanks!
My reaction to the very first picture was that I loved it. It’s totally a blue-gray, but such a pretty one and I think the blues you picked almost work at neutrals – they’ll be a great backdrop for teal or berry colors (not sure about greens…).
I would take a break for a few days to live with the colors and then revisit the paint samples after a week or so.
Thanks for the feedback! It’s hard to explain, but I thought the colors looked very “pretty” in the living room, but I didn’t like it for our space. Ryan felt the same way. I guess it’s like if you like a dress someone else wears and it looks great on them, but it’s not what you want to wear yourself? I think the blue gray felt a little too classic. That’s the best explanation that comes to mind. The next day we knew we couldn’t live with it.
I think it looks nice but I can see where the blue-ness could get overwhelming. Sitting with it for a week is probably a good idea, but if that doesn’t pan out I think that colors #2 and #6 from the PS link you posted would work well. #2 would be more of a risk, but I think #6 would be a win. The green undertone seems (from my imagination…) like it would be a good compromise between having a gray-ish color that flatters that the brown backsplash while still working with the otherwise uniform theme. And if it is ok with the backsplash then it would go great with the brown furniture too.
Now I want to paint a room in that color…
Anna – thanks so much for the feedback! I think you made a great point about the green undertones.
Hi Jane, We have about 5 or 6 different color grays painted on our walls, and the rest of our house is about 6 colors of blue. Let me dig up some of the colors we used – i got almost all the recommendations from the paint section in the first few pages of House Beautiful and have loved them for the last 9 years we’ve had them on the wall. I will say that gray – more than any other color – is very dependent on the light you have in your house. We don’t have a lot of light, so we get really rich gray tones. You have a lot more windows, so I would experiment with large swatches on the wall and watch them over a few days (and few different weather patterns) to make sure you love it.
C- Thanks so much! I’m only now seeing this, and we’ve found a solution. But I appreciate it! The large number of windows definitely affects the color more than I ever realized. The light bounces all over during the day, and it changes constantly. It’s been a learning experience!
Can you still post your colors?