Friday, June 17, 2011

Selecting Gray Paint...

...is not easy!  We decided a while back we wanted to paint our dining room a light gray and recently we also decided on gray for the accent wall in our family room.  Easy enough, right?  Not even close!  Gray is tricky! 

It is a neutral so it should be pretty straight forward but stand in the paint isle for a few minutes and you will quickly realize gray comes in all shapes and sizes...brown, blue, violet and silver hues, not to mention all different kinds of saturations.  When you search "gray" on the Benjamin Moore website it gives you 197 results!  Check it out.

As you know (from here) I initially planned on a blue gray for the dining room to play off the bright blue in the Grand Piano Room but once I got it on the walls I was not so happy with it. I tried out a second blue gray and didn't like that one either. 


So what did I do?  Nothing!  I let the two paint samples sit up on the wall until I got the inspiration to try again.  Well after deciding to also use gray in the family room I was re-energized and headed back to the paint isle, this time staying away from the blue shades and looking more for a silver based gray that wasn't silver at all.  (I know, such a helpful description.)

But I think I found it, Benjamin Moore Bunny Gray (no, I didn't make that name up) for the dining room and one shade darker, Thundercloud Gray for the family room. 



I haven't gone to buy it yet so all I can show you is the "color preview"...I think it is funny that Benjamin Moore calls their paint cards "color previews"...but as soon as I get back from a work trip this weekend I am going to make the big purchase and start painting.  I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I have solved the gray paint challenge because this has been a doozie!