Paint help
Fri, 13 Nov 2009Jack, a long-time co-worker of mine, and his wife Shannon are redoing their living room and Shannon is looking for paint help. She left a comment on Jo's post earlier today but I thought I'd post it seperately in the hopes there are some good suggestions out there as I am not much help. Here's her dilemma: "I am looking for a soft, silvery blue-grey (not grey-blue--I've found there's a difference) paint for my living room. I recently painted with a soft grey-blue (i.e. blue was the base colour) and it just reads as 'kid's room baby blue'. I"m looking for something like the wall colours in the fourth and fifth rows down (the living room with the portrait of the woman over the mantle and the living room with the yellow/chartreuse chair and blue rug). Does anyone have any colour suggestions???"
Here are the photos Shannon is talking about:
Reader Comments (19)
Hi, The outside of my house is painted in a similar colour, thogh I would say it was grey, not really a note of blue. The colour I used was called "burnt ash" and I used a 1/4 strength as an accent colour. Good luck finding the right colour, I usually have to paint a second time getting the right colour. lol
Cheers Bluey
I wonder if Farrow and Ball might have something for you. My office is currently painted "light blue" which is a slightly darker version of the color pictured here. It is NOT what you would normally think of as light blue, that's for sure, being neither particularly light nor all that blue. FB paints are highly dependent on the light in your room. A former office was painted FB "Borrowed Light" which was almost the exact color here. BUT that office was dark, and the small window faced north. In my current office that same silver blue (very Gustavian) was baby boy blue and just dreadful. The FB sample pots are brilliant - and I've found that the staff at my local store (in Toronto) know the paints really well.
Good luck!
something you could try is to buy 3 differents colours for differents brands (a small tin) and paint it on a small space on the wall, like a square with 20cmX20cm , the natural light in your room changes the color and it is the best way to you know the right color for your room without spend too much paint, time and money...
I tried a purple-grey in a wall of my bedroom and it looks like halloween... but know I found the righ color more grey than purple...
sorry about my english from Brazil and good luck!
Why can't I click to enlarge your images anymore? I always enjoyed a close-up viewing of your inspiringl pictures to see every detail! The larger the better!! (talking design photos, of course!)
Cynthia, we have widened our main column a bit to allow for larger photos to be displayed. And by everyone clicking on the photos to view larger, the site is slower. So welcome to a faster and more efficient DTI.
As someone else has pointed out it does depend on the light in your room(north, south) and it is also important to consider the other colors in the space (furniture )etc. Will they bring out the blue or the gray in your wall color. I have painted a room Benjamin Moore, Nantucket Fog. I painted the ceiling too because I did not want anything white for it to bounce back from. My Room is not square, the angels are not all 90 degrees, and the ceiling is very tall. The color has different qualities depending on the angels. Over all it is not pastel blue and it is not grey. It turned out to be a good background and that is what I was after. (The color is not silvery but the example given in this post is in my opinion not silvery either. There is a lot of light in the room though)
Good luck. It can be a trick to find the right color so be patient.
I also was going to suggest Farrow & Ball.
Thanks everyone and thanks very much Kim! Aunt Green, Nantucket Fog was definitely on my list.
I love the Farrow & Ball colours--I did most of my main floor in Farrow's Cream. But unfortunately their modern emulsion now costs a WHOPPING $126 a gallon, so I've had to remove them from my list of suppliers. That's a 100% price increase in the two years since I painted my main floor!
I will try to be patient and stay strong in my search. It's not like I'm asking that much--just the perfect blue-ish, taupe-ish, silver-ish grey... :^)
$126???? Are you kidding me??? That is SO unfortunate. On another note, since Jack had 3 days off work I hope to gawd you put him to work getting the room in shape (ie the never-ending fireplace) to be painted.
Hi, I just bought a house and painted my living room a beautiful pale blue-grey. Its from Behr (a Home Depot line) called "Pensive sky." Its only $26 a gallon. Good luck, it is so challenging to find the right shade, but it sure is fun!
sherwin williams-
look at the paint ramp that has UPWARDS- a shade or 2 lighter from that should give you something with a little hint blue.
Or the ramp with ROCK CANDY- more of a gray cast.
I'd suggest Farrow and Ball's Cornforth White - a definite grey with an ever so slight blue hue in it which changes with the light. I used it on kitchen cupboards recently and is lovely
Hi-
We were looking for the same effect in our living room, and after 8 paint samples, we finally found our color! It is called Benjamin Moore Wickham Gray.
Good luck, it's an elusive color!
Metropolis by benjamin moore is beautiful, perhaps a bit darker than the pictures posted but it is truly beautiful, i couldn't be happier with it. you could also lighten it with some white. Best of luck!
When I look at my living room then look at these photos, it looks pretty darn close -- Sherwin Williams Argos. YMMV.
I happened upon paint samples at Restoration Hardware a couple of years ago. I didn't know they carried paint. They had a number of beautiful silver-tinged blues and greens at the time. I don't know if they still carry those colors (or what their paint prices are), but it might be worth checking them out.
try Grey Wisp- Benjamin Moore color- it's a great silvery/grey/blue--- I have it in my livingroom.
A cheap version - Kelly Moore Heirloom Silver KM3786-1.
I second the Farrow and Ball Cornforth Blue! I had same dilemma-and everything was looking nursery/baby blue. The cornforth blue was perfect-the F & B colors are just a cut above the rest, imo.