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chloenkitty_gw

Please help me choose a paint color

chloenkitty
9 years ago

I had a paint color chosen for the master bedroom that looked fine as a sample painted on the wall, but when we painted a whole wall on Saturday, there was little to no color. Now I don't want a dark color, but i want some color. I was bummed because all the decisions have been made in our new build (thank goodness) so I hate to try and find a wall color again for the master bedroom. Wall color was one of the biggest struggles for me in the house. I am attaching pics of the master bedroom furniture and lighting. As you can see, the furniture and light are sort of a champagne and the bed is a neutral what I'd call linen color. I'd like to do either white bedding or that grey/blue color you often see candice Olsen use. I don't necessarily need an exact paint color brand and name (though I'd happily appreciate that) I guess I'm more looking for a reply like a wheat color, a blue gray color, etc. we have 3 windows in the bedroom but the room is not very bright as there are pine trees all around the house that do not allow direct sunlight in. We will have carpeting in the bedroom that is a light neutral tan. Thank you so much, I hope you are all well.

This post was edited by chloenkitty on Mon, Sep 22, 14 at 20:40

Comments (33)

  • chloenkitty
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Here is the dresser

  • chloenkitty
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Light fixture

  • chloenkitty
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Night stand

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    Welcome back, CNK.

    If the room doesn't get a lot of light, you should use a color with some depth, esp. if you're going with a neutral. Otherwise, it will look dull and dirt.

    I think SW Amazing Gray would be gorgeous in your room. Or even the next one down on the strip, Intellectual Gray

    Here is a link that might be useful: SW Amazing Gray

  • mtnrdredux_gw
    9 years ago

    I like the furniture.

    Sounds like a neutral, like shown with the furniture, wasn't doing it for you. Don't you have blue grey elsewhere? Is that what you like? You really can go any direction at all.

    How about pink like Mamorella has; or would DH dislike that; many would.

    I did a post nearly a year ago looking for blue/grey suggestions, and I think I tried two dozen. Really tough color that can veer off in a lot of directions.

    I like to look at Farrow and Ball because I like their paint and i like their narrowed palette; much less daunting. If you didnt want to use their paint, you can always color match, which bothers some people and not others.

    Here is a nice FnB color, the simply named "Light Blue"

  • akl_vdb
    9 years ago

    I have BM night train in my bedroom. Such a rich warm blue grey. Velvety. Might be too dark in your room, but the next down Mount St. Anne looks nice too. Love your furniture choices.

    Here is a link that might be useful: bm nightrain

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    Or one up, Worldly Gray

  • maddie260
    9 years ago

    BM Wales Gray is a great blue-gray!

  • chloenkitty
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Sounds like you are all mostly leaning toward a blue/gray and not a color like a sand. It is unbelievable to me how paint can look on a wall. I put a SW sample on one wall yesterday and it looked like yellow mustard and on another wall, in the same room, it looked much lighter. It's crazy! I have imagined the color of butter or vanilla in this room, but not as light as butter or vanilla. Does that make sense? I cannot bear the thoughts of going through a million paint samples on the wall again LOL, I'm actually getting close to taking a chance and just picking a color and putting it on the wall. I like the original color I got from SW, but it's much too light. I know they can deepen it by 20%, 30% etc., so since the paint is already in the can, I can try that and if it doesn't work, back to the paint store I go.

  • chloenkitty
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I have to say TIBB, I have the SW paint deck with me and Mindful looks like it would be absolutely gorgeous with my furniture (dresser, nightstands) because of the mirrored finish (is it called modeled?) on the front of the furniture. I am, however, afraid of the darkness of the color. Should I be? Seems like it would it really warm up the bedroom to a smokey, sexy type atmosphere lol. I could see a light champagne colored drape on the wall. Totally out of the box for me, but the the rest of the rooms are light(ish) to medium, maybe it would be a nice change.

  • chloenkitty
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Here is a photo of the bedding I purchased. The drapes are the same as the silvery/blue background color. Of course, this is the easy part as it can be taken back. I don't know if this bedding would look nice if I went with say the Amazing Gray. I do, however, think white or a light champagne bedding set and draperies would look nice with the Amazing Gray and my furniture. Thoughts? I appreciate all your help. I cannot believe I've made it this far without having a nervous breakdown, but it was close :)

  • chloenkitty
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Another pic. The original color I was putting on the master bedroom walls (I forgot to mention it previously) is aesthetic white. It looks just like what I imagined I wanted on the paint chip, but there was no color on the wall hardly at all.

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    CNK, my own thought, which could be entirely wrong, is that in rooms that get little natural light, i.e.: north-facing rooms, using a more saturated color is wise because the deeper tone prevents the dirty/drab look that can happen with lighter colors in darker rooms. My BR, for example, gets no direct light due to trees and it being west-facing. At first, I had it in BM Quiet Moments. It was pretty and airy during the day, but nothing spectacular at night or in the morning, which is really when a person is in their BR. I changed it to SW Languid Blue, which is a pretty intense gray/blue. It is STUNNING, esp. at night and in darker light, precisely because of the depth of the color. You just want to curl up with a book and be enveloped with that feel a color with more depth creates.

    I would say that you don't want an LRV much below 50. You definitely don't want the room to be like a cave and dark and gloomy. Languid Blue's LRV is 46; Amazing Gray's is 48. I think Amazing Gray would be perfect for a bedroom with your colors. In fact, stunning. It's a gray with some beige in it, so I think it's a great color combo with your furniture and textiles.

  • chloenkitty
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    You've got me almost sold TIBB, I called SW to make me up a sample. Now why don't some of you guys who have helped me over this past year get your behinds here to PA and help me put it all together and decorate. The fun part is beginning!

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    cnk, I also meant to suggest paining one wall and living with it for a few days before doing the entire room. And when it's done, do that thing that movie directors do: lie down on your bed, and make a frame with your hands/thumbs, and hold it up to where the paint color meets the trim and ceiling. That will tell you what it will look like in the room, looking SOLELY into the framed area. Then do one that has, say, your bedding in the frame, the bed frame, etc. It's amazing how well that works.

    I'd love to help, but I just finished putting down the second coat of Waterlox on my bathroom floor, and about to paint my dining room, and then my living room, which involves removing all the windows, stripping, sandingâ¦.dreading it. But I'm psyched about the color, BM Lenox Tan, LRV 42.63, so getting somewhat low. And my LR not only has the low pine ceiling but gets no direct sunlight and is also blocked by trees. In the rooms that get a lot of sunlight and are more atune to warm-weather living, I go lighter (BM Putnam Ivory in my DR, for example). But the rooms that call for warmth and cozy curling up snowstormy stuff, like my BR and winter living room, depth of color is, to me, the way to go. Risky, though, because you have to get it just right. It's a high payoff or disaster proposition.

  • melle_sacto is hot and dry in CA Zone 9/
    9 years ago

    Love the furniture and light fixtures for the room! I actually like all the colors that have been suggested -- and OP IKWYM about a color suddenly looking like no color at all once it's up on the whole wall. We just repainted our house and it was really hard to pick a color. Even with only looking at neutrals, they all looked like shades of yellow, green, tan, or grey (and either more or less depending on the light and what was neutral it was near).

    Tibbrix -- I have a question about your early comment for choosing a color with DEPTH for a darker room...what exactly does that mean, having depth?

  • chloenkitty
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I know this is a horrible pic, but since I'm on my work computer, not ipad, I can't take a screenshot, and we all know you cannot copy pics on houzz. So, we have to deal with this low grade quality pic from my cell phone. I'm thinking if I do a color like the SW amazing gray, it will give my bedroom this sort of look. Of course I realize my furniture is a different look, etc, but I do love this bedroom pictured.

  • junco East Georgia zone 8a
    9 years ago

    I agree with Tib, the Mindful Gray will be stunning. I had the same experience in my north facing bedroom. I had to use a quite bright yellow to make it show up at all. Now I have BM Lavender Blue which I love, but the gray is what you need with your other elements.

  • chloenkitty
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    junco, amazing gray or mindful gray? Thanks

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    CNK, Your room, I think, would have more elegance to it than that room because that room appears to have no windows or natural light at allâ¦.or the pic was taken at night. It's so hard, if not impossible, to judge a paint color by a pic on the Web because the slightest difference in light makes a huge difference in the paint color, not to mention other factors in taking photographs. I put a pic of my BR with the Languid Blue, but in the pic, the blue doesn't look ANYTHING like ti does IRL.

    Melle_sacto, what it probably means is that I'm butchering the English language and using terms improperly. But what it means to me is that the color is a color that has layers of the color, creating depth, rather than darkness, per se. So it's basically a light color with more pigment of the same color. I suspect all it is are colors @ the 50 LRV, say from 36 - 60, those colors have some depth to them. Below that, they are dark colors, above they are light.

    Not sure if I've explained it, but it's about reflecting light and absorbing it. A light color reflects a lot of light; a color with depth, as I'm using it, breaks even, so it doesn't turn a north-facing room dark, per se, but it doesn't make it lighter either; and a dark color absorbs light.

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    CNK, I like Worldly Gray (LRV 58) or Amazing Gray better than the Mindful Gray because they have some beige in them, which I think your room needs. Mindful Gray is a gray gray, so I think too cool and austere for your too and what you're going for. Just MO, of course.

  • thankurnmo
    9 years ago

    I just used Behr DEW DROP which is a greengrayblue.
    It might be too lightweight for you, but it does have more oomph and is a warm cheery one in my room.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Dew Drop

  • louislinus
    9 years ago

    Navy blue or a or very dark blue-gray with full length drapes thay match the headboard. I have a navy living room and I love it. The drapes and that furniture will pop like crazy on the dark wall.

  • Gracie
    9 years ago

    You can embed the pictures from Houzz into your post. Click on the photo, select embed, and copy the code in the first box. Paste into GW post.

  • junco East Georgia zone 8a
    9 years ago

    On my monitor the Mindful Gray looked a little bluer which I thought be better with your bedding. But Tibb's point about the beige in them is good to consider. You'll have to make that call based on the light in your room.
    Good luck, it will be beautiful!

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    9 years ago

    chloe, it looks like you're looking at bedroom colors very similar to mine. In fact the bedding colors look to be almost the same. It took me a long time to come up with a wall color, and it was because BM didn't have the right color for me. I ended up with PPG parchment and I love it...it's an off white but with a slightly yellow undertone to warm it up. I painted the wall behind the bed an accent color in the blue. I debated about wallpapering the accent wall, and I'm still debating.

    (I've since shortened the bed skirt.)

  • PRO
    Lori A. Sawaya
    9 years ago

    The concepts of color "depth" and "complexity" might be the most difficult to pinpoint and explain.

    Deeper, depth, complex are words that get tossed around a lot. No one wants a Plain Jane paint color when "complex" sounds like it would be so much prettier and better, right?

    These descriptions of color are about nuance. Nuance is not the same as LRV.

    Lightness value (LRV) and grayscale value (usually 10 gray squares) is where most people get confused. And, really, it is understandable. They're both scales of gray squares - but the gray squares are not the same grays.

    LRV and grayscale are inextricably tied but are distinctly different parts of color that can be measured and plotted separately. LRV is measured by device. Grayscale is a visual assessment.

    I just answered a question on the Paint forum that's similar. I think the images included help illustrate the difference.

    Here is a link that might be useful: LRV and Nuance

  • chloenkitty
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Annie, that does look like the same bedding. And yes, that is basically the same look I was going for, but that light color just did not go well in this particular room.

  • dakota01
    9 years ago

    I think my furniture is similar in color to yours and I have cream carpeting. I use blues and gold in my bedding and I used EK Champagne Gold. I'm very happy with my wall color.

  • rgps
    9 years ago

    I'm with Jeannie on this one. EK champagne gold. I think it's a little along the lines of Annie's look but a bit richer.

  • chloenkitty
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    What brand is EK?

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    Ellen Kennon

  • cawaps
    9 years ago

    BM Fairview Taupe