gray for days paint update

The Before: Dark Colors are not the best in Oregon where in the winter it can be cloudy and gray many many days in a row. I wanted to brighten up the family room for a light and airy feel. 

after seeking some inspiration on pinterest, we decided we really liked Benjamin Moore's Stonington Gray. 

Source: google.com via Kate on Pinterest

Source: favoritepaintcolorsblog.com via J on Pinterest

Source: emskyrooney.tumblr.com via Emily on Pinterest

So we got some paint samples for $3.00 and some white posterboard. We bought Stonington Gray and another option. Once it was ready and dry we put them up on the walls to see what it looked like. I felt like it was too dark, it matched the hue of the green on the walls already and I didn't want it that dark. 

Instead of going with a whole other color I decided to buy the paint color at a 50% hue instead of 100% . I thought this would be a good solution. Since the wall color was so dark to begin with we also bought a thick primer with a tint of Stonington Gray.

Beginning with the primer:

We have the most amazing family ever who helped us conquer the kitchen, family room, office and bedroom all in a week!

Brian also got some white paint and did 3 coats of white on the fire place.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

It is a little more blue than I would have hoped for but overall I really love it, it feels so much more us already! 

grays for days

Help.. is there a perfect gray? I've been searching and searching. I have this issue where in my head I know exactly what I want but I can't find it in the real world. The first thing we are going to do when we get keys in 2 weeks is to paint 6 rooms in the house... to make it pretty simple, I'm going to choose 1 light gray that can be used all over the house: 3 bedrooms, the office and the family room/kitchen.

 We live in Oregon where it's gloomy & dark from December-May so we need a color that is still light and airy and won't make our seasonal depression worsen I'm wanting to stay away from taupes & beiges grays and work towards a cool tone.

 TRULY, I just actually want light gray, a true light gray, but for some reason every gray I see is either brown gray or stone gray or blue gray or lavendar gray... Where are the regular grays people?!

 I've been looking everywhere online but truly you can't quite get a feel for what the exact color will be not on a computer screen.

Here are a few I think I like..

Source: restoredstyle.com via Olivia on Pinterest

Benjamin Moore's Olympic Quill via Restored Style

Source: flickr.com via Erin on Pinterest

Benjamin Moore's Quiet Moments

Source: cdn.decorpad.com via Olivia on Pinterest

Sherwin Williams Grey Screen

Source: c497280.r80.cf2.rackcdn.com via Olivia on Pinterest

color unknown

Source: nicety.livejournal.com via Olivia on Pinterest

color unknown

    


 Any advice? Has anyone used a light subtle gray that they just love and think I will too?

the front

Right now, our house is white with green trim. We hated the color when we first moved in and for some reason have started to like it more? I think we are just fooling ourselves. We don't want to re-paint the entire house but would like to make some small changes. I found this on design sponge and thought it was gret! Just a little bit of a color change can make a hosue look so different. I love how they used the light aqua color along with the ... black? navy blue? (not sure what it is exactly..)

What colors would you reccomend to accent a white house??

room #2

My husband has an obsession with orange... so naturally he wants to paint a wall in our home orange. I let him buy the $3 sample at Home Depot just for kicks. BUT when I put it on the wall.... I loved the vibrant color. SO I settled for one wall being this beautiful orange and we're going to paint the rest a white. We'll see how it ends up... going to buy more paint ... tomorrow? This weekend?

spontaneous painting

Such a fun thing about being married and owning our own home is that we can do whatever we want to it whenever we want. I love this. I am such an organized-planner type and Brian not as much. He has brought out an awesome side of me that is full of spontaneity. Our latest: Paint. Last week I was feeling itchy about changing stuff in our home to make it more to be what we like, more of our style. First thing that needed change was the color of our walls. TAUPE is everywhere, on every wall in 5 different shades. It has to go. So we stopped at Home Depot on Sunday and got some paint... and started painting.

First up: Master Bathroom. White... turned Brown. We were really excited about painting that we didn't prep like we should have (this is where the planning would have come in hand and yes of course I had a few momentary mental freak-outs "what would my mom say right now?!") but ya know what: it's okay!! We'll fix it. :)