100+ Shades of Grey

Grey. I have a love hate relationship with grey. It is absolutely gorgeous when done right but it is SO hard to find the right shade!

There are hundreds of shades, some with blue tints, some with brown tints, and everything in between. I went to Sherwin Williams the other day on my lunch hour just to pick up a few paint chips and walked out with over 50. Then, I decided it would be a good idea to go to the local Benjamin Moore store and get even more. 100+ paint chips later, I am overwhelmed. Luckily the guy at Benjamin Moore gave me the phone number of a paint specialist who does in-home consults for $50. When I heard that my eyes lit up! 50 bucks.. that's it?! She's hired!

So needless to say I had very high expectations for today. The woman stopped by with her 10 or so fan decks of paint chips and we went room by room deciding on a few colors for each. Apparently my type of granite (Santa Cecilia) is not grey friendly since there is so much gold. Awesome. Aside from that set back, I was able to discuss my concerns and my plans for future design in the house and within minutes she had about 5 colors for each room! Of course they are all in the grey family, some leading towards taupe some more true greys. But I think they will all work well. Now the tough part will be making a decision.

She also informed me that part of the consult was that she will order 5 large paint swatches in each color so I can place them around the rooms and see them in different lights, then decide on a color to purchase. Apparently this is the correct way to chose a color. Me, I have always just gone to a local store and said, "Oh I like that one, let's get a gallon!" But this is how we wound up with a purplely grey in our Master. Behr Porpoise - gorgeous on the chip, amazing in a little patch on the wall, and then turned purple when it dried. Very disappointing : (

Anyway, I am now anxiously awaiting these paint swatches and hopefully in the next few weeks we can start making some decisions and get this house painted!

Oh yea, this woman is also a window treatment specialist. So of course I had to ask her what to do with our breakfast nook. That is a whole different story, more on that later!

JP