What color is your bed ? Does it match any of the paint? What other colors will you have in the room? Are you trying to get to a more restful and serene look?

I think the white grid is what's bothering you. Good for you for going with a bold concept, paint the grid the same brown and if you want to emphasize the tray, do something in the center tray, maybe a smoked antique mirror. You may want to bring the white trim down to an off white.

Here is a link to our bed. http://www.broyhillfurniture.com/Furniture/Bedroom-Furniture/Upholstered-Beds/i104084-Broyhill-Sterlyn-Upholstered-Bed.aspx

I think the bed is a lighter shade then shown in the picture - unfortunately it's currently in storage until we move so I can't look at it. We currently have dark espresso dressers.

The white grid does bother me... I was thinking of making the ceiling all white and doing a matte and glossy finish to bring out the detail of the grid. I hate how it screams at me when I walk into the room right now. I want to tone it down, but not completely drown out the detail. I think going all brown will be too dark?

Well the bed will blend in the wall, which is ok, I like dark ceilings. Is the rug going to be brown, too? Lamps? bedding?I think if you get rid of the white grid, you will have easier time pulling it together. When you paint the whole ceiling brown, You could put a very small crown molding in the trays and paint it an off white trim color, then bring those two colors in curtains etc. I like it.

I had a similar dilemma and wound up painting over the dark color with a light water-based metallic paint from Modern Masters. It was subtle but cool looking. I used tag board to try a couple of color samples first since I wasn't sure how the dark color would affect the look of the metallic top coat. In looking at Modern Masters color samples, I wondered how the warm silver might be, for example?

You could also use the brown in a stenciled trellis bed accent wall....that would pull the bed in...

You could also use the brown in a stenciled trellis bed accent wall....that would pull the bed in...

Check out Sherwin Williams website as they show examples of pairing Intellectual Gray with other colrs.

aburgie - any pictures?

Hang on- Don't stop now- I love the bold statement, if you want to tond it down have someone take the wall color and add some decorative painting on the dark. It is all about the thing you add to the room that is going to pull it all together-DON"T LOSE YOUR NERVE NOW! I thing if you go bold on the floor with a great rug and accessories it will be stunning!

Sorry--the project was again painted over with an all-over metallic dark color a few years later!

I think I know what's missing after staring at this for hours... Another layer on the grid.. So the white part has more dimension. Think I'm going to have that added the ceiling painted all white and the walls a dark gray. Do I have the ceiling done in matte or glossy? Or both?

I have edited my comment above as after rereading it this morning, I realize I left out the main idea! I guess I was too sleepy last night.... see above. I meant to say paint the ceiling the Amazing Gray and keep walls the intellectual gray. I think that would provide a nice quiet contrast. Not sure exactly what your saying in your above comment. Are you going to paint ceiling all white? I am not really in favor of that but you can always try it and see how it looks. Good luck.

If you're going for a glamorous look you can use a gloss but a gloss is definitely a statement. You could also try matte on the flat part and gloss on the grid. Or all matte. Most commonly ceilings are painted a matte or eggshell finish. You could also use a different "white" on the flat part versus the grid so it provides just enough contrast while still looking "all white".