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Ben Moore Pale Gray Update--Help!

15 years ago

I've been trying to find a pale gray or "pale gray with a hint of blue" for our living room. I've tried Benjamin Moore Moonshine(too dark, too green), Iced Blue Silver(pretty, but too blue), Classic Gray(too dark), Genesis White(too dark, too blue). From looking at the color chips Wickham Gray looks like it will be too dark as well. I'm almost ready to give up and just go with a cream, but hubby is encouraging me to keep trying. We love the picture below, on our screen it's a very pale gray, and maybe even has a teeny teeny bit of blue, but not so light so as to lose the definition between walls/trim. Any more suggestions? I was thrilled when hubby brought home a huge fan deck they'd given him at Ben Moore, but would take suggestions for other brands too...if you wouldn't mind checking out the pic...Thanks!

Comments (24)

  • 15 years ago

    Love your inspiration pic! I cannot give you a specific paint name, but wanted to suggest a couple of things. I read that all grays have a green, blue or purple undertone. It can show up on the walls even when it doesn't on the paint swatch. Based on your wall sample, I think you are right in picking one that has just the barest hint of blue in it. I'm at work right now, but have a little book I refer to all the time, put out by House Beautiful, available at B&N etc. I refer to it all the time. The swatches in the book are not at all accurate, but the decorator/designers descriptions of the colors are very helpful. They talk about gray in there, and I bet you'd find something. The other think I have started to do with paint color that I have found helpful is to hold all the grays you think you like up to each other -it becomes much easier to see the blue, green etc. undertone.

    Here is a link that might be useful: House Beautiful Book

  • 15 years ago

    Have you used the BM color viewer website? You can pick a room with similar trim and try out the colors, just to narrow them down. I searched for silver and saw lots of light grays. Then I searched for gray and there are many more. You can actually see the blue, green or purple undertones - although they'd look different in your room.

    Here is a link that might be useful: BM color viewer

  • 15 years ago

    Here's the page from My Perfect color.com -- check through these ones!

    Here is a link that might be useful: my perfect color -- LOTS of blue-gray colors

  • 15 years ago

    Oh boy. Did you ever see my post about my 30 sample pots of gray? It's tricky. You must try the color out in person on your wall in your space. You would be so surprised at how much the colors can change. Also, make sure to hold up the samples with white background, and not directly on the wallcolor you presently have, that makes a huge difference.

    If I recall from my experiments, sweatshirt gray had blue, so maybe something on that strip, but lighter? Maybe, bunny gray, misty gray, marilyn's dress, sweet innocent, gray cloud...they are all around sweatshirt gray and they have that gray with blue undertones.

    Also, look at the Affinity colors, they are so nice. I just painted my daughters room in Slip. It is a very light purple/gray. It is a "barely there" kind of color, unless you hold white up to it and then you can see it. Look at Angelica, Nightingale, Wish, Metropolitan, Eternity.

    Hope that's not too many for you to look at.

    Good Luck.....and if you need samples, Lowe's makes them up for around $2, which is a bit cheaper than the pint sized cans at BM. Plus, you can check out more than one. Like I did!

  • 15 years ago

    beekeeperswife, that is an excellent idea. I think I will go to Lowes to get some cheaper sample pots for my project (feel free to see my recent post regarding color ideas ;).

    Good luck to you...it's a chore finding the right color.

  • 15 years ago

    Is there a certain brand you like to use at Lowes? I actually did have several mixed up in the Olympic brand, and while two exactly matched the color chip I just noticed the genesis white is different--much darker! Arg. Maybe I will take it back and see if it was just a mistake and they can get me the right one, and who knows, maybe that will be the one!

    I appreciate everyone's replies, beekeeperswife thanks so much for all the suggestions, I'm going to check them out right now. I haven't seen your post on grays, but I'll definitely look it up. If anyone else has any other suggestions, feel free to post!

    I did get the House Beautiful book at bestyears suggestion...I love paint colors and it sounded too good to pass up....I saw BM Horizon mentioned so I might give that one another look, too....I've considered trying some of the other grays at half strength but I'm hoping to not have to buy endlessly...!

  • 15 years ago

    If the sample pot doesn't match the paint chip you bring in, then you don't have to buy it. Don't go in with just the name or the BM #, you should have seen what came home with DH one day when I called him on the phone while he was there to bring home a certain color...it looked absolutely nothing like BM's chip. So take the chip, and they can mix it from the code, but they always check it. Usually they mix the samples in Valspar. You can ask for either though.

  • 15 years ago

    I just saw this beautiful gray/lt blue featured on a blog. It is Pratt & Lambert's Nickel. A new one to me since I have the BM fan decks and don't have enough experience with P&L. Beautiful color on the monitor. Worth checking out. Scroll down to see it on the blog page. It has a heading titled "DIY wall paneling project".

    Here is a link that might be useful: Emily Hewitt's blog

  • 15 years ago

    Two pretty pale grays that I sampled were Gray Owl and Gray Mist (which the paint store gave me as a mistake when I asked for Gray Wisp but I really liked it).

    A good source for reading about undertones in different colors is the Benjamin Moore book "Interior Style." I bought it on Amazon.com. It tells you names of blue-grays or true grays, etc.

  • 15 years ago

    Although you have asked for BM colors, I just had to share. I've just put up SW Rhinestone in my office, greatroom and dining room. Very pale gray with blue undertones. Stunning! The house isn't back in order yet so I haven't taken pictures. Can't believe I love this pale gray!

  • 15 years ago

    I found the picture posted on several blogs, you can find the postings if you check google images with the file name, but sadly I don't know the source. I saw "bhg" on one of the pictures, so I thought maybe it was from Better Homes & Gardens, but haven't been over there to look...even if I did find it there I don't think I'd have much luck finding the source. Even if I knew the exact paint color though, maybe it wouldn't look the same with my lighting, so the search continues!

  • 15 years ago

    Sometimes colors listed as "white" can have such strong tones (of gray, blue, yellow, whatever) as to actually take on that color when placed on a wall. Maybe you should check some of the "whites" that look very gray.

  • 15 years ago

    I just got a sample of BM Silver Satin and it looks identical to your picture posted above. It's in the white section and it has a pale gray with a very neutral bluish tint to it but you almost can't tell. It's very subtle and very neutral with just a hint of silverish blue.

    Make sure to get a free sample to try this color out. I think it might be what you are looking for. I used this coupon I listed below for a free sample and it doesn't expire for another month! Good luck!!

    Here is a link that might be useful:

  • 15 years ago

    On my screen the wall in the inspiration pic looks like it has a kiss of lavender rather than blue. And lavender looks wonderful with blue, especially those with a bit of green in them.
    Diane

  • 15 years ago

    Since it's been nearly a month, you may have found your paint color...but the pic posted reminds me of pics I've seen of Abalone.

  • 15 years ago

    Honeybeem, that color in that picture IS BM Classic Gray. If you do a search on google for "Benjamin Moore Classic Gray" it will bring up a designer's favorite colors page on Better Homes I believe. That picture is on that page and it is stated that the color is Classic Gray. I don't see how you could think Classic Gray is too dark. The LRV is in the 70s. When I tested it, I could barely see it on the white wall.

  • 15 years ago

    I can totally see how she would think that classic gray is too dark. I bet that inspiration pic had the heck lit out of it when they were photgraphing it. It looks very washed out in the pic.

    You may wish to consider painting the walls a shade of white.

    Honestly to me the wall color appears to be a shade of white.

    That said here are a few colors that I"d like to toss out to you. Compare them next to a white like BM Super White. You will also notice on that color strip that Super White makes Decorators White take on a slightly greyish cast.

    All from BM:

    Winter White OC-21
    White Wisp OC-54
    White Ice OC-58
    Sebring WHite OC-137

  • 15 years ago

    I just bought a couple of gallons of Ashwood by Ben Moore. The blogger on "For Love of a House: (see link below to her Reading room painted this color, as well as her living room if you wander through her other rooms...) painted this shade, and calls it a soft gray/green/putty. I can't stop looking at it in her rooms. True, she has amazing decorating skills and years of collecting pretty things, but the things she likes are the things I like, so hope my bedroom will look half as pretty as her rooms.

    Or check out her Master Bedroom painted Titanium by Ben Moore. This one she labels a "gray with just a hint of blue". Super pretty.

    As soon as I find drape fabric, I'm painting the Ashwood. And it is on a "white" strip so should be soft and easy to work with.

    Red

    Here is a link that might be useful: For Love of a House

  • 15 years ago

    Titanium is lovely in pics I've seen. Based on recommendations here I used Sterling in my powder room and it is just right.

  • 10 years ago

    Hi Honeybeem,

    During my own search for a paint color I came across two Benjamin Moorw pale gray that seem to match your criteria of pale gray with a hint of blue. At least in my room which face south & get much natural light; Calm and Winter White.

    Good luck!

  • 10 years ago

    Just a reminder: the only way you can get a true sense of the color on the chip is to have a sample pot mixed. Then, you will see all of the undertones associated with the different light sources in your home. A color on the internet may look completely different in your home. Another thing to keep in mind is that different vendor sample pots turn out differently from vendor to vendor. For example, when you have a sample pot mixed up at Lowes from a color chip from Benjamin Moore, it will turn out different from the one at Benjamin Moore, Home Depot or Ace Hardware. Because of this, It's best to have the sample mixed at the store where you plan to purchase the paint.

  • 7 years ago

    I don’t quite know why Houzz sent me a link to this older thread but my update is this: Joan from For The Love of a House Blog knows what she’s doing. Her Ashwood was lovely in my master bedroom. Then, when we bought a new build house in 2013 I decided to try Titanium, also Ben Moore, also from her house. It read soft but tiny hint of green in my well-lit western exposure master bedroom. We paid an up charge to the builder to have a nice light taupe painted throughout the new house so my husband thought I was certifiable to be on a ladder repainting the Titanium over the new walls on the first day we had keys. Of course he was busy taking up all the carpet so he could lay wood floor the same day. The Titanium was wonderful. This past year we moved to the Deep South and I used her Gray Owl throughput the entire house we are in now. It’s my favorite and does read just a bit blue in some lights. (There May Be BM Stonington Gray in the kitchen and both baths. Just sayin’)

    And totally agree with 6009kitty on sample pots. Never paint without a sample on your wall. And I don’t mean a 12” square either. Light makes a lot of difference. Greenery out the window can change things too. Test it.


    Red


  • 4 years ago

    What undertones did you have with the Stonington Gray? Did all of your walls look the same color? We used the Stonington Gray but guess the lighting in our room made the walls in our bathroom look two different colors. I love that color on the BM color chip better than any I’ve seen and would love to find that color without blue undertones. HELP!!!