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Best Non-Greige Non-blue Gray for South-East Facing Living Rooms

MR Design
8 years ago

I am on the middle of a whole house remodel and are at the final stages of painting, however, the main areas of the house are the ones that still need to be painted, yet my dilemma is that every gray color I have tried looks too green or too pink or too beige. I want it to be softer and lighter gray, but not blue, not green and not beige, yet I still want it to show some color. I prefer that it was on a lighter side, but not too light so it does not look colorless on the sung days, yet, not too day, as it would look too gloomy on the cloudy days. And I should mention again, the rooms are South East facing with lots of windows and lots of light (a lot!!).

This is an open floor plan. I am doing Chelsea Gray in my dining rm, which has a lot of white trim, and the rooms where I need help in selecting that "perfect gray" are the living room (foyer color will be the same) and the fireplace room (with a gray/pinkish/stone-brick fireplace, which I need to tone down on the pink….). This is right off my kitchen (also SE facing with a lot of windows), which has bright cherry cabinets and a Bianca perla countertops, so the hearth room color would have to coordinate well with that.

Again, I would like to find a color that is not green or too beige/pinky/greige.

Here is a break down of what I tried thus far:

Living Room

- BM HC172 Revere Pewter - looked too muddy green (it was ok, but I just did not like the green it was pooling; it would be okay if I painted my house 10 yrs ago);

- Edgecomb gray HC173 (which I did in one of my upstairs N facing rooms, where it looks very light and airy beige), but in the SE facing LR it looks too warm, almost yellowish beige.

- BM 2111-60 Barren Plain - too blah…. flash looking gray; this actually reminds me of a blue dead body you would see in a movie, lol, and it has a bit too much blue with some sort of pink undertone in it, which I did not expect. This almost looked like this should have been a little girl's bedroom but not a formal LR color.

- Shale - too purple/mauve;

**My final choices were 125% of BM 1549 Balboa Mist (25% darker, because 100% looked too light) or BM 859 Collingwood (BM 859) and I decided to go with BM 859 Collingwood, as I thought it would look less beige.

BUT,

- 125% of Balboa Mist - looked too flashy gray as well; a lot more pink than BM 2111-60, and less gray than 859, and

- Collingwood - looked slightly more gray with less pink pooling through it but it is still way too beige/brown/pink/warm, when large areas are painted. Since this was my final color, the painter will use it for the first coat, and if I still hate it, he will use another color for my second coat.

Hearth Room:

- Gray mirage (2142-50) - way too green;

- 1536 Northern Cliffs - too green next to all the white trim and accentuates cherry cabinets more than I want to;

- Final choice: BM AF-685 Thunder - but I am afraid this will be too mauve brown.

Someone mentioned BM HC170 Stonington Gray, but looking at the paper swatch, I felt it would be too blue and too cool, and may not go well with my existing Cherry cabinets (bright cherry….), and Bianca Perla countertops.

If anyone can be so kind to spend a few minutes of your time and give me some suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it!!!!!

Thank you thank you and thank you again!

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