You have three options to move forward:

1. Get a friend to take a look at the options and see what they think
2. Buy a Color Muse and gather all the data and let the data guide you about which color goes with your floor the best
3. Just pick one of your top choices and decide it's going to work.

I put some Sherwin Williams Amazing Gray on the wall just now. Don't like it. It's kind of orange. :(

Ok so that one is probably too warm toned for your liking and can go in the NO group.

Have you primed the wall for a neutral surface between colors? Have you given yourself a day or so to see a color through the day and night and how lighting from outside and also the light fixtures indoors make things look?

There are tons of gray paint colors across all brands available, maybe it’s not really that you want gray paint at all? Maybe there is another color you think you can’t choose because of trends etc etc...it’s your house so if you want lime green or turquoise walls then go for it. If you’re worried about resale then understand buyers won’t be horrified if the place is painted white at the time it hits the market so do the color you like now not some color you think you need to do for other people who don’t live there.

How about blue? I keep reading that blue walls in a living room detract from resale value, but I like blue and it compliments the floor. I like this:

I'm going to toss out SW Popular Grey.

and I would HATE to walk into a house that I was interested in buying and seeing blue walls. BUT I am also DIY and could repaint my damn self. Not a lot of people will or can repaint themselves though. I'd stick with a grey/beige/greige

You can paint the walls blue. How long do you plan to live there? If only a year or two all you need is to make sure you can paint the walls white, beige or gray before you go. Any longer and the paint color should really be what you enjoy not resale.

Melissa R, popular gray looks like brown/beige to me. Not a lot of gray there. I must be weird. I like blue. It feels modern and clean to me. Anything beige feels old and dirty.

I liked the gray walls in Lowes. I matched a color card to that and had it mixed.

That is what is so great about the color, it 'swings both ways'! lol. When I was putting it on the wall I was so upset because it looked SO beige, and I didn't want beige but I kept on. It does look beige but it also looks grey. Goes great with my grey couch, looks great with brown and black furniture, looks good with silver accents or gold accents.

Just don't judge it off of a swatch. Man I got SO many samples of grey and all it did was confuse me more. Someone, somewhere said "popular grey" and I did some research and just went out and bought 5 gallons of it...no samples...I was so tired of trying to pick. Let me see if I have some pics that show it on the walls....doesn't look very beige does it? Really different color

Looks beige to me - how a color looks is very much influenced by light and other items in the space, and it seems like everyone’s computer or other Internet connected device also makes colors look different to them. ;)

@dgarstang

It sounds like you should start considering what blues you like and go from there, then! So do you like dark, medium or light blue? Do you want more of a violet blue or a green blue?

Sw Icelandic, wishful, or breathtaking perhaps?

Search by color family (link to blues below should work if not just search ‘blue’ on the Sw site)
Blue color family -SW

Yes, but blue has no resale value.

So? Why does it have to be about resale? Any buyer is likely to paint when they move in anyway!

Unless you are going to be moving in 1-2 years you need to look at living with colors YOU like not what a prospective person who might buy the place wants. That person will have different ideas and trends change.

We used 2 different grays in our dining area, kitchen and breakfast nook.

SW Requisite Gray on all the walls and SW Alpaca on the tray ceiling in the dining room.

Depending on the time of day and the light source (natural, chandelier, canned lights) it looks different. Sometimes I look at it and it seems like it has a hint of blue. Other times, it looks more greige. Regardless, I really like it.

We purchased a ton of samples too. We waited till SW had a sale (30% & 40%) so it wasn't horrible. And I was there every day during the sale. Ugh.

If you like blue, then I think a gray with a hint of blue would be nice. Or pick out a nice blue that you like knowing that you will probably need to repaint when you want to sell.

I do feel for you though. I think trying to buy white and gray paints can be VERY difficult. I stressed out about what color white for the cabinets and what color gray for the walls. "Paralysis by over analysis" can set in.

dgarstang, looking at the photo you posted of your floor, your floor is a WARM gray - the hue is definitely not in the blue end of things. Just so you know - that last photo you posted of the cool gray wall with the cool gray floor is very different from the photo you posted of your existing floor. Or from the largest image I could find online of the floor (the Johnson site's own photo with the toddler is very deceiving, compared to all the other pics online). https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8e/b9/ba/8eb9baac58a5975f72d68e7677abe683.jpg

No matter which way you slice it, that floor appears to be more brown than gray - which is why the cool grays all looked wrong.

With that wood, I think something like a pale warm greige like Popular Grey or something like Egret White, with crisp white woodwork would look great. It will look warm and inviting, as bright as possible with the lack of natural light, and you won't have to worry about whether or not it's a resale colour.

Hi Paddy. Thanks about the most useful reply so far, thanks for that. Took a quick look at popular gray and it's too light.... and pinkish. I guess I'll just have to get over my personal like of browns and grieges.

I think I need an LRV of about 45. I don't want the color to be TOO light, or else there's not much point in painting it. Yet, I'd like it to be just dark enough for a bit of a pop with the trim.

How about mindful gray, or requisite gray?

We used Requisite Gray and Alabaster (white) on the cabinets. Love it. Looks great together. I tried to take a picture but it's too dark.

Do a search on "Requisite Gray" on the Houzz website and you can see some rooms to give you an idea. That helped me in my long search.

Requisite gray looks like it might work - I think Mindful Gray isn't quite warm enough (not "greige" enough - more blue gray) BUT...you need to put the paint chips against your floor to be sure. And then paint a wall or a large panel so you can move it around from room to room. As for the woodwork - Alabaster should work if you want something that has a little bit of warmth. It will go well with the Requisite Gray, as williann says.

I tried mindful gray and agreeable gray tonight. Don't like them. Too dark. I'm giving up. I'll paint a bathroom or something. It's easier. :(

Requisite Gray would be too dark for you then. Alpaca is the next lighter color up from Requisite Gray.

Painting a small room like a bathroom is probably a good idea for you at this point! Easy to repaint if you don't like it.

Best of luck!

Actually the bathroom is really hard to paint. There's a LOT of edges around cabinets, shower enclosure etc. Ugh.

Blue painters tape is your friend when you’re not a pro with the skill to merely use an angled brush around edges and so forth. Still want to use an angled brush but the tape helps keep your painting ‘inside the lines’. Proper prep is key to a good result.

No shame in using the available means for a project to make it look less like DIY after you finish up and show spouse, friends and family everything.

I get the feeling like you’re hoping for the perfect gray to just come along but how is that possible when you really aren’t articulating what you ARE looking for in the ‘ideal’ gray. It’s been a process of ‘no don’t like it’ and not liking because they’re too brown/beige/blue. Hopefully you haven’t been painting over the same area of a wall so that each new color is underlaid by the previous, it changes the finished look if you do that and won’t be a true representation of a color because of it. So. What ARE you looking for in a gray because any gray can legitimately be deemed the perfect neutral, because in the particular house or room it IS, even the brown/blue/pink/green/purple toned ones. And floors are just one part of the equation, not the only.

SW Lt. French Gray - or SW High Reflective White. You are leaning heavily on your "left brain" skill set and this isn't left brain work. You are also a "data gatherer" and data gatherers are SURE THE NEXT small piece of data will change all their previous conclusions. It is why engineers make lousy managers, they can't make a decision. I worked with engineers for 30 years and am married to one and fortunately my engineer knows how to make a decision and if it doesn't work out, how to make a new decision. I hate to laugh, but I have seen this "analysis paralysis" for a long time. Get off the dime, girl. It isn't life or death! It is paint!! Do two walls in the HRW and two in Lt. French Gray. Just do something! Painting samples directly on a wall is the worse method. Lori is a total expert in this but for some reason, you still haven't made a decision. Paint, now!

dgarstang, you are cracking me up!

I think it's time for you to get an interior decorator for help! Just one hour of consultation. And TRUST them!

I have a good friend who's a decorator and she selected SW Requisite Gray. I wasn't convinced. I thought it was too dark and that's when I went on the the hunt for another gray. Well, 5 samples later, I ended up with Requisite Gray, love it and no regrets. Well, no, my only regret is that I didn't go with her color choice in the first place and spent a week running to SW to buy paint samples, painting a sample board and fretting about it!

Again, good luck! :)

How about taupe? Requisite Gray is so dark williann. It's a condo with limited light. Thinking of resale value.

Ask your interior decorator.... :)

I just installed the Sherwin Williams Colorsnap application on my iphone. This lets me take a photograph and match it to a Sherwin Williams paint color. I'm not at home right now, but could I use this against my floor instead of spending $60 on a color muse device?

As someone else mentioned, light affects how we see colors as well as the time of day and the fact that our eyes compare a color to the other colors around it. So if you are painting samples on a wall that is beige or tan, your gray will look too gray or blue gray. If you paint it on top of blue walls, it might look brownish but in reality it's not. You also need to consider your furniture. What furniture colors are you putting in this space? I usually get some foam core and paint the color on the whole thing so I can move it around the rooms with my furniture and see it in natural light different times of day and at night. If you can't do that, look on the SW deck and you can see the undertone by looking at the darkest color in that strip. Personally, I would pick a slightly warm gray such as Amazing Gray, Worldly gray, Repose gray or Mindful Gray. Any of these will look great with your floors.

I would not rely on an app to help you because it doesn't take into account the light in your space among other things.

This is worldly gray with south and west exposure

South and east exposure

dgarstang, the Colorsnap application is unlikely to help with the floor, as your floor is not just one colour, but a mix of browns and greys.

Requisite Gray has an LRV of 45 - so I think you've established that this is too dark for your liking. Alpaca, which is one notch lighter on the paint chip has an LRV of 57, as does Worldly Gray. Either that or try Egret White, which has an LRV of 70 and should go fine with your floor. There will still be some contrast with the woodwork if you paint it white.

I'm gonna pick up some poster board from OfficeDepot on the way home and paint those.

If you live near a .99 cent store you can get 6 sheets for $.99 cents.

petlover: Oh darn. I spent $4.77 on 4 sheets from OfficeDepot... got 2 for the price of 1. :) So, I put requisite gray, repose gray, and amazing gray on 3 of them. Requisite gray is too dark, repose gray too light, and amazing gray isn't bad. Putting these on poster boards really helps.

Glad that's helping! Now what is your furniture like?

Lana,

Don't care so much about the furniture, but, the furniture in the 'dining room' is mostly white and cream (white table, with wood top, white and cream chairs). The furniture in the 'living room' is mostly black and cherry. Black sofa, cherry furniture. I put 'dining room' and 'living room' in quotes because it's a condo and these two rooms aren't really rooms at all, they are right next to each other. The dark living room furniture was purchased first, and the lighter dining room furniture more recently. I really hate having the black and white mix, but at the time, in the beginning, dark furniture made sense. Now it doesn't. That's one of the reasons I don't really care about the furniture. It's impossible to know this stuff ahead of time, so the furniture is never going to be consistent.

I painted a wall Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter. Looks dreary. I'm sick of this and after weeks and $150+ in paint samples and supplies, I still have no way to know what's going to look good. Sick of this, stressed and don't want to think about it anymore.

dgarstang, if you really don't like any of the greys, which it seems you don't, then just do it Benjamin Moore Cloud White, with white woodwork (Ultra White Advance is what we used) and be done with it. I guarantee it will look FINE. I have it throughout my house. It's bright and has a nice touch of warmth. You can use just about any colour with it too. It will look good with cherry furniture - we have natural cherry cabinets in our kitchen. It's paint. You can always change it again if you have to. Stop stressing - it's really not life and death. ;)

octoberdana How do I know that's going to be any better? I could repaint the same wall SW passive and find it's equally dreary, or too cold, or not warm enough, or whatever. There's just no way to tell.

Have you considered that the color gray kinda...is dreary? The skies on a cloudy rainy day and all. Some people like it and some people don't!

dgarstang, don't think SW Passive goes with your floor. You have brown in your floor - none in that gray that I can see, and it will look blue/green in comparison, IMHO. Gray in general is not going to make things brighter than what you have - and could make them colder. If you've not got much natural light, and want it to be warm and bright, go with a cream that is on the warmer side and you really cannot go wrong. It's timeless - not trendy (I'm guessing gray is going to be pretty OUT sooner or later - and that's coming from someone with two gray bathrooms. ;) )

Please post some pics of you revere pewter wall. You say you want neutral gray but then describe it as dreary and looking like concrete, so what you want is a warm gray. It won't look brown, but it won't look like concrete either.

I just read this whole thread and want to know what you ended up with. I'm going through the painful sample buying right now. And it's not nearly as fun as it sounds like it would be!