kulrn my repose gray looks nothing like the repose gray in that blog post.

I'm going to get very forceful here. Consider yourself warned.

If you do not have concrete plans to sell this house in the next three years DO NOT PLAN AROUND RESALE. Plan for your own pleasure and enjoyment of the house. You obviously don't know what your long-term (or heck, short-term) plans are and that's fine, but that means you have to live only to please YOU. You can't possibly predict what an unknown set of potential buyers, in an unforeseeable duration of time, will want to find in a house they view. Every single viewer will be looking for different features, and paint is a simple fix that they can and will do after they own it. In order to make it their own home which is what you should be focused in now. MAKE IT YOURS. What you're proposing amounts to living as a guest in your home for the entire duration of your stay. That's not healthy.

Now, I don't think you want this advice. I'm fairly certain you'll find an excuse not to take it. But I'm going to give it anyway:

-FIND INSPIRATION FOR A MASTER BEDROOM THAT YOU LOVE. Recreate it with bedding, furnishings, etc. Choose a wall colour that suits the look YOU want in YOUR room and the furnishings you choose for it. You can paint first, but you should know what the room will look like rather than letting a paint colour that you aren't that passionate about dictate the room you'll live in.

-Choose a palette you can live with for the main house. If you really can't do this on your own, bite the bullet and spend the money for a colour consultant. Interview them extensively to find one with whom you click so your money isn't wasted by someone who can't work with you. Your mental health is certainly worth $200 and your posts are beginning to sound increasingly panicked and desperate.

Let's say I do plan to sell it in the next three years lindsey.

Why does my repose gray look blue on the wall? Also, agreeable gray looks completely gray on my wall, rather than the tan/warm gray it looks like on the color swatch. I guess nothing the same on my walls as it does anywhere else.

" I'm going to sell it at some point. Might be next week, might be 5 years from now."

"Let's say I do plan to sell it in the next three years lindsey"

It can't be both. Either you're open to anything the future holds and you're willing to live for the present, or you've got long-term plans that you're working toward. Or you've got long-term dreams but they aren't entirely within your ability to predict or control. Sorry, that's just how it is.

Even if you do plan to sell it in the next three years the next buyer will repaint it when they move in too. That's what we do--we obtain shelter, then immediately begin turning it into a space we feel comfortable in. You may take a little hit in the selling price if the rooms aren't the trendy colour of the day but it won't be that bad, especially if you choose colours that are appropriate for the space and attractive with your furnishings.

Greys are on the downswing. If you choose grey now and sell in three years, chances are your potential buyers will be looking for whatever 2021's equivalent of Revere Pewter is. YOU CAN'T PREDICT WHAT THAT WILL BE. So choose something pleasing to you now, don't do anything outrageous (it's unlikely you would in any case) and leave future buyers out of the equation.

Anyway, I really hate yelling at people and I'm sorry about that.

following

As for why it looks blue, could be lots of factors. Adjacent wall colour reflecting a blue cast. Cool spectrum lighting. Is there snow outside your window? Snow reflects blue light into a room. Could be north facing light. Could be that you always view it after dusk when you get home from work.

This is exactly what a colour consultant can do for you: factor all these possible paints, filter them through your existing conditions and your preferences, and give you real options that will be appropriate for your space and your aesthetic. I don't even use professionals for things like this and I can see that you would benefit from it.

No snow... California. It's a east/west facing room. Gets afternoon sunlight.

I called my $350 consultant back and left a message. Maybe I could save myself some money and paint everything revere pewter? When I put some on the wall though, it didn't look anything like what's in the photos online. It look like a dirty muddy color.

The consultant is coming out on the 15th. That's the earliest she has. I can't wait that long and do nothing. I'm going to have to keep blowing money, painting walls, until she arrives in a week and a half.

""Repose Gray is the perfect paint colour for almost any room whether you’re living in your home or preparing it for sale. Repose Gray is a soft, light gray that has soft and SUPER subtle undertones of brown with a wee dab of purple – not enough brown to qualify it as a greige, it’s just the undertone that adds a certain softness to this lovely colour, keeping it from falling flat. With an LRV of 60, Repose Gray is a light colour, but it’s what I’d call a ‘heavy light’ as it doesn’t have the fresh, bright feeling that you’d expect in a ‘typical’ light paint colour. It will hold itself nicely in a well-lit room, brightening up, but it will also pick up a bit of weight in a darker, shadowed space – which is something to be aware of.""

dg, what color furniture do you have? Floors? You haven't posted any pictures, so we are all just flying blind here. Repose shouldn't have a blue color, but maybe your decor is throwing the color off. Can you post some pictures? The darkest colors on a paint strip should be the undertone of all the colors....

kulrn: looks blue to me. It's an 8x10 room with very little in it. The carpet is tan, the trim white. There's a desk, a blue chair and two white filing cabinets. The window faces west. Almost every gray I've tried looks blue. No pictures right now. Could get some later.

Instead of spending the next week and a half painting to no purpose, why not spend it browsing Houzz and other online sites to save pictures of rooms you love. That way when your consultant comes you have some ideas to show her. You won't have to rely on your ability to articulate what you want or on her ability to understand you if she can see real photos of spaces that appeal to you.

You might notice some themes developing in the pictures you save. You might even find some furnishings, bedding, rugs, etc that you choose to buy.

I choose a neutral I liked that I had seen in a model home called Sherwin Williams Natural Choice and did it 2/3 regular strength for the entire house, then used full strength in the living room and choose an accent color of deep deep green for dining room.....

Excellent advice given, but ultimately you have to make a choice and then commit to it and go from there......I also agree with painting last....design the room with the furniture you love and then go with it......good luck.

lindsey: I've never fully understood the purpose of houzz. Most of the pictures don't say what specific colors they use, or where the furnishings come from. If you don't know where to buy, then what's the purpose? Most of the houses in houzz are mansions and beautiful multi million dollar homes and I can't see how they relate to me. As for what looks good, uhm, all of them? I'm an engineer so I don't usually have a whole lotta emotional reaction to anything.

Susan Davis: If I do the interior of the room first, and the paint last, then I'll never get to painting the walls. Paint is cheap. Furniture is not.

Exactly why you need a professional. A designer would be best it sounds like. They can look at those pictures and use your budget to help create that "feel" in your home. Certainly you're more drawn to certain styles. You mentioned minimal up thread. Do you find this:

more attractive than this:

??

The first was a search for bedroom, filtered to Scandinavian style and grey walls. The second was a search for bedroom, filtered to traditional style and grey walls.

If you want to explore what your defining style is, take some online "what's my design style" quizzes. There are a few on Houzz and elsewhere.

If you would truly be equally happy in any room, just hire someone to design the whole house for you. S/he will do a great job, you won't have to stress about it anymore, and your house will gain value for that elusive resale :-D You don't have to do all the work at once; just get a plan in place that you can implement over time.

When I want to plant a field or design my house, I do it myself. If I want to build a housing development, plan a city center, or set up an assembly line, I leave it to an engineer. We all have strengths and this clearly isn't yours!!

Wow! You are really making this difficult for yourself!
Get some sample size paints, no more than 3 colors. Paint them onto large poster paper. Tape the papers on the walls at different times of day. Not right next to each other. See what you like and how they change color with the light of day.
Painting the walls never works.
Try SW analytical grey. I have used it in our entire house this time. It is rich, but neutral. Looks great with white trim and all the art looks nice against it.
I would never paint each room a different color again, ever.
Everyone is trying to help you. Forget about resale. The next owner will paint to their own taste anyway. OMG.

sunnydrew, that was the first thing I did. I went to Staples, bought some poster board, painted them and spent days looking at them. Didn't help. A poster board isn't large enough. The only way to know if I like a color is to paint an entire wall, and then look at it for several days. Actually, I've done that too now and I still can't decide. How can I know how the paint will look in every room in the house by putting it in one room? Again, the poster boards don't work. I had lazy gray on a poster board, painted it on the wall and it came out baby blue. I tried BM revere pewter on a poster board, looked ok, painted it on the wall and it looked like mud. Analytical gray (which is really brown) looks a lot like Amazing Gray, which I put on a wall and then didn't like because it looks like wood putty.

P.S. Could you be color blind? Are you male or female? That could explain the difficulty if you have some red / green color blindness.

Make... not color blind as far as I know.

You're dissatisfied with every single grey or greige you try. Why do you insist on having grey or greige.

My f-i-l is blue/green colour blind. Show him something blue or green and ask him what colour it is, he has no idea. He usually blushes and takes a wild stab in the dark, then giggles like a schoolgirl if he happens to be correct (which is always a coincidence). You could be blue/green colour blind and never realized it, I suppose.

What colors would you suggest instead Lindsey?

Oh my good lord in heaven.

I'm smiling as I say that.

I have absolutely no idea how to begin suggesting colours for you. You know who does? Your colour consultant. Try to be patient and just have faith in her, and try to help her along by having some ideas of rooms you like to look at ready to show her.

What did you think of the idea to take some quizzes regarding your preferred design style. Channel your inner teenage girl! :-D

Well, I mean tan carpet? So blue would be a good fit, you seem not to like blue though? Or the right green could work.

But you want neutral, right? I definitely think reconsidering an appropriate white would be wise.

Again, that colour consultant is your friend. Trust her.

Whatever color the walls end up, when you add rugs, furniture, light fixtures, artwork, you won't focus any more on the paint color. Here is an article that may be helpful:

https://laurelberninteriors.com/2014/06/22/best-no-fail-benjamin-moore-gray-bathroom-colors/

You know that colors on the monitor are often nothing like the chips and the effect when on the wall. So I hope you find peace with your painting project.

Dgarstang, I feel for you I went through the same thing when picking colors out for my entire house! It was a nightmare! Benjamin Moore here locally offered free color consultation here locally for me but I wasn’t sold on the ladies I met that offered it, because as much time as I spent looking at it wasn’t keen on their suggestions!

I spent a fortune on samples! When you buy paint samples I assume you can buy the very small samples? They are $8 from Benjamin Moore here. I personally don’t like grey but did choose it for an interior hall for a bit of difference. Have you had a look at Edgecomb grey from BM. It has a bit more warmth than Revere Pewter. I had a new bathroom vanity painted Revere Pewter. I personally would find it too blue grey and too dark for a wall. I went with all quite creamy whites for my walls which sound like not your thing with just two exceptions one being the Edgecomb grey as mentioned.

By the way I have dozens of little paint samples left over if you are ever in my area. haha

Would you like me to send you some paint samples dgarstang

Oh no. What do I do? I went and put some mindful gray over the repose gray on the left below the window (see how blue it looks), and I kinda like it. But it''s definitely more warm and doesn't feel as fresh and clean, but I like the fact it's a little darker. Feels more bold. Hm this whole picture looks way darker than it really is.

Lol...I’m sorry this post is too funny but glad you like the mixture dgarstang

I am so confused. My girlfriend sent me this link: http://www.chatelaine.com/home-decor/popular-paint-colours/. So, I started looking at bold colors. There are articles that tell you that bold colors can work well in a small space, especially BM Hale Navy. However, other articles say that prospective new owners don't want to see bold colors in rooms. They want muted neutrals. Which direction do I go?

Maybe someone can explain this to me as well. My respose gray looks blue on the wall. I took paint from the same can and painted in on some poster board. The color on the poster board looks, shock and horror, like the color on the paint swatch. I lay the poster board against the wall where the repose gray is painted, and it still looks like the swatch, ie a warm gray color, while the stuff on the wall (that came from the same can) looks very different. It looks blue. How is this possible?

Maybe the paint colour underneath is shining through. Prime first.

Also: DON'T PLAN FOR BUYERS

create a room that you yourself enjoy being in.

dgarstang, please post some photos of the spaces you are working on, also the test area on the wall and the swatch and the two together. That will help folks help you.

Wow dgarstang, does this thread ever remind me of my angst ridden dilemma two years ago about choosing a white paint colour for my whole house ("It's white. How hard could it be???" Ha!!). And I think greys, with all their strong undertones are even trickier.

i haven't read every comment, but it really does sound like you're not such a grey fan, as someone mentioned. Why not white? If you have interesting furniture, rugs, and especially artwork, white can be fabulous!

Same thing happened to me. I was stuck in a world of samples and indecision. I wanted a greige. Hated the blue undertones of most of the greys out there.

Research the paint name on the computer, pour over pictures, go get the paint card in the paint store, stare at that for days, go buy the paint samples, paint sections of walls in every single room in the house, stare at those for days just waiting for something to resonate. Rinse and repeat.

It was driving me mad. One day on one of the threads somewhere in Houzz someone said 'popular grey'. I did the computer research, looked at pictures and then I went to the store and just bought 5 damn gallons of it. I was so sick of trying to figure it out I just pulled the trigger. Best decision I ever made. I love the color and better yet, I was done with the agonizing.

Sometimes you just have to pull the trigger.

Ya, even with white (which as I said probably isn't as tricky as grey) you can make yourself crazy staring at it. After I had the house painted a very fresh bright white, I found myself seeing bluish undertones in some rooms at certain times of day, yellow undertones elsewhere at other times etc.

Eventually I gave myself a metaphorical slap upside the head, stopped staring at the walls, and I've loved it ever since!!!

Sigh. I figured what the heck. I’ll just use revere pewter. Everyone is raving about it. Cut in some edges on a couple of walls, painted a wall and a half, and... it looks blue. I give up, I’ve got an office now that looks like a kaleidoscope or colors. It’s very stressful having it half done like this.

Have you looked at Edgecomb grey? It does not turn blue if that is not what you want.

I'm not seeing any blue in your picture?

its true I don't see any blue either.

kulrn, that picture was when I had respose gray on the wall. I'll try and get a picture tomorrow with my fancy DSLR, which should do color pretty well. It's so blue. When I look at the wall, it looks like I have multicolored paint on the wall. Some areas of the wall look a warmish gray and other areas look blue.I don't want paint that is always changing colors. Will drive me nuts.

wmsimons85, Edgecomb gray is too light I think. Want something a little bolder, around 50 LRV.

Pretty much all paint is going to change color somewhat as light source (sun vs electric), time of day, furnishings (I see a blue chair in the room), orientation (north/south/east/west), trim color, even what you looked at just before looking at the wall. My walls are palest blue (color of sky at the horizon on lightly cloudy day--Benjamin Moore Stone White) but in some lights (especially in the evening) they can seem green. Frankly, I enjoy the complexity of the color.

Well said. And as I mentioned, it also helps not to actually stare at the walls trying to determine what undertones you see. I know that sounds sort of trite, but it really made a difference for me.

Have you thought about lightening the repose by 50%? It may make a difference. Or maybe look in to going with a warm white instead?

Dgarstand, seriously I feel for your dilemma. I really think you may be color blind. Maybe your girl friend, or some other friend can come over with a color fan from Sherwin Williams or B. Moore and sit with you til you pick one.
You also seem concerned about future selling of your home. In that case pick one of the many great colors already suggested and get on with decorating the office and other rooms.
It is far easier re paint a room than buy all new furniture despite what you think.
Good luck with your color consultant. I am sure I am not alone waiting to hear what you decide with her help

I just blew $42 on a gallon of Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter and painted half a wall. It's .... beige!!! What am I missing? Why is this color so popular?

It’s what they greige or maybe the store didn’t mixt it up right. Return and have them do it again Why are you buying gallon instead of a sample...test it on a board first

They mixed it right. Samples are no good. There's just no way to see what a color looks like across an entire wall with a sample. Samples are also always satin, not flat.

Have them add a little black into the paint. Tell them it looks to beige. Take a pic and show them