Our master bedroom is getting painted this weekend and because I’ve been busy focusing on client projects rather than my own humble abode, I’ve waited until the last minute to choose my paint color. No huge statement color in this room. I know that I’m sticking with some shade of gray, for a nice neutral backdrop.
Here were the original contenders (Pelican Gray, Winter Solstice, Sterling, and Marina Gray–all by Benjamin Moore):
If you have any experience with grays, you know they can be tricky. There’s gray-gray, but there’s also blue-gray, lavender-gray and even a taupey-gray. It can make a girl crazy (especially when time is running out before the painter gets here. . . ). In this case, I think I’ve decided on “Winter Solstice.” It’s soft without too much of a blue undertone. I think it will be a nice contrast to the dark wood bed and white nightstands.
There’s also the trey ceiling to think about. While I love the asparagus shade on this ceiling, my boring sensible side tells me to stick to another gray on the same color card.
I’m also thinking a gray color palette on the walls will make it easier to add fun color on the bed from time to time.
PS–Welcome to my newest sponsor, Kassapanola!
It’s a great Etsy pillow shop, and there’s a special 20% discount code just for readers of my blog. To receive the discount, enter ECBLOG at checkout.
I too am searching for the perfect grey for my dressing room to be! I want something soft but a true grey! Your bedroom has great bones.. it will be spectacular! Can’t wait to see it:) Enjoy the weekend.
x
Jane
Love your blog, Emily! I just did the same gray search and landed on Martha Stewart’s Sharkey Gray (color matched to Behr). I’m very happy with it!
Thanks for this post! I’m meeting with a client this weekend to choose a grey for their great room. You’ve given me more to think about!
I’m really looking forward to seeing your newly painted bedroom. You’ve got the magic touch!
abby
LOVE gray! I could paint my whole house gray! Looks like a good choice! Happy weekend!
I’m loving all of this gray lately! Can’t wait to see how it turns out. Have a great weekend!
I wanted a blue-grey in the dining room but ended up going with a more taupe-y grey instead. It was a split second decision in the store, which is why I didn’t know it would be so taupe on the walls. It’s a nice color though.
I look forward to seeing your bedroom. I would love to paint our grey, but unfortunately it’s the last room on my list.
Courtesy of our builder, our whole house is painted Sherwin Williams “Worldly Gray”. It is the lightest wall color I’ve ever had, but I actually love that it’s a great backdrop for any accent color- I think you’ll love your gray walls!
PS: Does Ikea still carry those Peacock Curtain panels? I am scouring the web for that shade and coming up empty handed. Thanks!
Sure it will look amazing! Love the green ceiling but yes might get hard to look at. There are so many great chic gray tones, you really can’t go wrong.
Thanks for sharing! I’ve been on the fence with picking a shade of gray for my kitchen and the dining room for several months now, and can’t make up my mind. Thanks for the suggestion on sticking with a true gray if you want to add different colors in!
Oh yes, grays, they can turn violet on you in a second. I think you’ve found a winner!
Love the Kassapanola pillows! I got one of her covers as a gift for my mom and she loved it.
Janell
@Claire Here’s the link to the curtains; they look so much different on their site:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90172105
I love the asparagus ceiling! Like you, we always just pick another color off the paint strip. I’m wondering if I could be that bold. Hmmmmm . . . .
People are always shocked to see that our ceilings are painted a color and aren’t white. I can’t imagine going back to white ceilings!
Whatever you do, I’d like to NOT suggest Sweatshirt Gray. We painted our upstairs hallway this color in hopes of creating a peaceful backdrop for my B&W photos of The Cherubs. NOT. It’s more of a blue…looked awful. We lived with it for three years before repainting with a much better gray…the name of which, of course, escapes me at the moment… :) Good luck! Post pics!
i have been highly recommending my perfect gray.. behr ‘silver screen’.. really great neutral! looks beautiful w/ dark wood, white, and just about any pop of color. you could have it matched, if you prefer the benjamin. :)
I would like to throw BM Revere Pewter into the mix. I have this color throughout my house and we love it. We also have SW Majestic Gray in our dining room and home office. This is more of a blue gray.
I have lots of pics on my blog if you need to see what it looks like.
Happy Weekend!
Amy R.
Don’t have any suggestions but Winter Solstice looks so pretty in those images. And I love gold frames and accents with gray, too! Good luck!!
Hi Emily!
I can’t wait to see the finished product….. my “light blue/gray” master bedroom ended up looking like a smurf exploded on my walls. I am terrible at picking paint colors! Anyhow, can you tell me where you got that gorg sunburst mirror?? I must have it. Thanks!!
gray’s can be so challenging…Last week I think we had 10 swatches on my clients wall before we made the final decision. Every room is different! Can’t wait to see it :)
I’ve used Willow Creek from Benjamin Moore, and absolutely loved the way the grey went on the wall. It is the greatest contrast with white trim!
Wow – I love that green on the ceiling. I wish I had the guts!
Don’t you love being able to google a color and see it in a room ? Of course, it’s going to look different in our houses. ;) I’m headed to BM to get some samples today.
we painted our bedroom grey and got a few samples from home depot. my hubby didn’t believe that the two samples were too “blue/grey” and “purple/grey”…until i custom mixed a grey and voila! he understood the difference btw all the greys!! don’t you love when we’re right!??!? :)
sorry i can’t share the color but it seems we were going to the same color and i like the winter solstice too!
and as always…LOVE your blog!
Love the mirror above your bed! We painted our house SW Amazing Gray. It’s a mix between grey and tan. It doesn’t have any blue undertones. I’m crazy about it! Here it is on our walls before we moved in..
http://thebowtieandtheskirt.blogspot.com/2011/01/strickland-house-interior.html
I have those same curtains (from Ikea right?) and have had them sitting in my office forever. I have been on the fence whether to use as curtains or make a canopy above my bed with them. But recently I think I may upholster my chairs in them. Actually if you want to pop over to my blog and give me a little bit of advice on my dining chairs, that would be awesome. Here’s the link: http://freshquince.blogspot.com/2011/02/dining-chairswhat-would-you-do.html
I love what you do and would love to hear what you have to say, but totally understand and respect that you are busy. So no worries if you don’t have the time.
Also, can’t wait to see how your room turns out. Thanks, Danielle
We just used Stonington Gray by Benjamin Moore in our MB and I LOVE it!!!!! Try that one!!!
Emily this comes at the perfect time. I just painted my bathroom what I thought was going to be a great “warm” gray for in there, BM Coastal Fog. It ended up way to taupe. I think I am going to have to re-do it. It is crazy how much the light can change it throughout the day. I am glad I have some more options to look at.
I LOVE that shade of gray in the photos – so gorgeous and just the “right” gray. I have been considering gray myself for some of my rooms. I’ll just wait and watch you. ;-)
Grey is a lovely color for the walls, quite easy to pair with other colors. And you such lovely grey room inspirations in there.
I love your sunburst mirror in there:)
Love gray! I have three gray rooms in my house and I always get comments on how good a gray it is! I took the color swatch of Gray Ghost by Olympia to Sherwin-Williams to have them match it. Could not be happier
I love gray.. I painted my office a gray color it was a beige blah tan and we upped the room with a great gray color from the Oops paint section in Lowes.
Here is my blog post about my transformation
http://luxecoutureinteriors.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-home-office-before-and-after.html
cant wait to see the color on the wall
restoration hardware has some beautiful greys in their slate collection. not the greatest paint but sherwin williams can match it so i am sure benjamin could also.
Have gone down the gray road and have yet circle back home. So hard. Love what you chose . . especially with your dark wood. I am still cracking up at your “Pimpin” comment on cassie’s blog today.
I think neutrals are tricky and colour is easy. It takes 10 times longer to chose the right neutral. Maybe it’s just me but the colour you chose looks blue in those photos. Lovely but blue:) Can’t wait to see the finished product.
Oh HURRAY! Winter Solstice is queued up for my Master Bath repaint next week. I know it’s silly but it such a huge affirmation when a pro makes the same color pick. :-)
Sounds like it will be beautiful! I can’t wait to see the results. Gray is a great color to add pops of other color as accents! Great choice!
Oh, oh, me, me! We just finished painting our guest room gray and I love the end result. I am using gray, black, white, and citrus yellow. I narrowed it down to BM Silver Fox and SW Amaxing Gray. I ended up using Amazing Gray because it was a little lighter, and I wanted to room to be airy. I LOVE it! Good Luck!
I love Pewter Mug by Behr! We painted our bedroom in this color and then my friend loved it so much they used it in their office.
I recently painted our bedroom BM Cement Gray and just love it!
I just painted my dining room grey last week! I LOVE the color in there now (it was red) I think I used Valspar Signature because I was doing the paint and primer in one.
It’s called Filtered Shade:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bowerstudio/5477327376/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bowerstudio/5477327468/
It’s going to look great with your new cow :)
I love your monogram pillows!
Yay! Can’t wait to see it finished! I just painted our master bedroom from boring builder beige to a very soft grey, Sherwin Williams Lattice I think.
We have dark furniture also and I think it looks great. I was afraid of choosing something too blue, but I love it! It’s just right.
Great choice– I know it will beautiful! And it gives you a ton of flexibility with accent colors, too. Enjoy your weekend! It’ll feel so good to get it done. :)
I think you’ll love the gray bedroom… I have found it to be really easy to play with styles in mine, which is painted SW Spacious Gray. I saw it in an old old Domino {sigh} and SW dug it up in the archives. It really is the most subtle, true gray- not a trace of blue, lilac or tan. Good luck! I’m sure it will be fab!
Hi Emily…just to confuse you even more…SW: Amazing Gray and Worldly Gray. BM: Cumulus Cloud and Revere Pewter. You are right…gray can go lavender, blue or green….it is a tough one. Good luck!
Grays are so tricky. We had a SW gray matched for our Living Room, Dorian Gray…it’s a great neutral backdrop. Good luck. I love the asparagus colored ceiling, but it may get hard to live with after awhile. Good luck, can’t wait to see what it looks like!
I really do love that green ceiling though :)
and I really love your monogram pillows, so sweet!!
xoxo
Winter Solstice will keep the space from turning into a visual icebox, which it would if you’d gone with a bluer gray.
I still get a case of the giggles every time I think of gray as being trendy. The first time that gray really entered the picture in a big way was back in 2005-6 when Martha Stewart got out of jail and put together an all gray room in her magazine. I still think “prison cinderblock chic” when I see too much gray in a room.
Just my weird sense of humor I guess.
We painted our bedroom “RHINO” by Behr and just love it! We also have dark wood furniture and white bedding, and I love how the gray feels like a spa. Our master is the most tranquil spot in the whole house and I love it!
Oh, the elusive perfect gray — I love your choice, and can’t wait to see how it changes the room. i’m still crazy for your drapes.
and, um, were you demonstrating YOUR mad photoshop skills in the paint chip pic?? ;)
and ps — mom guilt, i’ve got that market covered! working, in or out of the home, only compounds it. I’m learning to set boundries and say ‘no’ Sorta
Winter Solstice is such a pretty shade of gray. I love the richness of it. Color is so much fun, and I’m all for being brave and choosing an exciting paint color, but color is even more fun when you can mix it up easily and change the while look just by changing accessories/fabrics. Love a great neutral with great pops of color!
xo Linda
After sitting with 12 (yes, 12!) gray paint samples on our bedroom wall, and after some extensive research, we decided on Forde Abbey by Ralph Lauren. It’s not BM but honestly, I didn’t care once I saw the search might finally be over. We just painted and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Good luck to you!
Are you still searching for the perfect gray? I just did our master in Collonade Gray. AND, I blogged about it with lots of pictures of it plus five other gray contenders from various brands. Would love for you to see. http://mudpiestudio.blogspot.com/2011/03/painting-gray-master-bedroom.html
Lori
Emily,
My perfect grays are: Shinto by Kwal; Elephant Skin by Behr; and Charleston Gray by Farrow & Ball (I have pictures of all on my blog with the exception of Charleston gray..I’m still working on the master bedroom).
I found the perfect gray for my space, Sherwin Williams Requisite Gray – now I need new bedding and I can’t find anything! I need something dark enough to hide kid and dog dirt but not too dark because there isn’t a lot of natural light…so frustrating!
DL
Where did you find the mirror – love it.
It was originally carried at Target but I think it was discontinued a while ago. I found mine at a surplus outlet while I was visiting my parents.