And honestly, the title is actually a low estimate of how many shades of gray I've considered for our living room. Like maybe multiply "50" by 3 and we'll be closer. I'm not joking. I'm that much of a crazy woman. And by the end of this post, you will all have lost any respect for the decorating abilities that you *thought* I posessed. Spoiler alert: It's all trial and error, baby.
It started back in 2011. We were moving into our THIRD apartment in the span of just over 2 years. We loved our first one-bedroom apartment, but found a two-bedroom for less money per month, in a building where a bunch of our friends lived. It was in a sketchier neighborhood, but we jumped on it like white on rice (what?!). Less than a week later it was broken into and we were robbed. COOL! We somehow lasted 8 more months there, but one day I snapped. We started looking for a new place that night, the next morning we went to look at an apartment, and by midday we had signed a new lease. True story.
We really wanted to mark this place as a fresh start, so we asked for permission to paint from our landlord. The exact words: "I wouldn't do, say, 'burnt orange' or anything, but otherwise yes, you can paint." GREEN LIGHT!
Turns out, I had no idea what I was doing. The only paint-picking experience I had up until then was picking my room color when I was a kid. I'd go to the store with my mom, I would point to a color I liked, and that was it. There was no bringing home paint chips and seeing what they looked like in different lights. There were no paint samples that you painted on walls to compare. There was no process, you just did it. So... that's what I did this time. I went to the store and picked out this awesome "greige" for the living room (Studio Taupe by Behr). I was so in love with it that I wanted to paint the whole apartment that color. E, thankfully, stopped me. Because that would've been weird.
Then we moved our furniture in. I don't think it hit me for awhile, probably because of all the excitement of moving, but as time went on I realized that this paint color was mighty similar to the color of our couches. And once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. I've been searching my computer for a photo, but the best I can come up with is this:
It's doesn't even look that bad there. In real life the color has more brown undertones. The couch and walls just look bland together. Side note: that rug kicked the bucket awhile ago. Even though it was way too small for our living room, I miss it because it really tied the room together.... OMG!!!
My life is now complete. I can't believe I just worked that into this blog. YES.
ANYWAY. We I started looking obsessive-compulsively searching for "the perfect gray" back in March or April. Yes, it's been that long. I tried Benjamin Moore, Behr, Martha Stewart, Glidden... I'd have added Sherwin Williams and Olympic and Valspar into the mix too but Lowe's is harder to get to while carless in Brooklyn (we I learned that lesson while doing this same exact process for the hallway). Even Home Depot is a pain(t) in the tush of a trip, but sometimes a girl needs an excuse to head to Manhattan. ;) We hung up paint chips, painted paint samples, conducted extensive Pinterest, Houzz.com and google image searches. I've literally probably lost weeks of my life to this quest... Just take a look. This is only a small selection-- most of this process took place before I had considered starting Fruitful Furbishings, so I didn't document it. But prepare to be shocked and appalled.
Here's the earliest photographed stage. At one point there were way more paint chips taped to the wall and they were admittedly all roughly the same shade of gray. I'm already hanging my head in shame:
Here's the earliest photographed stage. At one point there were way more paint chips taped to the wall and they were admittedly all roughly the same shade of gray. I'm already hanging my head in shame:
Stage two. We had it narrowed down to two colors. Zinc #MSL267 by Martha Stewart, Dolphin AF-715 by Benjamin Moore. But then we I still couldn't decide. So I started tapping into our previously vetoed paint chip and paint sample supply. In the first photo, the top right is MS Zinc, the top middle is BM Dolphin, the top right is BM's Dolphin at 75% strength (oh yes I'm serious), purple-ish one on the bottom right is Stone 2112-40 by Benjamin Moore (which we had bought for the kitchen, hated it there, and then used in our guest room), and the light one on the bottom left is Galveston Gray AC-27 by Benjamin Moore:
I couldn't decide- I could honestly go either way but it's two totally different vibes. My husband is adamantly pro-GG. So I did the mature, well thought-out thing. I posted a photo on Facebook and asked my friends to decide. I'm not kidding. There were a few votes for one wall dark and three light walls, but one of our walls already has faux brick detailing so I thought the combination would be too much. There were also rogue votes for blue, green and burgundy.
In the end, team "Dark" won the Facebook poll 27-17.
But which did I we actually decide to go with? You'll have to wait and see. E's at Home Depot right now.... I know, the suspense must already be killing you.
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