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Paint Living Rooms Design Dilemma

Everything looks gray!

7 years ago

Trying to find a light but warm neutral for my living room that is not too dense, possibly even a white. I tried SW accessible beige and it looks very dark and gray. Most of the colors I tried just seemed to look “cooler” and too gray in my room. Took a different approach and went for SW softer tan and seems too yellow/green and, frankly, out of date. I’m thinking I may actually need a white but the whites are overwhelming! Help! First photo colors (all SW) L to R: canvas tan, china doll, simple white, accessible beige, natural linen, canvas tan; bottom is softer tan. Second photo is SW softer tan.

Featured Answer

lynartist

7 years ago

They all look too purple! That is no way to determine a color; they are being interfered with the yellow on the wall and you only have one coat so the background is showing through! Try one of these on a large white poster board with two coats and see what the color really looks like!

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Comments (15)

houssaon
7 years ago
White Dove by Benjamie Moore is a good color. I'm sure SW has the same color.
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lynartist
7 years ago
Here are a few light neutrals from SW.
Cheryl Smith
7 years ago
It really is the current color on your walls that is throwing you off. I painted a gray over yellow walls once and just cried. Until every inch of yellow was covered, it really looked purple not gray. Ended up perfect but a couple inches of a color on a wall doesn't give you the right idea what the whole wall will look like.
fifamom
7 years ago
we just did out entire 1st floor sherwin williams crushed ice and love it.. it is grey but light.. neutral - sherwin williams has a program that you pay $90 to have a paint color designer come to your house to help you choose the right colors; you will get a $50.00 card to use for paint so it ends up costing $40.00 - it is what we did and the designer was spot on with the color he chose.. we are very happy... our floors are called classico blanco and ae a greige color..
lrunner
7 years ago
Sherwin Williams Silver Satin. Close to a white. Very clean and bright without being shockingly bright. I used it in 3 rooms in my new build and I love it. Just enough contrast with white trim.
K R
7 years ago
I agree with Cheryl, you can’t paint samples over current paint. Prime that entire piece of wall, twice, then paint much larger samples on it.
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Patricia Colwell Consulting
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
I agree you need to either prime that wall and then test colors or better yet get some large poster boards and use one for each test .The nice thing about that is you can move them around to see how the colors look in different spaces. FYI I think a pale grayed / green is so much more neutral than beige . Gray Wisp BM is very pretty and neutral
cat_ky
7 years ago
The walls do need priming before painting over that yellow paint, so I would get that done, but, use the poster board for your paint samples, so you dont have to primer over them too.
highdesertowl
7 years ago
For a warm neutral, consider SW Neutral Ground. It reads as a soft, warm, off-white.
R F
7 years ago
Behr Canyon Wind!
groveraxle
7 years ago
I would suggest you try changing your bulbs and look at your colors again. When I remove the color cast from your room (assuming your baseboards are white), it looks like this:

This leads me to believe you have very warm bulbs turning everything pink.
jessshuster
7 years ago
We just did our whole first floor (ceilings too) in White Dove from Ben Moore. I love it.
msteraflora
7 years ago
Paint was the absolute worse part of my custom build for me. Everything ended up looking the same even though on the cards the paints all looked distinct.
I would try canyon wind or ginger sugar by Behr. I put ginger sugar in my kitchen and got a lot of compliments. GL
fifamom
7 years ago
I will tell you what i learned during my reno.. do not try to find a color on your existing wall paint.. prime a few sections of walls white with different lighting... then put your paint colors on...i actually spent a few hundred dollars choosing the right paint and the best thing i did was prime a few sections white and hire the color designer....

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