Finding the Perfect Gray: Walls and Interior Doors

 I hope you aren't tired of my paint and powder room adventures.

Before you run away, wait! The saga has almost reached a happy ending! (Though another saga has begun.)

I've posted about the powder room HERE and HERE (scroll to the bottom).

 

Originally, it was a tad colorless.

Bandwidth painted a large swatch of SW Urbane Bronze.

You can catch up on that adventure HERE.

It was pretty. But the room is tiny, and threatened to become a black hole. So, Bandy painted a swatch of SW Intellectual Gray.

It looked perfect.

The mirror came down, and the walls were painted.

I was surprised when Intellectual Gray turned muddy gold in photographs. In person it was a dark, dark gray.

Shocking, isn't it? 

I knew about the brown tones in the Shoji White paint strip. But still! Nevertheless, I decided to go a shade lighter: Amazing Gray. But it looked totally white.

Using RIBBET (it's a free photo tool that replaced Flickr's Picnic), I lightened the walls. But I lightened them too much.

More frantic tinkering.

 I took a wild leap of faith and painted the room Amazing Gray.

Here is an unedited photo:

And another.



In this small, poorly lit space, the Amazing Gray was darker, but not too dark. I was relieved! My powder room paint saga has ended, thank goodness. The trim works, so it won't need repainting.

However, another issue surfaced. Last week, Will walked into the foyer and squinted. "Is the room STAYING this white?" he asked. Then he sighed in a "no likey" way. :-)

I'd been thinking the same thing,

but I'd only told my mother. She'd promised not to tell.

Art and furnishings will make a difference in the foyer (and everywhere else). But will it be enough to remove the white-on-white chill?

I have been going back and forth about painting the interior doors a dark gray/lighter gray, so I suggested that we paint Urbane Bronze on this door.

Will said he thought it would be too dark, but we'll try it anyway.

Then we'll compare it to the Intellectual Gray on another door:

We have a few options.

Light gray trim.

Contemporary Living Room design by New York Interior Designer valerie pasquiou interiors + design, inc

Charcoal-gray trim:  

Traditional Porch design by Charleston Interior Designer Linda McDougald Design | Postcard from Paris Home

And, of course, there's always classic black.

Hall design

Traditional Entry design by Boston Architect Albert, Righter & Tittmann Architects, Inc.

Have you painted interior doors?

Are you thinking about it?