Day 11 was Thursday and also marked the last day we would have Peter and his JP6 construction crew at our house. I was surprisingly sad to see them go, they've made quite a difference in transforming the first floor of our house. But I was more excited that the basic foundation was mostly done because we need to get this kitchen done and fast as we only a few short weeks remaining before we rent out our old place and we have to move in to the new house!
Before Peter's crew left, they made sure to paint and finish the areas that they drywalled and worked on. So our deadline for picking paint colors was upon us. We actually purchased a few gallons of paint prior to even starting any construction on the house to take advantage of a friend's employee discount card at Sherwin Williams (40% off... score!)
I HIGHLY recommend picking up a few sample quarts of the color you think you might like. If you are trying to take advantage of a coupon or discount like we were (as in our employee discount expired at the end of 2012, and we were at the store on Dec. 31st), I also recommend stocking up on the basic gallons of un-tinted paint in the finish that you like and having them re-tinted at a later time (for free), this way you can take your time deciding on the actual colors. You can even return the extra un-tinted gallons of paint at a later time if you bought more than you need. Of course, we've learned this the hard way as we were in our frantic "last day of the year and pick up as many gallons of last minute decision tinted paint" panic, so we picked up 4 gallons of a regrettable choice color for our house a few other colors and 2 un-tinted gallons. We could have definitely used our own advice, but hindsight is 20/20.
Anyways, so I had my heart set on a nice light gray like the kitchen below (hence the quick decision skills), so I didn't think that it would be an issue. We LOVE a white kitchen, so the soft gray was just the perfect complement, to our future whiter than white kitchen with dark stained hardwood floors.
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| Pinterest photo inspiration |
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| Versatile Gray |
When we got back to the house I excitedly painted a large square swatch of the versatile gray in the bare dining room walls. Lo and behold, the Versatile Gray matched the beige color in the front living room! Not cool. Or gray at all, for that matter. Imagine my disappointment.
Luckily, the Versatile Gray was light enough that I could go back to Sherwin Williams and ask to re-tint a cooler toned gray. It had to be darker when adding more tint, unfortunately. But in the end we had a few more options.
The 2 swatches on the left in the pic below, you can see our two options, Pussywillow and Gray Shingle. I was hoping for the top two shades in the third swatch, but it was just not an option since there was too much red tint in the Versatile Gray. And the last swatch on the far right, is the Versatile Gray color family--waaay more brown on my camera than it looked in the store. I should have known!
Anyway, since I was now hellbent on matching my inspiration pinterest photo, my detective skills led me to believe that the color used on those walls were Benjamin Moore's Storm Gray, so I had my first can of Versatile Gray re-tinted to the Gray Shingle (2nd swatch to the left in the pic above) because it was the closest match. A little darker, but I liked it. And definitely not beige.
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| Gray Shingle |
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| BM storm and SW gray shingle |
So after trying it out on my walls, it just seemed so dark (note: benjamin gray's storm is to the bottom left of the wall swatches pictured above and gray shingle is right smack in the middle). It's a little too dark for my taste, especially in the main rooms. I decided to use the gray shingle somewhere else instead (office? half bath?) But I couldn't stop thinking about the first swatch they suggested re-tinting the Versatile Gray to. Although I initially thought that the Pussywillow was still a little bit too beige in the store, but the swatch I took home just looked so much better in the natural light. So there goes 2 more cans of VG being re-tinted to pussywillow.
And here it is on the contractor's finished walls!
As you can see, depending on what time of the day and what part of the room you are in, it can look either more gray or grey beige. But the important part is that it is definitely more distinguishable from the beige in the front room. I am actually really liking it and can't wait to see how this will look against the white kitchen. It even looks really good next to the exposed brick and in contrast to the white trim and future board and batten wainscoting that we are hoping to build.
Anyway, so even though we jumped the gun a little too early, we've learned a really good lesson and still managed to save what we had without much regret. sigh. We've primed the rest of the dining room and we'll most likely get to painting the rest of the room this weekend. Stay tuned!
And on other house news, we finally patched up the huge settling crack in the Master Bedroom. We used the same joint compound we used in the office, taped, re-mud then sanded. Let's hope this turns out ok!
Have you guys jumped on the Gray bandwagon with your paint colors? Do you love it?
If you guys want to read the rest of this *exciting* remodeling series, CLICK HERE!
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