Shades of Grey

So even though I've posted our whole house color palette, I've known I wanted to paint the dining room grey since we moved. The only question to be answered was, "What shade of grey?" So, on one of my many trips to home depot a few weeks ago, I picked up a few grey paint swatches and threw them up on the wall.

After a few elimination rounds, with the help of Landon, we decided to try out the dark gray on the left, which is Glidden Seal Grey. So, I took yet another trip to Home Depot to pick up a sample. (Oh, one nice thing about living in a big city is that there is one of everything on every corner. I'm blessed to have a Home Depot just a few blocks from my house and another just a few blocks from my office, so a trip to the store is no problem.)

One of the great things about Glidden paint, and partly why I chose it, is they have little paint samples that include a brush. Think "rubber cement."

I thought this would make things very easy, as I didn't have to pull out all my paint supplies. Well, it did except for the fact that the brush is really tiny and the paint gets on the brush handle and tends to drip, considering you are holding it horizontal in order to paint. Luckily, I was smart enough to put a trash bag down, because I knew I would be messy.

After a few minutes, I had a nice little sample on the wall.

Now, one thing you'll notice about the above pic is my textured walls. All I can figure is that this is a trend in Texas. Every house - new or old - has them. I'm used to nice, smooth walls and actually think I prefer them, especially since one of the latest trend is painting stripes, but this is what I have, so I guess I'll get used to it. I will say one thing ... it makes painting a little harder, or at least it did with this sample.

Well, I looked at this shade of grey for a week before deciding that maybe I needed to throw a few other shades up to make certain this is what I wanted. So, back to Home Depot I went and picked up two more paint samples, each a little lighter than the other.

Glidden's Pebble Grey, Granite Grey and Seal Grey

I put these two colors on the wall as well and then stood back to examine.

I easily decided the Pebble Grey, on the left, was a "no." Landon and I both gave some consideration to the other two, but in the end, we decided that we'd go with the Granite Grey and use the darker Seal Grey for an accent color.

Well, today, right before heading back to Home Depot to pick up a gallon of paint, we re-examined the wall again and changed our minds! Ha! We decided we really did want a darker, dramatic dining room, so we officially bought a gallon of Seal Grey! (This decision could have also been partly influenced by a friend who came over last night and pointed out how much he liked the dark grey.)

I had plans to paint today, too, but some additional errands took longer than expected. So, we'll either try and paint it tomorrow between church or next weekend. Either way, the paint has been bought so we are one step closer!