HELP W/ Painting....PLEASE :D

A warm greyish-blue looks great with gray carpet, nothing too bright, but like a muted sky... I used that in my bathroom, it was refreshing and calming at the same time. Subtle tans also look nice. Good luck.

Sage green works well with grays and browns. Be sure to check out Benjamin Moore "Aura" paint - we were impressed with it as were our housepainters. It is more expensive, but we were able to paint dark shiny purple walls a soothing light blue with just one coat for our nursery. It cleans up well (think crayons!) and is very low V.O.C so NO odor at all. Good luck, and congratulations on your new home!

There is no way that this can be answered over the internet!! You just need to get several different colors in "tester cans" - most paint stores will sell them to you for like $5 a can or so. Paint a test area on the wall (3ft x 3ft) and look at it in several different lights - Morning sun, afternoon sun, at night with lighting fixtures or lamps. It really can change the color depending on the light in the room, that is why it is so tricky. We did this last year and my favorite color in the store looked absolutely orange in my house (not the look I was going for). We ended up going with the lightest color that we tested, which I just bought to have one more "to try", not really thinking I would like it. You are gonna just have to try it out.

Not sure about the color, but when you think you have found what you want, buy a small amount of it and try it in the room before committing. Lighting and other factors may make it look different than you envision.
Hope this helps,
Victoria

Those are perfect colors to go in any direction. I love color :-) Gray is the easiest color to look at, and the champagne is already a warm tone. (True gray is technically a neutral color--made up of black and white--but there are shades of gray that are very warm.) You are not stuck with just warm or cool colors either. You should have a balance of warm and cool colors. I guarantee you won't get tired of the colors as fast! I would suggest that you go furniture shopping first (not necessarily to buy), but find what you like. It doesn't have to have gray in the fabrics to look good. If you are going to a nicer store you can ask the sales people for suggestions, or they may even have a designer on staff that you ask for ideas. It is much easier to go to a paint store, with all their array of colors to choose the perfect shade to go with your furniture than to try to match furniture to a color you've already fallen in love with.

I would suggest going to a furniture store and at least looking around before falling in love with a paint color. It is WAY easier to match paint to furniture than the other way around. Different styles of furniture tend to come in different color families too, so depending on the style of furniture you like, you might chose differently. Good luck!

Grays... can run "cool" or "warm" or muddy depending on the undertones.
So, once your figure that out, you get a complimentary/accent color in that range/family as well, ie: cool or warm. Otherwise it will clash or not match real great.

Then as the other posters said: it depends on your lighting (whether artificial or natural), and yes, Benjamin Moore is good.

Usually, you should buy a small can of paint, the smallest you can get... go home, then paint it directly on the wall... in a good swatch size.... putting one swatch directly above near the carpet and another in the middle and top of the wall. See it, live it, at various times of the day/night as well... and see how the paint color reacts in the lighting etc. Some colors will wash out, some will pick up different undertones, some will seem not as vibrant or darker than you imagined.

All the best,
Susan

Try a nice taupe with a gray undertone to it. It should look very nice with your gray carpet.

Look at some decorating magazines for best ideas. How about something in the orange/terracotta range? Yellow doesn't usually go with gray.

Gray looks fabulous with yellows and oranges, and also with yellowish-greens. You can use these colors as "pops" of colors in your accents (pillows, throws, vases, etc.) Also looks great with creamy white. You could do gray/yellow/creamy white or gray/orange/creamy white, etc.

Right now our living room walls are painted an ocean gray and we have a taupe couch, deep brown leather chairs and pops of bright acid green with bits of yellow, and pale blue thrown in here and there (throw pillows mostly). The carpet is a sand color (we're ocean lovers so I was taking colors right out of Laguna Beach). I must say, it looks fantastic!! Since your carpet is gray, you might try the sand color range for the walls with the accent colors I mentioned above.

Anyway, get your furniture first and then go from there. You can't go wrong in the taupe to chocolate range and those colors hold up very well, esp. with children. Our couch is microfiber from Crate and Barrel and we love the quality. The microfiber is a cinch to clean up, too.

As for paint, my husband and I painted our entire house ourselves last summer. I can't tell you how many colors I went through; I'm very picky. We used part Benjamin Moore (Aura and Natura) in our daughter's room, etc., and Lowe's Eddie Bauer and Lowe's Valspar in others.

Although I love the low to no-VOC from Ben Moore, it's def. trickier to use if you're painting yourself vs. a professional. You must get it up very quickly on the walls and not overlap once it starts drying, which is immediately.

The Lowe's is a bit smellier, BUT you can buy pint-sized samples, instead of quarts which saves you a ton of money (if you're like me and demo lots of shades) and also saves the environment because you won't have so many unused quarts laying around after you've made your selection.

Word to the wise: Always paint a 2'x2' trial run of your samples right on to your walls and watch the color throughout the day/night to see what it will really look like in all the stages of light/darkness. Sometimes a color will look fab in the day, only to look terrible at night under your lamps/can lights, etc.

Good luck and have fun!!! If I could re-decorate my home every year, I would - ha!

Hi L.

I am an interior designer and I have a free service on my website where you can ask questions like this and receive a personal response within 48 hours. I would be happy to help you out. I am going to post your question on my blog at www.coloursandconcepts.com. First I need some more information to help you effectively. Are you able to send some pictures of the space to my email at ____@____.com?
There are many things to consider. For example is it the carpet a blue/grey or not. How dark is it? How big is the house? What style of furniture are you looking to purchase. Is there a reason that you want to paint before you purchase furniture? Ideally it is best to plan a space before you buy or paint. That way you don't need to try and build your room around your paint color. However if you want to keep your walls neutral then it is still possible to pick a color before hand and not be at a disadvantage.
Also if you would like a consultation in your home, I have a great member perk.
Good luck. I look forward to hearing from you!

J.

Think of a cloudy day at the beach. Gray, gray blue and green with touches of sunny yellow. And lots of white clouds. Paint is the cheapest part to change in the future, so pick major furniture that you love and can live with for a while. Walls are easy to change, a sofa is not. Throw pillows, a ceramic vase or animal, a throw on the back of a chair--all of these can add color and can be changed if you get bored or need a seasonal change. Enjoy, decorating is fun!

My husband Chris, is a painter in the Pasadena area. He is fantastic with color. If you would like professional help, he is very reasonable, as well.

My best,

T.

Try going on a website called voiceofcolor.com. On the site they have a feature that allows you to pick out a room, say a living room, and choose different colors for it. It may help in making your decision.

M.