A Couple of Shades of Gray

“White is not a color.”  Or at least that is what the other kids would say to me, when I was a kid playing those school yard games where you called out a color to keep from being ‘it’.

If white is not a color, why is so much of my house white?  Inside…white on white with white trim and white curtains.  Now officially old, I’d have to agree, white is not a color.

The time had come to tackle some of our white rooms upstairs.  I had a painting crew (Number Two Son) and the absence of people sleeping upstairs.  I even knew what color to paint it because, I’ve been ‘pinning’.  According to my sources (Pinterest) gray is the new warm color for painting the interior of your home.  Benjamin Moore gray paints to be exactly ‘right’.  I had the ‘right’ paint number, so I was sure to get the ‘right’ gray.  Except… I went to My Loving Spouse’s favorite hardware store (#1) and they do not happen to carry Ben’s paint.  So being slightly an impatient type person, I picked out another grey paint.  (Collective gasp from true designing type folks).  Now, I may be impatient, but I am careful (sort of, ‘seasoned’ might be a better term, when it comes to picking out the wrong paint.  I’ve painted a lot of rooms the ‘wrong’ color before, all the while you are painting and trying to tell yourself it will be ‘fine’ when it dries, and it never is).  I checked those little paint swatches and made sure I did not get a brown gray, (which would not be ‘right’), but got a blue gray.  It was a lovely light, warm gray…on the swatch. My painting crew had gotten the little room upstairs ready, deposited Zoe the puppy into her crate and had our painting music set and we were ready to roll.

We were a great team.  I cut in…Number Two Son rolled…  I had one of those ‘Mom’ moments realizing he’d grown up.  Number Two has painted a lot with me, but always in a controlled environment where spills mattered very little, either he painted outside or he’d been assigned to paint the inside of the closets.  Yep, my boy had grown up and was rolling on color in the house… a warm blue grey, that looks…well, mostly blue.

It’s a nice blue…almost a gray-blue…but I’d have to say for certain, that it is not gray.  It is however, not white on white, it is clean and it is fresh, and our pretty windows now stand out in this sweet room upstairs, so I’d have to say…I like it.  As far as one of my mistakes go, this is not bad at all.

However, it would not do to paint the landing this shade of blue, so it did require more paint.  This time we were at Lowes (#2) and they do not actually carry Ben’s paint either.  I was determined to get it ‘right’ this time, so I even stuck the paint swatches in under their special multi-light tool, to see what the color would look like in different lights.  This time I was sure, that I got a nice warm, light gray.  Day two of the painting began, by now we were a well seasoned and completely orchestrated team.  The music was playing softly, the puppy only got into a little of the gray paint, the room was looking fresh, clean and inviting.

“It sort of looks like the color we painted yesterday, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“It’s not…it really is different….it’s just that we might be the only two people who will ever be able to tell.”

“Yeah, I know….”

“But it looks good…”

“Yeah, I know…I like it..even if it’s not ‘right’.”

….and the funniest part of all…. in these pictures…it looks, well…gray!