Adventures in paint samples, part two

Yeah, the *perfect* green turned out to be not so perfect for the kitchen / family room. And here I was thinking green all the way, forever.... well at least for the last two months. I was totally stumped if green was out.

I ask hubby for input. I show him all my spreads (man, I love those paint sample books they hand out at paint stores. Not quite official enough to have fancy paint fan decks, but I can spend hours daydreaming over those itty bitty samples.)

He picks a dark grey blue from the Martha Stewart Collection called Shale. I look at it. I love it. I totally agree. The search for the *perfect* green has now become a search for the *perfect* blue grey. Martha Stewart certainly has some dreamy greys with all sorts of undertones. Here are some of her blue-ish greys:


A close-up of the Shale:


Some searching around revealed this amazing kitchen in what looks to be pretty darn close to the Shale and the exact feel I wanted all along with my kitchen too. This is by seasideinteriors on Rate My Space.


Here's her living room. To.die.for. Am I right?

She used Benjamin Moore's Pike Peak Grey for the walls and Cloud White for the panelling.

As much as I love the white cabinets and as much as I know my cabinets are the fabulous shade of early-1990s oak, I am going to resist the total urge to paint them. I would hate for all this white cabinetry hotness to look oh-so early 2010s in just a few years, you know? Like how dark cherry now scream 2004.

So off to the paint department for some blue grey hunting. I managed to walk out of there (I'm sure an hour later) with just three sample bottles, but gathered quite a collection of sample chips, just in case, just for comparison. So here they all are in their glory on my turquoise countertops....


On the bottom right is my short list from top to bottom: Martha's Shale, Glidden's Dusty Miller (which has some green undertones as well) and Behr's Disney Collection Space Dust (the bottom half). Here they are up on the wall:


Top to bottom: Shale, Space Dust, Dusty Miller, Celery Sticks (from paint sample round 1), more Shale.

The winner is...Glidden's Dusty Miller.

I still love, love, love the Shale, but am worried it would be too dark without white cabinets, the Space Dust was too light blue not enough grey. For some comparison, the Dusty Miller is very similar to Martha's Winter's Day, which gives you a good idea of how it stacks up to similar shades.


Now that I am BFFs with the Home Depot paint department, they let me know a rebate offer is coming this weekend on paint gallons so to wait a few days.

Being that crazy, million paint sample girl is starting to have its perks...