Maybe gray = depressing is an individual thing. I tried gray 25 years ago and have never used it since. But maybe it was just a depressing shade of gray. Anyway, I hope this color works as well in daylight, jock, and that your color search is over. Looking forward to the pics.

I am anxious to hear the end of this story. Will you love it in the daytime? Will it work with your colors? Will it bring warmth and love and happiness? I hope it will because I love a happy paint-story ending!

Red

So glad you found a color -- and great title for a thread, btw! (:

Grey and gold is a dreamy combination, IMO. One of my absolute favorites, esp. if you throw in some walnut or other rich wood...yum! Welcome to the grey side :)

When we bought the house it had BM Silver Fox in the mudroom, laundry room and powder room. The area got plenty of light. I found the color depressing and couldn't wait to paint over it. I haven't seen it used in a living area where the color might be softened by furniture and window treatments.

Let us know how it works out! I've chosen a grey (a warm grey) for my new place and am worrying about it too (I'm emerging from the Land o Beige, and grey is a huge departure for me).

That being said, I bought a house that had a bedroom painted in a pale grey (blue undertones) and to my surprise, I liked it - paired it with grey, blue, turquoise and white bedding, and CREAM curtains (looked good with the grey). Looked calm and beachy to me. And made the room look huge.

I think one way to stave off the depressing nature of gray is to get it made up without any light-absorbing black pigment...in a full-spectrum paint for example. When I read the other thread about paint that makes us happy, my first thought was that every full-spectrum paint I have put on my walls has made me happy....be it cream, sand or bright green. I am living with the Sand color right now and I never ever would have predicted how much I am enjoying it, all the subtle nuances and changes. I think a FS gray could be really fun in the same way.

I had the opportunity to work with an artist from Austria a year or so ago and we did a project on mixing colors. It was probably just a basic exercise that any serious art student would have encountered in school, but since my formal training was in photography and ceramics, I didn't mess with paint too much.

Anyhoo, we mixed lots of colors in varying proportions to see how they played together. The beauty and subtlety of the grays and browns derived from complimentary colors was a revelation to me. I made so much noise in that class. My neighbors were making mud puddles, poor dears. I had a hand just deft enough to get it right and I was gasping with delight for about two hours! It forever changed my relationship to gray and brown. :-)

Excellent idea, amysrq.

Highly recommend SW Requisite Gray! Very warm w/ brown undertones. As you go further down on the paint strip the colors are more brown. I painted out the trim in SW White Hyacinth which is a very warm cream. Unfortunately it clashed horribly w/ the so-called 'Natural' curtains (they should have just said 'soft apricoty-gold!) that I had ordered. The curtains stayed - the paint has to go.

SW Requisite Gray (SW Backdrop is in the alcove) I've had a hard time capturing how warm it really is:

{{gwi:1533632}}

Can you post the company name and color names of the warm grays you love, please? I'm torn and trying to find one that hase a touch of bluish-green in it...surrounding rooms are in the BM Palladian Blue range. Thank you.

Favorite gray: SW Requisite Gray and SW Sandpiper from the old MS line, although that could be considered taupe in some rms. In my room RG was fresh but still warm. No purple or blue undertones there.

Kmcg85

Thanks for posting that pic! I remember it from some time ago and got all excited about how warm it looked. Then I tried a sample pot in my kitchen and it came across so purpley and cold. Not at all like the pics you posted.

Again - another testament as to why you need to try paints before buying them. One room's warm is another room's cool!

Now in my bedroom the SW RG looks far more warm like in the pic you posted of the BM SF.

Thanks so much for this post and pics of gray! I love gray, but never considered it for my MBR until now. Love the warm Silver Fox...almost looks like milky hot cocoa on my screen.
I wish I knew what "aura" is/does.

Funny. One person's warm is another one's cold. Never thought of gray as showing any sort of warmth. The pictures still look like cold steel to me. Sorry. Now my grown daughter, on the other hand, loves it and I still freeze when in her gray colored home.

Funny you should mention about the purple-y tones of the SF. I scrolled back up to the pic above where the closet door is open and lo and behold it does look purple in there to me. I wonder what color is in the closet? Is the SF in the closet's? Interesting, I had never noticed it before.

Well after a day of living with Silver Fox (LOVE THAT NAME!!) I still am in love. I thought gray would be depressing, but Silver Fox has enough warmth that it doesn't feel that way. It makes everything look so sophisticated and elegant. Don't get any of that juvenile feel I was getting from alot of the blues and greens I was trying. Art really pops on it!!

Here is a pic. Excuse the mess in the room, please. The flash does wash it out somewhat, and doesn't capture the warmth the color has IRL:

By the way, I added the white trim around all the windows myself in a weekend, and it came out great! It was only about $75 to do 4 windows, and it really makes the room look so much more "finished". I also love the way my new bamboo roman shades add texture and warmth to the room.

Yay jock!!!

I really like the way it looks in the photos. Looks great with medium woods and white trim.

Oh I love color stories with happy endings! It is so very chic, Jockewing. Amy, I never heard about your Austrian color mixing adventure! I must have missed it or else you're holding out on us. lol! :D Some day I wanna hear more...

We recently used BM Silver Fox in our master bedroom. I found the recommendation from House Beautiful magazine (the section each month where decorators describe their favorite paint colors).

We had it tinted at only 75% of the color, and I love the results! It is paired with browns and eucalyptus (blue/green) bedding from Restoration Hardware and looks really fabulous!

So no one is gonna tell me what "aura" in paint is??? Guess I'll go google it...but it's not the same as hearing it here, ya know :>( :>)

okay. Never mind. I'm gonna steal sillyme's GW name. I did google aura and got a forum thread! How could I have forgotten the search on HERE?!

Well, it's two days now and I'm still liking Silver Fox. Kind of worried about it being too dull for the kitchen area, though. I have one big living room/kitchen combo, and currently the kitchen area is painted BM Azores, a muted blue-green. There is a natural break in the corner where the kitchen and living room wall meet. Could I keep the kitchen Azores and the rest Silver Fox? I kind of wanted everything to match, though.

Maybe the Silver Fox colour can be tweaked a bit (a bit of blue-green added to it)? We all know that the same colour can look different on different walls, and that different colours can look the same! So just a hint, along with some accents of the blue-green (art? curtains? vases?) might let it take on a different feel in your kitchen.

I'm going to be facing a similar issue in my open concept place - let me know what you decide!

I just bought a quart of BM gray owl to play with. I think I'm going to paint my maple dresser in this color for the base and then wash it with a creamy white for that gustavian look. It is a nice warm gray on the taupe side.

Sadie ~ that would look luscious!

jockewing, perhaps if you looked into amysrq's full spectrum idea, getting the Silver Fox mixed as FS paint, it would work in your kitchen too. If the lighting is different in the kitchen, then the color would adapt ever so slightly so that it would work there while still harmonizing with the living room color.

There are discussions over in the paint forum about full spectrum paints.

I got a sample of the Silver Fox after seeing this and the Brooklyn Limestone pictures. When I painted it, it looked perfect. Almost.............got in the car to go buy. But if there's anything I've learned from my mistakes, it's to start with chips, move on to the samples of your true love favorites, put the sample in two places, a low-light and a good light, let dry, then, come back The next day and decide.
Good thing I waited. Silver Fox has the right depth I'm looking for, looks good in many of the photos I've seen, and could certainly be perceived as warm. But in my space, there is just that trace of purple that takes it out of the running. And I have some new natural color drapes that I am definitely using---not enough of the right kind of contrast with the drape fabric.
Jock......... you painted it and loved it but do you have pictures of it for us???

Red