Hi, I am not a professional at this but do have the BM fan and if you look at 2128, the colors are very blue/gray but have a puplish (as opposed to greenish) cast. Maybe if you hold the strip against the countertop it will show up better? The Oxford Gray or November Skies look like what you are talking about. A bit darker on that same strip is Evening Dove. Hope this is helpful. Good luck!

Can you show us the color that you thought was too dark?

When I look at my Ben Moore fan decks, it's hard to find a color that has blue, gray AND lavender, but I see some lavender grays, such as Excalibur Gray #2118-50 and with more lavender, Winter Gray 2117-50. Also check Mauve Desert #2113-50. You may also like the oft used Wet Concrete, #2114-40. In their Classic fan deck, they have Lavender Blue # 1438.

You may want to check their Aura fan deck. Wisteria #AF-585 is nice, and they have some other grays and lavenders surrounding that color in the deck.

Oh dear. Thank you for the color suggestions, but I've just run some searches, and I'd better clarify what I mean by SLIGHT purple tinge: 49.99% blue, 49.99% gray, and 0.02% purple. Blue (the person) loves, loves, loves blue (the color), but really dislikes purple! (including colors labeled mauve, wisteria, lilac, and "wet concrete")

I think the reason I've had such a hard time with colors is that cobalt blue is one of my favorite shades of blue (along with powder, baby, navy, robins egg, aqua, azure, cerulean, sky, and some others), but cobalt is a very hard color to put on walls straight up, and adding white to cobalt can easily veer into lavender. Periwinkle is about as much purple as Blue can tolerate. Wet Concrete is not for Blue (the person).

I've sent my mom to the paint store and I'll try to take pix.

Blue

Hey blue...love your granite....I'm working on the kitchen with blue subways, and I'm pairing them with BM Colonial Blue (#1677)...definitely a grey blue...doesn't have any green on my wall swatch, but the online version looks like it might have a green tint to it.

I also saw Summer Blue (#2067-50) which looked to have a hint of purple in it.

I feel your pain on the blues...there's almost too many choices, the blue subways have killed me....a lot of them were too purple!

How about Pale Shale DE 5918?

Have you looked at BM Gray Bunny? My girlfriend just used it in her dining room. It's a very pretty soft grey with a touch of blue in it.

Here is a link that might be useful: my perfect color

First thing I thought of was a typically exterior color from BenM called Charcoal Slate. It's dark, LRV is 18.9, which makes it a bit daring, but dang the things it could do with that granite.

Here's a few *normal-er* colors:

SW Steely Gray SW 7664
SW Downing Slate SW 2819
SW Colonial Revival Gray SW2832
BenM Metallic Silver 2132-60
BenM Solitude AF-545

These are from The Master Palette which covers the ICI/Dulux and Glidden paint brands. Often, you can find these chips at the Home Depot.

Idyllic Blue 30BB 62/031
Manhatten Blue 30BB 38/037
Glass Menagerie 30BB 54/072
Margate Blue 30BB 46/086

Dunn Edwards
Silver Springs DE6346
Shining Knight DE6347

Hello,

Here is SW Steely Gray:

Son's bathroom:

Office:

Elaine

My favorite grey/ blue touched w/ purple is a discintinued color from the old Martha Stewart line that was available at Sears and K-Mart. My Sears hardware still has the formulations so they can mix it up.

It's called Mercury Glass. Love the color and am considering it for DD's rm. since the whole RH Silver Sage baby bedding thing didn't work out. Sent it back.

DS has SW Krypton in his home office. It's worth a look.

Thanks y'all! My mom went to DE yesterday and came home with bright baby blues. I went there today -- the salesperson remembered my mom and remembered trying to steer her away from the bright baby blues -- and picked up DE First Snow, which is very light, and December Skies, which is definitely gray. The second reason I'm having such a hard time with this (besides the cobalt + white = lavender noted above) is that, despite my title, I've decided that a medium shade is wrong; I need either dark or light, and my mom has vetoed dark. I would love to do a cobalt blue, but it's not to be. The third reason I'm having such a hard time is my mom -- even though I love her :)

Funcolors, your instincts are spot on -- I ended up with Idyllic Blue in the kitchen/FR with the same granite. Here's a pic.

DE has some gorgeous colors and they also list the Munsell Code for their chips -- sweeet! So if you're shopping there you need to know how to take advantage of that information because when you're splittin color hairs like you kinda are, the info can help...

First Snow and December Sky both have the PB notation which indicates they are a purple-blue. Just what you're looking for. Munsell notations are:

First Snow 4.61PB / 9.0 / 2.1
December Sky 3.24 PB / 8.2 / 0.7

First number: The Hue scale is ten steps or integers. So you can see that December Sky at 3.24PB is not as purple-blue as First Snow coming in at 4.61PB.

December Sky is at the beginning *steps* at 3.24 coming out of blue into purple-blue and First Snow is almost smack in the middle of being a PB at 4.61. When you look at the chips you can see that edge of blue in December Sky.

Second Number: Next is Munsell Value which speaks to whiteness to blackness. This is a grayscale value ranging from 0 for black to 10 for white. For these two colors the Munsell value is close, with December Sky being more grayed 8.2 and First Snow less grayed or toned at 9.0. (This is not like LRV lightness darkness. LRV is a different *part* of color from Munsell Value)

Third Number: Last is chroma. This is where the color is. The chroma scale starts at 0 for neutral colors and really has no end number because you can go all the way to fluorescent colors and who knows what else.

Easier to understand this number with these two colors as example especially when you consider that December Sky is a DEW color which means Dunn Edwards Whites.

December Sky has a Munsell notation of 0.7 which means there is little chroma or color - just what you'd expect for a "white". First Snow has a chromatic notation of 2.1 so we can tell that it has more color to it than December Sky.

I'll list some other colors from ICI/Dulux as options if the two DE colors do not work. The ICI notations or color numbers are kinda similar but are still very different from Munsell notations but I won't go into that. :~D

ÂCloud Motif 10BB 73/026
ÂStar Glow 30BB 72/034
ÂMoonlight Blue 30BB 72/045
ÂBlue Haze 30BB 72/028
ÂMing Dynasty White 49BB 76/037
ÂEvening Light 50BB 72/045
ÂWhistle Stop 50BB 72/032

Hope you find one that works.

Easier to understand this number with these two colors as example especially when you consider that December Sky is a DEW color which means Dunn Edwards Whites.

I typed that wrong. First Snow is DEW390, not December Sky. Color names and numbers were just a'flyin and it kind of got confusing. :)