Try this site...

Here is a link that might be useful: My Perfect Color

My Perfect Color has it matched on their website using Benjamin Moore paints. Here's a link. :o)

Here is a link that might be useful: My Perfect Color

Thanks to you both. Has anyone used this site? Do they have the actual formulas, or do they just match the card? I've not had good luck getting a perfect match from color matching.

I found it on Colorcharts.org. Seems that they still make it.

I think that Lowe's sells Martha Stewart paints, if not then Home Depot.

Just checked the link and it's showing a different color. Mercury Glass is in the fifth row from the far right on the bottom.

Here is a link that might be useful: Martha Stewart

They do sell it at Lowe's. I have used her Wooden Spoon and love the paint (and color). They were able to mix up some with just the name when I was in one time, might try that.

Mercury glass sounds nice, I'll have to go look at that!

Mercury Glass was not a part of the old Sherwin Williams Martha Collection.

Link below lists all the SW Martha Colors with SW color numbers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Martha Stewart Paint Colors from SW

Lowe's sells MS paints in their Valspar brand and Mercury Glass is in the collection.
Whether or not it is the same formula, I have no idea but it's probably a safe bet that it's darn close.

Go here - Valspar at Lowe's
Click on the MS logo at the bottom left of the page
Enter 'mercury glass' in the search box at the top right

HTH :-)

I have a bunch of the old K-Mart chips and Mercury Glass was one of them. They are in storage right now, but with any luck, I should be in my new house in a couple of weeks and could lend it to you. But, that only helps you if you're willing to try to have it matched. Matching works only as well as the person doing the match. I have had great luck at small, private BenMoore stores.

You all are the best. The one on the Valspar site seems awfully light gray, and I'm guessing it's not the same, but I will go to Lowe's in person to check it out. The one from way back was a gray with fairly strong violet undertones.

Parma, you hit the right collection. I remember several of the other colors, because I was obsessed with this collection when it came out. It was when I had just purchased my house and I was just beginning to develop my paint color OCD. :-) The only problem is, it doesn't specify which store it was at.

Funcolors, I'm also pretty certain it wasn't SW because that line is more recent. I know I got the catalog and chips while still living in Virginia and thinking about what colors I was going to paint my house when I moved up here to CT, so it is likely it was K-Mart (as Amy said) because I only shopped at K-Mart when I lived in VA.

Anyhow, I will go to Lowe's and investigate their version of the color. If it turns out that it was from the K-Mart line, does anyone know if there is a way to find out/copy the formula, maybe even from K-Mart if I were to go there? With a color this subtle, I don't really think it can be accurately color matched.

I got some samples of Martha Stewart paint at Lowe's a few months ago.

Pretty sure that's where you'll find it.

K-Mart carried the original MS paint collection.
When they stopped carrying it, Sears (owned by K-Mart) started selling the same collection.
Sherwin Williams' MS paint collection was after that.
Now it's Valspar at Lowe's.

K-Mart has absolutely no customer service in their paint department, you'd have better luck at a Sears store but, imo, that's pushing it too.

That is the old line from Sears & K-mart. It is not a part of the Lowes line. Here is the formula for Mercury Glass (love this color!). I used it in a HW in an old house that DH & I lived in pre-digital camera. I wanted to try it recently in current home & had Sears Hardware mix a qt. for me even though it was discontinued (our Sears has a super paint guy that remembers me from always getting MS paint)

In my upstairs HW that is very light filled it is almost imperceptible and in the downstairs part of the HW it is very dark. Upstairs swatch reads blue, downstairs more purple. I still want to find a place for it somewhere.

Here's the qt. formulation as handwritten on the can (no clue if it will help):

8946 - 0.03
8943 - 0.005

Base - 97864

Looking at the color swatch on the can in the office here it is very grey. One of the things that I enjoyed so much w/ this color was how chameleon like it was.

I loved those old Martha Everyday Colors. Used to get handfuls of the chips from Sears and just dream. Atlantic was a gorgeous color, and Winter Surf. I used Dried Hydrangea in a bedroom and loved it. For some reason the ones at Lowes just don't get to me like those originals. Sometimes I think it's the paint chips themselves, or the lighting. Or maybe it's just that I've gotten older!

Indygo, those are two of my favorite colors, too! Ellen Kennon did some matching for me in the spring. Those colors should be available in her full-spectrum paint, though I haven't ordered them yet.

Paige, I found a Mercury Glass chip floating around in my current project samples if you're interested. I still think that if you find the right person, a match can be done well... JMO. YMMV! :-)

ttod, thanks so much for the formula. I will check at Sears and see if they can do anything with it.

Sigh. I loved that color line, too. It was my first paint love. :-) I loved Sandstone and would have liked to have a big, sun-filled room to put that in. Lamb's Ear was a great accent color.

Amy, I would really appreciate it if you could send the chip to me. I will give matching it a shot. You are in my neck of the woods now, no? In any case, please email me!

Thanks, all!

Paigect, If you go to Sears they should still have the color formulation in their computer. I saw my Sears paint guy bring it up on the computer before mixing. I agree - I loved that color line and as Indygo-girl mentioned, I also don't think that the Lowes line is as nice as the 1st K-mart/Sears line or the 2nd SW line. Does anyone remember the SW line color combo card that had the deep chocolate brown, a gorgeous soft pink, a cream color & something else? That combo was one of my favorites. I can't believe that I ever threw my sample chips away from any of her previous lines. I still kick myself!

I agree with you about the first Everyday Colors line from Martha -- also began my love affair with paint and color. The SW color combos didn't resonate with me the way the K-Mart ones did.

Interestingly, the color consultant who did the Everyday Colors has also consulted on the new line of Christopher Peacock paints. The paint itself is insanely expensive, even more than Donald Kaufman. But I think I will get the fandeck and have a look....

I HAVE used it and it is wonderful. Subtle, Luminescent, ever changing. Lovely. And it was used in my bedroom. I have since moved & had it color matched at Sherwin Williams where it matched the card exactly when dried on it before making the gallon, but it was not the same on the walls - flatter and the color was off - too much blue. A friend had it mixed some years back and had the same result. I have wondered if there was not something in the base that provided the luminescent quality to it.

Anyhow, we're moving into a new house soon and I want it on the bedroom walls and am pleased to see the formula from the can that was posted here - thank you. Now if they can translate that properly we're in good shape.

Good luck!

Seriously - Color Matching won't ever get you an EXACT color. The only way that you can get ANY color exact is to go to the place that carries that EXACT color & even then there are times where it may be slightly off from can to can. That's why many professional painters recommend 'boxing' cans of paint if you are using more than 1 gallon.

There wasn't anything special about the base for the Mercury Glass. It looked luminescent because it was mixed exactly to specification as designed.

Mercury Glass is such a special color that I would have to insist that you go to Sears or Sears Hardware and have them mix it from their computer formulation. It's the only way to get it's precise chameleon like color.

ttodd, how is the quality of the Sears paint? Is there a formula you particularly like?

I only ever had the Martha colors mixed in Ben Moore. So, I had no basis for comparison to the real deal. I can tell you that Winter Surf was a tough match. The guy worked on it for a long time and it did have that changeability that some of us love.

PaigeCT, I sent you an e-mail earlier. Did GW let it through?

To me it looks like cement, I think a little dark for an attic bedroom personally.

Amysrq,

The paint is fine. Not my 1st pick though but I was tired of the hit or miss color match when mixing in another brand. Now I go w/ the lesser of 2 evil's: almost perfect in good paint or exactly as intended in a slightly lesser brand (I won't even look at colors if I had very poor experience w/ a paint). I do like SW & BM better. I can see how WS would be hard to get just right - it is a very complex color too.

SW states that they have the color formulations of BM & I have had paint mixed that way.

I wish I could find my camera as I just did swatch combos on a wall & one of the groups has Mercury Glass as a part of it along w/ BM Hot Springs Stone, Pismo Dunes and Eddie Bauer Alabaster. The other combo contains SW Topsail instead of MG.

I'd also be able to take pictures to show you those of you who are curious how it changes dependent upon the light and exposure it gets.

I found an old swatch of MG in a color combo card, so I will head off to Sears later this week to see if I can still get it mixed in the original formula. Thanks, all! And Ttodd, yes, I would love to see pics under different lighting conditions - - thanks so much!

By way of background, this is a gut/remodel of my bedroom in order to replace the sheetrock (two layers of peeling textured wallpaper with black smoke stains from the PO) and add insulation. It's a semi-DIY project. My boyfriend and I did the demo, and his friend is doing the sheetrock/taping/plastering. I usually do these kinds of projects myself, having been single for so long. But this was a big one requiring demo and more messiness and muscle than usual, which is why I never got to it until now. :-)

My room is pretty funky, being L shaped with sloped ceilings and a dormer (I have a cape). There were walls surrounding the brick chimney from the downstairs fireplace right in the middle of the room at the joint of the "L", and I decided on Friday evening to rip those down as well, remove the studs and expose the brick. It looks awesome! I'm so glad I did it. The brick looks really good with the mercury glass chip. I'm now thinking I'll do some funky IKEA track lighting so I can spotlight the brick.

Here's a picture of me getting ready for demo:

Yup, it was that bad, and I lived with it for over 7 years! The wall covering the brick chimney is in the foreground on the right.

I really cannot wait to get this finished and have a nice, relaxing retreat.

Paige,

Thanks for posting a pic!

Here are some pics of MG swatches w/ & w/o flash.

Upstairs w/ flash in bright light filled hallway (AM light):

& w/o flash (AM light):

Downstairs w/ flash in dark hallway w/o much natural light (AM light) big swatch is MS Sandpiper & cream swatch is Eddie Bauer Alabaster:

& w/o flash:

In corner of same hall (AM light):

& w/o flash:

Color palette swatches w/ MG w/o flash Downstairs hall w/o flash:
Middle colors: lighter brown BM Hot Springs Stone, darker brown BM Pismo Dunes.
Top: cream is Eddie Bauer Alabaster & purpley blue is MS Mercury Glass.
Bottom: cream is EB Alabaster & aqua is SW Topsail.

Hope this helps a bit!

For the record I went w/ the Topsail instead of the Mercury Glass this time around.

TTodd, I responded in your other thread - - thanks so much for the photos!

Update: I just picked up the MS Mercury Glass chip from Lowe's, and it is not the same as the Mercury Glass from her Sears line. The new one is much more of a powder blue gray, versus lilac gray.

I will try to get to Sears tomorrow to see if they will make it using TTodd's formula, but I'm supposed to go canoeing all day so we will see. Painting starts next weekend so long as all goes smoothly (no pun intended) will the spackling this week.

I finally got my walls painted. Trim still needs to be done. In the end, I couldn't get the Mercury Glass at Sears, so I had my BM dealer match it. They had a formula in their database, but it came out a little "off", so they matched it to the chip and it really looked identical (and I am very color sensitive). I had it done in Aura paint.

The color is simply beautiful. It is light gray with a subtle lavender/violet undertone. In some lights it takes on a bluish cast. It is highly changeable. I would be happy to share the BM formula with anyone who wants it. It looks fabulous with the exposed brick chimney. I will try to take some pictures later, but I don't think the color will photograph very well. It is too subtle and complex.

Now I have to choose a trim color, and I really think a white, even a creamy white, will be too stark and cold. The existing trim color is a 1940's (yes it's been that long since it was painted) peachy beige. I might do a toned down version of that, as it is rather interesting with the gray.

Thanks to all of you for your help. Anyone interested in the formula, let me know.

I'd love the formula. Sounds like a paint I could use for my guest bedroom remodel.

I would like that formula, please. It looks beautiful. Even if it doesn't work 100%, please post photos of your finished project for us.

Thanks!

Paige,

So glad that you like it so much! I'm really surprised that Sears couldn't mix it for you!!!! I'm disappointed in them in fact! Could it be a difference between Sears & Sears Hardware? I go to Sears Hardware & the paint guy there had no issues mixing it up while I was off to wander the store.

As for trim color I prefer a creamy warm white or off-white only because I found that a crisp cool white makes MG look cold.

Can't wait to see pics!!!!

I'm still hoping for the formula and pics of your project (even if they're not 100%).

Thanks!

Old thread...but, did the BM formula ever get posted?

I used it more then twenty years ago. It is grey with a hint of lavender. MS colors seem to change with the light. I remember I loved it!

We have this color, originally purchased from K-Mart I would say about 20 years ago, maybe more. We have really liked the color, but I probably need to repaint now. I hope to get pretty close to this color again, though I think we are flexible.

In our house it reads blue grey, but not cement-like. With yellowish or melonish compact fluorescent bulbs, it does not look good, but sickly. But we like a cooler light color (unlike many in this forum, I know), so buying higher kelvin bulbs has really helped the walls look as good in the evening as in the daytime.

When first applying this to our living room wall which was a creamy yellow at the time, I panicked because, next to the yellow, it looked lavender. Now I don't see the lavender at all.

I've used this color in the bathroom. Loved it. May actually have the can in the garage somewhere. You are right when you describe it as a gray with

iliac tones. Very nice color- subtle and calming. But now it is covered over with Palladian Blue .