Wow. Great answer. Thank you.

We went through the Grey Paint Jamboree a couple years ago- so many undertones!! We ended up using BM Gray Owl. It has a LRV of 65.77, and to us it had the least noticeable/obvious undertone. I think it might be a touch blue, but nothing obvious like Wickham Grey. On the walls it just looks Gray. I like to stick my chips on large pieces of white paper before taping that to the walls, and I think it helps get a truer picture than having the current wall color 'taint' the chip color.

We used Moonshine in our hall, and even though in swatches against a white paper is read greenish, it doesn't look green at all on the wall.

Hi there!

Ironically Stonington Gray HC-170 and Barren Plain 2111-60 are quite different. Stonington Gray is much cooler with bluer undertone while Barren Plain is warmer with redder undertone. Our suggestion would be Balboa Mist OC-27, Collingwood OC-28 and Gray Owl OC-52 but not sure if that’s buried under those piles of chips. We would also suggest looking at the grays in isolation. The undertone appears stronger when it’s paired with another gray/neutral side by side. This is a great way to identify the DNA of a color, but can also be distracting when trying to envision a space with a single color. And as always, your lighting will deeply influence the end result. Select a few (less than 5), test it out with bigger swatches- perhaps by using Benjamin Moore pint samples and view one at a time to see how it looks. Hope this helps!

The undertone appears stronger when it’s paired with another gray/neutral side by side. This is a great way to identify the DNA of a color

So, what happens to the "bluer undertone" you've absolutely assigned to Stonington Gray when you "pair" it with Whitestone 2134-60, for example?

Likewise what happens to the "redder undertone" you've absolutely assigned to Barren Plain when you "pair" it with Sea Froth 2107-60?

Hi Lori, thank you for reaching out! To clarify, Stonington Gray HC-170 looks bluer when its placed next to warmer grays such as Barren Plain 2111-60. When it’s paired next to a stronger blue such as Whitestone 2134-60, you’ll notice the subtle yellow tones of Stonington Gray. As a result, Stonington Gray looks warmer and grayer when paired with blues. Similarly, Sea Froth 2107-60 looks redder next to Barren Plain. The way we perceive color is a relative to what it’s next to!

The way we perceive color is a relative to what it’s next to!

But when it's perceived in context of the 3-dimensional built environment it's next to more than just one other paint chip at a time.

So then what do you do?

Hi Lori, Color chip is a great tool to narrow down your color choices. When you’ve narrowed it down to a few finalists, pint samples are there to help you. We recommend painting a poster size board and move it around the room to see how light and other surrounding environment effects the color. View it in the morning, afternoon and at night with your lights on. Switch out to another color and which one you like better.

Yes! The direction from which natural light comes is so important when choosing your color. I learned a hard lesson years ago. I painted my large dressing room Monroe Bisque. It is a lovely color….normally. This room had lots of windows, all facing West. When the sun came around in late afternoon, the beautiful Monroe Bisque turned a color I couldn’t look at …it was that bad.

How lucky to have Benjamin Moore representative respond to paint dilemmas. Hope to more of it.

Hi Lori, Color chip is a great tool to narrow down your color choices. When you’ve narrowed it down to a few finalists, pint samples are there to help you. We recommend painting a poster size board and move it around the room to see how light and other surrounding environment effects the color. View it in the morning, afternoon and at night with your lights on. Switch out to another color and which one you like better.

That doesn't answer the question.

You started out labeling the color chips with "bluer undertones" and "redder undertones" when they were compared to each other.

Then when another set of colors were introduced to the mix, when the context for a narrow one-on-one comparison was changed, you changed how you categorized Stonington to "subtle yellow tones" when paired with blues. And that begs the question, so what about when it's not paired with blues?

So, if depending on context, Stonington can have "bluer undertones" or "subtle yellow tones" why assign absolute "undertones" or "tones" in the first place?

And "Sea Froth 2107-60 looks redder next to Barren Plain" but we don't get any more clarification about Barren Plain's attributes specifically.

When asked to clarify, your solution is to go buy samples, paint them, and move them around the room. Because now - all of sudden - the light matters. Whereas when you were so definitively labeling and categorizing the colors by bluer undertones, redder undertones and yellow tones the light wasn't a factor --- then. .... but now it is.

Apparently the only way out is to randomly go buy samples, shuffle through the painted boards and hope one of the colors in the stack works. At least I think that's what you're saying.

(And just to be clear none of this has anything to do with Color DNA. Color DNA refers to color measurements and resulting spectral data/color data values.)

Hi Lori,

You see, grays are often made with a few different colorants. For example, Stonington Gray in Aura Eggshell is made up with some yellow, white, blue and red. The mixture of these colorants is what makes a unique gray. Depending on what it’s paired with, it either pulls or compliments these various undertones. For example, when it’s paired with another blue, the blue undertone from Stonington Gray helps to tie the two colors together, but allowing other colorants to reveal themselves. Hence why color- especially neutrals, are highly relative to its environment and what it’s placed next to.

Light is another factor that influences color. Under a warmer light source (around 2500K), bright and warm colors will appear more intense while the cooler tones appear duller. This doesn’t change the fact that Stonington Gray still appears cooler than Barren Plain. It’s just that under warm light source, cooler tone softens- getting closer to ‘truer gray’. Barren Plain, on the other hand, may appear warmer under 2500K light.

The reason we recommended using Color chip and testing out paint samples is to help view each color in the context of the 3-dimensional environment which you mentioned in your question earlier. We agree! Understanding how the paint will look in its environment is extremely important to choosing the right color. Hence pint samples will help to understand each color specifically to the space. If @stevecomax gets warm lights in the space, most of the day, they may need that slightest hint of cool undertone to cancel out the warm cast. If they gets cooler light in their space, most of the day, they may need a warmer gray to balance the warm vs. the cool. Viewing it as a larger sample helps to understand the influence of light.

For example, Stonington Gray in Aura Eggshell is made up with some yellow, white, blue and red. The mixture of these colorants is what makes a unique gray. Depending on what it’s paired with, it either pulls or compliments these various undertones.

Wow, that's a lot of "undertones" for one color. So, we went from Stonington Gray having a blue undertone, to yellow tones, and now to yellow/white/blue and red undertones.

In addition, there are "cool undertones" now too. Alrighty then.

stevecomax, I feel your pain. I've agonized over the same dilemma for the past couple of weeks, sample after sample trying to choose an exterior grey for my home. FINALLY, yesterday my home got painted. Although the color is a SW color, it was mixed/purchase through Benjamin Moore. The color I chose was Dorian Gray. When it first started going up I thought I saw green... but now that the entire exterior is painted, it is definitely a nice neutral medium grey.

I owe so much to Lori for helping me through all this !! I wish I could give her a big hug. It goes so well with the greige porch tile that's being laid tomorrow. I was between Dorian Gray and Mindful Gray (both beautiful). I opted for the smidge darker, Dorian Gray and I'm happy happy.

Hang in there and good luck.

I saw this thread and was wondering about stonington gray and moonshine do they go together well? As in a foyer, and upstairs hallway moonshine and stonington gray in the dining room and open family room.