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kwilmers

Losing my mind trying to pick a light greige color!! HELP!!

kwilmers
3 years ago

I’m trying to pick a nice light warm greige for my living room/dining room area and am about to give up!! Wondering if any of the color experts on here could give some advice. I have edgecomb gray upstairs and while I don’t “love” it it is very nice and light but downstairs it turns very dark beige and much too heavy 😕 I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up with Wind’s Breath but before I pull the trigger just wondering if anyone has any experience with Fog Mist or Olympic Mountains. Classic Gray and Gray Mist are both nice but a little too light I think. Any advice would be appreciated my family is no longer giving me opinions on it because they say I’m crazy 😔 thanks!

Comments (41)

  • User
    3 years ago

    I can’t help as I am in the same boat. Trying to find a light greige as well and losing my mind. You could try pale oak as well. Really popular on insta nowadays

  • Em
    3 years ago

    Did either of you decide on a color? I’m between winds breath and pale oak right now myself.

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  • User
    3 years ago

    I went with pale oak.

  • User
    3 years ago

    This is what the color looks like when sun is setting. I’ll also take some pictures in the morning and send them. Pics are not edited. It goes from looking very beige to very gray and that’s exactly what I wanted. I didn’t want to commit to a true gray.

  • User
    3 years ago

    Some more

  • Em
    3 years ago

    @User Thank you so much for sharing - this looks great. I just painted on a sample board and I’m convinced the store just gave me pure white. One of these is supposedly winds breath and the other pale oak. We will see what happens after these dry and layer two is added


  • User
    3 years ago

    Yep it looks different on the walls. I also did little samples on the back of a notebook just for fun and this is what it looked like. Top to bottom pale oak, simply white and classic gray

  • User
    3 years ago

    Sorry the other way round....classic gray, simply white and pale oak

  • Em
    3 years ago

    @User yeah the cardboard was a terrible representation. Shown here in my garage. Pale oak on the right and winds breath on the left. Have you found you get any other weird undertones with the pale oak - the light pink/purple I have read about? I’m worried it may be too gray in my light (I’m on Mayer one of some test spots in my living room with these colors too) and I definitely want a warmer tone - however this will be a neutral whole house color so I know it will look different everywhere. And did you do it in multiple rooms or just one?


  • kwilmers
    Original Author
    3 years ago

    Glad to see you were able to settle on a color and it looks lovely!! I am still on the fence and needless to say my walls are starting to resemble a patchwork quilt 😞 I am leaning heavily on just going with the safe choice classic gray because I just have so many different lighting situations in that room and the Wind’s Breath is just pulling too yellow for me in there. I have a sample of Halo that I haven’t put up yet so might try that next. Thanks for the pictures it looks great!

  • Ephma
    3 years ago

    Posted this on Melissa’s thread but have you tried Balboa Mist? I have it in my living room. Feels a little lighter than Edgecomb Gray but definitely darker than Classic Gray (which I have in my hallways).

  • kwilmers
    Original Author
    3 years ago

    My mom has Balboa Mist in her house and I loved it so much it was initially what I was going to use in my bedroom upstairs but for some reason it goes really purple in my house everywhere I try it 😕 which is how I landed on Edgecomb Gray but that is too dark for me downstairs 😞

  • vjwilkinson
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    What did you end up with, kwilmers? I'm struggling with some similar colors. I love the patches of BM Gray Mist that we put on our walls, but the color seems a bit too light. Fog Mist is on the same color strip, but I know it's not just a darker version of Gray Mist.

    We also tried a couple of Behr colors: Campfire Ash - nice, but flashed purple at times; Silver Drop - better, but I don't like it as much as I like Gray Mist. I love that Gray Mist has just the tiniest wink of green. (We tried BM Halo--way too green.)

    I'd love to find some color that has the same mix of tones as Gray Mist but is just a smidge darker. I don't think Pale Oak would be it--I've read too much about how it goes purple in less than bright natural light.

  • kwilmers
    Original Author
    3 years ago

    Oh my gosh sounds like we have been down the same rabbit hole of paint colors 😞 I have not made any decision yet (mostly due to all the COVID stuff - was kind of waiting for things to get better before having a painting crew in the house or as my family will tell you it’s just an excuse I’m using since I’m clearly incapable of making a decision 😕) however I do keep coming back to the gray mist but like you I also just wish it was a smidge darker. I have a sample of Olympic Mountains too which according to the guy at my Benjamin Moore store is the same as Fog Mist and Silver Drop was a contender as well for me too. I will attach some pictures of sample boards that I have been moving around for the past few days. The colors from top to bottom are:
    Gray Mist
    Classic Gray
    Olympic Mountains
    Crystal Haze (a Dunn Edwards color)

    Have you tried Wind’s Breath?? It’s a nice color too but I’m finding it a bit too yellow?? Or maybe I’m just overthinking everything as I tend to do 😕

  • Marylee H
    3 years ago




  • Marylee H
    3 years ago




  • kwilmers
    Original Author
    3 years ago

    Thank you Marylee!! I will definitely check those out 👍🏼

  • vjwilkinson
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    I really like Gray Mist in your space! I do see a bit of green in it, though--I don't know if that bothers you. Classic Gray is nice, too. It comes across as more of a true gray than Gray Mist.

    Olympic Mountains/Fog Mist is looking a little pink to me--do you see that in it? I've read that Wind's Breath tends to look pinkish, so I haven't tried it.

    You appear to have more natural light in your space than I do--I'm envious!

  • kwilmers
    Original Author
    3 years ago

    I actually only have natural light on that side of the room unfortunately it’s an east/west situation hence my dilemma 😞 the slightly darker colors that I like on that side of the room turn too dark and muddy on the other side which gets hardly any light. My furniture is all really warm in there and the Olympic Mountains almost seems to match the couch too much which I don’t like. So I feel like I have to stay lighter or go completely darker. The Gray Mist seems to be the front runner so far in that I still like it at night too and I do like the Classic Gray but I’m afraid it will be to cool in some areas. My only other options would be to try out Shoji White or White Duck from Sherwin Williams maybe. Stay tuned! Good luck with your decision make sure to let me know what you pick?

  • vjwilkinson
    3 years ago

    White Duck looks beautiful in photos online--a slightly greenish light gray--but it's very tan (not gray at all ) in our space! Your mileage may vary, though. And it's so hard to pick a color when the light varies from one side of the room to the other. Good luck to you, too!


    I think we're going with Behr Silver Drop. We are nearing the end of our remodeling project, and we have to put something on the walls. Right now, it's a mishmash of the old color (which I think is Sherwin Williams Incredible White), White Duck (which, based on Samplize, I was sure was going to be our color--haha), and various test patches. I am not in love with Silver Drop, but at least it doesn't look blue or tan in our spaces. We may hire a color consultant at some point--I'd like to have a cohesive color scheme for the whole house, and I just don't have the time or expertise to pull that off.

  • kwilmers
    Original Author
    3 years ago

    Ugh at least there is light at the end of your tunnel! We just had a water leak from our upstairs shower last night so we had to open up the ceiling and it seems it’s going to be a fairly major repair which will of course take precedence over the paint 😕 Needless to say that will give me more time to stew about paint color choices. I like Silver Drop but again only in the light side of my room. I’m pretty sure Gray Mist will be my choice in the end unless something magical comes along in the meantime. One other color I liked a lot which you might look at if you haven’t already is Benjamin Moore Intense White (according to my paint store guy it is the same as Sheep’s Wool) I’m also keeping that in the mix but it skews a little too gray for me sometimes whereas the Gray Mist has the slightly more creamy look that I like without going too yellow/beige (which on a side note my daughter and I have been watching Dead to Me on Netflix and I absolutely love everything about her house in that show so now I’m thinking well maybe a pale beige-y yellow might be pretty but then my daughter kindly reminded me that we would then have to get all new furniture and so on... ugh). Also not sure where you are but if you have access to a Dunn Edwards paint store they usually have a color consultant in the store that is pretty helpful but yes I too would love to hire someone to just pick the colors for me. I ended up using Dunn Edwards Faded Gray in my kitchen/family room last year it’s a very pretty soft, light gray. Anyway would love to see a picture of your room with Silver Drop when it’s finished!!

  • vjwilkinson
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    So sorry about the water leak! I know how that goes. We thought we were done with the sheetrock work with our project, and then a third of the living room ceiling fell down. Just now getting that repaired. Keep us updated with the paint color you end up going with!

    Of course I'm now having second thoughts about our paint color. I think Intense White or Sheep's Wool would be too light for us--they seem similar in color depth to Gray Mist, which my husband insists is too light. Where we live, Dunn Edwards isn't an option. I keep thinking about BM Fog Mist, but I am not sure my husband wouldn't lose his mind if I insist on trying one more paint color. ;-)

    And love Dead to Me and her house! We had a yellow (Duron Tea Biscuit) as our main wall color for years; we then we went to a yellowish off-white (Behr Navajo White). We were told it was too dated for selling our house, so we repainted most of it in a light gray. (We picked BM Halo, which had been color-matched in SW. The result was good in that space, though.)

    Edited to add that we actually got a sample of Fog Mist. I loved it at first--it seemed to skirt the line between gray and beige--but now I'm seeing the brown, and I fear it will just look like '90s builders' taupe. And Silver Drop is just looking like boring 2010 gray. Now I'm the one losing my mind. ;-)

    And as ridiculous as it sounds, I think part of my problem with Silver Drop is the name! Silver drop, silver bells, winter--the word "silver" just sounds cold to me, so part of my brain assumes that is how it will look if we paint entire rooms that color.

    Further edited to add that we've now gone back to Gray Mist! When we painted a sample board in Silver Drop, my husband and I agreed that it's too dark for 2+ rooms (the kitchen has very little wall area) in our main living space. We think Gray Mist is closer to the LRV we're going for. After all that, we're back to the color that was my favorite in the first place!

  • vjwilkinson
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    Total zag happening here. My husband can't get on board with Silver Drop or Gray Mist because both look too green and too muddy to him. He likes BM Intense White. I am worried it will look too blue in our space and/or look like all the boring gray walls from ten years ago, but it looks as if I'm outvoted by him and our daughter. :::::::::::sigh:::::::::: I guess we can repaint later if the space ends up looking like a nursery. ;-)

  • kwilmers
    Original Author
    3 years ago

    Ugh! It’s just so frustrating! I like the Intense White but like you I was afraid it would go to cool in my dining room. I’m going to torment myself and get a few more samples to try out. Between the plumbing issues and the holidays coming soon I’m sure nothing will get done until January at least (more time to agonize over my choices)! There was another thread I asked for advice on in which someone suggested I needed a bump in chroma to counteract the muddiness I was seeing sometimes in the Olympic Mountains/Gray Mist/Fog Mist so I’m thinking of trying some of those colors. Here is a link in case you’re interested.

    https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5983242/desperate-please-help

    Good luck with the Intense White let me know how it goes!

  • vjwilkinson
    3 years ago

    Painters are working right now. Fingers crossed! Our remodel started at the end of September, so I am ready for it to be over. I just hope I'm not full of regret once it's done, or that any issues can be remedied. Paint color can be fixed.


    FWIW, we found that paint colors looked very different on surfaces other than our walls. Painting sample boards and moving them to different rooms didn't help us very much because the paint looked so different on the boards than on the walls. (We started with Samplize samples, and those were a waste of money, IMO. The colors we were considering looked dramatically different when we got actual paint and put it on our walls.)

  • kwilmers
    Original Author
    3 years ago

    I completely agree!! I have used poster board samples and Samplize samples and they are completely different when you actually paint the wall!! I also saw your comment on my other thread about lighting which I also completely agree with - I refuse to use bright cool toned light bulbs anywhere in my home! I’ve tried and just cannot stand it!

  • vjwilkinson
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    Intense White seems to be quite the chameleon--blue in direct, bright light; dull gray in low light; green in average light. Aaargh! Maybe when we get all of our trim repainted, I'll warm up to it. It definitely looks better against a brighter white than against a creamy white.


    I normally like chameleon colors, but I think what I'm really missing is natural light. My husband and I compromised quite a bit when we decided to buy this house--the location of the house is great (or it would be if not for coronavirus), but our light is blocked by neighboring houses, and the ceilings are not as high as we're used to. I think I'm biased against the house, and that's part of my problem in trying to like a paint color.

  • vjwilkinson
    3 years ago

    I've been living with Intense White for months, and it's just...meh. Inoffensive--definitely not too cool gray--but it doesn't make me happy. Kind of like this house. lol

  • kwilmers
    Original Author
    3 years ago

    Ugh I’m sorry that’s awful :( I still haven’t painted and am living with patchwork walls if it makes you feel any better. I’m still leaning towards the Gray Mist but think I need to try something a little different before I decide. Thinking about Sail Cloth, Strand of Pearls, Plaster of Paris, Soft Chamois I also have samples of Maritime White and Feather Down. The saga continues but my husband is starting to put the pressure on so maybe I’ll just let him pick and cross my fingers... yikes!

  • vjwilkinson
    3 years ago

    Good luck! Please let us know which color you go with and how it turns out.

  • Victoria
    2 years ago

    Kwilmers- I feel like I’m going through the same struggle with my basement right now. Every time I think I found the right color it just doesn’t seem right and I move onto another. It doesn’t help that we get almost no natural light. Looking forward to see what you decide.

  • kwilmers
    Original Author
    2 years ago

    I will keep updating. It has been kind of gray and dreary here the past few days so it’s been hard looking at colors. It makes me feel like I want to go more light and airy but I definitely don’t want any yellow or peachy undertones it’s just so hard. At this point I’m ready to replace our front doors with ones that have some kind of windows to let some more afternoon light in so every color I look at doesn’t just turn drab. I’m sampling a Dunn Edwards color today called Ball of String I’m afraid it’s too light but maybe that’s what I need in there.

  • kwilmers
    Original Author
    2 years ago

    Not that anyone has been waiting with bated breath for an update on my paint dilemma, I thought I would finish out the saga anyway just due to the fact that I come here so often to read posts and am always disappointed when they are left unresolved. My husband had finally had enough of looking at patchwork walls and listening to me talk about paint colors so he scheduled a painter to start this past Tuesday and told me to just pick a color and be done with it!! He also said “it’s just paint if you hate it we can have them come back and do a different color”. I told myself the night before I was just going to settle on the Dunn Edwards color Crystal Haze with the accent wall in Metal Fringe. Needless to say when the painters showed up the next morning I panicked and was seeing a lot of yellow in the sample I had up so while they were prepping I decided I was going to just be safe and do the Gray Mist which was what I kept coming back to, with the ever popular Chelsea Gray as an accent wall. Needless to say when I came back with the quart of Gray Mist to try out on my biggest wall it looked too white. 😕😞 At this point I knew the painters were losing patience with me as they were ready to start so I just decided to go back and get a couple gallons of the Olympic Mountains and hope for the best! While they were mixing that I went back to the paint chip wall and found a color somewhat similar to Chelsea Gray called Squirrel Tail which looked promising so I grabbed a gallon of that color for the accent wall. As I was watching the paint go on I was certain I had picked the wrong colors but knew I wouldn’t be able to tell until it dried. So they finished the job in two days and after being unsure at first I am now really liking it!! Hallelujah!! I realize that I had become consumed with all the images of beautifully painted, perfectly designed rooms on the internet/hgtv and I guess was looking for that moment of surprise/elation that you see there and was frustrated at all the “perfect, tried and true no-fail” paint colors out there that just didn’t look good in my house along with the fact that although everyone says “it’s just paint” who in reality wants to fork out another $2000+ to redo it. Also the samplize sheets are good and eliminate all the leftover paint samples and using swatches painted on poster board is somewhat helpful but none of it is really indicative of what the color looks like when it actually goes on the whole wall. I guess the best lesson learned from this is to just pick 3-4 strong contenders and actually paint swatches on your wall and also realize you can actually go a little darker than you think because both rooms I’ve had painted now have turned out looking lighter than the actual little swatch. I will be needing to paint my upstairs sometime in the near future so hopefully I can follow that advice myself and not go back down the rabbit hole 😞 So in conclusion, while it may not be the perfect result I had envisioned I am happy with it. I probably could have gone a little darker/warmer but Olympic Mountains is a very nice light neutral. It may show a tiny hint of green at times during the day but I also haven’t put my shades/curtains back up yet so I’m getting a ton of light in here all day and I’m not super crazy about it at night but I didn’t find anything in this color range that looked great at night and since I’m unwilling to use anything but soft/warm light bulbs I’ll deal with it. The accent wall color (Squirrel Tail) is also not exactly what I had imagined either but it is a lovely rich velvety color that is a nice mix of gray/green/brown depending on the time of day. Anyway thanks to all on here for the advice/input and listening to me ramble on endlessly since my family was no longer listening 😕

    Happy painting everyone!!! 😊

  • vjwilkinson
    2 years ago

    I'm glad you're happy with the final choices! I'd love to see photos.


    I'd still love a wall color with just the slightest hint of yellow, but that probably won't happen. While Intense White is not as cold as some grays, it's just so blah.

  • kwilmers
    Original Author
    2 years ago

    I will try to get some pictures when everything is back in place unfortunately the painters tried to slide my bookcase out of the way without taking everything off and the whole back came out and broke so now I have stacks of stuff all over the floor 😕 anyway funny about the yellow thing as I too wish this color had a little more yellow in it. I can’t remember what colors you tried but did you ever try Ballet White? Also a YouTube channel I came across raves about the Aura line of colors by Benjamin Moore that are full spectrum meaning they don’t use any black or gray in them. I’m kind of wishing I would have checked some of those out as well but I have 50 other projects that need to be done around here so for now I will live with what I have. There is also another color I keep coming across by Magnolia called Blanched that had I been given a little more time (lol) I may have checked that out but I would have had to order it online. Also Valspar has a color called Cream in my Coffee that looks interesting too but one of the things I am going to try to do is stick with just one paint brand from here on out to try to limit my choices and I tend to like Benjamin Moore and the local store is very conveniently close to my house. One thing I should take away from this is that I am really liking the accent wall color which I just picked randomly last minute I was having a hard time with that wall because I have a red Pottery Barn buffet/sideboard on that wall and none of the grays were looking right against the red but this one seems to work. So maybe for future projects I will try that approach! It’s doubtful but one can hope right?

  • yvaras
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    I redid my kitchen last year and I was just like you guys...driving myself and my husband crazy trying to pick a color for my kitchen cabinets. Walking around with swatches everywhere. I went with Benjamin Moore Classic Gray, and O-M-G it is the most beautiful color on earth. Its the truest greige, gray and beige together. This picture does no justice really. I loved it so much, I've now painted two other rooms that color, and will continue to paint other rooms using this color. It is known to be a NO FAIL color. I used it with Chantilly Lace for contrast.


  • vjwilkinson
    2 years ago

    It's an uphill struggle--a zillion other projects, large and small, need to be done, so repainting walls we've already painted is low on the list. But I can't get past the fact that I find gray, even warm gray, depressing.

  • Em
    2 years ago

    @yvaras thats gorgeous esp with the brass hardware!

  • amanda7731
    2 years ago

    Anyone use Plaster of Paris? I’m struggling between that and Wind’s Breath.

  • jfsjfs
    3 months ago

    I have BM Gray Mist in my living room and hallways. Colors take getting used to after living with previous paint colors so long. I immediately saw a lamp and lamp shades that had to go asap! Because I could not decide between the two colors, I took an opportunity to use BM Fog Mist in my office.. I used the left over Gray Mist to repaint a hutch cabinet in the office and the suble difference in the colors on the walls vs the wood piece was very complimentary. I liked the soft calming neutral tone of the Fog Mist so much that I used it for my master bedroom. I found greige colors are tricky, often leaning too much into an undertone that can be too cool or too warm, which can cancel out the intended neutral feel. I learned an important part of the wall paint color is the trim that frames it. As suggested in articles and online, these two paint colors look much better with the trim and moldings painted with BM Chantilly Lace.