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Help with this flooring, please

I have just purchased a home with light gray, maybe greige, flooring. We are redoing the kitchen, completely, and we are painting the entire interior. I just do not know what colors to choose. I am not able to really tell if the flooring is warm or cool. I am guessing it is neutral, and I can go with almost any neutral paint color? Any help would be so appreciated.





Comments (40)

  • last month

    As far as gray floors go, yours aren't too terrible. Emily Henderson had a good blog post that you might find helpful. I would try to push things as warm as you can. Rugs will help blend things too.





  • last month
    last modified: last month

    I'd advise you add these pics and question to your other post about the same flooring and same paint in your new kitchen. Others should answer there:


    https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6480098/kitchen-help-please-stuck-on-flooring-and-paint-and-cabinet-colors#n=3


    The spaces are contiguous and open to each other. You need to consider the whole scheme for you kitchen, dining, and living areas as they seem contiguous and are not separate rooms.

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  • PRO
    29 days ago

    My picker shows me Mega Greige SW for your flooring. It is warm with a medium light shade of brown.





  • PRO
    25 days ago

    Is the kitchen being done on the same footpring so no change in flooring ? BTW if this is adulpicate post shame on you we coninually tell posters to not start another post and now we have no way to find the original since Houzz has "IMPROVED" again I do not know how kendrah found the old one and have no plan to try . The floors look gray or really greige so you areright in that they are neutral but the floors are only one thing that drives wall color that iis why we say wall color chosen last . I have no idea of your style or furniture it all looks a bit confused so wait until all that stuff is in and the kitchen finished them paint .

  • 20 days ago

    @ Patricia Colwell Consulting. It is a shame to treat a user of this website as you did it on this post. If you cannot keep your harsh comments at bay before you say anything constructive, why comment at all?

  • PRO
    20 days ago
    last modified: 20 days ago

    Waht was harsh if I was harsh it as to Houzz not the poster , As for the rest we have hardly any info here in this post . That is why we say do not start another post this is not harsh maybe you ar etaking things out of context . I am harsh sometimes but really this was not one of those times .Here is the other post it now is where we can all read it .

    Hi. We are redoing the paint and cabinets in our new home. We are saving the flooring and countertops as the previous owner just put in the house. Can you help me determine what colors would work best for both wall paint and ceiling paint, as well as kitchen cabinets? We think the colors appear darker in the photos, but they do illustrate the dilemma with warm vs. cool. Help. Thanks! NOTE: last two photos are inspiration, as we like the simplicity, and we like the idea of the tile (see on floor) as backsplash in the kitchen (our place to add color).



  • 20 days ago

    Thank you for your support.

  • 20 days ago

    Patricia, please stop. I’ll find help from others. You’ve made a point: you’re impatient, rude, and motivated to attain something, but helping is not it. Until I’m able to remove my post, leave. Thank you

  • 19 days ago

    Actually neutral paint colors have different families and undertones similar to a regular color wheel (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet)


    The neutrals are:

    Pink Beige / Red Brown

    Orange Beige / Orange Brown

    Yellow Beige / Yellow Brown

    Green Beige / Green Brown

    * Greige - between green beige and green gray

    Green Gray

    Blue Gray

    Violet Gray

    *Taupe - between Violet Gray and Pink Beige


    Whites and off whites follow the same pattern but are lighter, but we still have some with a pink or violet undertone or a green undertone.


    The only true neutrals - not showing any leaning toward a color and creating an undertone are pure white, pure black and pure gray (mixing of pure white / pure black)


    Flooring is a huge part of the visual field, so they definitely need to be included in the decision making process.


    It is hard to know the exact color of a floor or walls or anything else when we send pictures over the internet. They will look different on every monitor or device.


    Most of the gray toned wood floorings have some level of pink or violet undertone and will make greige or green beige look muddy and will clash with yellow beige.


    Are you looking to paint the walls a lighter white or off white or are you looking for a new neutral?


    Do you know the color that was previously painted on the walls? Do you like the wall color or does it pull a bit green? (Some of the pictures feel like the wall color is a bit greener than I would want, others look fine.)


    Do you have a spare plank of the flooring that was not installed? (Most homeowners keep some in case you have a piece that needs to be replaced.)


    If you do have a plank, I would gather a bunch of neutral paper samples from Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore and take the plank and the samples outside on a clear day around 2:00 in the afternoon and look at the samples next on the plank. Some are going to look really yellow or really green or really purple and some just a bit yellow, green . . .


    By figuring out which are looking not neutral and narrowing things down we can get to the right color space.


    Kylie M has a blog post on light taupe and greige colors that may be a good place to start narrowing your choices. Look at each of the colors she listed and let us know how they look next to your flooring, what you liked and didn't like.


    https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/taupe-and-greige-whats-the-big-difference/


    I also helped someone pick a wall color with similar flooring recently. They did not want anything gray toned so we landed on SW Natural Linen. It is a neutral muted beige that leans a bit toward the pink/orange range. SW Natural Tan is quite similar, but picked up green next to the flooring.







  • 19 days ago

    Hi! Thank you. This post was so helpful. We do know the current wall color: Swiss Coffee. It’s not a good match with the flooring. We do have a plank and have been carrying it around. In natural light or bright light it apppears very light gray, almost colorless? In the home, more taupe. More like the photos. We’re going to first, add more bright light (5000). We’re leaning toward Calm by Ben Moore and Chantilly Lace for cabinets. But I’ll post other color ideas asap for feedback too

  • PRO
    19 days ago

    Sorry but here I am again and no 5000K lighting unless this is warehouse .

  • 19 days ago

    Michelle, not 5000 please, thats way to bluish white. Please keep your lighting around 3500- 4000, no more Make sure your bulbs say daylight bulbs.

  • 18 days ago

    Thank you.

  • 18 days ago
    last modified: 18 days ago

    Michelle, when I am in doubt about a color I always go back to three of four which have worked well with my clients home. The first one is B.M. Collingwood. I can't say enough about it.





    Another is B.M. Gray Cashmere. I love it because it can be anything your room wants it to be. In some lighting it is in the gray family, but generally it rolls blue or green, or blue/green. It is a chameleon.





    Then there is the easiest way to go...white on white. If you can identify your white trim, do the walls in eggshell. The two sheens will work well.

  • 18 days ago

    I love when people make blanket statements. The lighting that works best in your home is a personal decision and should work well with your interior design.


    If there really was only one right answer why would manufacturers make so many different lightbulbs?


    I have all 5000k lighting in my home and it does not look like a warehouse. It also doesn't turn all my purple décor into mud (mix yellow with purple and see what you get - yuck!) I have a mid century modern home and lots of color and 5000 k lighting is what worked best.


    My sister has a Tudor home with Queen Ann antique furnishings and a fall color palette (greens, golds, orange reds). She uses 2700k lighting. It fits her home and aesthetic.


    My advice is to buy several bulbs and test them in your home and see what feels good to you.






    5000k is whiter than many people are used to seeing, but it is not blue. It is white light.

  • 18 days ago

    It is also important to get high CRI when looking for lights.



  • 18 days ago

    I have to run an errand, but will come back with some thoughts on paint colors. Swiss coffee is a yellow base that leans a bit toward green. Love the paint color, but not with your flooring. Push the hue toward the orange instead of green and you may have a winning combination.

  • 18 days ago

    You all are amazing! It is making me have hope with humanity. Not the length of a message. Not the in-depth answers. Just the fact that you’re kind. I appreciate everybody’s effort and kindness to a complete stranger. And I actually shared it during our closing meeting with all of my fifth graders. They’re feeling such stress and worry about our world at this time, and this brought me such hope and I think they could feel the hope I felt and it made them feel hopeful too. I hope people can hear that and understand that the ripple effect of actions spreads far beyond what you might be aware of. I’ll be back here too to offer other colors that Benjamin Moore folks suggested, beyond the color Calm. I’d love to hear any other advice people have.

  • 18 days ago

    Here are the colors recommended and which we like (but still need to test tomorrow at 2pm, in great light): Athena, Balboa Mist, Light Pewter, Calm, Collingwood (suggested twice now). Long shots, according to paint store: Sterling and Nimbus. Accent color possibility: Healing Aloe. Not sure how, where, why, but offered. Kitchen cabinets: Chantilly Lace. Looks yellow or to warm to me in our current rental home, but paint professionals said not a drop of yellow and great companion to the wall colors suggested.

  • 18 days ago

    They said Athena new name is Pale Oak.

  • 18 days ago

    The Benjamin Store picked really good colors for you to try.


    I listed the colors below with the LCH values (all rounded) (Added Classic Gray and Seapearl as two more you may want to think about testing):


    L=Light - higher the number lighter the color


    C=Chroma - lower the number the more gray vs colorful - you do need to be a bit careful in how this is interpreted. A lighter color will appear less gray than a darker color with same hue and same chroma.


    Hue=the angle of the color on the color wheel.

    For your purposes the hue of 100 was too green and the lower the number the warmer the neutral will be.


    This is not a perfect science, human vision isn't a perfect match to scientific measurements, but knowing the LCH measurements can help guide our choices and get us to the right color.






  • 18 days ago

    You are not completely wrong, Chantilly Lace does have a subtle warmth - the slightest yellow undertone.


    I used a neutral in my home that is a rosy pink beige. BM Frosted Toffee and used a deep taupe in my last home. The white that I picked is available as a color match through Benjamin Moore as a color match - Devine Color Icing. It has a really really subtle orange or peach undertone. It is, hands down, my favorite white with taupe colors.


    Internet pictures are so often off, but this is a picture of my foyer painted with Frosted Toffee and Devine Icing.


  • 18 days ago

    Jennifer, you’re an unbelievable resource. Thank you. I’m going to test all paint colors above at 2, this afternoon. I’ll let you know what I find. I’m happy to hear Chantilly does show a bit of yellow. Not that I don’t like the color: I do. I’m just not sure it’ll work for us. We have a counter top that is white, but I need to determine which white. Tricky to do. I’ll need to be careful. The former owner seemed to struggle with matching whites. Part of me was considering color on the cabinets that wasn’t white to remove the struggle, but I also like clean modern design. By the way, we just sold our Palm Springs home; we love mid century modern which worked very well there. 😊 I’ll post updates as they come. Please know you’re appreciated.

  • 18 days ago

    In these photos the white counter, cabinets, molding appear to match. In person, it’s clearly, blatantly not a match.

  • 17 days ago

    Hi. Thanks for your insights. I disagree.

  • 17 days ago

    Michelle - selecting a white paint is very stressful. I spent more time deciding which white paint to use on the exterior of my home a year ago than I did selecting all finishes for my home when I was building it 😂

  • 17 days ago

    I agree with Jennifer regarding light color. The 'Daylight' bulbs I use throughout my home have a Kelvin rating of 5K. They do not read blue, nor does my home look like a warehouse. I love the clean light they emit.

  • 17 days ago

    @Michelle Leonard, Patricia does that to everybody. She posts very often and that’s her style in most everything she writes. Don’t take it personally.

  • 17 days ago

    @wdccruise - I am 63 and still remember teachers that had a great impact on my life. They didn't simply teach, they found a way to reach me and inspire me. If we don't need teachers to do anything other then present the material and grade the tests why don't we just move to self directed automated computer based teaching models. Eliminate formal schools, save bunches of money on keeping up school buildings and just connect each kid to a computer.

    Monitor the keystrokes/activity, use fingerprint or facial recognition to ensure the work is being done by the student. Fine parents who don't make their kids sit at the computer x hours a day. You can't pass a grade until you have satisfied the requirements and passed the tests.

  • 16 days ago

    I think, even though the yellow undertones in Chantilly Lace are minimal, they may feel pronounced next to the bluer white in the counter and the warmer pinker tones in the flooring.


    We never see color in isolation - it is always in comparison to the elements around it.


    I would probably look at High Reflective White (SW), Snowbound (SW - warm with pink vs yellow undertones), BM Super White.


    I do love the combination that was used by this person with Snowbound walls, Extra White trim and Egret White on the cabinets.


    https://inspiredbycharm.com/sherwin-williams-snowbound/

  • 16 days ago

    Wdccruise, my daughter is a 4th grade teacher, and she would disagree with you about the purpose of her role as a teacher. She would agree with the OP. That’s just one reason I’m so proud of her.

  • 16 days ago

    My daughter is in her first year as a lead teacher, after completing a two year master’s program.
    I wish Houzz had a block button.

  • 16 days ago

    @wdccruise - I don't disagree that education is in a sad state, we have huge problems, but attacking teachers for trying to inspire their students isn't productive and isn't the solution.


    I went on a trip and one of the young parents brought their 3 year old son along. The young people all wanted to go out to the bars, so I volunteered to stay with the 3 year old and put him to bed.


    At bedtime I asked if he brought along a book that we could read together. (This is what we do in my family - read a book at bedtime.) He said he didn't bring a book, so I asked him if he would like to tell me a story instead. Nope. Out of curiosity I asked if he read books at home. Nope - he doesn't like books. I then asked what he normally did when he went to sleep at night - watch TV. So we turned on the TV and picked out a kids program and he watched TV while going to sleep. I asked the dad when he came home if it was okay that he went to sleep while watching TV. Absolutely fine. This is their routine.


    I thought to myself - "This kid doesn't stand a chance in life." It isn't the teacher's fault if this kid hates books, hates reading, hates learning and just wants to watch TV.




    Here are some articles that support my thought process:


    " In every standardized achievement test whose scores we use to judge the quality of the education received by our children, family income strongly and significantly influences the mean scores obtained. "


    https://equityalliance.stanford.edu/content/blog-purported-failure-america%E2%80%99s-schools-and-ways-make-them-better-david-c-berliner


    Socioeconomic status influences early childhood development where long before a child enters school they may be significantly behind in learning skills.


    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0222961721002233


    I don't have a link to the one study I read a couple of years ago, but it was a study of kids that found that at age 6 months and 1 year development was pretty equal among all the pediatric patients being studied, but by age 2 their was significant differences in vocabulary based on socioeconomic groupings. By age 5 the poorest children were already a year and a half behind their more economically advantaged peers.


    So if students from low socioeconomic homes perform poorly and students from higher socioeconomic homes perform much better and these differences are notable by age 2 how is it reasonable to blame the teachers?


    Notably, during the mid-century we had a much larger middle class and fewer people truly struggling to provide basic care to their kids. If the parents are struggling they may not spend as much time or energy on inspiring their kids to do well in school. If they didn't do well in school they may not know how to inspire their kids to do well in school.



  • 16 days ago
    last modified: 16 days ago

    Jennifer Hogan: "So if students from low socioeconomic homes perform poorly and students from higher socioeconomic homes perform much better and these differences are notable by age 2 how is it reasonable to blame the teachers?"

    Ah, the excuse straight from the teachers' unions: "We're not respected!" "We work so hard!" "We're undepaid!" "Wait, you want to hold US accountable for students' inability to read? You can't do that!"

    Seaton Elementary School (Washington, DC)

    • 27.4% of students met or exceeded expectations in ELA.
    • 33.9% of students met or exceeded expectations in Math.
    • 19.4% of students met or exceeded expectations in Science.
    • $32,423.57 Per-Pupil Expenditures


    20 students/class x 6 years x $32,423/student/year = $3,890,760


    So after five years of instruction at a cost of nearly four MILLION dollars, 72% of students in a class of 20 can't read proficiently? And it's NOT the teachers' faults?

  • 15 days ago

    @wdccruise - did you bother to read the article?


    @wdccruise - you just want to make this into something it is not.


    I was damn lucky - I had two parents who valued a good education and taught their children to love learning. When we were little and my dad went on business trips he brought home educational workbooks for us. We could only play with our workbooks when we were good. It was a treat to be able to sit down and do math problems or read short stories and answer the questions about the stories. In our household the statement was "When you go to college", not ever "If you go to college". It was expected. Good grades were expected. A C in a subject meant nightly tutoring by one of my older siblings or one of my parents. A C was not an acceptable outcome. 6 out of 6 kids went on to college and 5 of the 6 continued their education beyond college.


    Our teachers were lucky to have students who's parents had set us up for success in school.


    My class wasn't homogeneous. We had kids from every socio-economic background and parents with every level of education from minimal formal education to those who had doctorates.


    Some kids were brought up by parents who could barely read and may or may not be able to balance a checkbook. If mom and dad hate reading, don't have a book in the house and never read a story to their kids and express that they hate reading, how well do you expect that child to do in school?


    We all had the same teachers, the teachers didn't earn different pay for teaching me vs the kid who was taught that school is a punishment. Yet I was far more successful and did much better on standardized tests than the kids who hated school and hated reading and hated math.


    So it wasn't the teachers, it wasn't the curriculum, it wasn't the teacher's pay or the age/condition of the school. (Our school district keeps building new schools in an ill-fated attempt to increase standardized scores and reduce drop out ratios.)


    We can't keep doing the same things and expect that on the 78th attempt it will finally work. We need to address the root cause if we want to see our schools become competitive.


  • 15 days ago

    "If mom and dad hate reading, don't have a book in the house and never read a story to their kids and express that they hate reading, how well do you expect that child to do in school?"

    I expect them to be able to become proficient readers.

    There's no excuse for children not being able to read.

    Listen hear: https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/ or download the "Sold a Story" podcast.

  • 15 days ago

    BM Simply White

  • 15 days ago

    Back to the original dilemma Michelle has...I think your flooring is very much like my own. I truly think that any color could work well with it. The issue is matching "everything". We have white walls. I don't remember the color. I don't really like white, but it is too stressful and costly to repaint. I would make the cabinets white, and according to Jennifer's chart I like Pale Oak, Classic Gray, or Seapearl.

  • PRO
    15 days ago
    last modified: 15 days ago

    What the HELL was the question?

    As to the rest:

    If you want a look at the decline of education, you look at the RISE of single parent families, and particularly absentee male parents.. You don't like the statement. do it anyway!

    You can trace the devolve in direct correlation back to the late fifties where the issue was not an issue , to the sixties, to the seventies as it fell off the cliff and continues the spiral down.

    A poverty of resources need not be a poverty of reading or math or anything else. Past decades prove it. My best friend in third grade, black, in an urban school read more books than I did and retained those stories! It need not be a poverty of values or morals. It need not be a case of a child who goes to school exhausted, and not suitably dressed or fed. It need not be a case of mom had her boyfriend over and with drugs and the child fends for him or herself, then falls asleep at the desk, and classmates are just so unruly, the teacher can NOT teach. Most of the day is disciplinary effort and gets so tragic, the teacher quits or moves to a different school. Sad? Yes. All the money in the world won't solve it. Homes....parents.....solve it and it will take a long time to reverse.