UPDATED: 50 Shades of Gray...from Benjamin Moore

Nothing THAT exciting here...just the endless search for the perfect gray for the living room.

UPDATE:  Here is the final color selection (first coat only) with a description of how we made it below!!!

Stonington Gray on the wall & Coventry Gray around the fireplace

VISION: Originally the living room was a mustardy yellow, our vision is a pale gray with crisp white trim and a black fireplace. Before Pic (panorama taken before closing):

Who knew gray was the hardest color to pick...these bloggers did HERE and HERE and HERE. Yes, the same colors get debated over and over. The problem is they all look different depending on the lighting in the room, color of the surrounding walls, lighting, etc. Our choices narrowed and expanded to include the usual suspects: Revere Pewter, Stonington Gray, San Antonio Gray, Stormy Monday and Coventry Gray. Some of our pics:

Stonington Gray, Revere Pewter, Harbor Gray and Stormy Monday (lower right)

VERDICT: Katie's Brilliant Design....Stonington Gray (left; light & bright) on the walls & Coventry Gray (right; darker) above and around the fireplace

LESSONS LEARNED: When using a spray painter to do the ceiling, cover EVERY square inch of the floor. After taping off the windows, doorways and fireplace, we covered most of the wood floor, leaving a section uncovered on the opposite side of the room from where we started painting. But small particles of dried paint floated over covering the hardwood floor with a little dusting of paint. Mopping cleaned it up, but slowed us down. RESULT= The room is a lot brighter with a freshly painted ceiling!

Fireplace:  Getting rid of the brick and brass screen (in the garage being painted) using RustOleum High Heat Black Spray from this Pin(terest) and site found HERE.

Fireplace Before

Fireplace During

Fireplace...kind of After- the screen still needs to be returned