The Perfect Dark Grey Paint. {And a barn door makeover}

When you are a hairstylist and stare at color all day long you become a bit up tight about colors EVERYWHERE.

Seriously, you should see how long it takes me to pick out lipstick in the beauty department. Can I get an Amen ladies?

This heightened color awareness is precisely what kept happening to me, while I was working in my new salon. You see, this pretty barn door can be seen as soon as you walk into the new studio. It is also in the reflection of my mirror all day long.  The space has a lot of light so I wasn’t afraid of picking this dark rich Behre color but after a while, in the changing day time lighting, the door started to look more blue than grey. At least to me.

This underlying tone became more apparent to me when I painted another door in the space another beautiful rich grey. 

The new painted door seemed almost immediately perfect to me. It was dark, rich and a definite moody color. A neutral grey. A grey that seemed to nod to an era long past. Do you see it too?

Here are the two doors side by side. The barn door is the original Behre “Iron Mountain” and the regular door is Benjamin Moor “Kendall Charcoal”.

So as most social media loving creatives would do, I went to Instagram and a design based Facebook group and asked the design darlings there what they thought.  

If you weighed in with your opinion than THANK YOU! 

In the end though I realized that if I was bothered by the blue undertones then I needed to change it. 

I waste no time with things like painting objects, as you guys know. If it needs painted, I’ll wave a brush at it –anytime. 

So, mid afternoon one day, after soaking up all the online opinions from so many of you lovelies, I just went for it and followed my heart. Or, my eye, depending on how you look at it….

I painted the barn door the matching Kendall Charcoal on my break before more clients arrived. I mean, the laundry can wait, right?

Now, with the before picture and the after picture side by side I can hardly notice the difference.  Many who voiced their opinion thought the color I was considering for the door would be too dark but because this room is flanked with windows and dressed in white I really do dig the contrast.

BEFORE:

What do you guys think? Do you feel it’s a drastic change? Do you have a favorite grey color for my future projects? I would love to hear! Until then, I will be hunting down more unsuspecting things to paint instead of tackling that laundry mountain and dish mountain.

Happy last day of February my DIY friends, perhaps we can use this extra day to cross some things off our to do lists, or, maybe, we can all just browse Pinterest for more gorgeous grey paint ideas.