Jump in, the Water’s Fine

After nearly a dozen “shades of grey” (no, not THAT Grey. I’m talking paint), we narrowed it down to three colors from the Valspar chips: Mink, the aforementioned Anonymous, and Seine.

Our collection of color sample pots came from three different paint suppliers. We tend to like working with Benjamin Moore paint, but as our indecision continued, the costs for the samples kept mounting. So, I went back to Lowe’s and began choosing from their Valspar line (which we’ve used frequently in the past and does a fine job at a good price). Their sample pots are also the least expensive and the perfect size/amount to assess the color.

Seine was really a crapshoot from a color strip after nothing else was doing it for both hubs and I at the same time, and of the “compromise colors” it seemed to have the most commitment to brown. I painted them all on various walls and chose Seine.

It’s so interesting to me that the same paint can look vastly different in each room, let alone in the same spot viewed at different angles or lighting conditions.  That doesn’t make choosing any easier.

From all those hours of blog reading, I learned that a lot of paint suppliers will custom match a competitor’s color in their own paint at no additional charge.  Even though Seine is a Valspar paint, I had it mixed at Benjamin Moore in an eggshell finish (as our lab likes to dry her occasionally wet fur by using the hallway wall as a towel).

A quick search on Pinterest says I’m not alone in my leaning toward the French-river-named brown/grey paint (which is no compliment to the river). But I liked it on the wall and think it will look nice with the too-light cherry stain on our doors, steps and bannister. I KNOW it will look nice with the white molding.