Cakes & Louie: Grown Up Bedroom

When we first bought our house, I got a little crazy with the paintbrush and decided that every room we painted had to have color. Then over the last few years I've started to hone in on what I really like, and I've learned to stop looking at the little free brochures at the paint store for inspiration and instead use my surroundings and what I'm drawn to (ok, and blogs and pinterest) as guides.

The kitchen was the first place where I realized I made a huge mistake and needed change. For whatever reason, I wanted a dark red kitchen for YEARS. When I lived with my brother in my parents' two-flat we sort of painted our kitchen dark red, but truth be told we never did as many coats of paint as were necessary so it was a really pitiful job. So, when the hubs and I fixed up our kitchen the first time (starting before we even moved in to our house), I talked him into a dark red wall, and while I loved it for awhile, I was aching for lighter and brighter colors overall and was thrilled when we painted everything the same light gray that's in our hallway.

Now I'm on to our bedroom, which has been on my projects list for months but has sat untouched because I'm indecisive. I know I want a dark-ish gray on the walls, but I had no idea how many shades of gray are out there (hehehe, shades of gray), and it's been impossible to find one that I am willing to commit to. Currently, there's 5 or 6 different swatches on the walls and I'm not sold on a single one of them. Sigh. Regardless, the bedroom is definitely in need of change - thanks to another one of my color explosions when we moved in, it's currently baby blue with a chocolate brown accent wall and saying I hate it would be an understatement. I consistently refer to it as "colors that belong in a traditional baby boy nursery", which is a far stretch from the calming, serene, romantic and moody look I'm actually going for.

Since Home Depot is our go-to for house projects, I've really only been looking at Martha Stewart and Behr paint swatches, and I think that's my problem. I'm planning to get somewhere this weekend with Benjamin Moore paint and grab every paint chip they have available in a gray shade. If all goes as planned, I'll settle on a color this weekend and we can actually paint sometime in the near future.

Here's some grays I definitely want to check out in person -

Benjamin Moore Charcoal - as seen in Jess Lively's home tour on Design Sponge -