Markham Roberts

When trying to find the best paint color to work in blending my fireplace shelves here, I knew the first step was that I had to find the best undertone of gray in my stone:

 

Thanks to Maria’s training, I could quickly identify the undertones in the gray stone. Gray has undertones of green, blue and purple. Another undertone to consider is taupe. Taupe is a vague, unscientific color term which may be used to refer to almost any grayish-brown, brownish-gray, or warm gray color.

                                 

  Ranchwood-Taupe Undertones                     Revere Pewter- Green Undertones

                  

Coventry Gray  Blue Undertones                      Purple Undertones

When I tried the larger samples, the Cedar Key taupe, which I thought would work, was just to light. But I did like a darker version of the taupe with the stone, Indian River 985.  What a pretty color!

The color does work with the stone, but the larger my sample I used, the less I was loving the taupe with the gray as much as I liked the greenish grays and the blue grays.

So for my large samples to paint and try at home, I decided on Copley Gray HC-104, a greenish gray and also Chelsea Gray HC-168 which is a blue gray.

             

         Copley Gray HC-104 

 

Copley Gray on top, Chelsea Gray on bottom.

Here is the Copley Gray:

Nahhhh…  Not loving it.

Here is the Chelsea Gray:

                                                          

Yes!  Very nice.  Chelsea Gray it is. And since it is such a small area, I decided to paint the back wall a darker shade of the Chelsea Gray, Kendall Charcoal HC-166, to give the shelves depth.  *A good tip to remember- when painting shelves, paint the back piece a darker color to make the back recede or a different color than the sides to make them more interesting.

Look girls!!  I painted the wood!! 

 

Another good trick to remember- When painting small areas, use a small roller for quick, smooth results.

I worked on this project for about six hours total over the weekend. Everything was given two coats of paint. Here it is ready for the shelves:

Looks so much better already.  And the final project:

I want to get a great lamp/light for the top shelf.  So what do you think?  Do you think it was worth painting the wood?

My husband, the wood lover, is really happy with it too!

To summarize, any of the gray undertones, green, blue, purple or taupe would have worked well. The blue undertone I choose was my personal preference.  Also, see how important it is to sample!  The large sample really gave me a good look at the color!

Comments?  Any wood you would like help painting over?  Contact me today!

Similar post you might be interested in reading:

Understanding Beige Undertones

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