We usually feel confident picking a paint color, but choosing the perfect gray for two main living areas had me oddly nervous. We planned to use the same color in the future dining room, main hallway, and living room for continuity, and that made me overthink every swatch. Sherry teased me about my paint paralysis while I went from “I like it” to “I hate it” in about five seconds.
My anxiety probably stems from a regrettable middle school bedroom paint choice: a dark, cold gray with a name like Cannonball or Cannon Smoke. It looked prison-like until I masked it with a bright red Looney Tunes rug and Tasmanian Devil throw pillows. That fix won’t fly this time, though, so we opted for a more deliberate approach.
Sherry, who was much less worried about making a mistake and kept saying “let’s just pick one and DO IT!”, agreed to buy paint testers so we could try colors on the wall before committing. She recommends testers to readers frequently, so it wasn’t hard to persuade her to give it a shot. We narrowed our options to three similar but distinct Benjamin Moore grays, mixed into Olympic Premium No-VOC samplers from Lowe’s (about $2.50 each):
From left to right: Collingwood, Grey Owl, and Moonshine. Sherry called her favorite before we even picked up a brush—can you guess which one? Hint: it rhymes with “spoon mine.”
We painted one coat of each in the future dining room in the same order (Collingwood on top, Grey Owl middle, Moonshine bottom):
We used a paintbrush for one coat, feathering the edges so the test patches wouldn’t leave raised squares once the whole wall is painted. We avoided painter’s tape for the same reason—perfect edges can remain visible later.
Sherry embraced larger swatches and added test areas in the family room as well—one set near the TV:
…and another set beside the big window to see how daylight affects each color.
One of the biggest benefits of tester pots is seeing how colors change throughout the day under different lighting. Small swatches can help, but big patches let you judge a color from across the room, which is especially useful when deciding on a shade you’ll live with for a while.
Here are the same test patches at night under the warmer, yellower artificial light (same top-to-bottom order):
After a few days of living with them, I had to concede that Sherry was right: Moonshine, the bottom swatch, was our clear favorite. Collingwood came close but read too warm and tan—almost like Glidden’s Sand White we used in our first house—so it didn’t feel gray enough for this project. Grey Owl looked too green-blue in our light and risked reading as a muddy blue-gray instead of a neutral gray, which is what we want to avoid.
Moonshine felt like the purest gray of the three, with a soft, slightly silvery quality. It’s dark enough to make trim pop—especially once we paint the living room moldings white—yet neutral enough not to compete with bolder curtains, artwork, and accessories we plan to add. Now we just need to find the energy to paint the two largest rooms and the connecting hallway. We started today, but with baby and blog duties, it may take several days to finish. We’ll share photos when it’s done.
Have you ever used paint testers to choose a color? Did they confirm your instincts or send you in a new direction? And how long did your test patches stay up before you painted the whole room? Ours were up nearly a week, though we can see how they might linger much longer if you’re not completely sure.