Paint my bedroom dark gray in a satin fnish?

I prefer flat because I hate the reflected light on gloss or satin. You will probably need additional accent lighting otherwise it would be too gloomy for the winter months. I think it would be really dramatic with light colored furnitures, white/pale gray linens, jewel-tone accessories and a few green plants.

Why so dark?

What are you, a bear?

It's like a cave . . .

I painted my bedroom Ben Moore Gray, 2121-10, and I think its fantastic. I used eggshell but If i painted again, I would probably go flat.

I do like to hibernate a little in the winter, needsadvice. Whether that makes me a bear, you'll have to ask my husband. I thought about going really dark because the light gray looks so faded when the light hits it in the afternoon. I haven't seen it at night b/c we haven't moved in yet, so I might still like it well enough. But seeing the color made think I should try something really different - I've always had light-colored bedrooms. My current living room is a mid to dark olive, and I've loved it (though a little sick of green by now) - it makes a room with almost zero natural light and views of brick walls pretty cozy.

I thought of doing a higher sheen than the flat to reflect more light - maybe I am a little scared of going too dark. Why would you go with flat instead of eggshell, BuiltNstudio? I'll check out the color you used. We went by the apartment with a board painted the gray we thought we'd like (BM's Stormy Sky), but found it won't work b/c it has a purplish undertone, and the color in the hallway outside the bedroom seems to have a blue undertone (also a dark gray - BM's Flint). They really clash.

Similar to xanthaned, I just don't like the sheen that the gloss or satin creates. In my case, the wall quality was also a factor (i didn't skim), if there are any imperfections in the walls, the more glossy the finish the more noticeable those imperfection are.

The best part about paint is...its just paint, and you can paint over it if you do not like it.

I'll add to the flat camp. I have my living room in two different shades of grey, and all flat -- three walls light, one wall dark. Unless you have kids and are constantly scrubbing the walls, there's no reason you need eggshell (or shinier) with this shade.

The bathroom has an even darker shade of grey atop the white tiles, but with eggshell.

If you get significant natural light in the room, which it sounds like you do, and have sufficient artificial lighting for the evenings, then I fully encourage you to give the dark grey a whirl. I did the three light grey walls in my place only because it's a north-facing room and doesn't get much natural light.

Thanks, all, for the advice. Flat sounds like the way to go. Now I just need to get the right grey.

newapt25, are you on a budget? what about leaving the eternity as is, but having someone come in and do wide horizontal stripes, 5-6", in an ivory, and doing the ceiling and all the trim in that same ivory? something like this, but more/narrow stripes

http://housedecorationx.blogspot.com/2010/07/step-by-step-to-paint-striped-wall.html

i wouldn't do a dark color in the bedroom, but that's a personal preference. you might realize after the fact that you WANT to wake up to a light cheerful room. personally, i always play with the living space and dining room, but leave the bedroom alone. just make it comfortable and cozy and leave it alone.

these are the colors in my house, the orange is for accents (lamp, i spray painted the chandalier in dining room white but made the base part that orange, some flower pots, other little things just accents). if you picked the light color for your bedroom, you probably prefer a bedroom in a light color and just need some help giving it more depth and maybe adding texture.

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2v36ipk&s=7

also, remember that when you DO move in that room will not just be an empty room with light grey bare walls, you'll have furniture, art, photographs, etc. it sounds like you need texture, not a darker color, so i would actully suggest you look at wallpaper and not a darker paint color. play with window treatments, thy can make a very dramatic difference. i would even entertain the idea of a four post bed to break up a too light room before going for darker walls. her, for example, that's a ery light room, but it doesn't look washed out because the bed breaks up the space, and yet it's still a cheerful light room where you will probably wake up in a better mood.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/beds-mattresses/modern-four-poster-beds-041906

decorating threads are so much fun!

one last thing, i swear. if you like it, you can encorporate shiny texture in the room without making the walls shiny. you can upholster the chairs or bench you have in there in pleather! which sounds stupid, but i did this and it looks really cool. i have an old iron chair that looks a lot like this, i painted it a matte white and did the cushion in white pleather, it's my vanity chair and it's really cool. not sure if that's your thing, but even my mom thinks it's nice. so there's that. you don't have to make the walls shiny, you're right, it will look weird and institutional.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM1738111401P?sid=IDx20101019x00001d&srccode=cii_123837234&cpncode=00-85608078-2

You could have an accent wall. Not all walls have to be the same color.

Wow, thanks for all the ideas, lucillebluth. I like the stripes, but not sure I can get my husband to go along with that. I really like the second color in your swatch collection (of the colors you have in your house). Do you still have the name of that color? It's beautiful. That was the look we were originally going for when we picked Eternity - a sort of silvery, shimmery gray. I would have loved that if it worked (it looks sort of taupey in the light), but since I couldn't find the right color, I thought I'd do something very different.

I thought of a dark accent wall for the wall where we're going to hang the tv, NYRENewbie; thanks for reminding me. I thought it might make the tv less of a focal point. Maybe I'll just do that wall dark and keep the rest light. Thx, all.

hi newapt25,
the greys on my little swatch page didn't end up being that accurate, they are actually warmer and sllightly lighter, but the paint is glidden and the those colors are Barely Jade and Oyster Shell. the tuq is actually mislabeled on the website as Tropical Lagoon, but at the store and in their official swatches that color as called Sea Spray.

http://www.glidden.com/color/color-visualizer.do#path=colorPalette&cid0=&cid1=&cid2=&cid3=&cid4=&cid5=&cid6=&cid7=&cid8=

Thx for the swatch info, Lucille.

you're welcome. please don't read anything else i post on this board. ever.

newapt,

You can convince your husband to do stripes, there are many ways to do it as well. I just wrote about it on my blog a couple of weeks ago http://www.primerenovationsnyc.com/2011/08/stripes-be-bold-try-something-new/

I like them so much I just painted my entry way with vertical stripes as well as stripes on one of the bedroom ceilings

Tzke a look at hearthstone gray from Benjamin Moore. We used it in our guest bedroom with light furniture and gray and white bedding from West Elm. Also, we tested out different grays with oak tag sheets before we settled on hearstone.

hi primer,
what kind of floor is that in the first picture?

Hearthstone gray is one of our candidates, jtbkln. We're trying to get a color that will be somewhere in between the very dark hallway outside the bedroom (BM's Flint) and a lighter gray in the master bath (BM's Rock Gray). One problem is that Flint seems to have a blue base and the Rock Gray looks like it has a slightly purplish tinge, so finding a gray with the right undertone is a little hard. But I'm probably way overdoing this.

Lucillebluth,

The floor is a rubber mat. That room is craft room for 2 year old twins. The mats are great for them. The paint is chalkboard paint.

Primer, what kind of wood floors are in the final picture (bedroom) on the blog post you linked to regarding striped walls?

primer, thank you

I think it's OK.

I suggest you to use a light color,it will looks more comfortable.

An ivory is ok,hope it can be useful.

_greice

Is it too late??