Tuesday, March 29, 2011

My Lunch Date with Benjamin

Shhhh, please don’t tell my husband….but I had a little lunch date today with my friend, Benjamin. But don’t worry, my husband isn’t jealous in the slightest… he just starts to think thinks I’m crazy any time I pay a visit to Benny Moore’s place of business.  Ben and I, we go waaaaay back….and know each other better than, well, than I actually wish we did.
And, to make matters worse, I am a maximizer. You see, the 3,400 or so color choices Ben offers me aren’t even enough…I gotta go out and create my OWN custom shade.  Sheesh, I can be a pain at times.
Ok, well anyways, I made a slight detour on our way home today to stop and pick up this:
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Just let me explain… the walls above my board and batten are currently Benjamin Moore Nimbus Gray. 
ourboardbatten
It’s a beautiful color…about as perfect a gray/blue as I can imagine.
But I’m not finished painting: the entry, kitchen, dining room and hallway are all still Monroe Bisque (click here to see the Monroe Bisque) {or Lily White or Beacon Gray or Nimbus Gray- really, I’ve been through that many colors?}.…and honestly, I think the Nimbus Gray is too dark for those areas.  {I actually think it’s too dark above the board and batten too, but I’m trying to pretend that thought has never crossed my mind.}  So today I ordered a quart that is
25% of the Nimbus Gray. 
IMG_4514
When I told the paint guy I wanted a 25% formula of Nimbus Gray he told me that would be the same as the color one above it on the swatch: Silver Gray {been there, tested that.}  So now he thinks I’m {even} crazier than DH thinks I am…but I contended that a 25% formula of Nimbus Gray would be a tad less green than Silver Gray, and sure enough, the formulas agreed with me. The paint store guy still thought I was out of my mind, but he didn’t dare mess with the crazy house wife with twin girls testing out all the tape measures at his register. I forgot to warn him when I walked in that I am insane, I mean a maximizer, I mean, a satisficer in training. {Ah, I like the sound of that.}
 So, I came home with 25% Nimbus Gray and tried it outhere:
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and here:
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and here:
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and here:
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{That’s Nimbus Gray on the right wall and 25% Nimbus Gray on the left wall.}
And the verdict?  I don’t KNOW!!!
I think my next step is to take that same quart and have it remixed to be a 50% formula of the Nimbus Gray and see what I think.  Ultimately, I think my plan might look like this:
Paint the kitchen, dining room, entry way and hall way a 25% formula of Nimbus Gray.
RE-paint the family room above the board and batten a 50% formula of Nimbus Gray.
Paint the playroom {I know, I know, I’ve never even mentioned the playroom to you before!} STRAIGHT Nimbus Gray {I DO love that color!}…but just the top half of the playroom walls.  I’ll paint the bottom half Chantilly Lace {white} and install a chair rail/row of hooks/clips for coats, dress up clothes and/or artwork.  I’ll show you what I’m talking about another day.
Then all my rooms will tie together. It will look like I planned it that way from the beginning.  Like a real decorator designed the house. And I will sit down and finally get to say, “Ahhhhhhhhhh it’s purrr-fect.” Until I decide to buy a new sofa.  Just Kidding!
On a serious note, friends…I really am trying to work on this whole maximizer problem I seem to have. I think I’d be a much happier {less busy} person if I didn’t agonize over each and every choice to this degree. I met a satisficer over the weekend and her carefree, relaxed attitude was SO refreshing..it gave me inspiration to get there…
Just as soon as I finish painting!

Anyone out there sympathize with me?

Linking up here:
Domestically Speaking

7 comments:

  1. Mavis E. ButterfieldMarch 29, 2011 at 11:22 PM

    DUDE! Will it ever be perfect? Answer that question honestly. I love the living room color how it is, you did such a great job with it. Are you gonna do the entry way and play room BEFORE deciding to change the living room paint color? It all just might work together with that slight bit of contrast. Don't put the cart in front of the horse, hee hee : )

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  2. mavis E. ButterfieldMarch 29, 2011 at 11:33 PM

    PS: I generally think that people can change IF they want to enough and IF they put in the work it takes to execute that change. In the case of Maximizer/Satisficer, I kinda agree that you might be hard wired to - do do do it all - to the max. It's your personality and that is who you are! Why change the the maven that is you?

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  3. I like you just the way you are. And you can read this to all your kids and DH. So there!

    The color looks great. We'll come see it soon.

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  4. Maybe it is time for a physics lesson. Oh wait, you do photography? Right? Use a simple color wheel. Photoshop even has a sort-of color wheel. Grey is a 1:1 mixture of perfect white (reflects 100% of all light) and perfect black (reflects no light at all). This is called grey 18% because it reflects 18% of all light EQUALLY!!! That means there is no hint of any color at ALL!! Photographers use an 18% grey card to correct colors in the final photograph. Some cameras have a "white" setting which attempts to do the same while taking the picture. Now paint is a real substance and therefore is subject to imperfections. This means by diluting the paint formulae you may not get the desired result (hints of other colors may start to show up). Conclusion? Uh always test and use a grey card to compare results.

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  5. Oh I love the 25% Nimbus Grey! I want to repaint my home so badly and this colour is what I have been looking for! But I don't know if I'm brave enough!! Looks fab!
    Jo-Anna

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  6. Try whythe blue, it's greener, the more blue-the more darker it will become.

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  7. Oh how happy am I to have found this post! I was all set to just accept the silver gray BUT I like Nimbus Gray better. But I have to decide today, yikes!

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