Condo Update: 50 Shades of Gray….and Coral Part II

When last we left off, my bedroom was in a state of chaos, I was debating between several coral colors for my accent wall, and I felt the gray I had painted that weekend might not have been the right shade of gray.

In a surprising turn of events this past Friday, I made several decisions. First, thanks to my friends and everyone here on the blog, I picked a coral for my accent wall. I went with Cool Lava by Behr. I also decided not to live with a gray that I despised. That’s right, despised. I had hastily picked a “gray” and it turned out blue. It was Burnished Metal by Behr. If you don’t quite remember, let me jog your memory.

I tried for a whole week to convince myself to keep it. I really did. In the end, I truly hated it. So, on Friday, I made several trips to home depot getting paint samples of different grays. I picked out a Glidden color this time called Seal Gray. I had used this color before on a table I repainted for a pinterest challenge so I already knew I liked it. I color matched it with Behr because they were having a rebate sale – buy one gallon, get $5 off. Well, the actual color is too dark for me since my goal was to go with a light gray. However, I recently discovered that you can get a custom color by asking for the paint you like in shade percentages. So, if there is a color you like but it’s too dark, you can say “I want this color but at 50%, or at 75%.” I bought 2 samples, one at 50% and one at 25%. The paint department at home depot would dab a little bit on the paint chip for comparison each time. In the picture below, the 50% is on the right side of the chip and the 25% is the two dots in the center of the paint chip.

I purchased two gallons of the gray at 25% after a little debate and a quart of the coral in Cool Lava and my good friend Caitlin and I went to work. We got started painting around 9 pm. We painted well into the night and finally finished around 3:30 am. It came out really nice. The toughest part was, of course, the ceiling. In the first round of painting, the weekend before when I accidentally painted the gray-blue, I didn’t even get to the ceiling. Since we were lacking proper tools and extra energy, we only painted about 3/4ths of the way up. Let me tell you, the 16 foot ceiling above my door was really challenging. Even on an eight foot ladder with an extension rod for the paint roller we could barely reach the top. This is a shot looking straight up from my doorway.

Once all was said and done, I was really pleased with the results.

The wall above the window nook was no picnic either. I used a tool I found at home depot to reach the edges of the ceiling called an edge tool. It worked rather well for my purposes, I still need to do a few touch ups but those can wait. For now, I’m trying to decide what type of window covering I should do. I know I want something soft and white, but I’m not sure what type of shade/curtains I want. Roman maybe?

One of my favorite parts of the paint job was doing the high ledge. To me it was probably the easiest part of the room to paint, except that it was a little scary being up so high. After spending time up there paint, I want to find a cute ladder to leave permanently so I can access my high ledge whenever I want. I would put it right where the tripod is currently leaning in the picture below. Maybe I could put a “library” up there, you know a couple of bookcases and some vintage books? Just a thought.

For comparison, here is the loft before the painting frenzy began:

And the loft in the midst of the gray-blue painting fiasco:

Having color on the walls really brings out all the architectural details in the bedroom. There are multiple peaks in my ceiling that get lost when it’s all white.

Once my bedroom was completely reset, my friend Caitlin pointed out that both of the colors were in the scarf I like to keep draped on my lamp. She said she thought it was the reason I chose the palette that I did. It wasn’t, but I love happy accidents!

During all this painting mania I also started a little collection. Viking Glass. Here’s a quick preview. I’ll save the rest of the details for a future post.

I think Josey liked the new paint choices although she doesn’t seem so happy about having her picture taken:

The view from my bed now includes the reclaimed wood shelf I told you about in the last condo update post.

And for a final comparison, here is an old picture from when I first moved in:

And now complete with a paint job:

I’m so happy I finally found the right gray. It was like the moment all brides-to-be talk about when they find the right wedding dress….only mine was with paint. Go figure. Not only does my room feel softer but the coral accent wall makes me feel girly. In a good way though. I don’t think I’ve had pink in my room since I was 8.

After everything, how do you all feel? Are you a fan of the coral I went with? What do you think of the new and improved gray? Does anyone else share special fond moments with their paint choices? Tonight I leave for a trip to new Jersey, don’t worry though. I’ll have a post for you guys tomorrow still! Have a great weekend!