Looking for a soft, warm Dulux grey for living room walls - need to decide today!

[gobblygook]

Can anyone help? All the greys I've tried seem to look either too green or blue - or too cold. Something light and subtle and warm but grey!

Cheers

[billgrangersrisotto]

Wheatgrass. V subtle but beautiful. In my kitchen.

[WhatsWrongWithYule]

Presumably you've already got fabric for curtains/cushions etc? Best to use that as a starting point and match the paint to the fabric rather than try and do it the other way round.
Dulux do a matching service as well, although I think it needs a fairly 'non-busy' fabric to be accurate.
You need to get as many matchpots as you can and try them out - no one else can do that for you I'm afraid!

[WhatsWrongWithYule]

I assume she means one that's slightly pinkish rather than totally blue-based - but yes, grey is normally seen as a cool colour I think. Doesn't mean I don't like it - cool colours have their place in interiors!

[CHST]

that's a bit rude I actually love grey. I have perfectly taupe in my hall and it pops with the white woodwork. I actually think this does look warm but I think colours can look different in different rooms. I have egyptian cotton in both my living room and downstairs toilet which I wouldn't call warm but it is a contrast to a feature wall I have (urban obsession) which I really love. The colour in the toilet looks darker than in the living room. If you want a warm feel, some of the more browny, greige colours probably do that better though I don't know so much about those colours

[gobblygook]

Thanks all, that's really helpful except for the mildmanneredjanitor - why bother to come onto a thread about greys to ask why someone wants to paint their house that colour?

[gobblygook]

If you want a discussion, I suggest you raise your points without coming across as so rude

[CHST]

you would think so the mildmannered but it does look (mid) grey to me!!!! I have a taupe curtain and that is definitely more brown!!!!

[Pocket1]

Try dulux Egyptian cotton. It's a lovely calm, neutral beigey-grey, not too cold and not too pink or yellow. We tried 10-15 testers and this was by far the nicest colour. We've had lots of positive comments from friends too so it must be okay!

Avoid dulux almond white - it has a pink/purple tinge. This was our original choice, we bought gallons of it. Painted one whole room then realised we hated it. Thankfully homebase allowed us to swap the unused cans

Good luck!

[noddyholder]

Chalky downs 2 or 3

[gobblygook]

Thanks all - we're in tester hell. I thought this was going to be the easiest bit of the renovation because my DH said he didn't care what colours we had. Apparently that wasn't quite true

[WhatsWrongWithYule]

And you can get warm and cold versions of every colour, strictly speaking. The interiors colour wheels call the blue end of the spectrum cold, and as it gets further towards red they're described as warm. In painting, however, there are warm and cold versions of each primary colour, so it would depend on the particular version of red, green or blue you use as to whether you end up with a warm or cool colour.

[WhatsWrongWithYule]

Sorry meant red, yellow or blue .

[caughtintheact]

'just walnut' - sounds like it will be brownish, but isn't. very similar to farrow and ball's 'skimming stone', their lighter shade of 'elephants breath'.

[minciepie]

I've never tried it myself but Dulux's Just Walnut has always caught my eye on the paint charts.

mildmannered I know what you mean about grey being inherently cold - I tend to think of warm greys as "greige" rather than grey as they always have a tinge of brown to them. But I think it's just semantics really.

[minciepie]

cross posted caught

[HandMini]

Hi, I'm afraid I'm with those who think pure grey is usually a cold colour. I painted my baby's nursery grey - horrific, had to do emergency feature wall wallpapering and about 50 framed posters. Anyway, regardless of what you call it, taupes, greiges, purpley red greys, sagey green greys are all warm and great and look fab with either white, cream or plain woodwork. Good luck.

[angel1976]

Dulux heritage line has a lovely colour called linnet white. It has a green tone and very nice, am planning to use it in a 'cold' and dark bedroom.

[jalopy]

Agree with mildmanneredjanitor, grey is a cold colour.

[MegBusset]

We've got Swansdown (from the Dulux trade catalogue), it's a kind of greyish white but v warm and lovely :)

[spotty26]

Cornforth White from F and B has a bit of warmth but is still very much a grey.

[JaxTellerIsMyFriend]

ACtually I have a warm grey in my kitchen and on one of the walls in the bedroom, SAnderson (sold in John Lewis) Celestial Grey. I had it mixed from the colour chart - cant remember if it was palest or second to palest but it is lovely, not cold at all and it changes colour according to the daylight.

Its a greyish v pale blue.

celestial grey