Would F&B Lamp Room Grey be gloomy in a nursery, do you think?

[LoveInAColdClimate]

Am starting to think about nursery decor as we're going to have to shift the house around a lot before the baby arrives (luckily not until March!) and considering paint shades is a nice change from having frustrating discussions about built in v free standing cupboards and the apparently insoluble problem about where to put all our furniture with DH! I am thinking a soft grey for the nursery would be soothing and gentle, and am planning on putting one of these on one wall. The furniture will be light wood. Do you think this is soft and baby-appropriate or a bit gloomy? Any other options gratefully received.

PS if you are coming on solely to tell me that you raised 16 babies in one drawer and that decorating the nursery is a wanton waste of time then please could you not, if that's ok? Thanks.

Personally I think it's a bit gloomy for a nursery or any room but this is coming from someone who painted nursery yellow. :)

I can't bear that whole pink/blue/teddy bear thing myself so I think your scheme sounds absolutely lovely.

On an aside, we have taken Farrow & Ball paint charts to Dulex trade centres and they will identify the closest colour and then mix it in whatever finish you want, so you don't have to use expensive F&B flat matts in a nursery where you might need to be able to hose the shit off the walls

Hmmm, I have considered yellow but annoyingly I just don't really like it as a colour (although am sure your nursery looks lovely, SayCool). Peeling, I did wonder about doing that and getting wipe clean kitchen paint (! - am slightly hoping I won't actually need this though...) but my experience with F&B has been that it gives so much better coverage than Dulux. Perhaps long-term practicality should win over ease of application, though...

Hadn't seen the dandelion when I posted before - love that. Maybe just a slightly warmer colour? There's a lovely grey-green that we used to call Sage; I forget its actual name but embarrassingly I remember the code - RAL 7032. (I am very sad )

Our nursery is Winnie the Pooh featured, hence the yellow, but it cam get a bit too much sometimes :)

Ooooh, what a lovely colour, SayCool - I might go for that! Thanks for comments re dandelion - I love it and think will be so sweet in a nursery.

Your Pooh nursery sounds lovely.

I love it! It's a warm grey, and I think very soothing too. Will look lovely with the dandelion sticker. You can add in another colour with accessories if you want. With the wood and maybe light (off White/natural) curtains, I think it will be a very relaxing room.

The F&B Modern Emulsion has a slight sheen that is wipeable. And when I say slight sheen, I mean really slight - it's lovely. I am normally wedded to dead flat matt, but used the modern emulsion in the kitchen and am v pleased with the results. TBH though, in a nursery I'm not sure it needs to be wipeable. With the exception of DS1 vomiting alphabet spaghetti in spinach sauce all down the cracks in the floorboards once (TMI), ours didn't really get all that messy. The kitchen, otoh....

I think grey can be lovely, especially with really crisp white woodwork, but it really depends on how much light the room gets. I once did a hallway in grey and it looked a bit like a tomb. Was horrible. And that was in a very light flat, though the hallway didn't have its own window.

I think you will regret grey for a nursery - it's just not a good colour for a child's room. You don't have to go pastels though, just a more positive colour than grey. How about green or yellow?

Thanks for all the input. It is a very light room but quite small. It's not a tiny box room but it's small enough that I think it's mostly going to be used for sleeping (we'll probably have moved house before a proper playroom-type nursery (or bedroom by that stage I suppose!) is needed). I think grey (yes, with lovely crisp, white woodwork) would be a lovely soft, soothing, sleepy colour, but I see the point about it risking tooking tomb-like - lots of tester pots needed, I think.

Thanks for all the useful comments (and for the lack of comments on why a nursery is qute unnecessary when one has a perfectly good coal cellar for when they outgrow the drawer .)

I think you could choose a softer, warmer grey.
the Farrow and Ball is a bit dense and harsh
Our living room is a grey which has purplish in some lights - it's very calming and it is versatile too - you can have yellows or greens or purples or even orange with it - all look stunning.
I'd be tempted to go with a lighter shade of paint and have a beautiful darker dandelion (which is gorgeous btw)

Oooh, that sounds a lovely shade, MerylStrop - can you remember what it is?

The dandelion does come in loads of great colours so could easily choose a darker one.

Ooooh, I love redecorating!

We used F&B's Skimming Stone in our DS's room. It is a grey with slightly lavender tones but we've used green highlights in the room and black and white graphic curtains so it's not girly at all (could have been very girly too if that was the direction we had wanted to go, but not sure if DS would have appreaciated it ;) )

Thanks, Sparky - will add to the tester pots!

Way too gloomy for the whole room -maybe have it as an accent wall (we had it in our old flat and used it with an off white on the other walls - Jonah's white or something -and it looked great).

I used that grey in my small sitting room. BIG MISTAKE! It is so cheerless, cold and dark and i cannot wait until i get time to paint over it with a lully happy yellow.

I hate to be one of those Farrow and Ball snobs but I think there is a difference between a straight grey from a standard supplier and a Farrow and Ball grey which has lots of colours mixed in (not just black lightened with white, if you know what I mean). We do get a lot of light in DS's room so that will make a difference but really the paint makes a huge difference. Ugh, I hate myself re-reading it, but I will stand by it nonetheless. If you are near one of their stores, go in and see if you can talk to someone. The manager in their Clapham store was so good with colour and basically designed our whole house for us :) Also ohdeedoh.com is great for ideas and inspirations and I'm sure I've seen lots of grey rooms on there. Of look, theyve even done a round up

we have just painted our hall Lamp grey with crisp white paint work. my husband chose it and it looks lovely. i am not sure that i would have chosen it for a nursery.

That website is amazing, Sparky. Good idea as well re speaking to F&B person. Thanks.

Yes it's lovely, especially with light wood as it means you can accessorise with pastel shades or brights for a girl or a boy. We did our tiny box room nursery in a f&b buff/ mouses back type colour- can't remember exactly but again worked with different styles & colours as we didn't know the sex when we were decorating. Yellow and green are just a bit ...

Am now swinging round to Elephant's Breath... really enjoying this bit, much better than angsting over prams!