Little Greene French Grey scale - how warm are they?

[adanac85]

So we moved into a 40s semi in the Peak District and the previous occupant painted it all mustard (actually it's F+B cord and matchstick). I want to create flow through the house and had previously decided on the French Grey colour scale for living room, hallway and dining room, but now I'm worried it's going to be too cold. Living in the Peaks means that it is cold anyway, so I don't want the house to feel cold due to the colours.

We are getting testers, but I don't want to spend ££££s on them, so I wondered if I could get your views on French Grey mid? Is it warm? It's going to be used in rooms that are south/north facing with lots of light and a hallway that is south facing with a double height stair case. We were thinking of China blue deep(?) as a feature colour in the dining room with French Grey mid.

But would rolling fog be a better bet? Or rubine ashes?

What complementary colours go with rolling fog or rubine ashes? Has anyone used Normandy grey?

I'm open to using dulux heritage or trade colours as well.

Similarly, in our bedroom we were thinking about welcome 109, but wondered if clay mid would be a better bet? It's also a south facing room, with a largish window.

Any opinions will be gratefully received, as I need to make a decision asap!! And I'm worried about overthinking it.

Argh!!

Thanks

I have a lot of LG light French grey in
my house for cabinetry. Love it! That doesn't really help you but not sure what your budget is but you can get F&B round for a consultation. It's 300 quid I think. Maybe 250z if you are doing a lot, may be worth it, much cheaper than making mistakes and loads of testers!

Thanks wheresmyphone! I've got an interior designer who suggested French Grey. I don't want to use F&B cos I think that the quality of the paint is a bit crap.

I think (from memory!) that it is a warmer grey, with some brown in it.

clay mid is lovely though, we have that in our bedroom. it is a popular choice. welcome is also nice but can look a bit purple which we werent keen on.

also love the blue china colours, but they are cold. what about james?

I spent a lot of money of lots of grey tester pots, I found the French grey range to be very true greys, no hint of other colours in it. Some greys you can see they have a hint of purple, blue or yellow.

I love rolling fog mid and now all of the downstairs is this colour with a couple of accent walls. It's a greige so feels warm. I was fed up of ordering more and more neural grey testers just to paint rooms different colours. I painted a tester of it on a wall and it seemed quite dark, but once I painted whole room it wasn't, it's a really lovely colour.

In my experience the French grey on the colour charts looked warm but in reality in my house looked a true grey and cold.

I'd take the colour chart guide with a pinch of salt, as I find they don't really represent how a colour looks on a wall. Mid rolling fog looked a bit like magnolia in the chart ( which is what we were painting over) but I'd heard good things about it so I'm glad I ordered a sample.

Thanks for your comments! I've put up samples of French Grey, French Grey Mid, Rolling Fog Mid and Rubine's Ashes in the various rooms. The results were surpising. Rubine's Ashes looks purple in our front room, but that might also be becuase the current colour is F&B Light blue which reflects a bluish light. Welcome looked blue and cold so that's out. Rolling Fog Mid looks quite pink in our hallway, while French Grey Mid looks a bit purpley. All in all, I'm not really sure?! I think part of the problem is that the existing colour is very strong and clashes with the ones that I want to change it to!

BumbleNova French Grey does seem to be both warm and cold depending on the room. i'm not that keen on it - but that might be because it's taking on the colour of the room which is a greenish tinge. I've also discounted Welcome as it's a bit too purple, China Clay mid is lovely though - so going to go with that!

13amielsaoranna I also really like Rolling Fog mid, but it has a tendency to look quite pink in some lights. I also wanted to paint the dining room/sitting room a darker shade of the hallway colour and i'm worried that Rolling Fog might be a bit to beige? Also, i'm not sure that it works with Tracery II which is the accent colour in the dining room.

I'm taken with French Grey Mid, but haven't decided if it is too cool for the rooms.

I've ordered little greene Slaked Lime mid and Slate II and Cotton III from Paint and Paper library. After that, if i still can't find a colour I'm going to paint everything white.

There's just too many choices. Our house was a new build so magnolia was everywhere. I'm looking at my walls now trying to see 'pink' in the rolling fog! I cannot see it in mine, but it's definitely more of greige rather than a grey. I tried out all the French greys in various spots on hall, stairs and landing and I didn't like any of them. Still actually have all the spodges there and I've looked at them again and they are definitely a true grey on the colder side of the spectrum.

I couldn't be bothered with all the headache of more tester pots so hall stairs and landing are going to be rolling fog mid

Hope you get sorted soon, I felt like a huge weight has been lifted of my shoulders once I'd decided on rolling fog everywhere bar a few accent walls, it's so silly, it's only blooming paint but what a stress it causes.

I did think of painting everywhere white too

We have Little Greene French Grey in our dining room. I would say it is definitely cool in tone but it is lifted by warmer wood table, chairs, sideboard etc. Flooring is Amtico Lime washed wood which ties it together with elements of cream, grey, and a light teak.
www.amtico.com/flooring/products/product-search/AR0W7660/

I agree with you re F&B re quality. My mate got them round for advice, spent quite a bit of money as she had a big house and then used the LG colours that closely matched the F&B colours😀

And whilst we are on the subject the divine Rita Konig gave a lesson in H&G on how to do testers. You paint a big piece of A 4 paper as a minimum. Do not paint a wall!
Move the paper round various walls but do not do it next to other colours. They bleed into each other. Seriously, do not start doing a succession of splodges next to each other.

Thanks all,

I'm now having second thoughts about using LG in the hallway as apparently it can scuff quite easily. Any suggestions of dulux equivalents? Maybe dulux heritage so that I can get it matched in an endurance or wipeable paint?

wheresmyphone I've painted the samples on lining paper with white borders. That way i can move them around the room to see what the light is like.

As much as I love Tracery II I can't find a colour that coordinates with it.