We recently discovered a leak from the second floor was coming through to our first floor. Joy. My husband walked into our kitchen one afternoon and said “Hey, what is that?” and there was a large bubble of water in the ceiling paint. Delightful. We initially thought it was our new shower and stopped using it immediately, but the contractor determined nope— brand new toilet! So they replaced the wood, drywall and reseated the toilet properly and then of course we had to have a good bit of the kitchen repainted. I was going to just do a color match of what we had and then an idea struck.
Why don’t we change the color?
So off to Sherwin Williams we went and selected 6 colors that spoke to us in the blue/grey family. Brought them home and half of them were immediately wrong with our quartz, backsplash and cabinets. Two were strong contenders and in the end, the win went to Earl Grey.
It has transformed our kitchen in a way I did not know was possible with just two coats of paint! It has caused my stainless espresso maker and refrigerator to almost appear glowing with satin metal. The high gloss black dishwashers, double ovens and cooktop all appear more deeply black now. It has brought a lot of visual pop to the glass backsplash above my cooktop, colors that were dominant before have receded visually and colors that had faded into the background are now very much front and center. The icy bluish, whitish, greyish flecks in my countertops are much more visible than they were with the old color. It is almost as if there was some sort of precision drill team movement of what was in front stepping back and those in back being the new star of the show.
I wasn’t there when the job was completed and had been in such an arduous meeting at work, I’d quite frankly forgotten it was kitchen painting day until I got a text from my husband with the simple question of “Is this the color you wanted?” and I drew in my breath. YES. YES. YES! A million times, yes! It was so much better than I’d anticipated! I could not wait to get home and see it in person.
The color on the walls is 100% Earl Grey, the ceiling is 75% Earl Grey. There is a sense of visual lift and my 8 foot ceilings don’t seem quite as low when we lighten the amount of color saturation in them. My thought is that it is a more finished room when the ceiling is painted, it truly is my fifth wall!
One day I’ll paint over this color, I am sure. The kitchen was Barbie pink when we bought our home. We had some serious vision of what could be. Then it was the deep terracotta color called Oriental Silk with a metallic finish on the ceiling which was so lovely 7 years ago, but had grown tired over time and now it is the soothing, restorative Earl Grey. I have no idea what color is next. I do know one thing though, I am enjoying this color tremendously and it has actually lifted my spirits to be greeted by this color for the past few days and it’s making me consider making some changes in at least two other rooms as well.
Someone once said, paint your door and change your life. I think there is something to be said about painting any room and refreshing your outlook on life.
What is your current favorite paint color, and why?
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