Choosing a Gray Paint Color

First of all, let me just say that choosing a gray paint color is about as hard as deciding how to spell the color's namesake. (According to Grammarist, grey and gray are two spellings of one word. Both are correct, while gray is most common in American English. But, I see it interchangeably used all the time, which keeps me kind of off balance and wondering how in the world I should spell it. I think the UK and US should have a pow wow, decide on one way to spell gray or grey and stick to that. In my head, I've played it out how the US will argue for gray and the UK will argue for grey and no one will agree and it will spark this huge nation-wide debate, leading to a boycott of the UK and a general degeneration of international relations between the two countries. I think I have an overactive imagination.)

Anywho, back to the matter at hand. Gray. So many grays to choose from. Blue-grays and purple-grays and green-grays and beige-grays (or greige). How in the world is one supposed to muddle through all of the various shades of gray. (Haha. No pun intended on that one.) 

I tackled the seemingly impossible task of narrowing down the playing field to four. (A couple of these thanks to suggestions from Instagram friends.) 

1. Sherwin Williams Repose Gray
2. Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray
3. Benjamin Moore Gray Owl
4. Benjamin Moore Winter White

This color is going in our main living space and there is various amounts of light throughout the room, making the colors look totally different on one side of the room compared to the other side. So, I put up the swatches in five different areas so I could see the colors in all types of light. Some areas get lots of natural light while others get no natural light, but just some really bad overhead light. I think that when you're choosing any paint color, it's important to do this for you to get a true feel of the color in the different areas, and also to see how the color changes throughout the day as the light changes.

No natural light here. These colors look  totally different in this area than in an area with lots of natural light.

I also wanted to make sure that the gray I choose looks good beside my kitchen cabinets, so I put a swatch there. My cabinets are painted with Black Fox by Sherwin Williams. It's a really dark gray.

At this point, I'm leaning toward Gray Owl or Repose Gray. Mindful Gray read too purple in the room and Winter White was just too, well, white. Repose Gray did seem a little on the blue side at certain points in the day so I think right now Gray Owl is in the lead. Unless I change my mind. Which is entirely possible. I'm going to look at them for another couple of days before I decide. Do you have any favorite gray (or grey) paint colors? Leave me comment and let me know!