Trouble with choosing paint and natural lighting

mandms08

No matter what paint sample I try in this west-facing bedroom, it looks so blah. The room used to be a light grayish-blue. It was perfect with the carpet.

Then we removed the carpet and put in light maple flooring like this:

I want to repaint and I only want to do it once, considering it will be a nursery in a year or two. So I'd like a gender-neutral color.

I tried the SW's Proper Gray, which we also have in our 3rd bedroom (which has western and northern light). Horrible. It reads too blue in the 2nd bedroom. We have SW's Perfect Greige in the LR which is gorgeous in southern lighting. I tried a shade lighter on the swatch in the 2nd bedroom and it looks like a bandaid. And it tends to have no contrast between the color of the wall and the floor.

I also tried Martha Stewart's Plumage (I'm not afraid of color) but it was too cave-like. SW's Functional Gray was so blaaaaah but looked awesome in the 3rd bedroom when I tested it out there. I thought western light was supposed to be warm. But why is it turning grays blue? I even changed light bulbs but it doesn't help. Every color is ugly in that room even in natural light. What is it??

vsudarsan

Please do not spam the boards with links to your blogs.

vsudarsan

Sorry about that! I will not link my blog..

 Some suggestions to brighten a room with no light:

- a light wall color

- a bold decorative mirror placed strategically to reflect light

Hope this helps!

Vidya 

jenuine

In our west facing den with the same color wood floor, we have Benjamin Moore's Shaker Beige. It goes with everything with no undertones. It's a Pottery Barn color recommended by our painter.

This is what it looks like in a room online, not my room, but it's what it looks like.

SusieQ1981

Try BM's Edgecomb Gray.  We just painted this in our foyer (looking for a gray that would brighten without being too blue) and love it so far.

TarHeels&Rebels

Do you own fan decks?  Or a million paint chips?  When I've been really stumped by lighting, I've found that I need to go a very different direction to get the look I want.  There's no hand-picking 3 chips in the store - it's "sit down on the floor with 4 fan decks and 8 years of accumulated chips and try everything" time.

Try looking at more saturated colors, maybe some tans.  Western light is very strong, so colors can wimp out if they're not strong enough to stand up to it. (That's why I'm thinking you're saying they're "blah".)  It could be that the grays you've chosen have blue undertones and faced with the strong sun, they reveal their base color in their wimpyness.