The Best Neutral Paint Color....?
By DIY Maven
Several years ago I had the displeasure of babysitting model homes. You know the drill. ‘Welcome to (insert name of development here). This is the (insert name of the home plan here).’ After six hour days of the same spiel over and over and over, I started to lose it. I had to find ways to entertain myself, so I began keeping a running total in my head as to how many people had complementary remarks about the furniture, the cabinetry, the flooring, etcetera. Out of my tally came some interesting facts. Namely, above everything else, most people commented on the wall color. This particular builder, like most, painted the entire interior of the house with the same color, so the fact that people liked it was imperative.
After a dozen or so positive comments like ‘It’s neutral but it’s color’, I decided I needed to do a bit of investigating. During a lull in traffic, I searched the only place where I knew I might find the answer to this mystery. To the basement! Painters almost always leave behind leftovers from the job. This crew was no different. The color which appealed to the masses was none other than Benjamin Moore’s Bennington Gray. (The paint chip pictured below doesn’t do the color justice. It’s darker and more of a Café Aulait rather than gray.)
Bennington Gray likes to be paired up with rich colors. I’ve seen it work wonderfully with tomato red to pomegranate, pine to olive, navy to dark teal, ochre to saffron, juicy purples to eggplant and maroon. Although, if you want to keep it tranquil, hook Bennington Gray up with white or off-white for a relaxing-as-a-spa effect.
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Self-proclaimed Maven of DIY, I'm up for anything from gonzo rehab to dressing a room. Check...
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DIY Maven
cindyAtStaged4more
oh how silly of me, i should include what it looks like! here is link in one of the houses that i staged where they use swiss coffee & white trims. very simple but it just pops. here is the link: http://www.staged4more.com/135-madrone-san-francisco-staged-vacant-home-and-redesign.html
(the after photos... on the right side of the page)
DIY Maven
cindyAtStaged4more
very cool post! i am a stager so i love interesting tidbits like these. i think one of the main reasons why people always comment on the paint color is because they know the furniture is going to be gone and paint color is really something they have to actually spend money and time to change so they do pay more attention to it.
swiss coffee from kelly moore is another great color as well.
cheers,
cindy
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