Heavy Goose or Dolphin?

Paint color names always crack me up. At one point when I was working at the ACAD library, my coworker and I looked up how a person gets the job of naming colors. Turns out it involves a marketing degree. It would be a pretty cool job.

I decided to go with subtle grey tones on the walls of this house. After checking out this super cool website Retro Renovation. I stumbled upon a post about mid century colors done by California Paints. California paints has a 20th century pallet with authentic period colors. Including the 1930's-40's, which would be a good resource for another gal I know who just bought a house, Stephanie I'm talking to you!

I started to look for colors that were close to Modern White, Organic White, Post War White, Conservative and War Weary. Because we don't have California Paints in the bustling metropolis of Lethbridge, Alberta, I looked for similar's at Home Depot. Instead of buying the gallons and then changing my mind later, causing the vein in Bill's head to pop out, I planned ahead and bought samples! Responsible!

*Please excuse the terrible quality of the photo, my camera is in a box so all my pictures are taken with my iPhone.

We ended up choosing the first (Silver Drop) and second (Heavy Goose) colors (going left from right). They are the closest to Post War White and Organic White. The third color which I loved in the sample and the one that is closest to Conservative, looks really flesh toned with the warm wood, and really grosses me out. And Bill nixed the last one since it was too dark for his liking.

We chose Behr's-Silver Drop for the living room and hallway.

And Martha Stewart's-Heavy Goose for the Bedrooms.

It's difficult to tell the difference on the computer screen but Heavy Goose is a darker cooler grey, while Silver Drop is lighter and warmer.

Here is a pic of the bedroom wall (I've purposefully cropped it so you can't see our bedroom, Bill and I are living like the Bouvier Beale's right now). Done in the Heavy Goose.

And a pic of the office done in the same.

Once it is on the Martha Stewart paint line looks nice, but I would not purchase the brand again. The coverage is not great and it's kind of gummy. I have a bit of sanding to do in a few areas. However I really like the the Martha Stewart palette and the chips are true to color and laid out nicely. If the paint formula was better I would be all over this brand. But won't use it again. I might just get the chips color matched into another formula.

Here is our living room in Behr's Silver Drop in a matte finish. The Home Depot guy was hesitant to give me a matte finish as you have to let it cure at least a month before you wash the walls. I assured him I would restrain myself from washing the walls for July.