Charcoal, Stone. Smoke, Silhouette

This is my latest foray into the world of colour.  The brownish colour is the one my son chose for his room a few years ago when I was painting like a fiend to get us moved into The Pokeaway.  Once he picked the colour, the decision was made to go ahead and paint all the upstairs rooms the same - leaving the upstairs hallway and living room green.

When my friends came to visit, I joked that we had dirt and grass as our colours.

The problem was that my son ended up not liking the colour. I felt his pain, because I have that experience of committing to a particular colour by buying two cans of paint of the chosen hue, and then hating it as I put it on the walls, but having no money (or energy) to change it up, and then having be resigned to living with it. 

My son felt it was oppressive, and it looked 'purple' (which in certain lights, I agreed was true) and so for a year and a half, we've been kicking around various ideas about a new colour.  He thought grey. 

The problem with grey is how elusive it is.  It has to be THE right shade.  Some shades of grey turn out more blue than grey.  And that can seem very cold.  Some shades of grey are very dark, and that can become grim. 

Fortunately, for us, we discovered a new thang that the paint stores offer now.  Little pots of paint with many choices of available pigments. Yay! 
I think I got a little carried away. I ended up with five of them.  I have to admit, it was much easier to swatch it on the walls than try and figure out if a 2X2 square of the colour was "THE" one.  It was a little messy though, as you can see. 
Well, we did make our decision and we loved the result. The grey we ended up with is rich without being overpowering, or too cold.  It was a win-win situation - that only cost as much as half a can of paint.