Agreeable gray

Have you ever stared at paint swatches all day? Let me tell you... it's not all that fun. I think I stared at paint swatches for an entire week before deciding on a color for my main living area. Picking a color was a challenge since my living room, kitchen, and dining room are all connected, so I wanted to pick the same color for the entire area. I had to choose a color that would look good with the hardwood floors & doors, the lighter wood cabinets in the kitchen, the black granite & my black leather furniture (hand me downs from my mom which I'm not a huge fan of... but they're comfy). The point is, there was a lot of things this paint had to match! So I knew I wanted something neutral, and after some online inspiration I decided that I wanted to go for gray. There are soooo many grays to choose from- cool grays, warm grays, grays with blue undertones, green undertones, red undertones... I didn't know what the heck I was doing. But eventually I settled on "Agreeable Gray", by Sherwin Williams. I mean... it's agreeable, right? Theres no way I could go wrong with that. 

Agreeable Gray is on the far left, second row. I couldn't decide between basically all of the colors on that row. I got input from two of my friends, who both chose Agreeable Gray, so I went with it.

Here is the living room before I moved in, with the previous homeowner's furniture still in it. As you can see, the walls were that cool blue color. I wasn't having it. 

And here is the living room with my furniture... in Agreeable Gray! Originally I thought I wanted to go with a gray & yellow throw pillow scheme, but I eventually nixed that idea since I realized I had absolutely no yellow decor and too much money would have to be spent to get it looking pretty. As I mentioned earlier, the black leather furniture is definitely not my choice. The furniture is "hand me downs" from my mom & stepdad. Although the black leather isn't what I would have chosen, it's a nice set of furniture and it's really comfy. I also have a lot of other things to buy before I can think about getting a new set for my living room, so for now, I'm making it work. The throw pillows in this picture as well as the white throw were all purchased at HomeGoods. 

 This is what I decided on instead! This is much cozier and much more my style. Also, the fact that there are so many different colors makes it a lot easier to decorate instead of having to focus on just buying yellow & gray. I love the elephant pillow. I'm basing my whole living room decor off of this pillow, it has so many colors in it and I love the whimsical, exotic feel that it has. All of these pillows and the throw are from Pier 1 imports, and were significantly more expensive than the ones from HomeGoods... but I decided that since I spend a lot of time in this room, it was worth spending some money on some nice pillows. Also, if and when I decided to get a new living room set, I will probably go with a white or tan couch, and since these pillows are so colorful they will still work on a light sofa :)

Isn't Agreeable Gray so... agreeable?

 Had to buy a matching pillow for the armchair, too! The one in front is the matching one I bought from Pier 1, and the teal beaded pillow at the back I had from before. I think I stole it from my mom at one point... thanks mom! 

My new favorite pillow!