Last weekend I saw She’s Out of My League– which was a pretty hilarious rom-com, I must say!

How could you forget the infamous scene where Kirk meets Molly’s dog and family for the first time? (oy, oy oy- poor Kirk)

While the whole crowd was roaring in laughter at this encounter, I was busy gazing at the paint color and wallpaper in Molly’s apartment.  (oh, the visual distractions that come with being an interior designer!)

I couldn’t get enough of her large scale floral wallpaper that was used as an accent wall and I also fell in love with the taupey-gray paint color on the surrounding walls.

Her paint color got me thinking about some of my current projects, in which I’ve been specifying this color a lot lately (as a paint color and in upholstery/pillow fabrics)

This color is quite amazing in that it doesn’t go completely warm/brown, but it also doesn’t go completely gray, which can come across as cold and uninviting.  It really is the perfect happy medium and can be used in any type of space- more contemporary or more traditional.  It all depends on what you pair it with!

Right now I’m working on a residential office/guest room project that will primarily be used by a male.  We wanted to stay pretty masculine and modern with the fabrics in this room and decided to incorporate charcoal, white, icy blue, and that good ole taupey gray in his color scheme.

As luck would have it, Duralee had the perfect fabric to tie my whole color scheme together.  I’m using this Cobalt Sapphire fabric on large pillows on a charcoal sofa.

{Duralee- Cobalt- Sapphire}

Today my mission was to pick out the perfect taupey-gray upholstery fabric for the coordinating side chair.  I returned with about twenty fabrics (but immediately eliminated half of them).  Just like most neutrals, taupey-gray fabrics can be difficult to select since they can have all sorts of undertones  (and can look either more pink, gray, brown, or green) so it’s really important that you select the best match for the space.

{My taupey-gray fabric options- this is only the half of them!}

After much deliberation, the winner of my taupey gray challenge was Pindler and Pindler’s Marlow-Greystone!  (one of their new fabrics)  It really was the best match to the taupey-gray in the Duralee fabric.

Moral of the story- don’t get distressed.  The right fabric with the right undertone is out there somewhere!  As they always say, you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince…I guess the same philosophy can apply to neutral fabrics! (just don’t experiment with too many frogs, or you’ll end up like me with a million fabrics to return to the design district!)