Naomi Howard
We’re planning a Sherwin-Williams Tricorn Black wall for an accent in the living room, and we need to choose a gray color to go along with it. Tricorn Black Wall in the Living Room and Choosing a Gray Paint
I like being cut off to unwind, but not having any Internet (especially when you’re paying for it) for a few weeks really does a number on a blogger.
Thankfully our sweet new neighbor gave us her wifi password, but we’re trying to not use it that much since it slows her down.
But enough with the updates—let’s chat paint colors on the main level, specifically the living room. I wanted to paint, install a ceiling fan, hang some curtain rods, and get our new couch put together before we moved in.
Pro tip: black is a terrible color to practice cutting in with. Then I moved on to the remaining walls in the living room, and man did I agonize over that color.
Mike agonizing over what was surely his greatest decision to date (he said they all looked the same) After I stared at them for 2 days straight, I decided to paint my top two choices, Blizzard Fog and Icy Avalanche, right next to the Tricorn Black wall (this is before the third and final coat on the black wall):
I really wanted the black wall to pop, but I wasn’t sold on either color, so I ended up going with the second one, Icy Avalanche from Sherwin-Williams, tinted at 50% lighter. I was sold, so I finished off the remaining two walls (we hadn’t cut in that messy corner yet) and called it done.
It’s amazing what a difference the Icy Avalanche made in the room–it was liberating to paint over that bland ivory. We have embarrassingly been watching the smallest, worst TV on the planet but decided to hold off on buying something nice until we finally bought a house.
I had also dreamed of having a small sectional couch, but it just wouldn’t fit in any of the apartments we’ve lived in.
It’s so sleek looking, super quiet, and produces great air flow. We just put curtains up (thanks mom for ironing them for 6 hours, you’re the real MVP), but I still have to hem them, and I’m still figuring out how to set up the rest of the room as we settle in. Alright folks, popping in a whopping 4.5ish years after originally publishing this post in 2016.
It’s now 2021, and I noticed that this post gets a bit of traffic and questions from people looking for Tricorn Black and Icy Avalanche Googlers. The accent wall is perfect and looks great with the wall-mounted TV. Bonus—the green foliage of my pothos and snake plants I have over here look fab.
And I really love how the large white painted ceramic planter looks against the black wall.
Then I moved my desk up to our room (seen in my post on how to cut chipboard using a Cricut—I decorated the walls with it!) Okay but…all that time I spent agonizing over the light gray paint color.
At first I loved it, but after looking at it in multiple different lights and times of day, I decided it was too blue. So I decided to repaint all of the Icy Avalanche walls, as well as the rest of the floor that we hadn’t painted yet, with Sherwin-Williams Repose Gray. Also keep in mind that all of the updated photos above of the Tricorn Black walls have Repose Gray, too. Updated dining area shot in late 2020; see the DIY tiered plant stand
