Silver Lake

There is a mountain of sand at Mears with a different lake behind it and in front of it. Behind, Silver Lake — shallow, warm by the middle of June, the kind of water children refuse to come out of. In front, Lake Michigan, cold enough to take your breath in August. Cross over the top and the temperature drops and the wind changes direction on you. People have been paying to get hauled up those dunes in open trucks since 1930 just to watch it happen. A few miles down the shore Little Sable Point stands out on the open beach in bare red brick with nothing built around it at all.

Silver Lake is named for the quieter of those two waters and the palette follows — soft silvers, pale grays, and a hint of blue that comes and goes with the light. It is the coolest and most restrained blend we cut.

Which is exactly why it holds up across a large elevation. It reads consistently over a wide surface where a busier blend starts to look patchy from the road. Against white or light gray siding it settles in and stops asking for attention; against charcoal it reads as a cool complement. Specify it when the architecture is doing something clean and you need the stone to hold the line.