We have five different gray colors in our home...
Silver Fox
Coventry Gray
Boothbay Gray
Stonington Gray
Duxbury Gray
Needless to say...I love gray walls! I pretty much always gravitate toward interiors with gray walls, white trim and light furnishings. But with about a million different shades of gray out there, how do you decide which is best in your home? Here are the tricks I used when I was picking colors for our house.
1. Consider the Undertones
If you've worked with grays at all, you know they can really quickly turn blue, green, purple, brown, etc. This is because most grays have an undertone of some sort. When you're choosing a gray, think about the undertone you'd like to have. In our living room, I knew I wanted a "griege" or French gray - so I intentionally chose a gray with a strong taupe undertone (Silver Fox by Benjamin Moore).
{Here you can see how Silver Fox reads gray in the foreground, but more taupe in other parts of the room}
But in our hearth room and kitchen, I wanted a "clean gray" with little to no undertone. So I chose Coventry Gray, which does have just the slightest - slightest - bit of blue in just the right light, but mostly is a very true, simple gray.
{Coventry Gray in our kitchen. It's also used in our hearth room.}
2. Look at Its Neighbors
The paint's neighbors, I mean, not yours : ) When considering a color, I look at the darkest color on the strip from the paint store. That probably means those are the undertones that will be found in the lighter shade on the strip. If the bottom color is a rich blue-gray, the middle and lighter tones are most likely going to carry that same blue.
{Boothbay Gray - a blue-gray - in our master}
3. Look Up Colors Online
If I found a color I thought I liked, I would search the color on Google Images and Pinterest. This just helps me see how the color looks in real life and in different homes/lights. This isn't absolutely fail-proof, but I decided against several colors I was strongly considering from the swatch alone once I saw variations in photos. I found it very helpful!
{I fell in love with Coventry Gray after seeing photos of it in other beautiful rooms.}
4. Use Swatches, Not Samples
When we were buying our paint, the man at Benjamin Moore told us not to bother with those little sample pots. The reason is, to get an exact tone may take only a few drops of a color per gallon of paint (two drops of black or navy or something), but you can't replicate that in a tiny container (there's no way to get an eighth of a drop of color, if that makes sense). Some people swear by sample colors and trying them out, and there is certainly nothing wrong with it. But we ultimately did not sample any colors because of this advice, and I thought it was good to know! We did use large sample swatches (bigger than the little strips) Benjamin Moore let us borrow and held them up in the light of day in the space. This really helped.
{Stonington Gray in our hallway. I LOVE this color, but used it in our two bathrooms, office and hall, none of which are camera ready right now. Sorry I don't have a better photo! Beautiful painting by my talented grandfather Ed Pointer, who is a faithful reader of my blog. Hi Papa!}
5. Ask Your Friends!
I recently asked for favorite shades of gray over on Instagram and got so much great feedback! Top picks were Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore (number one by far - and probably an always-safe choice no matter your room), Edgecomb Gray by Benjamin Moore, Mindful Gray by Sherwin Williams and Stonington Gray. Ask around and see what your friends have picked...it's always great to get a second opinion!
{Last but not least, we used Duxbury Gray in our TV room...which is not a room I show on the blog as it's the man cave, but here you can at least what a dark, rich, slate-colored gray it is.}
What are your best tips for choosing paint colors? And what are your favorite grays? Please share!
