Home & Garden Gray/grey paint!

L etoile

L etoile

tPF addict
O.G.
Jun 9, 2007
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1,996
#1
DH and I recently painted a room with Restoration Hardware Slate paint and it's a perfect dark gray for that room. I wanted to paint a nearby room with RH Graphite paint (lighter version of Slate) but my test area ended up looking super taupe/beige. "Greige" is the term for gray/beige, I guess. I tried the Slate on a wall in that room, and it ended up looking more like greige, too. I guess that room is very light, so gray paints read differently in there. It's just so weird that a dark gray paint can look taupe in another room.

I had to find something else that would be a cooler (vs. warmer) hue for my unpainted room. I tried Benjamin Moore Coventry Gray and BM Platinum. I need the paint to match other grays on the floor + a blue-gray rug + a green-gray sofa. I never realized how many versions of gray are out there... blue, green, purple, brown, etc.

Has anyone else tried to paint with gray?
 
#2
I painted my bathroom this color

2d8746b5.jpg


we only matched it with white accessories so it was easy.
 
#3
Matching greys is as difficult as matching reds. Because there are so many undertones in grey, they can run cooler or warmer, or even veer toward entirely different colours (many greys end up looking green, IMO). I am not sure there is any other answer than testing areas in the room because incandescent light vs flourescent light vs natural light will all make a huge difference, both in the colour the walls appear to be, but also what colour the furniture and other elements appear to be.

I used to work in printing, and we often had to advise customers that the colours they placed next to grey in the page would influence the tone of the grey. Once we had a customer insist that the grey was veering pink, but when we folded the page to eliminate the other colours affecting the eye, it looked cool. Grey can be one of the most difficult colours to get "right" because it isn't just what it is; it is affected by everything near it.
 
#4
Gray is the hardest color! I painted a bathroom 3 times to get the right one.I just painted over a room in Coventry gray because it seemed to have yellow undertones and be dull. A beautiful cool medium gray is BM's Dior Gray . It is probably my favorite one.
 
#5
HauteMama said:
Matching greys is as difficult as matching reds. Because there are so many undertones in grey, they can run cooler or warmer, or even veer toward entirely different colours (many greys end up looking green, IMO). I am not sure there is any other answer than testing areas in the room because incandescent light vs flourescent light vs natural light will all make a huge difference, both in the colour the walls appear to be, but also what colour the furniture and other elements appear to be.

I used to work in printing, and we often had to advise customers that the colours they placed next to grey in the page would influence the tone of the grey. Once we had a customer insist that the grey was veering pink, but when we folded the page to eliminate the other colours affecting the eye, it looked cool. Grey can be one of the most difficult colours to get "right" because it isn't just what it is; it is affected by everything near it.
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I could not have said it any better than this. really good post.
 
#6
We're going to try BM Platinum in the room; it's a medium green gray. I'll let you all know how it turns out! I really wish that we could carry RH Graphite/Slate into this room, but the beige in these would never work. In any other room, Slate would be my first choice. I love how the Slate looks in our guest bath but that room has no natural light.

BM coventry gray ended up being TOO cool/blue/silver for me.
 
#7
eckertle said:
We're going to try BM Platinum in the room; it's a medium green gray. I'll let you all know how it turns out! I really wish that we could carry RH Graphite/Slate into this room, but the beige in these would never work. In any other room, Slate would be my first choice. I love how the Slate looks in our guest bath but that room has no natural light.

BM coventry gray ended up being TOO cool/blue/silver for me.
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It is so crazy what light does to different colors. My house makes everything look warm. BM's Decorator White, which is a very bright white, almost looks off- white in my house, but in a friend's house it is so white it looks clinical.
 
#8
BM creek bend reads as a nice neutral grey to me in varied light...there is another which I believe is called BM timber wolf which is definitely a cool medium grey.
 
#10
Our master is painted with two colours of grey - one slightly darker shade for the wall that the bed is against, and one slightly lighter shade for the rest of the walls. To top that, we just had our exterior painted.. Yup, grey. We used a medium grey for the body, dark gray for the slump block, and then white for the trim. It's difficult finding a true GREY that doesn't look blue or brownish.
 
#12
bnjj said:
Gosh, I had been thinking of painting my bedroom grey but now am not so sure.
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I recommend it - we love ours! :tup:

Grey is such a great neutral; I much prefer it to any taupe, beige, or shades of brown. I live in the desert, and literally *everything* is brown here - nature and decor. :lol: Grey is a refreshing neutral, IMO, and you'd be surprised what what you can do with a grey palette.
 
#13
betty.lee said:
i've used timber wolf but had ample light. it definitely doesn't read as yellowy. very nice color.
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Timber wolf seemed very blue in our light, but it's a beautiful color!

DH and I just finished painting one wall with BM Platinum and it's BEAUTIFUL. The other wall is about halfway done (trim done, almost done rolling the middle). I'm so happy that we chose that color. We're only doing 2 walls in the room... the other wall will stay white because it houses a huge floor-ceiling window with black trim. The "fourth" wall doesn't exist... the room is open to our white kitchen. The two gray side walls seem to frame the white wall with the big window now. I absolutely love it!

Gray is my new favorite color. RH Slate looks amazing in our guest bath. Now, I'm equally in love with BM Platinum.

One thing that I've learned is that there is no good substitute for getting a sample can of paint and actually painting it on different sections of the wall that you want to paint. I tried 4 colors on 4 spots on 2 different walls. The lighting makes a huge difference. One color would look blue on one wall, then taupe on another. I felt like we spent a ton of $$ on sample cans, but in the end, it's worth it. We got the exact color that we wanted.
 
#14
grey is definitely a hard color..... i wanted to paint my bedroom a grey with a slight purple tint. i think what i got is a purple with a slight grey tint lol

greys and greens are like the devil paint colors. they're so hard to pick out the color you think you want from a swatch.
 
#15
We picked Sherwin Williams krypton for our bedroom - grey with a touch of cool blue. Well, my bedroom is blue with a touch of grey :smile: but I love it anyway. It looks beautiful.

Grey is tough!
 
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