C.B.I.D. HOME DECOR and DESIGN: GRAY PALETTE

4/16/13

GRAY PALETTE

CREATING COLOR SCHEMES

Choosing a color palette for your home may seem daunting, but doesn't have to be all that difficult to achieve. Just remember you are creating a backdrop - one that will compliment, but really fade to the background once you have furniture, rugs, draperies, pillows, lamps and accessories in place. The best wall colors do. They should sit softly in the background, supporting the overall design, but not trying to grab your attention or upstage your furniture. Unless that is your design - but that's a whole other story... Remember the word 'backdrop' and relax.... it's only paint....

Hi Claudine,

I love your website! You are so generous to share such a wealth of information with your readers. We are moving and want to have a gray color scheme on the walls in our new home. We're hoping to use 2-3 different gray wall colors throughout the home to provide some visual interest but that will also create a nice flow. (Our accent color through accessories will range from light aqua to a fun punch of bright turquoise.) The problem is that I cannot find a gray color that does not turn green/yellow/warm/muddy in the home's lighting. I really want true gray colors with no warm/greige undertones. I also don't want anything that will read blue, though. It's a small house that is a bit dark, so I think we should stick to light-grays with maybe one room being a medium-gray. The trim throughout the house is off-white and, although bright white trim would probably look better, I don't think we'll be repainting the trim anytime soon. The hardwood floors throughout the home are a medium oak tone. Can you recommend a few Benjamin Moore gray paint colors to try that would all flow nicely together and that won't turn warm? Thank you!Anonymous

This is a good opportunity to demonstrate the power of the Benjamin Moore online color palette.

Here is a sampling of their grays with a green undertone. Look at the top and the colors will tell you the undertone if you can't see it. Fatigue Green, Artichoke, Mediterranean Olive, Sage, Guacamole - all obvious

green colors. As you travel down the chart you will see less of the undertone and it gets a little harder to distinguish the green - its still there though. You might not see it until the evening light hits it, but its still there.

Now look at the beiges. Beige still has undertones. These have a green undertone as well, as you can see by the darker colors of Avocado, Dark Celery, Oregano, Foot Hills, Newt Green. You can see that they start pretty green, and then by Newt Green there is more brown. Be aware again, that in the lighter tones of these colors (each top color is the darkest in a strip - follow it down and you have the lighter version of that color)

may not have an obvious to the eye green undertone, but it is still there. Just like the grays. If you are looking for a green undertone - that's perfect. If you are not, it can be a nasty surprise come sundown.

Since you are looking for a gray that 'won't turn warm', I recommend looking in the middle pure gray to blue undertone area. Once you have found a chart you like - pick 2 -3 colors to build your palette for your home. You can pick from other charts, too, but that gets more complicated...

You can look and explore on your own, but for convenience sake I will make some recommendations - these grays have nearly no visible undertone - to just a slight blue undertone. You can easily pick a palette for your home from them.