HELP!!! We are at the stage of finishing our basement where we pick out paint. Do you know how many shades of Gray there are!?!?! At least 50.... Since it's the basement, I want a light gray- but not too purpley or bluish or greenish. We do have a slider door & two windows- so there's some light at least down there. HELP! What's your favorite gray paint?
I wish I could remember the name of the gray we chose but it was a Jeff Lewis mediumish grey...he used it in the last 2 houses of his own, in his kitchen I believe. It's amazing.. but the rest of the house we chose Ralph Lauren for the warmth. We did Bridle in our dining room, which looked like chocolate pudding in the can. I loved both brands for so many reasons ♡
Ha! WE were painting our house when we moved about 5 years ago, and antagonized ourself. We finally picked out a color, and the painter started and finished the room in one day. DH calls me, and says, "Um.... it's blue!" I said "What?!" as you can imagine I was thrown off. Get home, nah, it's gray.... later... oh my, it really is BLUE! We left it be, and actually think it was the perfect color for the area anyway. We even got the little tubs to paint sections on the wall to be sure... but it still turned out blue. So.... I say go light and ask someone for help, explain your wants. Get the tubs, and paint areas ALL OVER the room to see how it will look in different spots! Let it sit for a week before making decisions.
@jk703 We did the same thing with the accent wall in our living room- and it has a purplish hue at nighttime that I never realized. lol! The sad thing is that we can't really sample it on the actual walls as they are just doing drywall now. I do have some samples that I've brought down there to look at in the day light & at night time- but again we don't have all the lighting installed yet... SO... we'll see I guess!
Yes get samples! Light can really change now a color looks. I love Offshore Mist by Behr; it looked quite gray in Home Depot but on my walls there is a blue undertone. It's gorgeous and it's what I wanted, but if I'd wanted a pure, neutral gray, then I'd have been upset. Let me see if I can find the other color choices I had when looking. I'll post them if I find them!
Greige! I tried going grey and it seriously depressed me, I live in a brown desert, and love the southwest brightness. I found brown undertones helped go with my decorating of brown leather, and wood the key is to find what is your desire...black undertones or brown
Ask the builder for scrap drywall. Prime it, and then paint it... then leave it all over the area that you want to paint. He should have some or know how to get you a few pieces!
I do like gray more than I'd like to admit. (Well, at least not in my hair, anyway!) We have gray siding on the second story of our house. It goes well with the red bricks and green shutters. I have big plans for light grays in my new home when I get there. I want those gray wood-look tiles that I posted in another post. They will go great with gray walls and white woodwork that I'm planning. I think gray is the new beige - nice and neutral and it goes with everything.
@jk703 Great idea! Thanks! Yes! The main & upper story of our house is entire greige color- I just think it's too dark for the basement... : Totally! I did want to go with those wood tiles for the flooring- but it's a HUGE area & it was going to be SUPER expensive- those are not cheap tile! We ended up staining the concrete & it looks SO good-
Paint colors are so hard and are hugely influenced by the other colors in the room. We did DD's room this past summer. She took forever to pick a color. She wanted something on that blue-green line, but falling on the blue side. We got multiple samples and she finally decided. We got the room all painted, and because of the warm undertones of the ceiling, trim, and carpet, it definitely looks green 99% of the time. It's pretty, but not what she had in mind. I told her we could repaint (we'd gotten a paint with a love your color guarantee), but after all that work she was just ready to be done. The strong color in your floor is definitely going influence how colors look in your room. This post from Chris Loves Julia might help?
GREAT suggestion, @AnneofAlamo . Personally, I don't get the "grey" fad. My DIL painted the entire house grey! LOL. I'd paint every room a different color if I could. But hubster said he was over the red Kitchen- so in this place it is soft white with turquoise.
I'm kind of thinking that with that strong brown on your concrete floor and the cool northern light up in WA state, you might go more towards a warmish greige. I love the tones of a cool gray but with our climate it can 'feel' too cold in a lot of the year. Rather than paint your walls with the sample, a lot of people I know get the big poster boards from the $Tree and paint them, moving them around the room at various times of day. I've been pretty happy with the colors of Benjamin Moore and am pretty set on a dark dark blue, almost blackish for the master bedroom which has been a deep forest green until the light from 4 windows over 30 years has lightened into pure shabby. It's the only room of our house that isn't a medium yellow save the one two red walls in our dining room. There are only 3 walls on one leading to the stairs is yellow because when it was red you could see how crooked the wall was! 100+ year old houses have these quirks!
We painted our kitchen gray. We nicknamed it battleship gray. I painted it what we thought was gray. While on the second coat neighbor came over and asked why were painting the kitchen purple??? So annoying had to pick out a darker gray. The first one looked lavendar after it dried... Good luck!
It probably won't help you at all, these are South African colours, but my whole house is painted Almond White, which I honestly thought was a grey colour. it certainly looks grey on the wall here.
That's a great idea! The majority of our house is a khaki colored beige- so I'm looking for something a bit brighter- our countertop & backsplash for the bar area is whites/grays so we're looking to blend the floor/dark stained doors/trim with the wall, as well as brighten up the basement. I actually have the poster board so that might be the route we go! Oh & also- we are in Eastern Wa where we do have cold/snowy winters, but we have MUCH more sun & a super hot summer than western WA! That's about the exact color of our entire house (besides the basement.) It's also painted along the stairway down to the basement & just feels really dark- thus the lighter color... I may go with more of the brown undertones tho to stay away from the blue/purple look!
If there are any spare pieces of drywall laying around, prime them and paint them your sample colors. Then you can move those pieces around the room. We did that when we picked paint colors for the house we were building and it worked out really well. It doesn't help with the lighting issue but at least with day light.
When we painted our house we picked out a grey color (I can't remember what it was), but our contractor (who happens to be my brother) called me when the painters were there & said, "Come over here right now! Your house is purple!". LOL. So I stopped what I was doing & went to check it out. On some walls, it looked purple on some grey and some even had a brownish color. I was okay with it. Once we got all the furniture, rugs, art on the walls, etc. it balanced out and I like it. Now that we've been in our house 3.5 years I've been going through and repainting my rooms with different colors...mostly more white.
I actually repainted my living room from one gray that read a little too blue to one that's just more gray. My bedroom and bathroom are two different shades of gray that do come off a little lavender(y) but it totally works with the design scheme up there. My living room color is Bay Waves from Valspar. I used one shade up Polished Silver up my staircase and I do love how it turned out.
Here's where we are so far: I like these two which are funny how they look on the drywall & on the stairway. They both match the tile well & will complement the dark cabinets & floor. We'll see what they look like in the daylight! ugh.. so hard!
