Top 5 Tips for Choosing the Right Grey for Your Home

10 years ago, the majority of us all lived in the land of beige. I know this because I too lived there.

When we bought our home, the entire thing, inside and out, was all beige with honey oak trim.  I was totally fine living in beigetopia because, frankly, I had no idea what else to paint these walls.

Then came the arrival of the new “it” color, grey. Now that was something that was calling my name.

The trouble was that every room in my home flowed into the next, and if I was going to change the color I was going to have to change it throughout the entire house.

That wasn’t daunting at all. I knew that once I started, I was committed, and there was no looking back.

I decided I was going to jump on the grey walls and white trim band wagon, so the next step was to figure out what color I was going to choose — because there are a bagillion shades of grey.

I had asked some of my blogging friends what color of grey they chose for their homes, and I set off to a couple of different paint stores to get paint swatches.

I got home with a slew of paint chips and started taping them to the wall. Why were none of them looking the same as they did in the stores?

So back I went again, picking up more swatches.

This time I had a few contenders.

Since I was going to need a giant amount, I decided to get samples to try out first.

I ended up with 9 samples, and I started slapping those babies up on the wall.

Wow, I had three shades that looked totally lavender, two that were too blue, two that looked totally white, and two that were possibilities.

My top two choices where Silver Dollar and GreyStone from Pittsburgh Paint and Stains.

If you recall, I have used their Grand Distinction paint before on my mantel, laundry room and entryway and had wonderful results.

I didn’t have to use a million coats, you could see no brush strokes, and I had no problem with chipping.

I decided to paint on some of both colors on different areas of the house since they all get different amounts of sunlight throughout the day.

Silver Dollar was really pretty, but was a bit more of a greige (a mix between grey and beige), and since I was wanting to get away from the beige, I decided to cross that one off of the list and go with the more neutral grey Graystone.

After I got a few walls entirely finished, I stepped back and was really happy with my choice.

I currently have tan furniture (to go with my former beige walls), and the Greystone doesn’t look bad with it. I will be replacing the tan furniture with a charcoal grey furniture over the summer, and I know that it will really pop against this wall color.

After I went through all of this, I realized that Pittsburgh Paint and Stains has a color visualizer that could have saved me so much time and effort. You can simply upload a picture of the room you are going to paint, and pick a color that you are interested in, and it shows you what the results would be!

How cool is that?

Here is the hallway before and after shots (I forgot to take the before shot before I painting the trim).

So to recap here are my top tips:

1. Figure out your vision for the room. If you choose a color first, not knowing what you want to do with the rest of the room (furniture, decor, etc), you might be disappointed in the long run. I knew that I would be keeping the same decor and only changing out the color of the furniture which I already had picked out. If you paint your room and then later on fall in love with new furniture that doesn’t go with it at all, you will be spending a lot of time repainting my friends.

2. Start off with paint swatches like you normally would.

3. GET SAMPLES! I can not emphasize this enough. Usually I am a grab-a-paint-swatch-off-the-shelf-and-then-immediately-have-them-mix-it-up kind of girl, but in this case with the grey I could not do this. This was the hardest color I have had to choose, and if I would have just choose the first paint swatch that spoke to me, I would be living in the land of lavender people. Start with the swatches, and then move onto having several paint samples mixed up. You really won’t be able to choose accurately until you do.

4. Place your samples on several areas of your home. I place mine in the hallway, the stairway landing and in the living room as they all get different amounts of sunlight throughout the day.

5. Wait 24 hours before you decide. The morning light, middle of the day and evening will all make your color look different. See how it looks as the day goes on.

6. Use the Pittsburgh Paint and Stains Color Visualizer. You can upload a picture of the room you are wanting to paint and paint it with the color you are thinking about choosing. There are over 1,100 colors to choose from and if you want a second opinion you are able to share it with your friends on social media!

 

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