At its moody best, the color gray is calming and dramatic. It’s less severe than black but more interesting than white.
“People are looking for neutrals beyond beige and white,” says House Beautiful editor in chief Stephen Drucker. He calls gray a “complex neutral,” with a versatility that makes it suitable for a modern high-rise condo or a stately English house.
When smartly applied, the effect can be breathtaking. Yet gray can also go very wrong very quickly, Drucker says.
Painting an urban apartment gray could be deadly if the city’s natural light is already gray; this combination could make the space feel too cold. The same color painted in a cottage in lush green countryside, however, could look warm and inviting.
It’s a tricky balance, but Texas-based interior designer Laura Manchee made gray work in the home of Tom Edens, an avid art collector.
Edens wanted a clean backdrop that would make his contemporary pieces pop, Manchee says, so she chose Sherwin-Williams’ Youthful Gray. It gave the English Tudor-style house a “museum quality” without the usual stark and cold air.
Although there’s no set formula, Manchee says contemporary homes tend to look good with cooler blue-grays while more traditional settings call for warmer grays with brown or green undertones.
To pick the right gray for a room, Sonu Mathew, senior interior designer for Benjamin Moore Paints, suggests painting a large foam or poster board to hang on your wall.
Then observe how the light alters it throughout the day. It’s typically safe to go one level lighter than you had planned when it comes to an interior, but one shade darker for an exterior.
Try accents in turquoise, violet, celadon, eggplant, rust, baby blue, chartreuse or pink. Even white trim will make it pop. Despite the color’s traditionally gloomy connotations, gray can be uplifting.
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