There Really Are 50 Shades of Grey

I can't tell you how many times I've had a customer say to me: “My walls are grey, but I want a beige sofa. Can I do that?”

My first question is always: “What colour grey?”

Because there really are 50 shades of grey!

Grey isn't just grey. It can be warm. It can be cool. It can have blue, green, purple, brown or even yellow undertones. And that undertone matters far more than the word grey on the paint chip.

This Is Why I Usually Lean Toward Greige

Personally, I'm much more likely to lean toward a beautiful greige than a true grey. Why? Because it's easier to live with.

A good greige gives you warmth while still giving you the softness of grey. It tends to work with more of the things we're actually putting into a room—wood flooring, upholstery, rugs, stone and other natural materials.

It's also simply easier to find fabrics and flooring that work with it. You're giving yourself more options rather than painting yourself into a corner. Literally!

With a truer grey, I may steer the upholstery toward a pewter or a taupe that leans more grey rather than introducing a very warm beige that suddenly feels disconnected from everything around it.

Again, it isn't about whether grey and beige “go together.” It's about which grey and which beige.

A Couple of My Favourites

One of my favourites is Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray. It's a beautiful, soft greige—but, as with any paint colour, it depends on the lighting.

I also love Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter, but be careful with this one. Depending on the room and what's around it, it can pull an undertone you weren't expecting. I've seen it take on a purple cast.

That's why I never believe in choosing a paint colour because someone told you, “This is the perfect greige.” There is no perfect greige for every house. Lighting Is HUGE.

I learned this in my own house with Benjamin Moore November Rain. During the day, it could look almost white. In the evening? Green. And put something pure white beside it and suddenly you could really see it—it was a green-grey. Same paint. Same walls. Completely different read.

Natural light matters. The direction the room faces matters. Your light bulbs matter. The time of day matters. Even the colours and finishes already in the room can change what your eye sees.

Please, Sample Your Paint!

This is one thing I highly recommend before committing to a paint colour: get a sample and put it on your actual walls. And don't paint one little square and make your decision ten minutes later. Paint it directly onto a few different areas of the room. Then live with it for a couple of days.

Look at it in the morning.

Look at it at noon.

Look at it at night.

Look at it on a bright sunny day and again when it's grey and overcast outside.

It will change.

You may love it at 10 a.m. and wonder what on earth happened to it at 7 p.m. That's not the paint changing colour. That's the light changing how you're seeing the colour—and sometimes that's when an undertone you didn't even notice suddenly makes an appearance.

A little sample pot and a couple of days can save you from repainting an entire room.

And I'm Not Saying Everything Has to Be Greige!

There are times when colour is absolutely the better choice. This is where that old colour wheel we all learned about comes back into play.

For example, a beautiful steel blue wall can look phenomenal with blond wood flooring.

Why?

Blue and yellow are complementary colours. The yellow undertone in that blond wood comes alive against the blue instead of fighting with it.

That's the difference between simply picking two colours you like and understanding why they work together.

Sometimes the answer isn't finding a neutral that goes with everything. Sometimes it's choosing a colour that makes what you already have look even better.

So when someone tells me:

“My walls are grey, but I really want a beige sofa.”

My answer isn't yes.

And it isn't no.

It's:

“Show me the grey.”

Then we can talk about your beige sofa.