Tired of gray? Even with more than 50 shades available, gray might not be the best neutral for your home. While it has been popular for close to a decade now, a shift back to beige is just beginning to take place. So, how do you determine which neutral is right for your home?
First, take a look around. Start in your entryway and walk through your house following the natural flow from front to back through the living room and ending in the kitchen. This is typically where your neutral color will go. If you have a two-story foyer or living room, go up the stairs and take note of the colors you pass along the way, like the banisters, for example. What color are your kitchen cabinets and countertops? Do you have white, chrome or black appliances? All of these will come into consideration when choosing your neutral color.
Next, take a look at your furniture and accessories. Do you have a lot of natural wood? What is a prominent color theme in your home? If you have lots of blue and gray and green, then you probably want to pick a cool neutral with blue or green undertones in the gray family. If reds and yellows dominate, then a warm neutral, like beige, is likely best.
You can determine the undertone color by looking at the color wheel or strip. Pick the lightest color you think you’ll want for your walls. Then, look at the darkest color on that same strip, which is where you’ll more easily see the undertone color. By making sure your undertone goes with what you want, the chances of being happy with your paint color greatly improve!
Flooring is another consideration when choosing wall color. If your tile or carpeting is beige, beige is what you should put on your walls. Same goes for gray. If you’ve got white or off-white, then you can choose either.
Greige is a color that gives you the best of both worlds by blending gray and beige together. Some of the most popular greige colors, according to The Spruce, are Benjamin Moore “Revere Pewter,” “Edgecomb Gray,” and “Gray Mist,” Behr “Silver Drop” and Glidden “Stonehenge Greige.”