How to Choose the Perfect Exterior Gray Paint Color
How to Choose Exterior Gray Paint Color. Keep reading for Home DIY Projects, Easy Home Updates and Home Improvement Hacks. Ideas for Sherwin Williams Greige Paint Colors!
Choosing an exterior gray paint color was WAY harder for me than choosing an interior color. I think it was the pressure of knowing that this wasn’t just for us, EVERYONE driving by would see it. I was so worried about colors not going well together or choosing something boring.
To top it all off, I knew I wanted to go with gray. But there are SO MANY grays to choose from! How do you narrow it down?
I knew I had to see the paint on my house. This meant buying MANY paint samples. In the end, I probably had over $100 worth of paint samples by the end, but to me it was worth it. I had to see the paint on the house, in different lights, to be sure it was going to be right.
First, here is the before!
Now, our house was 13 years old at the time, and the paint was starting to fade. I also knew I wanted to add some contrast. I hated that the trim and the main color were the same. To me this was a huge missed opportunity to add some interest.
Also, I wanted something to complement the stone, which I really love. There are lots of colors going on in this stone, but most of it is in the gray family. I felt like going with a gray would be safe.
Then I went to Pinterest and spent hours searching for some examples of exterior gray colors. This is how I got most of my ideas (and also why I’m making this post, hopefully it helps someone else going through this process!)
I first brought home a bunch of paint chips and held them up to my stone to compare. This helped me narrow it down to a few to try.
The Samples
Next, I bought the samples, got my paintbrush out and found some hidden spots on the house to test. Ultimately I ended up trying the following colors (all Sherwin Williams colors):
- Dovetail
- Requisite Gray
- Acier
- Dorian Gray
(this is the order on the picture below, top to bottom)
Looking at the picture, they do seem very similar to me. I quickly realized that the more brownish grays looked better with my stone. This led me to knock out Requisite Gray pretty quickly. Dovetail, Acier and Dorian gray are all on the same color strip and coordinate well together. Dovetail seemed darker than I wanted, so now I was between Acier and Dorian gray.
I decided to paint bigger sections of these two colors in two separate spots on the house: one that is mostly shady, and one that gets direct sunlight. Exterior gray paint color can look very different depending on the light.
Shade
Sun
See how different they look depending on the light!
I knew in my gut I loved the lighter Dorian gray. But after spending (way too many) hours on Pinterest, I started to think that this was going to be way too light/bright for our house. I didn’t want our house to be “glowing” or washed out.
Free Consultation
I needed another opinion on our exterior gray paint color. That’s when I decided to take advantage of Sherwin William’s FREE virtual color consultation offer. My first thought was that this would not be very useful. How could someone tell me through a phone screen what color was going to go best with my house?
I was so wrong! This was an amazing service! My consultant was extremely nice and patient. To top it off, without me even telling her what colors I liked, she brought up Dorian Gray on her own! This was when I finally allowed myself to trust my gut and go with what I liked. She was super helpful in recommending the perfect coordinating colors as well. She recommended that we paint the part of our house that has shake detailing a darker color, to provide some contrast and make sure the stone doesn’t look too washed out with the lighter Dorian gray. We decided to go with Dovetail for the shake.
The Final Decision
My final color palette ended up being:
- Dorian gray for the siding
- Dovetail for the shake
- Egret white for the trim
- Tricorn black for the shutters and door
The BEFORE and AFTER of our Exterior Gray Paint Color
Here’s a quick reminder of what our house looked like before:
And here is the after:
Garage before (pardon the messy garage):
And after:
We LOVE how it turned out! There is more contrast, and the color really complements the stone. Before I was puzzled about why they went with tan when the stone is so gray. Now everything coordinates well. I also love the contrast of the black shutters and door.
