How to Make Gray Paint Choices You will Love this Valentine’s Day

Grey is an elegant neutral and really easy to work with in a decorating space. As a colour choice grey has many virtues – one of which is its ability to hide flaws – smudges and fingerprints. It’s also goes-with-everything and is easy to pair with just about any other colour. Two shades of varying hues will give a room added depth and it makes subtle colours more complex and bold tones pop. It’s often described as relaxing – zen even – with a touch of drama and some modern glamour and in decorating circles, grey is considered the new white – but it’s more elegant and more interesting. 

When used well, grey can lend interiors an elegant formality that is subtle without being overly conservative.  As the perfect neutral background – it works for lots of different decorating styles but there are mistakes that can be made if your grey choice ends up too cool or too warm; both evoke different moods in a room. Leading paint company, Prominent Paints, has simple tips that can be considered when working with grey and picking out the perfect grey hue: 

• Use a semi-gloss or high-gloss finish when painting walls in grey tones and the colours in the surrounding areas will reflect on the wall, giving it life.
• Buy paint samples and test on multiple walls in the room you are making over.
• Once you have painted your sample leave your paint to sit for 24 hours so you can see it in different light at different times of the day. (This will help avoid landing up with a grey that looks purple at night – which is an easy and commonly made mistake)
• If you cannot decide from your 1m square paint block samples – go bigger and paint a big area; in this case size does count.
• Decide on your décor vision and colour scheme before selecting your shade or you may end up having to buy 50 shades of grey to get to the prefer grey. For example if you plan to pair a sunny yellow and grey, you cannot opt for a green-gray.
• Paint large pieces of paper or the inside of a shoebox and hang them up on the wall so you can see how the light bounces around the walls.
• Once you have painted your samples on your wall – live with them for as long as a week – seeing it in different lights for multiple days will give you a more realistic picture of what you have chosen (this actually works for all paint colours not just grey.)
• When you’re deciding between a cool or warm grey for interiors take into account the flooring, cabinetry, lighting fixtures, wood trim (painted or stained) and the colour of the bricks in the house. The undertone of your interior elements should match the undertone of the grays you use.
• When choosing a grey paint, consider where it sits within the paint chart; is it in the yellow section, the blue, or the red? Cool grays have more blue undertones, while warm grays are grounded in yellow and brown — similar to “greige,” a combination of gray and beige.
• For rooms without much natural light, pick a warm grey; its slight golden hue will make a dark space less dreary.
• Many people are hesitant to use yellow but when marry it with grey, it works. You can create a cheery space by using a soft grey with vivid yellow accents or a soft yellow. A word of caution, if you use saturated yellows with dark grey it can look trashy and cheap. It’s more commonly used in commercial environments. These colour combinations have been in fashion for the last two years and continue to remain popular.
• Grey paint can add dimension and personality to a room. For a classic look go with grey walls and white ceilings. If you are more adventurous you could even paint the ceilings in a soft grey shade; try a grey that’s two or three shades lighter than the wall colour.  Select a darker grey paint for a high ceiling in a large room.
• Once you find the right undertone, you can use a variety of grey shades within that undertone throughout your home.
• Cool greys work well with white trim and rooms with plenty of light. Warm greys work well with wood trims.
• Go a bit darker with your grey for more drama, especially in smaller spaces like a guest loo.

These are just a few tips that will make your painting experience much better and you will end up with walls that are painted to perfection! Painting is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to make over a room and improve the overlook of your home without too much trouble and can be easily changed if you change your mind. But remember – do your prep - tedious as it may be. Your paint finish will be better. And don’t skimp on the painting supplies. You need high-quality brushes, rollers, tape and a ladder.

The Psychology of Grey – the Effects

• It inspires people to be passive, uninvolved and have a lack of energy
• Pure grey is the only colour that has no direct psychological properties
• It is, however, quite suppressive

Where to Use it

• It is the colour to use if you want to create an air of calm, understated confidence.
• For grey to have this psychological impact, it's best combined with whites and other neutrals.
• Unless the precise tone is right, grey has a dampening effect on other colours used with it.

** Prominent Paints is launching three new on trend greys in its Premium Textured range of paint in the not too distant future giving consumers more than 50 shades of grey to choose from.**

For more see www.prominentpaints.co.za or all the customer care line on 0861 77 66 46. Like us on Facebook. Prominent Paints – we make it better!

Prominent Paints is a fully integrated member of PPG Industries and was established in 1981-  celebrating 35 years of manufacturing in SA in 2016.  The company offers superior quality coatings to suit a range of applications in the commercial, residential and light industrial sectors.  Prominent Paints is a proud member of the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) and from an ecological perspective, its paint is lead free, complies to, and even exceeds the standards set by the GBCSA. The Prominent Paints head office and manufacturing plant are situated in Alrode, Johannesburg. Products are dispatched from the Alrode warehouse to an extensive network of over 300 independent stockists, locally and to other Southern African countries.