How to Pick the Right Blue-Gray Paint Color

Posted by Matt Morris on March 18th, 2019

I’ve always had a particular fondness for the best blue gray paint shades that are out there to be had. Blue gray paint comes in and out of favor and never really makes it to the top, but I remember picking the color of my bedroom when I was a teenager and chose from the best blue gray paint shades to make my room perfect.

Picking the best blue gray paint shade can be a challenge, given there are chalky and warm and cool colors that can all accent a room differently. You don’t want your blue to be so warm it makes your living room look like you’re expecting a boy, but you also don’t want it to feel like a stone mausoleum either.

Benjamin Moore has some fantastic options that allow me to constantly express myself when it comes to picking the best blue gray paint shades. Ice, Flower Box, and Thundercloud are a few of my very favorites, which you can learn all about in my article about the very best blue gray paint shades.

When choosing the best blue gray paint shades, there are some very important things to remember.

1.        Match the best blue gray paint shades against the largest pattern or color within the space—if there’s a major wall or a lot of floor area, find the most dominant color within that area and use sample cards to find the paint that most closely resembles that color.
2.        Use the result of your color matching on a color wheel in order to ensure you are picking the best blue gray paint shades for your space.
3.        If you find that the dominant color is warm, find a blue gray paint shade that is cool; if that dominant color is cool, on the other hand, consider a warm gray to balance it out.
4.        Balance the best blue gray paint shade against the underlying tone of the furniture and other accents too, so you aren’t overwhelming visitors.
5.        Check your choices within the space using a sample or sample cards, and be sure you do so several times throughout the day so that you’re accounting for natural light as well as the existing artificial lights.

During my last painting project I was faced with a huge challenge in deciding which would be the best blue gray paint shade for my project. I was faced with two accent walls and some really dark flooring and it was necessary to match these to the existing décor, which was primarily black and white.

The main walls were eggshell white, so anything too bold would have been very extreme. I didn’t want the area to come out looking like a football team’s colors, so I had to find something very subtle with tones that could be either blue or gray depending on the quality of light or the visitor’s perspective.

After a lot of searching, I realized that North Star by Sherwin Williams would be the very best blue gray paint shade for this space.

It was a journey, but my love for blue gray paints led me to a lot of really great ideas that I’ve been able to use on multiple projects, both internally and externally.