How To Change From Boring Beige to Gorgeous Gray
For the past 4 years our house has been Blah beige. We picked warm shades, Domedary Camel and Mesa Tan. Both are Sherwin Williams colors. The colors complimented orangewood stain of our arcadia doors and the Autumn Maple floors. The combination of these fall colors looked a mix between baby vomit and pumpkin pie filling. We spent most of our lives living in Arizona, where everything is various shades of brown. Every building inside and out are different shades of dirt. We have lived in our California Beach house for 7 years, why are we still decorating like we’re still in the desert? It was time for a change, quick!
We own a paint contracting company, Maverick Painting San Diego. Over the past 2 years I noticed quite a few of our clients were asking us to paint over the warm shades and replace them with cool neutrals.
One particular house remodel in Del Mar inspired us the make the same changes in our home.
I am a huge fan of the Griege color scheme. I thought it would be an easy transition from Beige to Gray if the new paint was a mix of both colors. But then my husband intervened. He said if we’re going to make a change that we shouldn’t play it safe, that Griege just wasn’t a big enough difference. We chose Silver Pointe as the main color and Pewter Cast for a few accent walls.
My first thought was the Silverpointe was too white.
I loved the Pewter Cast. It was exactly what I was expecting. Once the entire place was done, I realized I made a huge mistake. The whole house had a baby blue hue. The living room was ok, but I hated the stairwell. The bright light from the skylight made the stairs look like a giant cylinder of clouds. I thought it might dry darker and it would grow on me. Nope. The next day, the whole family agreed that it had to change. Rather than tint the Silver Pointe 200% darker, I chose to just change four smaller walls to the Pewter Cast color. What a difference. Now it doesn’t look like a baby boy’s nursery.
Though our townhouse has an abundance of windows and skylights, there was still very little natural light in our home. We face North and South and neighbor’s houses blocked any sunlight in that direction. We needed a paint color to brighten our home.
To lighten the home, we painted the ceilings a bright White. We painted the crown molding and Wainscoting in the same bright white in a high gloss finish. For a little punch we painted a beam in the living room a dark color called Thunder Gray.
Living within walking distant to the beach means constant moister in the air. Our home had at slight muskiness because of the humidity. I added Glade fragrance additives to the paint. The EPA wouldn’t allow Sherwin Williams add to packet while mixing the paint. We mixed 1 packet per gallon with a stir stick. The result was awesome. The sent is clean and refreshing. I hope the clean linen fragrance lasts a while.
Like everyone else, I have been told, “For resale value, paint your home neutral beige.” Since I’m not selling our home, I can pick any color scheme I want. I’m done with dull. Now I have a modern, contemporary home, thanks to a fresh coat of paint
The result was, I no longer feel like we live in a mustard yellow cave. We now have an updated, contemporary paint color. When I got bored with our home’s style I can just switch accessories since the new gray color pallet goes with every accent color.
