Exterior Gray Paint Colors

I don’t think I would be lying when I saw picking a gray paint was pure agony.

I mean…I almost felt stupid.  Because I was struggling so much.

When you have a vision in your head – but you can’t make it happen, it’s so frustrating.

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I saw I have purchased 38 mini sample paint jugs from Sherwin Williams.  Not to mention all the gas + time going back & forth to their store.

There was no question in my mind that I wanted a light-ish gray house.  The problem was finding the paint that I loved.

Here’s our before a few weeks back.  We’ve trimmed trees, pulled many hedges & bushes out in front of the house.  Remember nothing had been touched other than the grass for 4 years.  So that was a job in & of itself. It’s hard to get a picture of the house.  Because it a long rancher, not a lot of architectural details whatsoever.  So what you can’t see is the master bedroom on the left and the detached garage.  You can also see  paint swatches that I had made close to the front door.  But the thing is, it’s all brick.  And we wanted a exterior paint that would work with brick + last as long as possible.  We picked the Duration formula from Sherwin Williams.

The truth:  I thought I had the perfect shade of gray already picked out & set to go when our painters were ready.  I felt really good about it.  In fact I was so glad I had figured that part out.

Until I saw the first coat on the house.
It turned icy gray blue.

It was like the thrill of victory, and immediately turned into agony of defeat when I saw it on the house.  I thought I had the right color.

I didn’t want that icy gray blue on my house.

At.all. I was literally sick to my stomach for days.

I drove my husband crazy, not to mention the cost of the initial coat of paint, and I drove my friends crazy as well.  You want other people’s opinion when it comes to the “approval process” but really & truly you have to remember YOU have to be the one that decides on the paint color.  Only you – because you are going to live with it.  Luckily I had 2 dear friends of mine close by that know me so well, and I also trust their judgement, so they helped me narrow down my choices.

So I went back to the drawing board…
You can see the icy blue gray underneath all the {new} sample colors.  I’m sure it’s hard to tell from the picture, but trust me it turned icy blue gray on me.   I believe I have most of Sherwin William’s grays up here on the side of our house.  I wanted to be sure this time.  People were telling me to lean more toward a beige gray, or a green gray.  But I didn’t want any of those undertones.  I wanted a pure silver/gray color.

Here’s the list of the paint colors  up on the house (all of which are Sherwin Williams’ colors):1.  Unusual Gray2.  Gray Matters3.  Online at 135%4.  Online at 125%5.  Uncertain Gray6.  Argos7.  Online at 125%8.  Online 100%9.  Online at 135%10.  Argos at 125%11.  Classic Gray12.  Online at 150%13.  Earl GrayI’ll explain those % numbers you see up there.  You see, it started in my daughter’s room when I was trying to pick a shade of pink (another hard color to pick!) I was trying to decide between 2 colors, and my painter (God love her) said, “Why don’t you get them to intensify the paint and make it a stronger color?”  And that’s exactly what I did for her room with the pink color we finally decided on.  Her color is also a 125% as well.So…That’s what I was doing here with the grays.  I wanted them to intensify colors that I really liked so I could see it a little darker or richer.  I so hope that all makes sense to you all.  Because sometimes paint colors need just a little extra boost to get it richer in color.  Also, another thing to think about, is when you find the color you really like, since your house will be exposed to so many outdoor elements, getting your paint intensified might help with the fading from the weather.  I mean…let’s be honest.  Fading is going to happen no matter what.
For example…
 Once I had narrowed down from the 13 color choices up above.  I painted larger swatches so I could really see them on the house.  The far right is the original (greenish) color that was on the house when we bought it.  You can see where they started trimming it out on the right.  But this is where I had them stop – because the paint was too icy blue.

Anyways…the larger swatches are from the top going down:
1.  Online at 125%
2.  Online at 150%
3.  Online at 100%
4.

Can you tell I liked the Online color?  😉

 

And finally here’s my last sample swatch.  Once I had my color choices REALLY narrowed down.

Top paint was Online at 125%
Bottom was Online at 150%.

And there it sat for a few days.  So I would be completely sure…and drive my friends completely nuts.  😉

Can we say indecisive?  Again, with the agony…

But then…

That moment you finally see the right paint color on your house and you just have to hug it!

 You can barely contain yourself.

And you once again feel the thrill of V I C T O R Y ! ! !

I was so nervous to pull up to this house, to see the paint color.

I mean…

It was torture.  But finally, we got it right!  And I’m so thrilled with it.

I ended up picking the “Online” color at 125%

We still have some touch ups to do and all the molding needs another coat.   I don’t think I mentioned that my husband & I are huge fans of darker down spouts and gutters up against a lighter color house.  Yes, I know not many feel the way we do.  Because I’ve been told by many lately.  Or even asked why I decided to do that.  But we love it, and as I reply to those people, “It’s our house.”  Our shutters will all be black, and our front door will be black as well.

Eventually we’ll put a new roof on this house.  There’s 3 roofs on this house already.  Gulp.  But it’s simply not in the budget.  So we’re waiting for awhile.  It too will be black.  I’m pretty sure we’ll be doing a black metal roof whenever that time comes.

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I also thought, I would include some of my inspiration photos I’ve used to help me with this whole exterior planning process:

 I think it’s important to note, that our house is really rather plain if you look at it.

It’s okay if you think so too.

You wont hurt my feelings.  😉

Because it is!

The things is ~ the painted brick brings on a whole new element of texture to what normally is a solid slate for most houses.

And I love that texture!  But trying to figure out how to pull out details in a traditional “rancher” house is the challenge.

For example…the windows…

There’s not much there.  Right???  Well, I found inspiration from the photo below.  And I truly believe I would have overlooked the brick ledges(?) underneath the windows had I not seen this house below on pinterest.

 Painted Brick with Black Shutters – and white trim to pull out details

It pulls out more detail to the entire house.  And it’s the cheapest trick and shows exactly what the power of paint can do when you paint the brick ledges underneath the windows.

Below is an example of how I’ve been trying to compare house colors and styles to my house.  I use my iphone and make a collage out of pinterest inspiration pics.  This has really helped me in visualizing paint colors and styles I was trying to achieve.   I have done this with several inspiration photos and I look at them if I’m out or while at the house for comparison.

(That pic of our house up there is when we first looked at it, back in April)  Look at those bushes in front of those windows.  So crazy.

Below is the same house, that I used for the collage pic.  It’s a 2 story!  But I cropped that part out, just so I could see the comparison.

 Gray House with a Green Gray undertone

And I thought I would include some of the others I used for inspiration.  Especially for painted brick homes.

Gray Painted Brick Home 

 Another Gray painted brick home

 Deep Grays and Blacks Paint Colors

Painted Brick with Gray Shake Siding

 As I mentioned above – we’re almost done painting.  The below is what has been a major project for us.  Even though it doesn’t look “pretty” and it’s not a fun “after” photo, it’s truly a whole lot of sweat & muscle do get to this point.

 All the brown/beige siding that you see is new siding (unpainted, of course.)  We had to replace all of that because it was all rotten.  As I shared on IG, we are taking down the pergola that’s currently in the above picture.  We had decided to make it bigger & better.  We are going to bring it out & across the entire area you see above.  The wall with the one window on the right side – we will be bringing it out to that wall and end where you see the gutter by the trash can.  We will place a roof over it so we can have a covered area.

Oh yeah, does anyone need an old fridge that stinks to high heaven???  😉

It’s hard to tell from this picture below…

But we also replaced all the window seals in these all wood windows.  All wood windows are absolutely gorgeous, but man can wood rot in a heart beat if it’s not taken care of!  And since the house was empty for almost 4 years…

There was a lot of rotting going on!  :/

I think or at least I hope things will really start to move in the next couple of weeks with our house reno.  We hope to move up there within the month.  Fingers crossed!

My next agony:  picking stain color for our new hardwood floors – TOMORROW!!!

*Some of the paint for our house was supplied by Sherwin Williams*