When to Paint Your Home Gray
This perfectly neutral and highly versatile color can create subtle distinctions among exterior architectural elements or stand on its own
Gray paint — whether a warm gray or a cool one — is an ideal choice for a home of just about any style, age and location. Also, with this color's wide range of hues, two or more shades can be combined to create subtle distinctions between architectural elements, eliminating jarring contrasts to create a quieter exterior.
And gray can be applied in many forms, from a solid paint to a semitransparent stain. As a paint, the color provides a uniform and continuous color, ideally suited to a material like stucco. As a semitransparent stain, gray allow the complexity and beauty of wood to come through.
So if you're considering a gray exterior, go beyond monolithic and battleship gray to really explore this neutral color's richness and variety.
Related: What to Paint Your Front Door
And gray can be applied in many forms, from a solid paint to a semitransparent stain. As a paint, the color provides a uniform and continuous color, ideally suited to a material like stucco. As a semitransparent stain, gray allow the complexity and beauty of wood to come through.
So if you're considering a gray exterior, go beyond monolithic and battleship gray to really explore this neutral color's richness and variety.
Related: What to Paint Your Front Door
On the other hand, a cool, almost white gray gives a home's structure a real presence, especially when contrasted with the blues of the sky and water.
In its original configuration, the shingle-style house was covered in wood shingles that took on a lovely gray patina as they aged. Now, whether with wood or a fiber-cement material, the color gray suits this classic American home style.
A wonderful feature of the color gray is how with just the smallest amount of tint, the color can be transformed. You can take gray to a whole new place with just a hint of green or some other color.
Consider using a semitransparent stain to let the beauty of the wood come through. This can work especially well with a modern-style home like this one, in which the character of the wood siding softens the stark geometry.
Using gray on gray creates a subtle distinction between body and trim, like a gray pin-striped suit with gray piping. These darker window frames in a deep blue-gray contrast with the adjacent lighter gray trim.
Stucco is naturally suited for gray. The only caveat is that a darker gray can be a bit overwhelming. Consider instead a stucco in a warm French gray. This can be quite inviting, especially when teamed up with more colorful window frames and trim, as well as a roof that's allowed to weather to a natural gray.
With all of that gray siding, you'll really want to make that front door announce itself. So use a bold and cheerful color, like a vibrant red, to create that strong focal point.
When to Paint Your Door Bright Red
When to Paint Your Door Bright Red
Consider a gray trim color if you have a stone or brick home. Find a gray that's already in the stone mix or is the color of the mortar and use that to blend the look together.
Browse exterior color palettes
Browse exterior color palettes