Finding the Right Gray Isn’t So Black and White

It should come as no surprise that Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2021 was Ultimate Gray. For the good part of a decade, we have seen all shades of gray dominate home makeovers, and 2022 continues to embrace the era of gray walls.

After binge-watching HGTV and deciding to make that leap for your own home, you create a project check list. New countertops? Check. Backsplash? Check. Hardwood Floors? Check.

Gallons of gray paint? Check.

Repainting brings a feeling of freshness to a space. It’s a relatively easy and inexpensive way to modernize your home. Picking that perfect shade of gray, however, might not be as easy as picking up a paint brush.

Before you choose, it’s important to consider several things including how the sample looks under different light sources and how the CRI and color temperature of the bulbs in your home can affect the way it appears on your walls.

Here are several tips you should familiarize yourself with before you whip out the brush to ensure you get the color and lighting right in your space.

Soak up the Sun

Because commercial lighting inside a store will likely make the paint sample look different than it will outside or in the lighting of your home, it is important to take your favorite samples outside and look at them under natural light. The sunlight will show you the most accurate color of your sample – vivid, vibrant, and bold.

There’s No Place Like Home

Then, take your samples home and consider your room’s lighting and what kind of mood you are trying to set. Consider how the paint looks during the day versus at night. Is the room exposed to natural light, or are you painting a space with no windows? There are so many things to consider before settling on your perfect gray and deciding which is right is not so simple as black and white.

Color Management

The CRI stands for the Color Rendering Index, which is the measurement of how well the light reveals the color of the objects around it in comparison to natural sunlight. Since the sun’s CRI is a perfect 100, the higher the CRI of a bulb, the closer to natural lighting it is. For example, a bulb with 90 CRI shows more accurate color than a bulb with 80 CRI. For your gray to appear as you perceived it when you were holding your sample outside, you’ll want to check that your bulbs are a higher, rather than lower, CRI.

Control Your Temperature

Kelvin is the unit that measures color temperature. Rather than describing light as “warm” or “cool,” we can use the Kelvin temperature scale to convey exactly how warm or cool we want our light output to be. The lower the color temperature, the warmer the light. The higher the color temperature, the cooler the light.

If the lighting in your room is incandescent, it has a lower color temperature, which means it will bring out the warmer tones in your gray. If you use a gray with taupe or beige undertones and light your room with an incandescent bulb, your walls will add a warmer, more relaxing vibe to your space. If it is fluorescent, your color temperature will be higher, and consequently you might be dealing with a blue tone in the shade. If you are trying to achieve a more elegant or sophisticated appearance, then this is the way to go.

The Aftermath

The good news is that if you are not satisfied after painting your wall, you do not necessarily need to repaint. If you have a firm understanding of CRI and color temperature, you may be able to achieve your perfect gray by simply changing a bulb.

With these tips, check off those gallons of paint from your to-do list, and get rolling! Need help in choosing the right lightbulb for this task? Give one of our friendly lighting experts at 1000Bulbs a call at 1-800-624-4488.