Monday, April 2, 2018

Home Exterior Painting Decisions: A Gray Area (Part V)


Did you think I would be done with this dilemma after Part IV? Oh no, my friends. It's not that easy! 

If you've been following along, you might remember that we had narrowed our gray paint colors down to Benjamin Moore Kendall Charcoal, Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray, and Sherwin-Williams Gauntlet Gray. The two BM colors appear to be a bit more gray-gray, whereas SW Gauntlet Gray leans a little warmer, brown-gray in comparison.

In an effort to look at just one more option and try to find something a little lighter than Kendall Gray but darker than Chelsea Gray, I decided to get a custom sample of Kendall Charcoal at 75%. You can see this compared to the original Kendall Charcoal in the photos below. (I still have SW Westchester Gray at the bottom, which I never repainted from the first round of sample colors. But it's out of the running because it's a little too blue-ish/cool toned). 


It's a pretty noticeable difference, right? I was pleasantly surprised at the color achieved by having Kendall Charcoal lightened by 25%. [Note: I got this custom sample mixed at Sherwin-Williams, even though it was a Benjamin Moore color to begin with. That's because we're probably going to go with SW SuperPaint for our exterior, and I wanted to make sure the sample is going to be an accurate representation from where we end up buying the paint).


And just around the corner of the house, here are the three different Benjamin Moore colors for additional comparison. I'm digging the 75% Kendall Charcoal, with Chelsea Gray as a second favorite. This is the first time I've ever experimented with getting a standard paint color lightened, but it could (hopefully) be the answer to our quest for the perfect gray for our home.

So, what do you think of these latest options? Have you ever painted your interior or exterior with a custom color?



7 comments:

killeralto said...

What did you end up with? Trim? Im in the same boat. So many grays!

Amanda @ Little House on the Corner said...

We went with 75% Kendall Charcoal! And white trim again. I just added a new blog post with the full reveal!

Unknown said...

Looks great. Our new house has a huge vaulted tin roof. I wanted to go lighter gray, but not sure if I need more color to even all of that silver out. Also , we have a very light stone foundation and two stone chimneys. What do you think?

Unknown said...

I am currently deciding between Chelsea Gray and Kendall Charcoal for our exterior. This post was super helpful - thanks for sharing such good photos!

Ray Russell said...

Hi there
What did you mix the Kendall Charcoal to get the 75 percent?

Cybele Pascal said...

Hi, I'm currently trying to decide between Kendall Charcoal, Chelsea Gray, and Amherst Gray for the exterior of my mid century modern house. I'm going with White Diamond trim and Deep Ocean for accent color. Has anyone included Amherst also as a front runner? If not, why not? Thank you in advance! ~ Cybele

James Franklin said...

Last week, I have completed the paint job of my new house in Slidell. In this case, the painters from the Pelican Paint Group helped me a lot. Their expert house painters painted my house so beautifully. Best house painters Slidell

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