Designers Pick Their Favorite Gray Paints

Picture Credit –Scandinavian Antiques Co On Ebay

Featured above are the colors, Top Row: Pratt & Lambert’s Argent 1322, Farrow & Ball’s Claydon Blue 87, Farrow & Ball’s Green Blue 84, Middle Row, Farrow & Ball’s Light Blue 22, Benjamin Moore’s Sea Star 2123-30, Benjamin Moore’s Wolf Gray 2127-40 Bottom Row, Benjamin Moore’s Graytint 1611, Sherwin-Williams’s Magnetic Gray SW-7058, Benjamin Moore’s Stone Harbor 2111-50

Home Beautiful featured an article on 26 Designers who shared their favorite Grays. Gray painted interiors can be the perfect color palette for Swedish Gustavian or Rococo antique furniture. Gray can showcase antiques like no other color, because it is neutral, and doesn’t compete with the furniture and decor. The last thing you want after spending thousands on a piece of furniture, is to have someone notice anything but what you spent your hard earned money on! Pair your painted gray antiques with a backdrop of white gray interior walls and trim, and add a punch of color with your upholstery, accessories, and flowers.

Many of the designers featured in the article, were those of Richard Gluckman, Stephanie Stokes, David Kleinberg, Tori Golub, Stephen Sills, Phoebe Howard, Steven Gambrel, Gerrie Bremermann, and Sharone Einhorn and Honey Walters.

Here are just a few of the designer quotes:

“Mesquite is a flattering light moss green without much yellow. I love it because it doesn’t shout ‘I’m green!’ It says, ‘I’m a very beautiful color.'” –Jennifer Garrigues, Benjamin Moore’s Mesquite 501

“Lago Argentino is a glacier lake in Patagonia, and it’s the most amazing color, an aqua, milky because as the ice melts it pulls minerals off the mountain. I stayed in an inn with a stunning view of the Perito Moreno glacier.” –Suzanne Rheinstein , Ralph Lauren Paint’s Blue-Green GH81

“For me, the most appealing colors in summer are not hot but cool. You don’t need to be reminded of the sun and heat — you’re in it. What you want is a cool breeze through the pine trees, like this chalky gray green.” –Frank Roop, Benjamin Moores Soft Fern 2144-40

“In my cutting garden I have morning glories climbing over a lattice obelisk painted this wonderful silvery sage green. It reminds me of lavender leaves.” –Michael Whaley, Benjamin Moores Cedar Grove 444

“I have a big, hugely functional Georgian Revival lawyer’s desk in tired dry mahogany, bought from a tired dry lawyer. I painted it this pale gray-green in an oil-base stain finish, cleanable, very calm, but not so pale that it dies. The gimmick is the old-fashioned desk in an unexpected color. It catches light and makes for a more interesting surface.” –Carey Maloney, Donald Kaufman Color Collections DKC-10

“It’s kind of robin’s egg blue, and with mahogany furniture and neutral upholstery, it looks great. I see dining rooms as mostly evening rooms, and this has life to it. It’s very soothing.” –Mariette Himes Gomez, Benjamin Moore’s Sage Tint 458

“Green is the great neutral, all the way from pond scum to soft sage or pale celery. I recently moved into a new house surrounded by greenery, and when I was thinking of what color I might use for a drapery lining, it came to me to reflect the green that is present year-round right outside that window.” –Barbara Barry – Donald Kaufman Color Collection’s DKC-8

“This is the color of the sky in Old Master paintings, when the varnish has yellowed; it’s luminous. Paint just the floor and you’d feel as if you were floating.” –Thomas Jayne, Benjamin Moore’s Heavenly Blue

Gray Painted Swedish Furniture – Laserow Antiques

18th Century Swedish Tray Table – Jacqueline Adams Antiques

This mirror would have been part of a room paneling. It features a beautifully hand carved and gilded top panel of a basket with flowers and grape bunches before crossed mallets and grape branches and is surrounded with a square, gilt molded frame. Beneath is a square mirror framed with a beaded, molded edge

Gustavian Table in White Gray – Bukowskis Market

Scandinavian Commode,Beautiful, Original Paint, Drawer Pulls Are Shaped As Crowns. Charming Shaped Legs With a Subtle Painted Faux Marble Top Surface

Chests From French Country Living Antiques

Swedish chest of drawers made during the second half of the 18th
Century. Decorated with dental carving and carved corners. Original
grayish white paint and hardware.

Chest of drawers by Nils Johan Asplind (c1780), sold for about $46,000!

Chests From French Country Living Antiques

19th Century Painted Swedish Commode

Swedish Rococo Buffet- French Country Living Antiques

Benches From French Country Living Antiques

Gustavian Sofa – Bukowskis Market

Benches From French Country Living Antiques

Chests From French Country Living Antiques

Colors Featured Above,

Top Row, 1-Pratt & Lambert’s Argent 1322, 2-Farrow & Ball’s Light Blue 22, 3- Farrow & Ball’s Green Blue 84

Middle Row, 1- Benjamin Moore’s Cedar Grove 444, 2-Ralph Lauren Paint’s Blue-Green GH81, 3-Benjamin Moore’s Colony Green

Bottom Row, 1-Benjamin Moore’s Heavenly Blue, 2-Benjamin Moore’s Palladian Blue HC-144, 3-Benjamin Moore’s Sage Tint 458

Gustavian Blue Painted Chest of Drawers, Sweden, late 18th/early 19th century

Live Auctioneers

Swedish 18C Rococo Canape With Original Paint C.1770- French Country Living Antiques

Swedish Drop Front Secretary

Kitchen Vignettes

Chelsea Textiles

Colors Featured Above,

Top Row, 1- Benjamin Moore’s Bear Creek 1470, 2-Donald Kaufman Color Collection’s DKC-8, 3-Donald Kaufman Color Collection’s DKC-10

Middle Row, 1-Farrow & Ball’s Shaded White 201, 2-Benjamin Moore’s Raccoon Hollow 978, 3-Benjamin Moore’s November Rain 2142-60

Bottom Row, 1-Benjamin Moore’s Soft Fern 2144-40, 2-Donald Kaufman Color Collection’s DKC-62, 3-Farrow & Ball’s Down Pipe 26

A Baroque period chest from Scandinavia c. 1760 featuring the original painted finish. Please focus on two important characteristics of this chest. The four drawers and the front edge of the top all have a dramatic serpentine shape that is consistent from top to bottom. This shape is a hallmark of the Baroque period that began in Italy and traveled throughout the Western world. The movement across the front was particularly effective in rooms with low lighting on the interior and the long dark winter months in Scandinavia. The second feature is on each side of the chest-the heavy iron handles. These were used to transport the chest either from room to room in the home or to carry it to another residence. This aspect is only seen on furniture considered to be important from the day it was commissioned.