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miratseng

One color throughout the whole house. Which one?

8 years ago

We're building a house in Boston suburbs, and we're trying to decide on a paint color. The builder only lets us do one color throughout (extra money if we want to add different colors), so we're trying to decide on a color that'd look good everywhere, does it exist?

Anything from Benjamin Moore, and we really want something in the gray family. My husband likes Revere Pewter (warm gray) but I like Metropolitan (cool gray).

This house is 2450 sq ft, and I still don't know what I want it to look like... We've been living in tiny NYC apartment for a while, and we really want this house to feel like a real home.

We won't be able to compare paint colors on the wall since the house is still being built, but from the samples we've seen and tons of pictures on Houzz, we like the following colors.

Revere Pewter

Metropolitan

Stonington Gray

Smoke Embers

Harbor Gray (Silver Chain)

The trims will be Benjamin Moore Simple White.

I know we can always repaint it in the future, but is there a color that works in every room? Bathrooms, laundry, bedrooms, office? I like revere pewter but I'm afraid that it'll look really beige... and I don't want beige...

We both like contemporary style, something simple and on the modern side.

We like this living room a lot (the design style).

Contemporary Living Room · More Info

Thank you for your time.

Comments (52)

  • 8 years ago
    Revere pewter is a beautiful color but when I saw it in my sisters kitchen I thought it looked like taupe
    Mira T thanked Salliann DeMarco Spinelli
  • 8 years ago
    I'd go Dunn Edwards Historical White.
    Mira T thanked jackchampagne
  • 8 years ago

    Thanks everyone for the input. The picture I posted isn't for color reference, it's just to show you guys the design style we like, and hopefully we can pick a color that compliments this kind of modern style.

    We don't want something white or beige, and that's the reason why I'm not convinced on revere pewter, it looks beige in some pictures. SW Loggia is a little bit too dark but it does look really nice in the bedroom.

    I thought about adding more colors but the builder is charging $300 extra per color. We think it's a little too much... or is it normal? It's just the 2 of us now, and my husband doesn't seem to care about having different colors in different rooms lol.

    This is our first home but it's not really a starter home, and I do want it to be as nice as possible within our budget.

  • 8 years ago
    The best go to color for me is BM Brushed Aluminum. I had my old house painted with it throughout. It is just perfect. Give it a try.
  • 8 years ago
    Grays are difficult. After experimenting with a dozen samples for weeks, I still made an expensive mistake and had to live with a mauve gray for awhile. Our interior is now repainted BM Gray Owl, the perfect soft gray with no undertones, --no beige, no taupe, no purple, no blue. The house is older with less natural light than I would like, but it doesn't make it look somber. Like you, I wanted a color that would look good with more modern furnishings.
  • 8 years ago

    How about BM Silvery Moon, Sterling, or Whirlpool if you find some of the other grays too dark.

  • 8 years ago
    It is so hard picking a nice grey, I like Grey Owl, but I think I prefer Stonington grey like in last pic, a bit more depth. Good luck
  • 8 years ago
    Whoops Stonington grey used in second to last pic above
  • 8 years ago
    Idea
  • 8 years ago
    As it is a newly built house, please go with "builder's white". You need to get your furniture, rugs and curtains in before you worry about paint color. I do understand wanting to paint once and done, but you won't be happy with the color, once the decor is in-nothing will go together and you'll be repainting anyway. You'll be back with a new dilemma.
  • 8 years ago
    A quick trick....buy small samples of the paint colors you are considering, next buy the same number of poster board, paint the poster board with the various samples. Now you can move your large samples around the house to compare the colors in different settings, time of day, cloudy or sunny.....Also, when it is time to buy tile, flooring, etc and furnishings for your new home, use the final color poster board ( you can cut it down if need be) to take with you to match colors and finishes. I had them Mage for all the paint colors in my home.....love every choice I made.
  • 8 years ago
    I've really enjoyed our stonington grey - it's a cooler tone, but clean and works well in our hallway and living room (with white trim). It's on three of the walls in my daughters room and I'm going to do our bedroom too. I think it work well in any room.
  • 8 years ago
    I went thru hell looking for a true light gray with no yellow, green or blue under tones. I ended up with apparition by BM and love it! Below is a photo of the color on the walls.
    Mira T thanked Patty Serpone
  • 8 years ago

    It's absolutely remarkable how the Houzzer contributors and pros can speak about color undertones. I recently submitted a room painting dilemma as well because I am not colorblind but still obviously blind to color ( which is almost the title of my submitted dilemma). Luckily I already have furniture, rugs etc in place and am just trying to make the best possible choice of paint for my foyer which connects to several rooms in the house. This is not so easy... I even had to have someone explain the purpose of the little cutouts on some paint chip samples. Who knew? Good luck with your choice... I have NOTHING to contribute!

  • 8 years ago

    Best help with paint color choosing is the HGTV pamphlets for Sherwin Williams paint. They are available at Lowes. Colors are given that are coordinated so any colors will go together.

  • 8 years ago

    Thank you for all your ideas.

    The color for the trims is suggested by the builder, he told us they've been using BM Simply white, and we like how it looks. Maybe we can do BM Super white?

    The default wall color is BM Clay Beige, so if we don't pick a color, that's the color they'll paint all the walls. My husband isn't really into interior designs or house decors, he just wants it to be clean and nice... (I hate to stereotype, but are all software engineers like this?) So he thinks we should just pick a color and live in it. We don't have kids yet but do see them in the near future, and in his opinion, nurseries are the only rooms he'd want different colors in.

    We currently live in a 1 bedroom apartment in NYC, so to be honest, we don't have a lot of furniture. We don't have a real couch (we have a futon that we're gonna give away), we don't have a TV (we're computer people), we don't have a coffee table. So I'm hoping to pick a color to start with, we can get our furniture based on the paint color we choose. We can also pick out cabinets and hardwood floors coordinating with the wall color. One thing I know is we're not doing white cabinets, I really wanted a white kitchen but it turned out to be a pretty expensive upgrade.

    There're so many colors to think about, I will take a deep look in all colors mentioned above. It's more difficult than I expected, but it's also fun and exciting. Thank you.

  • 8 years ago

    In the process of renovating myself and have been struggling with the same problem. I do not think 300$ is unreasonable and would consider picking at least another color because the color will appear different in rooms. You may like it in some but not as much in others. I am using Gray owl, rodeo, and stonington gray as my colors. I am using gray owl in my kitchen, as I love how it makes the cabinets (simply white) pop. Good Luck!

  • 8 years ago

    So you haven't chosen cabinets or flooring? I'd choose them first before deciding on paint.

  • 8 years ago

    Did you see these two combos on Benjamin Moore's website:

  • 8 years ago

    @miratseng, I can't really help much with the grays, but agree Gray Owl is nice. Also, if you like a cool gray, BM Light Pewter is another good one. I think your choice of Simply White is great...one of my favorite whites. I was curious about the Clay Beige...not bad! Definitely more warm.

    Mira T thanked chloebud
  • 8 years ago
    I'm not commenting on which gray to pick but I wouldn't pay your builder $300 to paint a room. Painting is not that difficult and once you get in your home and get settled on what you like then you can decide if you need to paint any of your rooms a different color. Any gray you decide with white trim will be pretty.
    I only have one gray room but love it.
    Good luck. Don't stress about it. it is a big decision but it's only paint and this is an exciting time building a new home. Enjoy.
    Mira T thanked cineus
  • 8 years ago
    Just wondering if you had any updates on the paint color?
  • 8 years ago

    Hi Rachel, we've decided on Stonington Gray, but we haven't got to the the painting stage yet. I will upload some pictures once the house is done and painted, but that's in a couple months actually...


  • 8 years ago

    I used it in my guest room and love it! In natural light it has a blue tint to it; however we just got lights installed today and that made it look more gray. It is a beautiful, soft color. Hope you enjoy!!

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    BM class grey.....you can not go wrong!

  • PRO
    8 years ago
    One of the best whole house colors is Sherwin Williams Repose Gray. I've used it for clients with great results. There is a recent post on The Creativity Exchange blog about Repose. Good photos as well. Check it out. Stonington is very nice but can read a lot of blue in some light conditions.
  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Benjamin Moore is what our builder uses, is there a color in BM that's close to Repose Gray?

    I looked at BM Classic Gray before, but to me it's just kind of a light beige/yellow? I couldn't see the gray in it. We've decided to use something gray throughout the house, it's ok if there's an undertone, as long as it doesn't look beige. Our apartment right now has Sherwin Williams Snowbound, it's the color every apartment has in the whole building (we have more than 500 apartments in this 45 story building). So we've decided we don't want anything off-white, it's just too apartment/condo feel for us.

    I know it's very unlikely we'll like one color in every room. The chances are, we might like the color in one or two rooms in the house, but dislike it in some rooms. Good thing is, this is not hard to change in the future, it may be a lot of work, but it's not permanent. So we've decided to take a chance on Stonington Gray... or some other gray. My gosh, now I'm looking at paint colors again....

  • 8 years ago

    Have you looked at BM HC-173? Edgecomb Grey? We have used it extensively throughout our house. It flows well, and seems to reflect other elements of the room, rather than fight with them.

    (We do have Stonington Gray in the dining room, and it is quite blue during a large part of the day.)

    We also used Benjamin Moore AF-35 Vapor for all of our trim and cabinetry. It has worked perfectly!


  • 8 years ago
    Do you have furniture, rugs, window coverings floors, cabinets purchased? .Choosing paint color is the very last thing when designing a room. Choose your major investment pieces, sofas, rugs tables etc. first.
    Have the painter paint builders white until you are ready to paint. Greys are extremely difficult to choose on your own, it all depends on amount of natural light and other light in room.
  • 8 years ago
    I used BM stone white throughout my whole house. It is not white but a very pale gray with no beige undertones. It looks great in every space, from kids rooms paired with bright colourful accents to the master which is decorated with charcoal grey to the family room which is furnished in black and white. I have had multiple friends ask for the colour and all used it with great success in their homes (all which have different styles and lighting). We all agree it's the perfect modern pale grey ! Good luck.
  • PRO
    8 years ago

    Here's you go for comparison:

    Good Luck!

  • PRO
  • 8 years ago

    I'd choose white for a good base color and repaint each room yourself after you live in the home a while. Doing so will mean your walls will likely be a more uniform color both initially and as you repaint.

    If you opt for gray or even a tan, avoid those with a pinkish or yellowish hue.

  • 8 years ago
    I have BM gray owl and BM simply white trim. I have North/ south facing windows and I love this combination. It looks great with both cool and warm tones in rugs, upholstery, art, etc. Type rooms with gray owl in the search bar in Houzz photos. I think you will like what you see.
    Mira T thanked Sharon Veenhof
  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Thank you guys.

    I've tried samples mentioned in my original post, and my favorite was Stonington Gray, but I will look into Edgecomb Gray and Gray Owl too.

    @SandyC, no, we currently don't own any furniture, all we have is our bed, nightstands and computer desks. Yeah this sounds crazy but we've always been living in the city, Boston and now New York, we didn't really buy any furniture because well, our apartment is small. We don't want white, that's what we know, so if we go with white now, it means we'll have to paint every room in the future. If we go with a color now, we may only have to repaint a couple rooms in the future. I know it's hard to believe, but we don't have a couch... We're basically starting from scratch here.

    I've received a lot of suggestions so far, but I just know I don't want it to be white or off-white, I want some contrast, mainly because I've been living in white and off white apartments for the past few years. That's why I know I won't be happy with white/off white, and want to go with a gray. I hope it makes sense why I'm so determined on choosing a gray color now rather than having it white. I also look forward to the feeling of moving into our new home thinking, wow this house is nice, instead of thinking, uh now what color do I have to paint these rooms. I know if we chose white, I would want to repaint it as soon as possible. Ps. The default color with our builder is BM Clay Beige.

    Also, our friends who just built a house 3 years ago chose BM Moonshine. Their house is bigger than what we're building, but I think it looks really pretty! It's been 3 years and they only painted the nurseries (one pink, one blue), and the master's bathroom (lavenderish color), but are still happy with the rest of the house. So I guess I'm kinda looking for a color like this... something that's soft and nice to look at... (Moonshine is too light for my taste, I want a little bit more contrast with the trims.)

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    Go to your Ben Moore paint store and ask them for a color match to SW Repose Gray (7015). They have the formula and it will match. I don't suggest this for a lot of colors but it will work with this one. Test it on a large foam core board to move around your house. It's the best opportunity color to reconcile your Revere Pewter warm/Stonington cool gray dilemma. When using one color, choose it in the room you'll use the most along with the time of day you'll most use the room. Get educated on undertones. Your floor and cabinet decisions should be reconciled with your color choice as a unit. A color that someone else loves could be all wrong for your house. BTW - I'm in my office which is painted Stonington with a Gray Owl Ceiling. I used a deeper accent wall to break up all the blue-gray. I'm a Color Consultant so it works well to accurately see other colors. It's a hard color to live with in every room.

  • 8 years ago

    I recently moved out of NYC so I understand the blank canvas dilemma. I once read to find a rug that you LOVE LOVE with a few colors in it and then design your room or whole house around it and everything will go fabulously. Makes a ton of sense. If you find that one piece now, you could unlock your style and color scheme for the whole house.

    I definitely am causing myself a lot of angst, heartache and schizophrenic style because I didn't realize how crucial it is to have the whole house feel/style/color decided before making even a faucet choice. I love so many things but they don't all play nicely together. (I'm not ripping out the newly laid bathroom tile just because my relaxed driftwood grey doesn't go with my prim white oak floors nor am I going to make the oak floors gray throughout the whole house just to make the bathroom work.)

    I can, however, save you the same angst!

  • 5 years ago
    Simply white is a very popular white! I have also seen Swiss coffee in an entire house... loved it too
  • PRO
    5 years ago

    Last post was in 2016!! Why are all these old posts popping up?

  • 5 years ago
    Edgecomb Gray looks very soft with white trim. But could just go with BM white dove. A white with just a slight tint of gray.
  • PRO
    5 years ago

    Jmarco this s a old post 2016

  • PRO
    5 years ago

    because they pop up on the side and people click on it and comment without looking at the date!


    Old post! I'm sure she's picked her house color!

  • 3 years ago

    It’s 2021 and for me it’s my current situation- picking ONE color for entire house. I can’t change my travertine (tan/ivory/taupe) floors and cannot change my green/brown/black granite. Going (I think) with

    Edgecomb Gray for all walls.
    Dove White for kitchen cabinets.
    I need suggestion for Trim and ceiling??

    To anyone else is reading old but to some, relevant, posts- thank you

  • 3 years ago

    I have Edgecomb Gray in all but one room of our house, and it's been almost 10 years. I still love it! Which is good, because I do NOT want to repaint!!!

    (My living room is BM Stonington Gray - reads a very subtle grey/blue.) Also used the same trim color throughout (BM Vapor). And will use it for the kitchen cabinets when we remodel.

    I prefer the continuity of the same wall and trim colors, and then change things up with furniture and accessories. My trim is satin, walls are eggshell.

    What brand of paint are you planning to use?

  • PRO
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    Gabriela, I've noticed you comment on numerous older posts asking for names of colors.

    That's not how to pick a color for your house.

    Why not start your own post, with your own photos, taken in natural daylight, and let us suggest something for you to SAMPLE? becuse until you do that, asking name colors won't be much help. everyones house has different lighting, furniture tones, wood tones, and photographs can alter the actual look. if you have travertine flooring, you'll want to choose something in the taupe range, or pinkish undertones, or some of these


    Post some pictures of your interior on your own post and and we can give you some color ideas.

  • 3 years ago

    Thank you to both of you that responded. I will try and post my own. Thanks!

  • PRO
    3 years ago

    My entire interior is painted SW Wordly Gray..we love it! trim is all SW Shoji White


  • 3 years ago

    See if the local BM paint shop can show you Ozark Shadows.

    https://www.ke-99.top/ProductDetail.aspx?iid=109354930&pr=33.96

  • 3 years ago

    It’s beautiful- so serene. We ended up using BM Edgecomb Gray throughout with BM White Dove ceiling and trim. Just completed painting so we don’t yet have our pictures and art up yet … I like it and hope it’s not “too white”.

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