5 Cool ways to use gray paint

It’s official — gray has bypassed beige as the go-to neutral paint color for 2012. (Hooray!) Think outside the box when incorporating this paint hue in your home with these stylish paint ideas.

No longer is gray paint associated with depressing and dreary decor. This trendy hue is now synonymous with chic, sophisticated interiors. While splashing a shade of gray on your walls is one option, consider these stylish and distinct ways to use the popular color in your home.

While white is a common paint choice for kitchen cabinetry, we’re seeing gray soar to the forefront in a lot of designs. A slightly bolder choice that still gives a fresh and classic look. Don’t take our word for it — check out these two amazing kitchens for inspiration.

Our hearts go pitter-patter whenever we look at the gray cabinets in this kitchen from Life in Grace blog.

And this kitchen from August Fields blog had us at “hello,” with it’s gorgeous gray cabinetry.

We all know that a wall dressed in wainscoting adds that final fashionable touch to a space. And for the most part, we see this look done with white paint. But what about switching it up and painting your wainscoting gray. (Yes, please!)

This nursery from August Fields blog has beautiful gray wainscoting against white walls making the art on the wall just pop.

Painting and refinishing old furniture is a thrifty way to infuse life into lackluster pieces. Consider a shade of gray when tackling your next big furniture paint project — a cost-effective way to add the popular color into your home.

This lovely gray-painted buffet from Perfectly Imperfect blog uses a dry brushing technique with chalk paint to get the cool distressed effect.

Yup, you read that correctly. We’re talking about using gray paint on fabric people — an intimidating proposition that has the potential to be gorgeous. One way to do this is by painting a pattern on curtain panels to create chic-looking window treatments.

We fell out of our chairs after spotting these gray-painted stenciled curtains over at The Sweetest Digs blog. Talk about creating luxurious trellis fabric for a fraction of the cost.

Kick up the drama by painting gray stripes on your walls. The result is a show-stopping graphic look that is a notch above a straight-up gray wall.

This mudroom from Modern Palm blog was transformed by painting gray-and-white stripes on its walls.

More painting ideas

How to spray paint furniture for a professional look
How to paint stripes on a wall
Painting tips for your home