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Living room with gray paint


20 Colors That Go With Gray

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Keep it neutral—or not.

By Emma Bazilian and Hadley Mendelsohn

Christian Harder

There's a right shade of gray for any room, from the palest silver to dark charcoal. Designers love the chameleon-like hue for its ability to lean warm, cool, or simply strike the perfect balance between the two. The best grays also change with the light throughout the day, adding depth and visual interest to your interior. Gray's neutral character also makes it the ideal partner for other colors. Whether you're looking to create a serene tone-on-tone environment or find a piece of furniture that'll really stand out, here are some of our favorite colors to pair with gray.

Francesco Lagnese

1 of 20

Light Green

Philip Smith was in search of a table when “a friend of mine’s mother passed," he says, adding, "I adored her, and when my friend went through her things she said, ‘there’s a table here with your name on it! I was nearly in tears. ” The gray-blue patina looks beautiful next to the chrome chairs and green-gray wall paint.

Thijs de Leeuw/Space Content/Living Inside

2 of 20

Bright Orange

Atelier ND transformed a stair landing into a special reading nook with vintage Ligne Roset chair (it was the only thing that would fit under the sloped ceiling!) and then color-blocked with electric orange and complementary gray-green paint color.

Bjorn Wallander

3 of 20

Black and Greige

Light griege, black accents, and brass fixtures create a beautiful, polished mood in this living room designed by Ray Attanasio.

Frank Frances Studio

4 of 20

Marigold

We're loving the pops of jewel tones in this living room designed by Courtney McLeod. Bold shades of marigold and magenta are softened by the warm gray walls.

Paul Raeside

5 of 20

Sapphire

The gray, swirling clouds in Anne Hepfer's dining room—papered in a Cole & Son Fornasetti print—feel anything but bleak with the addition of punchy blues.

Christian Harder

6 of 20

Light Pink and Brass

Gold and coral tones warm up the charcoal sofa and light gray painted walls in this living room designed by Alison Victoria.

Patrick Cline

7 of 20

Orchid

With its vibrant purple rug and charcoal gray cabinets, this Nicole Fuller-designed office makes work feel like play.

KARYN R. MILLET

8 of 20

Fern Green

Verdant, leafy green and trelliswork makes this pale gray office designed by Joe Lucas feel like an enchanted garden.

Bjorn Wallander

9 of 20

Hot Pink and Orange

A dose of muted pewter grounds the bold pink and orange textiles in Molster's bedroom.

Paul Raeside

10 of 20

Sky Blue

Pale-blue bedding and silk-wrapped walls make this bedroom designed by Michael Maher an utterly serene escape.

Paul Raeside

11 of 20

Russet

Walls and ceiling in Benjamin Moore's Nightfall—an almost-black shade of charcoal—provide a moody backdrop for the russet red sofa in Andrew Flesher's 300-year-old Westchester colonial.

David A. Land

12 of 20

Gold

In House Beautiful's 2019 Whole Home, design whiz Vern Yip showed how deep shades of golden yellow and brass can add glamour to layers of gray.

Björn Wallander

13 of 20

Rose

Designer Janie Molster's Richmond, VA, home has a base of soft gray. The antique settee is covered in Schu­macher’s Gains­borough pink velvet. The armchair is Lee Industries, and the chandelier is antique.

Gieves Anderson

14 of 20

Neutrals

David Frazier divided the main living room into two distinct zones, one for lounging and visiting, and one for dining and working. The large pendant light and antique pieces personalize the more generic bones of the building, and a super-light shade of gray paint makes for a more interesting impression than plain white.

Grey Crawford

15 of 20

Taupe

Jeff Andrews used a spectrum of warm grays and taupes to keep his living room feeling cozy, not cold.

Victoria Pearson

16 of 20

White

A neutral-toned bedroom by Frances Merrill of Reath Designs captures Ojai, California’s laid-back vibe. “This couple made it clear that they wanted a very calm bedroom,” she says. “It’s quiet, but with a focus on texture. It really does feel like such an escape.”

Thomas Loof

17 of 20

Brass

Sheets of unlacquered brass warm up this Brooklyn kitchen designed by Asa Barak and Garrow Kedigian.

Thomas Loof

18 of 20

Cerulean

Midcentury furniture with custom cerulean upholstery energize a quiet gray study designed by Wesley Moon.

TK

19 of 20

Navy

The quiet gray palette of a San Francisco row house “allows for strong punches of color,” explains Benjamin Dhong, who used navy-and-white nautical accents in this bedroom.

Stephen Kent Johnson

20 of 20

Brown

Boston designer Nina Farmer used rich tones of brown and sepia to warm up the Phlip Jeffries silk-and-abaca-clad bedroom of this historic Boston house.

Discover the Best Colors to Pair With Red at Home

Emma Bazilian Senior Features Editor Emma Bazilian is a writer and editor covering interior design, market trends and culture.

Hadley Mendelsohn Senior Editor Hadley Mendelsohn is House Beautiful's senior design editor and the co-host and executive producer of the podcast Dark House.

42 Beautiful Gray Living Room Ideas

By

Sarah Lyon

Sarah Lyon

Sarah Lyon is a freelance writer and home decor enthusiast, who enjoys sharing good finds on home items. Since 2018, she has contributed to a variety of lifestyle publications, including Apartment Therapy and Architectural Digest.

Learn more about The Spruce's Editorial Process

Updated on 12/20/21

@ashleygoforth

In a sea of maximalist living rooms filled with color galore, gray spaces don't always receive the attention they deserve. You won't want to mistake gray to be a dreary, dated color, or you'll surely miss out on all of its benefits. Truthfully, gray is such a classic, versatile hue to use throughout the home, and with so many beautiful gray sofas and paint colors on the market, it's a no-brainer when decorating your primary living space. "With such a wide range of blue, green, and brown undertones, gray is a great color for those who want to try something new without overdoing it," designer Maggie Griffin says. "Whether you want to add a little drama or convey a sense of calm in your living room, it's the perfect hue."

If you paint the walls or purchase a gray sofa and feel tempted to add pops of color, note that textiles such as pillow covers are an excellent opportunity to go bold. Whether you're craving a lot of gray or just a little, it's a color that has stood the test of time for a good reason. Read on to gather tons of inspiration, and then tell us why you think gray is so special—we think the color is pretty incredible. And if incorporating gray in the living room alone just isn't enough, we think it looks fantastic in bathrooms, kitchens, and bedrooms, too.

We continue to be inspired by the many ways designers and homeowners have used the color gray in their homes and are sharing 42 of our favorite gray living rooms below.

18 Gray Dining Room Design Ideas

34013 interior photos, tips on design, decoration, selection of furniture, gray living room style in combination with white, brown, pink

In fact, this is not at all the case: the whole secret lies in the correct selection of the right shades. Only then the living room in gray tones will turn into a fashionable and stylish room, comfortable for relaxing and meeting guests.

Pros and cons of gray

The popularity of this shade among designers is primarily due to its versatility and practicality. Also, gray color combines different details and other tones into a single whole. Other highlights include:

Design: Olga Chernenko

Basic rules for the use of gray

In order for the gray color to show its maximum advantages, certain rules must be observed when using it. This will help you create a truly cozy interior.

  1. Using this shade as a foundation, choose only light shades for small spaces.
  2. In a monochromatic interior, dilute the background with pastel colors: beige, peach or cream.
  3. In a small living room, make the ceiling as light as possible, and the protruding walls and niches dark. This will visually increase the volume of the room.
  4. Feel free to use the monochrome design option for large rooms. The union of gray with pearl, graphite or anthracite tones looks good.
  5. If the room is narrow and small, use warm shades: gray-green or natural ebony. Cold tones are suitable for spacious living rooms: ice, silver, steel.
  6. When buying furniture, keep in mind that it should not have exactly the same shade as the walls: otherwise, the products will simply be lost in the overall environment. Cabinets and sofas, armchairs, shelves will be clearly visible against the main background if their tone is lighter than the walls. But there is an exception that applies to excessively small rooms: it is allowed to put furniture in the same shades as the walls. Thus, the bulkiness of products will be reduced.
  7. The use of bright decorative details for the living room in gray tones is a must. These can be classic figurines, paintings in original frames, posters, green houseplants, landscape photos or posters (for the loft style).

Design: Zhenya Zhdanova

Bright accent elements in the interior

The hall is a place where the family gathers, guests come here; so this room should attract attention and please everyone. Bright colors can help with this, enlivening the living room in gray tones. The role of accents can be played by accessories or furniture that have brown, yellow, red or green colors.

Blue is also suitable - it adds some severity and coldness to the interior, which suits business people who are used to getting relaxation in public places: clubs, restaurants. Feel free to use sofa cushions, vases, lamps, rugs as "revitalizing" elements. Sometimes they even glue wallpaper with bright inserts of small sizes. The main thing here is not to overdo it.

Wall decoration in gray tone

First you need to decide on the choice of shade, for which you need to assess the level of illumination of the room. In a fairly bright room, use darker shades and vice versa. When choosing a color for floor and ceiling finishing materials, apply the following rules:

Lightened ceiling gives more volume to the living room in gray tones. The same can be said about the walls. If their finishing material is light enough, then the room visually increases. There is a small nuance: in an overly elongated hall, decorate the end walls using dark shades - this will visually make the living room wide and short.

Don't make the mistake of making the floor too light. In this case, there is a feeling of lack of support. In turn, the dark ceiling, as it were, brings the walls closer, causing a feeling of tightness. The use of gray material for wall decoration is most appropriate in styles:

When decorating a living room in gray tones, wallpaper is most often preferred. Manufacturers offer a fairly wide range of them: you can choose material with different textures and shades.

Combination of gray and white

These are two similar monochrome colors, so together they look very harmonious. Gray and white shades are actively used to create modern, art deco interiors, less often classics. Many people replace pure white with its shades: creamy, dark milky, etc. Interesting combinations are also created if different textures are used - for example, wallpaper or plaster. All this helps to create a cozy and comfortable interior.

Design: Jean-Louis Deniot

Gray and brown

Most designers associate this living room design with the rustic style common in the UK. Brown in alliance with gray soothes: the neighborhood of these tones seems elegant, soft. At the same time, this combination does not distract from the decor elements. Decorating a room with gray and brown can be done in several ways:

Design: Yana Molodykh

Combination with pink

This combination looks fresh and gentle, it never irritates and promotes good relaxation. After all, it is because of him that the family spends time in the living room. If you use a bright shade of pink, you get an original accent, typical for styles such as hi-tech or loft.

Design: Elena Lazareva

Let's add green

In this case, the interior is natural. This is due to the fact that green is a natural color. Here you can use indoor plants with wide leaves or curtains, a rug of the same tones. It is important to remember that you do not need too much green. From shades choose olive, malachite, light green, etc.

Design: Marina Zhukova

Gray and red

A very interesting combination. But you need to remember that the red color is quite provocative and therefore there cannot be too much of it. In a gray living room, it is enough for curtains or chairs to have a red tint, plus a few decorating elements.

Design: Olga Kulikovskaya-Ashby, Interior Box

Dilute with blue

The combination of these tones gives the hall peace and tranquility. Blue color is characterized by saturation, depth. When choosing its shades, try to make the furniture lighter than the walls. Also, golden and silver tones can be considered a good addition, in which accessories are painted: for example, curtains or sofa cushions.

Design: Nikolai Nikitin

Gray with blue

This combination is used when the blue color seems too saturated. The presence of blue gives airiness to the room, making it fresh and airy. Based on this combination, you can decorate the hall in a Mediterranean style. When using a combination, make the walls gray and the furniture blue (or vice versa).

Design: Marina Pilipenko and Ekaterina Fedorova

A variety of shades in the living room: from dark to silver

Tones range from almost white to almost black. Such variability allows you to choose the most suitable design option in accordance with your taste. It is worth noting that the described tone is achromatic, that is, it does not contain other color pigments. Warm and rich color gives the hall nobility and some luxury. But cool tones, reminiscent of steel, are associated with a “factory” interior. It is necessary to work with such shades carefully, even in such pseudo-industrial styles as hi-tech or loft. Manufacturers of finishing materials know the above features and most often offer the following shades:

Of the cool tones, white lead and tin are the most popular.

Design: Alexander Akimenkov Studio

Furniture in a gray living room

If you visit a furniture store, you can see that this color is used quite often. Usually it is upholstery that looks very elegant. The most popular are metallic shades, as well as concrete or wet asphalt. The latter gives upholstered furniture an expensive and luxurious look: natural leather can play the role of upholstery, in some cases - tapestry.

Keep not only sofas and armchairs in the colors described: a dark milky coffee table will look elegant in combination with milky chairs. That is, it is not at all necessary to buy exclusively all pieces of furniture in gray.

For example, the natural brown tone of wood looks interesting in combination with a concrete-colored leather sofa. Outside the recreation area, the described shade is appropriate for hanging shelves, cabinets. Gray color gives elegance and at the same time unloads the interior without cluttering it.

Design: Marion Studio

Gray textiles and additional elements

Many people forget that one of the main components of the interior is elements that are invisible at first sight. But it is they who often form the character of the design. If your furniture and surfaces are light, then buy decor details in darker colors. Curtains in the color of wet asphalt look exceptionally stylish. The silvery shades of the lamps will bring elegance to the interior, and the sofa cushions that draw attention to themselves and pull to lie down to rest.

Style directions

According to most designers, the described color is appropriate in modern interior design. This is a loft, minimalism, hi-tech, as well as modern or underground. It is the gray color that helps to reveal the specifics of these style directions, the palette of which allows you to focus on vintage decor elements.

These shades can also be used in classical styles: baroque, empire, classic. But here it is recommended to use halftones that provide retro styling. As mentioned above, the use of a combination of blue and gray with the addition of pearl tones gives a good effect - in fact, this is a finished design of the Mediterranean style. But here it is necessary to provide full-fledged natural light (it is desirable that the windows face south).

The interior of the living room in shades of gray is quite elegant and able to satisfy the most demanding design fans. To a large extent, this is facilitated by a wide selection of shades of this popular color. On the site you can choose the most suitable design option for your living room.

Design: Elena Lenskikh

Recommendations from designer Victoria Tarasova

Design: Yana Molodykh

Design: Nikolai Nikitin

Design: Alexander Akimenkov Studio

Design: Kameleono studio, Pavel Lichik and Anastasia Ivanova

Living room options in gray tones

design rules, color accents and combinations

11/06/2019

1951 0 Comments

The living room is both a reception area and a place where family members gather. Elegant style, even some solemnity, and comfort should be harmoniously combined here. A living room in gray tones is one of the proven solutions to a difficult task. This is a fashionable and stylish option, which is worth a closer look.

Not at all boring gray

Gray is not just one color. In addition to monochrome gradations obtained by combining pure white with black, designers use cool and warm shades of gray to create the right mood:

Depending on the lighting, the size of the living room, the chosen style, you can choose either achromatic shades of different saturation, or their variations.

When using gray in the design of the walls, the use of textures looks advantageous - rough, convex ornaments.

The use of gray is not only a fashion trend. It is also practical, because it does not fade, traces of pollution are least visible on it.


Living room Country

Gray rules

Achromatic gray is more versatile, it can be made the basis of any interior style. Neutral gray is perfect for a classic and high-tech living room. Warm shades of gray are closer to a rustic style, while cool shades will look great in a Mediterranean or Scandinavian version of the room.

Light and cold shades will visually expand the space of a small living room. The use of fragments of contrasting saturation, on the contrary, will allow zoning a spacious living room, highlighting private corners.

Do not make the ceiling darker than the floor: this creates an effect of pressure from above, especially with a standard ceiling height.

If your living room has unfortunate proportions, in an overly long room, the end wall can be made a few tones darker than the side walls, visually bringing it closer.

Gray living room furniture should not be bought exactly to match the walls, it is better to choose a darker or lighter tone of the same shade. At the same time, if you want to visually enlarge the room, furniture that exactly matches the tone of the walls can be a good solution, without visually standing out and expanding the room.

Keep in mind that gray loves neatness and restraint: an excess of complementary colors can spoil the most elegant image created by the designer, so you should not arrange a warehouse of colorful knick-knacks in the living room.

Gray as an ideal background can be used by collectors. If your collection of paintings, posters, ceramics, etc. is placed on a neutral background, it becomes more visible, attracts the eye, without creating disharmonious combinations.


Highlights

A living room in gray tones with bright accents is not only a stylish solution, but also an opportunity to change the appearance of the room almost beyond recognition with minimal effort and investment. It is enough just to replace curtains, sofa cushions or other bright accessories by choosing a different color accent - and now, instead of a frivolous Mediterranean style, laconic Scandinavian simplicity dominates in your living room.

The magic of color in action. Neutral gray makes the perfect backdrop for color-rich items that set the mood. Royal burgundy will give solemnity and sophistication, cream and pink shades - tenderness and lightness.

Gray has the ability to emphasize the saturation of other colors. Therefore, an unusual, for example, oriental, rug will sparkle in such a living room with all its colors, lamps and vases will complement the design, and fresh flowers, even the most modest ones, will not let go of your eyes.

Just a few bright spots can completely change the mood of a living room made in shades of gray. The book is on the table in a bright red cover, as if by chance a forgotten red plaid on the back of the sofa. And now playfulness appears, mood rises, a surge of energy is felt.

Looking for peace and serenity? We replace the red with a bluish-gray, swampy one - and the living room breathes coolness, which is so nice to plunge into after a hot, busy day.


Harmony

The combination of gray and white gives rise to the Scandinavian style, where knitted and woven textures play a special role, spectacular combinations of glossy and matte surfaces. Possible variations are an almost white main background with graphite or asphalt shades of furniture and textiles. Or, on the contrary, dark walls are emphasized by dazzling white finishing elements - borders, curtains, textiles.

The combination of gray walls with natural wood furniture is used in a rustic style. However, one should not think that the rustic style is a grandmother's "hall" with a lurid wardrobe and a sideboard. Modern design solutions give rustic style a modern touch. Here, natural colors and materials, simple shapes, coarse textiles play a role.

In combination with blue or light blue, gray can be presented in a high-tech style, where cold blue with steel notes will create the illusion of fantastic materials of the future. More saturated blue notes will give the interior already some notes of the Mediterranean style, associating with the coolness of the sea waves. It is important that color schemes are complemented by the use of appropriate shapes and textures. The Mediterranean style, unlike hi-tech, requires soft lines that are close to natural natural forms.


The loft style, imitating an industrial interior, is characterized by the use of steel shades, complemented by brick, brown.

If the light gray base is supplemented with textiles and decorative elements of purple and lavender shades, you will see the Provence style. Mystical lilac will create an atmosphere of mystery. A rich purple will be an elegant expression of the classic style, like deep blue, purple.

If gray still seems a little dull to you, dilute it with sunny yellow. Such a bold decision will make your living room bright and unusual. And the gray-beige interior will give the room warmth and comfort.

A combination with pink, depending on the shades of the latter, can create a modern or high-tech style if pink is chosen in cold tones with a metallic sheen. At the same time, warm pink elements soften the strict gray, making the living room very tender, feminine, touching.

Green color gives a lot of design options in combination with its natural natural shades, where live plants will look very harmonious, creating a relaxation zone in the living room. And dark green can look solemn, giving a formal touch.


Gray living room materials

For wall decoration, classic paper wallpapers are most often used, which can be almost plain with a textured pattern or have a floral, geometric ornament. In the loft style, monochrome wallpapers can be used that imitate old newspapers. More expensive solutions can be decorated with various types of decorative plasters.

In the design of the walls, contrasting inserts in the form of rosettes or a horizontal, vertical division of areas contrasting in saturation are used.

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