Benjamin Moore Gray Owl: Where & How to Use

robert

By Robert

If you want to make your Scandinavian, Transitional style interior spaces look more crisp and feel warm, Benjamin Moore Gray Owl is a great option for you.

Gray Owl is a very popular color of Benjamin Moore, ranking among other bestsellers. Dozens of social media posts from fans proves its enduring popularity.

What makes this color so well-liked? Let’s dive into the topic and learn more about this color.

What Color Benjamin Moore Gray Owl is?

Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore

Gray Owl is a refreshing light gray that really suits what comes to mind when you think of the color gray–a classic and traditional color. It is a great paint color for any room in your house because of its user-friendly brightness and its ability to coordinate with other paint colors.

Gray Owl owes its enduring popularity to its refreshing crispness, and its balance, which it achieves without going into brown or beige.

Gray Owl should be on the shortlist for anyone who wants a gray paint color for their interior spaces that is cool, versatile, and functional.

Benjamin Moore Gray Owl Undertones

Undertones are those subtle differences that make any color look different from another color in the same color family.

Gray paint colors often have undertones – usually blue, green, or purple. Instead of running from them, use them to their advantage with other shades in the room.

Gray Owl has soft green/blue undertones that cause the shade to do some shape-shifting based on light exposure. In the north-facing room, GrayOwl appears cooler.

However, in rooms facing south or those with warm lighting, you may notice Gray Owl looks a bit warmer.

Gray Owl LRV = 65.77

Gray Owl has an LRV of almost 66, so it has a pretty softness to it, making it not an off-white, but not even CLOSE to the light-medium range either. It’s light enough that it won’t make a room feel dark.

Benjamin Moore Gray Owl Color Palette

Gray Owl is a classic neutral that’s quite easy to coordinate with other colors like blues, greens, purples, and its fellow grays.

Gray Owl is especially beautiful next to darker blues, such as navy blue, smoky blue, or even teal.

Brighter contrast colors like wheat, gold, and yellow really pop next to Gray Owl, and can accent a Gray Owl and blue palette.

A classic combination you can turn to again and again is black, white and gray. This trio will always look chic and sophisticated. Or to create a visual interest you can pair Gray Owl with dark or charcoal gray, instead of black.

If you’re trying to build a color palette around Gray Owl, following are some popular color combinations.

Gray Owl and Hale Navy

Gray Owl and Hale Navy

This pairing works really well because both of these colors are in the cool paint color family. It’s also very pretty because the Hale Navy is a striking contrast when compared to Gray Owl.

Gray Owl and Wolf Gray

Gray Owl and Wolf Gray

This color combination is simply divine. If you want to stay in the gray color family but want a contrast, Wolf Gray works well because it has those same dusty blue undertones as Gray Owl.

Gray Owl and Pike’s Peak

Gray Owl and Pike’s Peak

Still sticking with that gray color family, Pike’s Peak is much darker and has more of a blue color than Wolf Gray. Pike’s peak would be a beautiful color on built-ins in a room painted in Gray Owl.

Gray Owl and Newburg green

Gray Owl and Newburg green

Because of the undertones of Gray Owl, you could easily get away with pairing it with any number of blue green paint colors. This pairing will give an amazing visual interest to the interior space.

Gray Owl and a Creamy White

Gray Owl and a Creamy White

If you’re not into the stark white, you can still pair Gray Owl with a creamier white, just make sure it’s not too yellowish.

Where to use Benjamin Moore Gray Owl in your Home

You can use Gray Owl anywhere. Gray Owl is such a beautiful crisp clean gray that it looks good in so many different applications.

Try using Gray Owl on walls, cabinets, and trim. Just remember to test the color in the space you want to paint it before using it to make sure you like it.

Let’s have a look at a Gray Owl application in different areas of home with real life examples.

Gray Owl Exterior

Credit: @word_of_mouth_painting

Gray Owl certainly can be an option for the exterior. Don’t forget though, paint colors will wash out or look a bit light in the sun.

Also, make sure you factor in the other color elements of your exterior, for example, the roof and any stonework you have.

Gray Owl Bedroom

Credit: @thehouseofsweeney

Gray Owl is a great paint color choice for a modern bedroom design. Its blend of soft prominence makes it the perfect neutral shade.

The blue/green undertones give the bedroom a calm, relaxing feel and its subtle appearance will help the bedroom furniture and decor standout.

Creating an overall appealing ambiance!

Gray Owl Kitchen

Credit: @kyle.and.amanda

Using this soft neutral to a bright color- Gray Owl, on your kitchen walls with white cabinets and crisp, subway tile backsplash would create an absolutely stunning look.

Gray Owl color will highlight the kitchen custom woodwork, enhance the flashiness of chic, stainless-steel appliances, or bring forth elements of neutral granite countertops.

Another option is to paint your Kitchen cabinets in Gray Owl color. It will give your cabinets a beautiful wash of color without being too bold .

Gray Owl Living Room

Credit: @homestagingbylisa

BM Gray Owl is a fabulous gray to use on your living room walls! The color mostly reads balanced and neutral, which allows it to be paired with many other colors and materials/textures. Gray Owl works specifically well with wood and stone.

And besides, you can use it in different interior design styles!

How Different Types of Lighting Affect Benjamin Moore Gray Owl?

Paint is not a static thing. It’s more of a living, breathing, ever-changing feature in your home. And both light exposure and surrounding decor affect the way it appears.

Here’s how you can expect a chameleon-like Gray Owl to look in different types of natural lighting.

  • North-facing light: northern light is cool and has a blue tint which will draw out Gray Owl’s blue-green undertones.
  • South-facing light: consistent warm light from the south is the most favorable to paint and will allow Gray Owl to show its true nature.
  • East-facing light: with warm yellow light in the morning and passive natural light in the afternoon, Gray Owl will shift through the day from neutral gray to blue-green gray.
  • West-facing light: With passive light in the morning and ultra-warm light in the evening, Gray Owl will shift to a more blue-green gray in the morning and balanced gray in the evening.

Trim Colors for Benjamin Moore Gray Owl

Trim Colors for Benjamin Moore Gray Owl

With the correctly chosen trim color, you can make your wall color read better highlighted. For Benjamin Moore Gray Owl, the optimal trim color is usually white – a crisp white or creamy white, depending on the look you’re going for.

You just need to be careful with your creamy white trims that it doesn’t clash with the blue-green undertones that Gray Owl has. Here are 2 white colors recommendations for Gray Owl trim colors:

Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace

This color is a clean, bright white that would work great on doors and window trim.

White Dove would be a great option for trim if you’re looking for a more traditional look or feel.

Benjamin Moore Simply White

BM Simply White is a more crisp white, but doesn’t make your trim feel too cold or sterile.

It’s a great choice for a more modern feel.

Equivalent Colors for Benjamin Moore Gray Owl

Benjamin Moore Gray Owl vs. Moonshine

Gray Owl vs Moonshine

Benjamin Moore Gray Owl and Moonshine are fairly similar colors in a lot of ways. They both are very light grays of a similar depth. The LRV of Moonshine is 68, making it a little bit brighter than Gray Owl.

This higher LRV will be not much visible to the naked eye though but the undertones of Gray Owl are more livable and less pronounced than Moonshine, making it everyone’s preferable choice.

Benjamin Moore Gray Owl vs. Gray Cloud

Benjamin Moore Gray Owl vs Gray Cloud

Benjamin Moore Gray Cloud with LRV of 71.27 is lighter than Gray Owl with blue undertones- visible in north-facing rooms because of bluish light color. Gray Cloud is also considered a blue gray paint color.

Whereas Gray Owl is a nice balance between cool and warm tones. Gray Owl works best in rooms that have little natural light. The more natural light a room has the cooler this Benjamin Moore gray will look.

Benjamin Moore Gray Owl vs. Classic Gray

Benjamin Moore Gray Owl vs Classic Gray

Classic Gray is a pale greige color that can also work as an off-white. It’s light and refreshing like Gray Owl, but it’s greige tint makes it warmer. It’s also the lighter of the two, with a LRV of 73.67.

Classic gray may not be the best color choice in spaces with no natural light but it’s the perfect alternative to Gray Owl, Repose and Stonington when there is full natural light flooding in.

Benjamin Moore Gray Owl vs. Stonington Gray

Gray Owl vs Stonington Gray

Both colors Gray Owl and Stonington Gray are easy on the eyes, but Gray Owl has more of a light and airy feel to it than Stonington Gray does.

These two colors are pretty similar, but Gray Owl is definitely the lighter of the two gray paint colors. With an LRV of 65, Gray Owl looks much lighter than Stonington Gray on the wall.

Benjamin Moore Gray Owl vs. Repose Gray

Benjamin Moore Gray Owl vs Repose Gray

Repose Gray from Sherwin William is a gorgeous shade that works almost anywhere. It is slightly darker than Gray Owl.

Whereas Gray Owl has more of an airy quality to it, Repose Gray is more earthy.

This is because Repose Gray is actually a greige paint color. It is a warm gray with strong brown undertones.

Gray Owl vs. Wickham Gray

Benjamin Moore Gray Owl vs Wickham Gray

Gray Owl is a soft, light gray that carries subtle blue and green undertones, presenting an LRV of 65. This gives it a fresh, airy essence, perfect for spaces that need brightness.

Wickham Gray, on the other hand, leans more distinctly towards a soft blue undertone, giving it a serene and spa-like quality.

While both colors are adaptable and light, Gray Owl has a broader neutral range, while Wickham Gray’s blue undertone can become more prominent in certain lighting.

Gray Owl vs. Revere Pewter

Gray Owl vs Revere Pewter

As Gray Owl is a cool gray color and Revere Pewter is a warm gray color, more of greige than gray.  When comparing together Gray Owl brings out brown undertones of Revere Pewter.

So If you want a deeper and warmer gray color, then go with Revere Pewter and if you want to create a cool and serene ambiance then Gray Owl is the option to go.

Gray Owl vs. Agreeable Gray

Gray Owl vs. Agreeable Gray

Despite the relevant names of these two colors and close LRV, Agreeable Gray is a rather different color from Gray Owl.

Agreeable Gray of Sherwin William is a medium-toned greige that reads a lot warmer, thanks to its beige component–something Gray Owl doesn’t have. Whereas Gray Owl is a soft gray color with cool undertones.

A south-facing room is where Agreeable Gray is at its best, or ‘most expected’ – as a soft, light greige-taupe with a minimal undertone.

Benjamin Moore Gray Owl: Takeaway

So if you have decided to opt for Gray Owl color in your interior spaces, the best way is to add the sample to a white poster board hung on the wall to get the most accurate color representation.

Secondly, observe the color throughout the day and notice how it looks in the morning, as the sun moves away from the room and at night with lighting. Make sure you like it as the light moves. Additionally, look at how the floor and furniture work with Gray Owl, too.

Gray Owl has user-friendly brightness that’s suited to any room in the home. Thanks to all this adaptability, Gray Owl is a favorite that’s going to continue to have many fans for the years to come. Are you one of them?

Let us know in the comment section below.

FAQ’S

1. Does Bm Gray Owl Look Blue?

It definitely has blue undertones, which can show up in rooms with cool northern light, although you’ll most likely see its green undertones instead of the blue ones.

2. Is Benjamin Moore Gray Owl Warm or Cool?

Looking at one of those 1” by 1” Gray Owl cards may lead you to think that it’s a nicely balanced neutral gray. However, once it’s on walls, Gray Owl often reads cool (even though many people describe it as a warm gray).

How it reads ultimately comes down to how the lighting and surrounding decor impact the color.

3. What Trim Color Goes with Gray Owl?

A cool neutral gray, Gray Owl pairs well with a bright white trim such as Benjamin Moore Simply White.

4. What Is One Shade Darker than Benjamin Moore Gray Owl?

Benjamin Moore Sea Haze is one shade darker than Gray Owl on the color strip.

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