The Best Neutral Paints & Stains
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Hey friends! I’m here today sharing the best neutral paint and stain colors that we have used throughout our home!
Let’s dive in.
PAINTS
Ghost Pines by Sherwin Williams
This is a great light greige and is our primary wall color. I actually went into Home Depot to have Agreeable Gray mixed, but when I started comparing colors, I thought Agreeable Gray might be too dark for our space. Ghost Pines was a shade lighter than Agreeable Gray, but definitely in that same color family. We painted our whole downstairs in this color, minus our shiplap walls. It’s light and airy, but warm enough to add a certain neutral coziness.
As with any color, I recommend testing in different areas of your home and see how the light hits it! Colors can vary from home to home.
Simply White by Benjamin Moore
We actually recently (April 2022) repainted our main living space in this color. Originally this was Ghost Pines. I still love the soft greige of Ghost Pines, but I was simply ready for a change!
Simply White is the perfect in-between of a bright, crisp white and a soft, warm white in my opinion!
I have a full blog post written up on this paint color if you’re interested!
Ultra Pure White in Behr Marquee (matte)
A true, pure white for a crisp and clean feel!
Cyberspace by Sherwin Williams
We used this gorgeous navy black in our small powder room and could not love it more!
You can see the whole blog post on our bathroom and more photos of this color here!
Rainy Afternoon – Benjamin Moore
This is the most perfect calming, earthy green! You can see more of this color in our bedroom here!
See more of this color in our bedroom here!
Chelsea Gray by Benjamin Moore
This is such a pretty gray/earthy green, and it looks a little different on every project we use it for. We used it on our dining room accent wall, our son’s dresser, and our downstairs bathroom vanity. I adore it every single time!
You can see the whole nursery in this post, where I detail how we put it together on a serious budget!
Tricorn Black by Sherwin Williams
We chose Tricorn Black for our front door and garage door. Yes, we painted the garage door! Love this color. It’s honestly more of an extremely DARK navy that reads black.
STAINS
Ipswich Pine & Early American (combined)
The stain combination for our wooden (pine) porch columns is 3/4 Ipswich Pine and the rest Early American. We sealed these with a few coats of heavy exterior poly.
SEE THE BLOG POST ON OUR PORCH COLUMNS HERE.
White Wash (both Minwax and Varathane have a version)
I have to include this first, because I use it on almost everything we stain. We use pine on all of our DIYs, and white washing is usually my first step before applying a darker wood stain. This helps to take the yellow out of and give a weathered look to the wood.
Weatered Oak & Special Walnut Combination
This is my current FAVORITE. This combination begins with one or two coats of white wash pickling, and then the weathered oak/special walnut stain overtop. The mixture is about 3/4 weathered oak and the rest special walnut.
I have a blog post written up on this stain combo here.
We stained our beam doorway in the same combination.
Special Walnut
This is one of my favorite stains for when I want something to have a warmer or more traditional feel.
Our faux ceiling beam is Special Walnut.
Our table is a mixture of white wash pickling, Special Walnut, and a touch of Cordovan Brown (an exterior Behr stain).
These shelves are white wash pickling with Special Walnut on top.
I do recommend testing colors in your home before purchasing! I love Agreeable Gray in other people’s homes, but it didn’t look quite right in mine. So it’s always a good choice to buy a sample of paint first, or test stain on a small piece of scrap wood, before diving in!
I hope this list helps you find the best neutral paint colors and stains for your own home!
Until next time,
I know this is an old post, but do you know what species of wood and stain/finish are on your stairs? They are absolutely beautiful!
Hi Rachael! I do know we used pine for the stairs, but I am unsure of the stain combination. I want to say it’s probably a mixture of white wash, weathered oak, and special walnut. This is my go-to for a natural finish, but it’s been a while – and unfortunately we didn’t blog this project!
Thank you Courtney!