Sherwin Williams Escape Gray
Sherwin Williams Escape Gray is a pretty green paint color with significant charcoal undertones. The pretty blend of gray and green creates a moody paint color that’s perfect for cabinetry, offices or even exteriors.
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Is Escape Gray a warm paint color?
Escape Gray is considered a warm paint color.
What undertones does Escape Gray have?
Escape Gray is a warm green paint color with gray undertones. Gray paint with green undertones or greenish gray paint, depending on how you look at it, have been rising in popularity for the last few years as greenish hues continue to show up in homes everywhere.
Want to try Escape Gray out in your home? I recommend you order a peel and stick sample to test out first. Order a sample of Escape Gray.
What is the LRV of Escape Gray?
LRV stands for Light Reflectance Value and Escape Gray’s LRV is 40. This tells us how light or dark a color is, with zero representing pure white and 100 representing pure black.
At 40, Escape Gray is a fairly saturated color and if you want a greenish gray but want something lighter, you will need to consider colors with an LRV over 50, but preferably over 60 to achieve the look you want.
Escape Gray vs. Evergreen Fog
Sherwin Williams Evergreen Fog is much darker than Escape Gray with an LRV of 30. Besides that, while the two are in the same vein, color-wise, Evergreen Fog is much greener than Escape Gray.
There’s a strong gray undercurrent in Escape Gray, and while Evergreen Fog has a gray undertone, it’s just a hint.
Escape Gray vs. Saybrook Sage
Saybrook Sage has an LRV of 44, vs Escape Gray’s 40, so the colors are fairly similar in light depth, but that’s where the similarities end. Saybrook Sage is definitively more green with a silvery undertone.
Many paint color names don’t match too well with what the color actually looks like in real life, but that’s not the case with Saybrook Sage, as this color is a spot on sage hue.
Which trim color looks best with Escape Gray?
Escape Gray looks very pretty with trim colors in true white paint shades and some off-white paint colors. While Escape Gray is fairly forgiving when it comes to trim colors, some of the softer white colors are simply too yellow for this color.
For example, I don’t like Escape Gray with Alabaster, as it’s just not quite the right look, but I do like it with White Dove, and Pure White (those are both off white colors). Here some more of the best off white paint colors if you’re interested.
In terms of pure white (undertone free) whites, you really can’t go wrong, but start with High Reflective White or Oxford White.
Is Escape Gray right for your home?
See more of this bedroom using escape gray here.
Here are my 3 no-fail tips on making sure Sherwin Williams Escape Gray is the color for you.
Look at the light in your room
Darker colors will only get darker in rooms with small windows or rooms that are opposite the sun most of the day. This is why you simply can’t look at a paint swatch in the store or observe it online or in someone else’s home without testing it first in your own home.
Repeat the color in your room
Ideally, you should always choose the paint color first so that it can serve as a complement to your decor. You should aim to work with no more than 3-4 saturated hues and one neutral hue per room for cohesion.
If you like the idea of Escape Gray but don’t have any other green elements in your room, perhaps it’s time to redecorate or pick a new paint color. Once you decide on a color palette for a room, ideally you should repeat the colors at least 3 times in various sizes throughout the room.
Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that Escape Gray is a “dirty” color, compared to a true green hue, which would be considered a “clean” color.
Now, there’s certainly nothing wrong with “dirty” colors, but you do want to be mindful as you pull together your room palette, as you’ll want to use other “dirty” colors. For example, Escape Gray looks great with a dirty version of red, or a terra cotta color, but really clashes with a true red.
Test it out
My best advice for testing out paint colors so that you don’t end up hating your wall color is to order the peel and stick samples, place them on a pure white poster board and move them around your room on the wall.
You want to place them against the pure white board versus whatever you’ve already got on your wall because the current wall color will impact how Escape Gray looks and you want a pure background to evaluate the color well.
I also suggest ordering multiple hues in the same color family, as comparing colors right next to each other is the only way you’ll actually see the different undertones, how light or dark the color is and in the case of this color family, how green or gray the color is.
Is Escape Gray right for you? If not, check out some more hues in the grayish green color family.
