Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray Review

reasons why Mindful Gray is a one of the best gray paint colors :

1. Versatility

Mindful Gray is a neutral paint color that works well in a variety of spaces, from living rooms and bedrooms to kitchens and bathrooms.

2. Complementary Colors

Mindful Gray pairs well with a variety of complementary colors, such as white paint colors, black, and navy blue. This makes it easy to coordinate with other design elements in the room.

3. Warm and Inviting

Mindful gray undertones are warm yet still neutral, which helps to create a cozy and inviting atmosphere in any room. The blue/green undertone keep it a true gray color without making it look brown.

4. Reflects Natural Light

With an LRV (Light Reflectance Value) of 48, Mindful Gray reflects a good amount of natural light back into a room, making it appear brighter and more open. Our kitchen does not have a lot of natural light (one small window in the corner) so it was important to find a light gray that would reflect light making it feel larger and brighter but not seem cold.

The image below features SherwinWilliams Mindful Gray on a built in cabinet in my friend Cyndy’s dining room over at Creativity Exchange. Isn’t it beautiful?

Wondering what the LRV number means? Light Reflective Value is the percent that the color on “walls/cabinets/furniture” will reflect light with 0 being black and 100 being bright white.

North-Facing Room

Our kitchen only has 1 window around in a corner which is somewhat blocked by one of the kitchen walls so the only natural light it gets is from a larger North-Facing window in our kitchen nook area.

You will notice in the image above the recessed lights are on casting an artificial warm light and the cabinets still appear gray.

Here is a picture from my phone of the same view with the lights off and no filters.

North-Facing rooms will make Mindful Gray appear to have a blueish (sometimes even green) undertone which is basically what keeps Mindful gray from looking brown in my kitchen. Lighting plays a huge role in how paint looks so I will share another post soon about my crash course in how cardinal and ordinal directions make paint look completely different than a paint swatch.

5. Easy to Pair with Decor

Mindful Gray works well with a variety of decor styles, including traditional, modern, and farmhouse styles.

In order to modernize our existing cabinets and create a modern contemporary look, we decided to add these stainless steel long cabinet pulls to every door and drawer.

We replaced all of the hinges as well which you can see on our updating kitchen cabinet post.

Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray Coordinating Colors

SW Mindful gray also coordinates with a variety of white trim paint colors. We painted all of our trim and walls Sherwin Williams Westhighland White lightened by 25% lighter which looks amazing with the Mindful Gray paint color.

I will share another post about the purpose of having the paint store lighten and darken paint colors – it’s fascinating how creative you can get with paint!

Mindful gray also coordinates with SW Pearly White, SW Elder White and a darker gray SW Homburg Gray.

I personally like the darker colors like navy, dark greenish gray (like Homburg) to provide a nice contrast.

Sherwin Williams Gray Colors

There are several Sherwin Williams gray colors to pick from making the selection process a bit overwhelming!

Silver Strand Sherwin Williams

If you are looking for a light gray with a hint of silver, Silver Strand is a great color that we used at our lake house and it’s the perfect wall color to brighten up a space. It’s more of a cool undertone with a slight blue greenish tint at times, providing a neutral backdrop that works well in a living room or bedroom.

Our finished basement at the lake house which you can see above, silver strand really brightens up the space (and has a blue-ish undertone) as it doesn’t have a lot of natural light.

It does have a set of patio doors that open to the lake but the deck above blocks a lot of the natural light.

Lighting tip for basements: I’ll share a little secret, I use daytime bulbs at 3500 lumens to get this bright look as well!

Mindful Gray Vs Repose Gray

Repose gray Sherwin Williams is one shade lighter (with color code 7015) than mindful gray on the paint chart but has more of a beige warmer undertone where mindful gray has more of a blue green undertone.

I did get a sample of Mindful Gray lightened 25% and 50% to try in my kitchen and didn’t care for how light it was – the Repose Gray in my kitchen also looked washed out and blah so 100% Mindful Gray was the ultimate winner.

I have to thank my friend Cyndy at The Creativity Exchange for helping me narrow down which paint color to choose. We spent hours on Facetime trying different scenarios! haha.

Paint Color Review Posts

• Sherwin Williams Greek Villa (this was the perfect color for the entire inside of the ranch house)
• Best Grey kitchen cabinet paint colors (sharing the 7 paint grey cabinet colors with pictures)
• Sherwin Williams Westhighland White (a neutral white with a little warmth)
• Sherwin Williams Sea Salt (a beautiful blue green)
• Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray (the color we used in our kitchen renovation)
• Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace (a cool white we used at our lake house)
• Benjamin Moore Advance Paint (best kitchen cabinet paint)