Sherwin Williams Sea Salt people: please chime in!

[MrsRobinson]

I've "heard" posters here sing the praises of the Sea Salt paint color many times.

We are painting our new (to us) house and we are down to 4 paint swatches. I think Sea Salt looks green but yesterday, in bright sunlight, it looked gray. Either is fine. Green would go with our couch. My living room curtains are gray.

My concern is painting the whole house (except for the kids rooms) Sea Salt. Would it be too much green? Is it gray during the day and green at night? Is it best as a greenish change in a master bedroom from a more neutral color throughout the house? 

Our new house is very modest. 8 foot ceilings, neutral mid tone hardwood floors, white kitchen cabinets. The kitchen is on the north side and is going to be pretty dark most of the year. There are bright lights installed in the kitchen.

I'm open to other color suggestions as well. Thanks hive experts!

[Corraleno]

I painted my bedroom and bathroom Sea Salt, but had to use a much lighter tint of it. I had painted two adjacent walls with the color at 100% and it looked like a dark muddy gray in the corner that didn't get any window light, so I then got a sample at 50%, and ultimately settled on 25%. The room faces east and only has one window, and to me Sea Salt looks bluish-green in daylight and gray at night (except where there is a lamp right next to it). In the bedroom, the 25% tint looks exactly like all the photos I've seen online of the full strength paint (which always seem to be in rooms with tons of light), but it is very pale in the bathroom, which has a light fixture that's about 240 watts (which I plan to change).

I love the color in my bedroom, but I wouldn't do a whole house with it because it looks so different in different lighting conditions that it's bound to look nice in some places and really bad in others. So I would want the flexibility to choose other colors for the rooms where Sea Salt would not look great. IMO when it goes gray, it's not a very pretty gray, it's just kind of muddy. Luckily, it goes well with a lot of other colors in a similar tonal range, and there are lots of examples out there of whole house color palettes that include Sea Salt. Sherwin Williams does lots of really pretty grays if you want a gray.

Edited April 20, 2019 by Corraleno

[Pawz4me]

When we bought this house one of the upstairs bedrooms HAD to be painted before move in. It's a convoluted story, but due to damage to that room done when the previous owner was moving out (which necessitated the need to repair some places and paint right away) he ended up cutting us a check to Sherwin Williams. We were in a huge hurry and didn't have time to think about it, and so we chose Sea Salt because everybody was raving about it at the time. And I didn't like it at all. It looked light powder blue in that room. Morning, noon and night.

[Rockhopper]

I don't think I'd want a whole house of Sea Salt. Maybe a room, like you said, as a change.

Our whole house is Agreeable Gray. We're moving next month and that house is entirely Agreeable Gray too.  When we first moved in here, I was really snarky and rude about the Agreeable Gray (despite trends, gray makes me think of prison walls and institutional cafeterias). I always called it Acceptable Gray. But I've really come to love it. It is a really great neutral. It works like white but lets white furniture and trim pop off it. It's not sad or dreary or "too" anything -- it just IS... in a good way.

[Storygirl]

I don't think you can plan on it working through your whole house. I love the color and painted my dining room with it, but it was obviously wrong after the first coat. In there, it looked too minty. I was hoping for more of the blue to come out. Even gray would have been fine, but the green tones didn't work.

I did use it in my powder room, though, and it is lovely in there.

The difference is the lighting. If you use it through your whole house, the lighting will be different from room to room. Some rooms you might love it in, and in some rooms it may not look right.

It's a very interesting color, due to how the tones can vary so much.

[Corraleno]

One tip about Sherwin Williams paint: I only buy it when they have a 40% off sale, and I buy several cans but only have one can tinted. That way, if I don't like it, I can get a different color or tint in the other cans, and if I end up not needing every gallon, I can either return the untinted cans or hold onto to them for future projects. I really wish Benjamin Moore did sales, because I like their paint better, but there is such a big difference between the full-price cost of BM and the 40%-off cost of SW that it's often not worth the extra expense, especially for bedrooms or other low-traffic areas.

[Ellie]

I painted my whole downstairs (except for one room) a Silver Sage, which is very similar to Sea Salt. Love it. It's remarkably neutral, and it does look different depending on the lighting.

[Wallflower]

We have used Sea Salt a lot, especially when we owned rental properties.  We have also used it in our own home.  With our rentals we painted the entire house, every room, with it.  Sometimes it gives off a green tint, other times a bluish tint.  I have always found it to be fresh and airy and wonderful for smaller spaces.  Against white it gives a cottage type feel (I think).  It might be too light against white cabinets but if you have a dark space it will definitely lighten it up.  I actually stumbled across Sea Salt a few years ago when I was trying to find a paint that complimented darker old fashioned cabinets.  We weren't able to upgrade the color of the cabinets so painting the walls is what we went with.  It was an amazing compliment to darker oakish cabinets and really lightened it up.  We have always had a lot of compliments from tenants!  Good luck choosing!

[MrsRobinson]

See, this is why I don't like to paint a house right away. I like to live in the house for a full year before I paint the walls so I can get a really good picture of light in every room and how it changes through the day and seasonally. This new house needs repainted really really badly though so I'm trying to choose a color without really knowing what I'm dealing with. 

I guess I'll just have to pick one and change it later if it doesn't work. I'm leaning away from Sea Salt after reading the comments here. Agreeable Grey is messing with my head because its such an agreeable color, who could argue, right? 😂

 

[Suzanne in ABQ]

https://clairejefford.com/sea-salt-by-sherwin-williams/

 

Just found this video review of Sherwin Williams Sea Salt.  

[solascriptura]

I love how Sea Salt changes with the time of day and the decor.  I find the color so calming and relaxing.  I don't think I would paint an entire house that color though.

 

 

[kristin0713]

We just used Sea Salt in our new master bath and I LOVE it. It definitely looks green, which is probably brought out by the gray tile and white vanity. I would not do it in my whole house, but I’d like to use it in the other bathrooms. I agree with a PP who said to get it on sale as it’s definitely expensive. I think it was even more expensive than Benjamin Moore and that was with the 40% off.

[itsheresomewhere]

Both agreeable gray and sea salt turn a awful color in my house.  It took 15 shades of white to find one that didn’t turn blue or neon in one room of my house.  Same room could make any shade of cream look dirty.  

Paint the walls a nice light neutral for now.  In a six months or a year, paint what you like.

 

[Ottakee]

I wish I had a color name for you but I have a light golden tan color on my main floor and love it.  Nice and neutral.  It does though turn from more yellowish in bright light to more tanish in less light.

[MrsRobinson]

@Ottakee and @Patty Joanna I'll have to check that out. The floors are a honey tone...

[MrsRobinson]

Based on the coments here, it seems that sea salt and other greys need very bright natural light to work in a room. I'm starting to rethink color options because there are a lot of huge shade trees in the yard and I'm thinking maybe we need a warmer tone. Although, I'm not sure it will go with my furniture. 

I think I'm going to paint everyting a basic white primer just so the walls aren't gross and then over the next few months while living there, I'll do some large samples in various locations of the house and decide on a color. 

Thanks for all your help everyone! If anyone has any other ideas, feel free to post them! I'd love to hear them. 😊

[Katy]

I like it on doors but I think it would be too much green in a whole master bedroom.  Next to white or cream doors and Revere Pewter walls most people don't even notice it's not white, it just feels fresh and restful.

[Katy]

If you're looking for a whole color scheme:

SW Sea Salt semi gloss enamel on doors

BM White Opulence OC-69 (white) or BM Cotton Tail 2155-70 (ivory) for trim

BM Revere Pewter for walls.  In a very dark room perhaps BM light pewter.

Edited April 22, 2019 by Katy
for some reason autocorrect changed "tail" to "tale"