Sherwin Williams Tinsmith: Undertones, Lighting, & Best Uses

Finding your home’s best gray paint color can be tough, especially with thousands to choose from. Warm gray, cool gray, light, medium, dark – OH THE HUMANITY! This is why I focus on the most popular grays – no room for fluff.

Naturally, your home’s best gray depends on many factors, including what you’re painting (walls/cabinets/exterior), your room’s exposure and amount of light, surrounding finishes, and more.

Today, we’re looking at Sherwin Williams Tinsmith. Not the most popular gray in their collection, but a contender in its own right.

WHAT TYPE OF COLOR IS SW TINSMITH?

Tinsmith appears as a cool gray paint color, even though its roots suggest a tiny touch of warmth (don’t expect it).

North, East, South, West – Which Paint Color is the Best?

SHERWIN WILLIAMS TINSMITH’S LRV

Tinsmith has an LRV of 57, making it a light depth paint color. However, it’s not fresh, airy, and bright as it is on the LOW end of the light range.

If you have a super bright room, Tinsmith will hold its color a bit better than some other light, more popular gray paint colors, which will wash out a bit more.

Not sure what LRV is? It could save your paint lovin’ life – read all about it HERE.

WHAT ARE TINSMITH’S UNDERTONES?

As you might’ve learned in my other blog posts, EVERY GRAY HAS UNDERTONES, and Tinsmith definitely commits to blue undertones. In some lights, this undertone can flash oooooh so slightly blue-green (usually with warm, lower Kelvin light bulbs or afternoon western sunshine) but is less inclined to flash blue-purple.

WHAT’S THE BEST WHITE TRIM COLOR FOR TINSMITH?

If I have Tinsmith on my walls, I’m definitely going to look at white paint colors like…

• Sherwin Williams High Reflective White
• Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace
• It can even handle a warm white like Sherwin Williams Pure White
• Sherwin Williams White Snow is a newer white (relatively) and offers a nice contrast

The 4 Best White Paint Colors from Sherwin Williams

The 5 Types of White Paint Colors

IS TINSMITH A GOOD EXTERIOR PAINT COLOR?

Tinsmith is definitely a good option for the exterior of a home, as long as your roof, brick, stone and other exterior features can SUPPORT a gray with a blue undertone! You might find that while some roofs can handle blue hues, not as many stones or brick work with them.

5 Tips for Choosing an Exterior Paint Color

WHAT COLORS ARE SIMILAR TO TINSMITH?

Every color has its own particular nuances and there will be no perfect match – you WILL see shifts in undertones, temperature and depths, but you could check out colors with a similar approach, such as…

• Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray is wickedly gorgeous
• Sherwin Williams Silverpointe offers a slightly different approach with similar undertones.
• For a bit less blue and more of a green-blue undertone, check out Sherwin Williams Lattice.

WHAT COLORS GO WITH TINSMITH?

Even though Tinsmith has a simpler undertone than some and a good degree of depth, it’s not SUPER flexible with its color pairings.

Also, it depends on whether you need a color for an adjoining room, accent walls, or cabinets. No matter, these colors should get you started…

• a range of flexible, warm, off-white paint colors
• muted cream paint colors
• a ton of bright whites, and warm white paint colors
• some super soft, flexible, off-white taupes can be interesting
• I love the idea of darker greiges in adjoining spaces
• navy blue paint colors with similar undertone profiles

READ MORE

Paint Color Review of Sherwin Williams Sweater Weather

Paint Color Review of Sherwin Williams Silverplate

Read more: Paint Color Review of Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray

SHERWIN WILLIAMS REPOSE GRAY

Read more: Paint Color Review of Sherwin Williams Repose Gray

Not sure which paint color is best for YOUR home?

Check out my Online Paint Color Consulting – I’d love to help!