Farrow & Ball French Gray in a Low-Light Bedroom: The Dove
Farrow & Ball French Gray is a soft green-grey, and in my experience it is much more green than its name suggests. I used it on the walls of The Dove, the primary bedroom in our 1875 villa in Switzerland, which gets almost no direct sunlight. Below is how it behaves in a room like that, why I chose it, what it sits with, and the full paint and fabric schedule for the room.
You can see the finished room in the portfolio, and the whole makeover on YouTube.
Is French Gray grey or green?
Mostly green. Farrow & Ball describe it as “much more green than grey”, and say it moves between the two depending on the light and the time of day. They take its inspiration from nineteenth-century French decoration and wallpapers, which is where the name comes from rather than from the colour itself.
As I said in the makeover videos, even though it says gray in the name, it is actually a green.
How it looks in a room with little direct sun
The Dove gets almost no direct sunlight. Its windows are on two walls that meet at a corner. One window catches a little light first thing in the morning, and the two on the other wall catch the sun only as it sets. For most of the day, the room is lit by soft, indirect light.
In a room like this, a colour’s undertone tends to matter more, because there is little direct sun to warm it. If your room is similar, it is worth putting large sample cards on two or three walls and looking at them at the times you actually use the room. For a bedroom, that is usually early morning and the evening, under lamplight.
Why I chose French Gray
I almost never start a room with the wall colour. The Dove started with the headboard fabric, Doves by Lewis & Wood in Summer Blue. Paint can be mixed in almost any shade, while fabrics and antiques are much harder to find in exactly the colour you want, so I choose those first and match the paint to them.
The headboard is the most visually dominant piece in the room, and I wanted the walls, the other dominant element, to be a different colour from it. I didn’t want a room that was all blue. French Gray sits beside the blues in Doves on the colour wheel, which makes an analogous palette: calm and cohesive, which is what I wanted for a bedroom.
I had a few much darker colours on my list and considered something bolder, but decided they weren’t right for a room I wanted to feel tranquil. I put the paint cards up on the wall and was leaning towards French Gray, and my husband, who has a very good eye for paint, confirmed it.
The one warmer note is raspberry, used in small amounts: the plates on the wall and a few smaller pieces. It is an accent rather than a third main colour.
What to pair with French Gray
Farrow & Ball recommend Slipper Satin as the white to use alongside French Gray, and also suggest Lime White, Off-White and Mouse’s Back as companions.
In The Dove, French Gray sits with:
soft blue: Doves in Summer Blue on the headboard and bed skirt
a deeper jade: Beech on the tablecloth
a darker green: the Colefax & Fowler bullion fringe
raspberry, in small amounts
antique brass and dark wood, from the canopy rods and the antique furniture
With a pale wall colour, one or two darker pieces stop the room from feeling too light and airy. In The Dove, that is the throw, which has a larger-scale pattern and darker tones than anything else in the room.
Paint and fabric schedule
Walls: French Gray No. 18, Farrow & Ball
Headboard and bed skirt: Doves in Summer Blue, Lewis & Wood
Tablecloth: Beech in Jade, Lewis & Wood
Trim: Arlington Bullion Fringe in Green, Colefax & Fowler
Bed canopy: voile, on ceiling-mounted rods by Gotain
The fabrics
Doves covers the headboard and the bed skirt, where it is seen most. It was the first design Flora Roberts painted for Lewis & Wood. Beech, a sapling design by the decorative artist Alexander Hamilton, is used in Jade for the tablecloth.
The green Arlington bullion fringe from Colefax & Fowler finishes the edges. Trims are a small cost for how much they add to a room like this.
The bed canopy and plate wall
The high ceilings called for something to bring the scale down over the bed. A simple canopy in soft voile, hung from rods fixed to the ceiling, does that without closing the bed in. The raspberry plates are a traditional English design, hung as a group, which gives the room a warm focal point.
Watch both being installed in Villa Bedroom Makeover Ep 3.
A few things I learned along the way
Check metallic finishes in daylight. I first spray-painted the black canopy rods gold. It looked fine in the evening, but far too bright in daylight, so I redid them with a gilding wax for an antique brass finish.
Hem curtains before you rely on them. I stepped on the unhemmed canopy curtains and pulled the canopy down within a week. They are now shortened to just kiss the floor.
Plan a plate wall on paper first. I cut paper templates of each plate, tried several layouts, slept on it and looked again in the morning light. I settled on a grid and took a few plates away so the wall wasn’t overfilled.
Be willing to take something down. I hung curtains at the window too, but they weren’t adding anything to the room, so they came down again.
Frequently asked questions
Is Farrow & Ball French Gray grey or green?
Mostly green. Farrow & Ball describe it as much more green than grey, and it can look greener or greyer depending on the light.
What white goes with French Gray?
Farrow & Ball recommend Slipper Satin.
Does French Gray work in a room with little sun?
I chose it for The Dove, which gets almost no direct sunlight, because I wanted the room to feel tranquil. Sample it on the walls at the times of day you use the room before you commit.
What fabrics go with French Gray?
In The Dove, soft blues, jade and deeper greens sit well with it, with a small amount of raspberry for warmth.
Shop the room
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Paint: the wall colour
Fabric and trim: the headboard and bed skirt fabric; the tablecloth is Beech by Lewis & Wood; the trim is from Colefax & Fowler
Bed canopy: the canopy curtain rods and four-prong curtain hooks
Walls: prints one, two and three, the frames, the mats and the plate hangers
Cushions and throw: the light green cushions, the dark green scalloped cushion and the throw; the round bolster is from Maison Flaneur
Lighting: the chandelier, the bedside lamps, their shades, and the rechargeable lamp with its shade
Furniture: a similar slipper chair; the mirror is an antique from Village des Antiquaires in France
Designing a room like this
If you would like a room designed in this style, Online Design is available wherever you live, with a paint and fabric schedule and shopping list like the one above. For homes in Switzerland, Full Service Design takes a project from first meeting to installation. Please do enquire.