Making Gray Paint Using Tint Concentrates

A finisher in a hurry gets advice on whipping up a quick batch of gray paint to match the plastic edgebanding he has. October 19, 2014

Question
I’m about to do a gray kitchen. It’s frameless so there is edgebanding involved. Usually I would find a ready-made PVC edgebanding to match the door color as close as poss. In this case I can only find two shades of gray edging - folkstone and fog gray from Fastcap. They are not close enough and I don’t have the time to wait to order in the actual paint to spray the edging myself.

I have lots of white pigmented conversion varnish from Gemini and I have loads of their color stain concentrates. Is it possible to tint the white paint enough with the tint concentrates to make a good solid gray?

Forum Responses
(Finishing Forum)
From Contributor B:
It has been many years, but when we added Lamp Black to Dichromium Oxide or white tint we got a nice blue but not gray because Lampblack was made from soot which is bluish. We used Van Dyke Brown with the white - not sure if another color was added. This should get you on the right track.



From Contributor G:
White paint, black dye and then add some orange dye to kill the blue. You won't believe how many shades of gray you'll come up with. Also, what's in the mixing can won't necessarily be what it looks like on the board after it dries. Make sure to test!