How to Effectively Style Anthracite Grey

Anthracite Grey (RAL7016) is a near black, natural grey shade that’s becoming increasingly popular, showing up in both the interiors and exteriors of homes and businesses. Painting your front door Anthracite Grey could even help you sell your home. It’s easy to see why; the shade is stylish and endlessly versatile, able to be sleek and elegant or earthy and rugged depending on your vision. If you’re looking to upgrade a space but are daunted by styling such a dark shade, our handy guide will tell you everything you need to know.

What colours go with Anthracite Grey?

While Anthracite Grey can look great on walls and floors, interior designers find it best utilised as an accent as it pairs excellently with such a wide range of shades. Outdoors, it provides contrast to windows, doors, shop fronts and exterior wood/metalwork, and stands out against bare brick and painted masonry and boosts curb appeal. If it’s too cool for you, warm it up with ash, taupe, sand and browns to add a cozy feel. It can be matched with natural colours reminiscent of metal and mineral to bring out the earthy tones or used to add dimension to a greyscale look without the harshness of black.

Finding the right Anthracite Grey paint for you

One of the main advantages of using Anthracite Grey in your project is that it can be used anywhere and everywhere, and many paints provide the shade due to its popularity.

Anthracite Grey UPVC Paint

Transform your uPVC or composite doors, windows, conservatories and fascias with Kolorbond uPVC Painting Kit, which includes everything you need to upgrade to ensure a high quality, smooth satin finish. The product utilises proven light fast pigments, giving the coating excellent exterior weathering properties including crack and scratch resistance. The kit reduces wastage and comes with a 10-year adhesion guarantee and 5-year colour fastness guarantee.

Anthracite Grey Exterior Wood, Metal and Masonry Paint

RAL 7016 Anthracite Grey Exterior Paint

A matt finish is recommended as this works with the dark shade to mask imperfections and blemishes in the material. Zinsser AllCoat Exterior Matt (Water Based) is cracking, blistering, flaking and weather resistant and can be used on a wide array of exterior substrates, ideal for use on fences and garden furniture. It is also self-priming and will bond to existing glossy paints without sanding and contains a biocide to protect the dried coating against fungal degradation.

Grey masonry paint can compliment green colours – particularly in gardens – and increases kerb appeal of a home when used with white accents such as soffits, windows frames, and door surrounds. A neutral and calming grey masonry paint can be ideal for buildings and homes with a more traditional architectural design.

Bathrooms, Kitchens, Cafés and Bars

Don’t let the name of Zinsser Perma-White Interior mislead you, as it’s available in over 4,000+ colours from RAL, NCS, and British Standard ranges – including Anthracite Grey! Any colour for any surface, this paint is also self-priming and can even be applied to ceramic tiling and Formica without sanding. It also offers protection against mould and mildew guaranteed for seven years, making it ideally suited for any area of persistent high humidity, frequent temperature changes and poor air circulation.

Anthracite Grey Radiator Paint 

Old, scuffed radiators can stick out in newly completed renovation projects, but replacing them can be expensive and time consuming. Breathe new life into old radiators with Rust-Oleum Universal All Surface Paint, which can be brush applied to tired radiators with no primer required for that finishing touch.

Upcycling Furniture

Distress without stress and revive old or vintage interior and garden furniture, kitchen cabinets and more with Rust-Oleum Matt Chalky Finish Furniture Paint in Anthracite. The paint can be used directly onto wood (bare, painted or varnished) without priming or sanding to create the perfect shabby chic look. To protect the finish of your freshly upcycled furniture, a protective layer of Rust-Oleum Finishing Wax or Rust-Oleum Furniture Lacquer must also be applied.

Cladding Paints

Painting cladding is much more cost effective and less disruptive to the building than replacement. For exterior metal cladding, the hiding power of Rust-Oleum Mathys Metal Cladding Topcoat is especially effective in a dark shade such as Anthracite Grey. The paint uses a new formula with improved flow, finish, and 10+ life expectancy.

Floor Paints

Turn your concrete floors, wooden floors and previously painted floors both indoors and outdoors Anthracite Grey with Rust-Oleum 7200 Floorcoat PU with added polyurethane for enhanced durability. It can be applied directly to most floors only needing primers such as Rust-Oleum 7201 Universal Floor Primer for new concrete. It’s also ideal as a line marking paint!

Accent and Accessory Paints 

Buying a large tin of paint when you only want to touch up smaller pieces such as photo frames, mirrors, vases and ornaments can seem like a waste of money, and painting small objects with a brush can be impractical and messy. For this type of application, Maston 2K Spray Paint offers 3m² coverage per can and can be applied to practically any surface including ceramics, glass and plastics. It combines the power of a two-component spray paint with the user friendliness of a simple one-part spray to provide a waterproof, airtight, chemical and petrol resistant paint layer that can be used again and again.