What Color Is Pewter? Colors That Go With Pewter
Whether it’s painting your house exterior or choosing bedspreads, colors make a big impact on your home. Neutrals, vibrancy, flow, splashes! All of these words and more are important and are more than just definitions.
Colors are artistic expressions. You don’t choose a color because of the name or because of what it is. You choose a color because of how it feels. Pewter is one of those colors that has a specific aura that is hard to miss.
What Color Is Pewter?
When speaking of the color pewter, people are referring to a blueish-gray color with a silvery shimmer. You can think of it is a fancy gray. Some pewters have browner tints to them to warm them while others have cooler tints.
The reason that both ways work and are still considered pewter comes down to the metal behind the name pewter. When it comes to the base color, you can consider pewter between silver and charcoal.
You see, charcoal is a dark and ashy color while silver is a lighter, shimmery color. The two balance each other out when combined, which is why pewter is such a fascinating paint color. But it’s more than just a paint color.
Petwer in RGB color space is made from three colored lights: red, green, and blue. On the HEX #E9EAEC space, Pewter is made of 91.4% red, 91.8% green and 92.5% blue.
- HEX: #e9eaec
- RGB DECIMAL: rgb(233,234,236)
- RGB PERCENTAGE: rgb(91.4%, 91.8%, 92.5%)
What Is Pewter Metal?
Pewter metal has changed a lot over the years. Originally, it was made up of tin allow with copper and/or lead added. But as you may now know, lead is toxic and can cause lead poisoning, which is extremely dangerous to children.
So, the components have changed. Now, pewter is still a tin alloy, but it has copper and antimony. The more copper that is added, the warmer the hue of the pewter. If you have pewter in your home, make sure you know how old it is.
You may be surprised to hear that it wasn’t until the late 70s that people, pediatricians particularly, started realizing just how dangerous lead was. So any pewter you have made before 1980 could easily have lead in it.
That doesn’t mean you should throw it out, it just means to keep it out of reach of children and pets. Don’t use it for doorknobs or dinnerware, and make sure you wash your hands after handling it.
Colors That Go With Pewter
Pewter is normally a cool, gray color. So naturally, cooler colors go well with it. However, that doesn’t mean that you should box yourself in. You can pair pewter with any color, but there are a few colors that really stand out.
We’ve researched and experimented, finding out which colors go the best with pewter time and time again. This is what we found out about the pewter color and which colors go the best with each primary shade of pewter.
Creamy-Brown Pewter
Creamy or brownish pewter has a warmer hue than most pewters. It looks like it has hints of copper or vanilla. This type of pewter is for those who like creams, beiges, and browns. Here is what goes well with creamy-brown pewter.
Creamy White
Of course, creamy white goes well with creamy pewter because they have the same overtones. The creaminess of them both works well together. The overtones are warm while the undertones are cool.
Burgundy
Burgundy is one of the most neutral reds. It is also one of the best reds to pair with creamy colors. Creamy pewter is no exception. The two are warm, inviting, and aesthetically pleasing on their own, but especially together.
Turquoise
Turquoise is always trending, at least it has been for the last few years. While it can go with most neutral colors, a creamy color makes it more versatile than others. Alternatives are teal and aquamarine.
Gold
Gold looks amazing as an accent color. Too much and it can be overwhelming so pairing it with the main color is ideal. Since creamy pewter can have gold tones, or even shrapnel, in it, it is a solid choice for gold.
Coral
Coral isn’t an easy color to match. You can do a bright color like turquoise, but in the end, it’s better to stick with a neutral. But why keep it simple with white? A great option is a creamy-brown pewter.
Gray Pewter
Gray pewter is the most common type of pewter and most popular as well. Natural pewter is usually gray-toned and so is most pewter paint. It is easy to match as there are a lot of colors that go well with gray.
Other Grays
Surprisingly enough, gray pewter goes well with other grays. This is true for paint color and hardware color. Gray does go well with gray if you choose the right tones. Just keep it primarily cool colors.
Mauve
Mauve is a gorgeous purple color that has only been recognized for a couple of hundred years. It is truly underrated and should be mixed into more color palettes and paint colors. Try pairing it with gray pewter for amazing results.
Navy
Navy can be considered a neutral blue, so it can go well with bright colors and other neutrals alike. While it doesn’t always work well with creamy pewters it does look great with gray pewters, especially if the navy is really dark.
Peach
Peach isn’t easy to match either. But one color that never fails peach is gray, and that includes gray pewter. The way that the colors offset each other can make any kitchen, bedroom, or bathroom look delightful.
Greige
Greige is a wonderful marriage of gray and beige. Because it has gray mixed in, it can look awesome with gray pewter while offering a warm neutral color that is ever so faint. This is the perfect neutral for gray pewter.
Green-Blue Pewter
Green or blue pewter can look similar to gray pewter since it will have cool tones, but it has a lot more color to it. This is the most vibrant pewter so you may notice that we often choose to pair it with neutral colors.
Silver
While gray pewter works well with other grays, when it comes to silver, you will want to add a green or blue pewter. This is because you don’t want too much of a metallic feel to a room, so only choose one metallic color.
White
Bright white can look great with green-blue pewter. Pair it with creamy pewter and the creamy color will look dingy. But pair it with the vibrant pewter and the two will complement each other quite well.
Black
Black is one of these colors that you can’t go wrong with. It looks good with any other color from white to gray to, you guessed it, green-blue pewter. It really brings out the color in pewters like green or blue pewter.
Yellow
Any shade of yellow can work with green-blue pewter. Together they make up one side of the color wheel. So it really completes a room to add yellow touches without coming on too strong with bright yellow.
Offset Blue-Green
Offset blue-green works great with green-blue pewter. For example, if your pewter has blue tones then add green to the mix. If it has green tones then add splashes of blue to your room. This creates a perfect marriage of blue-green.
Alternatives To Pewter
If you can’t find pewter or pewter paint then there are a handful of alternatives you can use. These colors have the same feel as pewter but with a twist. Some are warmer, some are “shinier” and some are purely proxies.
Gray
I’ll say it time and time again. You can’t go wrong with gray. While it shouldn’t be left alone without a paired color, it offers a great base with a lot of flexibility. While most pewters are grays not all grays are pewters.
Silver
There’s a reason that silver is so popular and why it’s often used to roof houses in galvalume. It’s a great color with just the right amount of glimmer. You can use it in hardware and as a paint color.
Nickel
Silver isn’t to be confused with nickel as silver is often shiny while nickel is usually brushed, even in paint colors. Nickel usually looks flatter than silver and comes in fewer shades than silver does as silver is more versatile.
Copper
If you want a really warm color, copper is your best bet. Copper is a reddish metal that is quite popular in industrial interior designs. It can be used as a paint color as well for that alluring rusty reddish-brown.
Oak
The point of using pewter is to add a natural mineral color to a room. So a great stand-in is a wood color. Most wood colors are great but oak, teak, or ash offers a more similar feeling than others where pewter is concerned.
Charcoal
Because charcoal is the dark end of pewter, this one is kind of obvious when you think about it. If you like pewter but want something more matte and darker, then charcoal is a failsafe that you can’t go wrong with!