AIBU to think grey decor is so dull?

[NachoNachoMan]

Looking at houses for sale. Not to move, just to have a nosy. There is so much grey! Is it just me or is it a bit boring and samey?

For example... I found this, and whilst it's a lovely house, the decor is so... grey and boring!

www.fineandcountry.com/uk/property-for-sale/richmond/kt8-9bs/1728661

It's like the photos have been taken with a b&w filter on!

There's so many of my friends who have painted a room / rooms / the whole house grey... but I love a bit of colour! Fine to want something neutral, but I think beige/creams are much nicer & warmer.

YABU = grey is great & less is more
YANBU = grey is dull, gimme some colour!

Grey is great for people who fantasise about living onboard warships, dull as ditchwater and hideously boring to the rest of us.

The photographer may has well have taken black and white photos of that interior, you'd never know the difference.

I couldn't live in that house. The totally washed-out decor and large spaces make it totally anaemic. I'd be seriously ill and eyeing up tall buildings within a fortnight.

I love grey but agree with pp needs some colours. I also think it depends on the size of the house. The example given is massive making it dull. However in a smaller house it could look good, perhaps with silver light shades etc.

I like grey, but has to be the right tone and as a backdrop for other things. I don’t want it everywhere. I also like sage, rose pink, navy and ochre (not in the same space). My bedroom will be navy when I next decorate it.

@Nikori

The outside of the house is amazing, but the inside looks cheap and tacky. Whoever did the staging needs to be fired.

Sorry, that was way harsher than I meant. I just feel sad because there are some amazing interior design ideas out there and it's just depressing to see what looks like Ikea sofas and lampshades in such a beautiful home. It would be wonderful to see what someone could really do with the space. Even Ikea stuff can look amazing if put together with a little imagination.

Yanbu, I find grey completely depressing and that house is very smart. Usually I would say each to their own, clearly some people must like grey. But I’m redecorating and finding it hard to find stuff in other colours! I want my house to look warm and bright which I didn’t think was such a niche view

I meant to say the house is samey not smart!

People have different tastes 'shocker'

I really detest when people see a house and say, oh the paint is too grey, or, I don't like that bathroom.

There's a little something called 'imagination', where people don't write off properties just because the decor isn't to their exact taste.

I think people who say grey is boring, to actually be the boring ones.

I wonder if it is more a British thing.

No, it's an Australian thing too, especially in Melbourne. Grey is everywhere at the expensive end of the market. If a house is being prepped for sale the interior will be repainted .... grey. And the facade will become a darker shade of grey with white accents. My neighbour has been a painter and decorator for 50+ years and he says he's never ordered so much grey paint in his life.

I wonder if people like grey because they find it soothing? From the noise and frazzle of city life, and all its beeping bloody devices and demands for attention, they can retreat to a room that makes them feel like an angel wrapped in a cloud. Ahh!

I’m not a fan of grey. When I moved in my current house a few years ago, it was grey throughout. Just so municipal.

Yawn

This is a weekly topic now

I find it quite oppressive but done well it can look lovely. I was house hunting just as grey started to come in and we were put off grey kitchens in particular as we knew it would be too expensive to change.

Ha @CyberNan you must be on a different planet, most people I know have a serious RightMove snooping hobby!

I like how it works in that particular house and will give a buyer a nice starting point.

Personally I prefer country farmhouse kind of styles and gentle clutter like baskets, throws etc. Florals and checks etc. I clash with my daughter who wants me to do our house grey!

@Rebelwithallthecause agreed

I wouldn't say I love the grey all over look but I do veer on the side of a muted colour scheme. We have recently sold our house which is decorated as such and the estate agents said we had one of the highest amounts of interest and click rates on our photos on rightmove that they had seen which they put down to the decor so I guess we can't all be wrong.

I don't mind the odd pop of colour here and there from plants or ornaments but for me I prefer for walls, tiles and floors to be a neutral colour and for pops of colour to come from decorative which I can change as and when I wish. (I once had pops of yellow in the kitchen etc...)

Each to their own, it's not fair to bash those who prefer to keep their homes to a neutral palette, wouldn't the world be boring if we were all the same??

I think it can be done well, if it’s the right shade and has the right accessories. The problem is that’s rarely the case - the accessories are almost universally mirrored trays, boxes of artificial roses, crushed velvet furniture, diamanté lamps, mercury glass vases, a couple of coffee table books about fashion photography and some graphic prints with a quote from Vogue. I find that totally lacking in personality and taste.

I think lots of people go for grey because it’s safe. If you don’t have a good eye for colour or confidence in your interior styling, you van easily go wrong with using colours. With grey, at least you can be guaranteed everything will tonally match even if you don’t have interior design talents.

There seems to be one of these threads at least weekly. At this stage those who bemoan people liking grey interiors as being dull and unoriginal are themselves quite dull and unoriginal for starting yet another thread on it!

I love colourful homes, I also like grey.
You can have both!
I have a grey dining room, with colourful furniture and accessories. The grey is perfect as it makes the colour in the room stand out.

That house you’ve posted Op looks like it’s a Corporate rental, or someone’s second home. Either way its likely had its interior designed a few years ago when ‘grey’ was very popular. It’s ok, but kind of agree it’s beginning to look a bit ‘samey’ now.

At that price level whoever purchases it will most likely spend another £500,000 putting their own style/colour on it.

I think people are now moving away from a grey palate and back to beige/warmer tones.

The Sunday Times Home pull out had rooms resembling a junk shop
so I suspect we are getting ready for a change in style.
With a Covid winter approaching I would think the fashion will become more bright and cheery.

@MistressMounthaven see to me that looks like a Grandmas living room! Or a holiday home decor that I wouldn't mind staying in, but that id never want in my own home.

That being said, I find that as styles slowly creep in I certainly end up being swayed.I'd have never thought a few years I'd be searching for rattan style furniture but I love some of the modern twists you are these days! for example the arm chair in the photo, if it didn't have the blue fabric covering, I'd love it!!

Oh, I like that @MistressMounthaven

I think it looks great!!

Well, I quite like that ‘Grandma’s Living Room’. It looks a bit more interesting than everything matchy-matchy-from-Dunelm, at least, and than the total grey-out photos I see on Mumsnet a lot. ( I don’t know any grey houses like that in real life.)

I first noticed grey used in interiors about 20 years ago, and at that point it looked a bit new and different. And it wasn’t the whole room, just the walls. Then it appeared a lot more frequently from about 15 years ago and clearly now the mass market is monochrome.

So I would have said that grey was over long ago...

I don’t mind the grey/white thing in new builds. However to abuse a beautiful Georgian building like that by ripping out every feature and hint of personality is criminal.

It's not someone's 'taste' is just fashionable at a certain point in time and home designers work hard to ensure you're bombarded with images of grey stuff so that you want it, and then buy their grey stuff. Or whatever is in fashion at that point in time.

When the grey trend started about 8 years ago I thought it looked really edgy and smart. Now it's just really dull, really lacking in any personality and soooo over it.

FWIW most professional home designers have long since moved on to new colour palettes, such as pink, greens and gold's, blues, terracotta's and even now, new ones are emerging.

It's WAY out stayed it's welcome and definitely a trend on its way out.

MistressMounthaven

That looks you my mums front room in the late 1980’s