De-greying an entire house! Starting with bedroom

[user1471548941]

We are currently buying a new home, which has been beautifully extended/lots of structural work done so nothing for us to do, yay!

however, when redecorating that have turned the entire house GREY. And I mean the entire house; pale grey carpets, grey walls and the worst is dark grey woodwork and picture rails 😭. 1930s house and they have managed to leave the original wooden doors though.

i want our bedroom to be first room I sort and I LOVE colour, happy to go bold and want to really personalise the room. However, we don’t want to replace the grey carpets as they are basically brand new and our bed also has grey upholstery so it needs to blend with this.

i’m a bit overwhelmed with choice on Pinterest so what would you do with it? Average shape but with an old fireplace on one wall and built in cupboards opposite where we will put the bed, currently wooden but open to painting!

i like pinks, jewel colours, navy, burgundy but also love creams, golds, neutral, kind of luxurious feel (though not convinced on how it goes with the carpet!!!). Do like prints and wallpaper but not sure how this works with a window on one wall, cupboards on one, fireplace on another!

picture of offending room attached from the listing.

[kerosene20]

We have grey carpet and have gone for a deep dusky pink (valspar ceremonial ochre) with soft furnishings in same or contrasting jewel colours, navy, green, gold etc. I really like it!

[StrictlyAFemaleFemale]

I like the sound of dusky pink.

I was thinking turquoise on one wall, possibly teal.

[user1471548941]

I feel like pink is the answer..: question is how to convince the husband?!

Also love the teal idea, hadn’t thought of this? Is a teal print on 4 walls too much?! Maybe that with fresh white above the picture rail?

Also, what colour would you pain the cupboards with teal walls?! Or pink for that matter?!

[Trivester]

Because you’re keeping the grey carpets, I would replace the curtains with a vivid print that has grey as a background, and then pick out a couple of vibrant colours for the woodwork and cupboards, and a paler colour for the walls.

I’m a bit shy with wallpaper though so my suggestion might be too tame 🙂

[BeggyMitchell]

I've never had to do it but just want to applaud you - for everyone's sake .

[Purplehonesty2]

Oh yes teal with grey and gold accents would look lovely.

[nzeire]

Can you get floor length curtains?
or a blind
short curtains look weird :)

pink, gold

[user1471548941]

I agree on the floor length curtains, though I’m sure my cat will love them… I love the idea of thick velvet curtains- I have navy in my head but teal could work too!

if I don’t win the pink battle, how do we feel about loud, print wallpaper? I’ve seen some lovely floral/leaf prints with gold/pink accents. Do we do all 4 walls?! Pick a feature wall and paint the other 4 a bold colour? Feature wall and white on 4 other walls?!

[TammyOne]

With grey carpet you should think about the colour families that work with grey generally, which would be red, purple, colder yellows, green but not brown, orange or cream colours.
I think I would lean towards the purples, and depending on the light in the room go for a soft lavender or lilac on the walls, with maybe a lighter shade above the picture rails. You could then add in textiles in all shades of aubergine, deep pink, greens.
I like the idea of dusky pink too though.

[user1471548941]

For context the lounge has the same issue and we are going for a navy wallpaper with delicate gold print on the fireplace wall, as the backing for white alcove shelves/cupboards. Gold accents/accessories.

Grey carpets, crisp white walls, white shutters on windows and may add some deep navy velvet curtains (floor length!) to keep the colour at the opposite end of the room! 2 seater sofa and armchair- one off white, one navy!

[SheWoreYellow]

Obviously you can’t expect your husband to have a pink bedroom. However, ‘faded red’ or ‘purple’ would be totally different
So depending on the type of pink you’re going for you could just frame it as that.

eg this could be ‘purple’

[kegofcoffee]

My first thought before reading your list of colours was pink

[Maireas]

Dear god, that room is awful.
It's a shame that you have to keep grey carpets, I'd be tempted to rip them out.
Some good suggestions from pp, perhaps a warm cream with a hint of apricot or pink, dusky rose, teal, navy or even mandarin?
Good call on having colourful curtains, they really cheer a place up.

[Aria999]

I like the teal and gold idea too.

Try the room planner app. It's not free but it's pretty cool. You use your phone camera to put the room in it and then it gives you a virtual 3d image of the room and you can change the walls and floor, add furniture etc.

[MrsRobinsonsHandprints]

Not pink, diamanté, pink and grey appears to be in if home bargains is anything to go by (I was sent to buy exactly the above for my neices new flat)

[TenoringBehind]

Farrow and Ball de nimes (blue) or setting plaster (pinkish) would look lovely

in my house I’m replacing grey with various greens.

[user1471548941]

I agree; if we do pink and grey it needs to be classy, not diamanté and have some accents in there to make it such- or the duskier/redder shades! I do love the setting plaster shade!

Teal and pink?!!

also the room planner app looks fab!

[TammyOne]

Yeah greens work with grey as long as they are grey based greens iyswim!
not sure about teal it might get oppressive but then I have moved away from deep strong wall colours and want all my walls white now so that’s just me! Pink and grey is not “ home bargains” if it’s the right pink, setting plaster would be good but not if a North facing room. If the room is North or North East go with blues/ greens. Wallpaper on all walls or none but only up to picture rail.

[EmilyBolton]

@TammyOne

With grey carpet you should think about the colour families that work with grey generally, which would be red, purple, colder yellows, green but not brown, orange or cream colours.
I think I would lean towards the purples, and depending on the light in the room go for a soft lavender or lilac on the walls, with maybe a lighter shade above the picture rails. You could then add in textiles in all shades of aubergine, deep pink, greens.
I like the idea of dusky pink too though.

orange and grey are actually very smart together.

You need to read up about colour theory and colour wheel 🤷🏼‍♀️🤣

so a Hue is any pure colour that is a mix of just the 3 primary colours. That does not include grey, black or white. Or a number of other colours people mistakenly believe are hues.

Grey is a Tone of any Hue. If you have any hue and add equal part of balck and white (to create tones of the hue) you will go through increasngly duller hue until you reach a definitely grey colour. But the grey you get will be a tone of your original hue. The issue is choosing the wrong grey hue - it needs to match the same hue as your main colour

Grey And brown can work but mainly only with orange. That’s because brown is a Shade of orange. Really. A shade is any hue that has black added to it. That’s what brown is. So if you mix a grey that is a Tone of purple, say, with brown- yep that’ll look a mess (unless you’re very avant garde🤣🤣) .

by the way, a Tint is any hue that has just white added to it- the reverse of shade if you like.

OP, get a colour wheel..read up on colour theory and understand what Tone/hue of grey those carpets are that you have to keep. You can then look at colour wheel for either a “complimentary” colour scheme , or a “Triadic” or “Monochromatic” or one of the others. A colour wheel n your device is brilliant for getting a great colour scheme without being the least bit artistic 🤣🤣

[Maireas]

Avoid anything shiny or with a shiny surface, that always seems to make grey worse, even more hard and cold.
Go for warm and matte finishes.

[user1471548941]

Found this on Pinterest and loving as a colour scheme to use teal and pink.

Thinking it would work with the grey carpet though might consider re-upholstering the bed to a deep teal?

only thing is this doesn’t include any kind of print so would have to look to introduce through soft furnishings or is that naff?

Teal walls, kind of neutral paint over the wooden cupboards? White above the picture rail I think it has to be.

[Shrekroll]

Salix by Little Greene. I wake up every morning in awe of the colour.

[museumum]

I love grey (but not all grey). It goes with a deep blue, navy blue, lots of greens, Teale… loads of options.

[SushiGo]

You need a colour with an earthy tone behind it. A cool tone just continues to make the room look cold, where an earthy tone will warm up the grey and change how it looks.
Crowns crafted collection is very good. crownpaints.co.uk/crafted-by-crown/
Think about your furniture and accessories as well introducing natural materials and colours like wood will also help tone down the grey.

[MultiBird]

I've just done my bedroom purple. A grey carpet would have been lovely but I'm stuck with beige 😆