Replacing grey with beige/browns?

[Noppert180]

When we bought our house in 2018 it already had grey (goose down) walls and a grey carpet so I just went with it and fell for the 2020 trap of EVERYTHING GREY. I am now fully over the misery.
I want to go for a mid beige/brown walls and I’ve just bought dulux malt chocolate but I’m not sure - what do you think?

Hard to say as needs to dry/have a couple more coats but my initial reaction is that it's still pretty close to the grey...

Hmm, I have had beige walls for quite a while and sorry but our photos just look… dull? It may be the wooden skirting that make it seem old fashioned.

Oh I like a light brown on a wall. It looks quite see through though?

I can’t decide if it’s just cos I’ve took a photo while it was wet and obviously under unnatural lighting. I might see how it looks in the morning, do another coat and see what I think. I’ve only lost £28 for the tin if I don’t like it I suppose and I might even use it in the downstairs loo.

When we bought our new house many rooms were awful shades of grey The house looked so depressing. We decorated the whole house before we moved in because it desperately needed it. Choosing how to decorate an entire house in one go was so overwhelming. But I then decided to concentrate on one room at a time and I love how it’s turning out.
We used a lot of soft stone throughout our house it’s warmed up the feel of the house and isn’t too dark .

One of my faves was a sort of dusty chocolate brown shade. A bit like hot chocolate in colour. Only put it on one wall to be fair but it ended up making the room feel really... high end, I suppose. Classy you know. And warm. If I was painting a room beige again I think I'd go with a chocolate accent wall.

I think beiges and browns are likely to date as quickly as grey has. Are you set against having any colour?

Cover up all the grey in the house with some nice and cheap trade magnolia, and then give yourself time to think about it room-by-room.

I'm not a fan of grey, it is such a cold colour.

It’s hard to tell from the photo but my main reaction is that you must paint the wood of those door frames! Any colour but that!

Do you have a grey carpet because that is going to look very odd with beige?

@TeaRoseTallulah we do but it’s absolutely ruined so the plan is to get a new carpet when we finish painting

@Jollyjoy it’s just how it was when we bought the house, unfortunately the whole fireplace, staircase, bannister, door frames and upstairs skirting boards are all that colour. I quite like the wood affect but I would’ve preferred it a different shade!

I’ve got a few more testers, that ended up driving very pink that I posted in the OP. I’m not sure about any of these either!

They look like a baby poo chart

Gosh OP, I have to say that when your picture first popped up I thought ‘various shades of poo’ 💩 Im sorry, I know that’s childish!

The last one is the nicest to my eyes

Go on....go on....try a little bit of colour!

We’re just putting a kitchen in a new extension, and are having brown walls. Go for it!

Hard to judge from photos — take some in natural light tomorrow? Which was does the room face? How much light does it get?

I don’t really like it, I think because it’s a warm beige so looks a little yellow tinged. I’d go for something more cooler toned. Have you considered painting the woodwork? You could go for a lighter shade if your chosen wall colour for a tamer colour drench look

I agree with previous posters - definitely paint door frames and skirting boards to match your doors!

I'd go for a cooler shade too,they're all too warm.

Magnolia was the grey of the 90's.

I think I’d go warm white if you can’t embrace some colour. It’s grey blandness to beige blandness. Miserable!

Haha it does look like baby poo! I just like beige and brown tones for living rooms, I did before it was trendy. This is the room in daylight with my works of art on the wall!

The brown walls are not right for the room as it is, you have grey curtains, grey sofa, grey carpet and grey accessories, painting the walls brown isn’t going to help the situation in fact it’s going to look worse at least with grey walls it’s cohesive even if a bit depressing, unless you can get rid of all the grey not just the walls then brown paint isn’t the answer I’m afraid.

I’ve done up a few houses. Deluxe natural hessian is really nice against white woodwork. Like a previous poster has said, painting those dark wood door frames and skirting boards would be my priority. The grey would have looked awful next to the brown wood, I think a beige would also look dreary next to brown. Get a decent white paint for all that woodwork - it will transform it.