Why are almost all new kitchens grey?

[lessonsintightropes]

Just wondering - in our most recent search we viewed about 50 properties, about half of which were recently renovated, all with new kitchens, all of which were grey. It's attractive but not entirely my cup of tea and was just wondering why it was so popular!

Paul in there is pretty good and their Guildford fitters are brilliant.

Tiles are silver blue slate from fired earth. Love them.

toffee we just had our kitchen done as well, and went for olive... I feel very unmodern though looking at these pictures!!!

pag your kitchen is lovely. I have no style I think to pull that sort of thing together...

That's fab Audrey.

MrsHercule

It is terrifying when you start but honestly, it comes together. I ended up chosing the colour because of a fav jacket. It was the first and only kitchen I've ever done and now I'd love to do it again.
It's only because of the hours of hand wringing that I'm oddly proud of it.

Still not as good as the dogs though

This is mine if the link works!

Pagwatch wonderful kitchen inspiration, it looks beautiful. Glad to know from everyone that the ever-popular and practical grey is likely to stay that way, but it's also very nice to know that colour isn't completely unpopular either - I just find it a bit miserable to live with but know that other people dress it up beautifully.

If our purchase goes through, I will take on an amazing custom-built, 60s original wooden kitchen installed when the house was built. I had considered tearing it out and replacing with new but on reflection love the original fittings, and I would like to live with it for a couple of years unless it's completely impractical. The one thing I am concerned about is the mosaic tile worktop and splash-back, both of which look like a nightmare to clean (especially as I make quite a lot of pastry and biscuits which would be a bugger to clean off). It looks on paper terribly impractical and cramped but I got the sense (during our 15 minute viewing before committing half a million pounds - hate the London property market) that it was designed by someone who cooks.

This will be mine in 2 or 3 years time, it has a bit of colour, does this count? air

lessons - invest in a large rectangle of marble or granite to place on your tiled worktop for pastry rolling and general prep if you think the tiles will be too tricky to keep looking good - also a large chopping block ! good luck with the move !!! have loved the pics of all the fab kitchens by the way !!!
:-)

Earlgrey, I think they key is that in some houses some grey looks fantastic. In our (dark) kitchen, a lot of grey looks dreadful.

I think what annoys me the most is that the cupboard carcasses are grey. If they were white then I could change the cupboard doors. And the handles involve two screws very close together - a set up that means no alternative handles exist anywhere!

My advice would be - don't do grey carcasses. Avoid cupboard doors. A bench top, tiles and paint are easy change - then in 10 years time if it's unfashionable you can update it easily!

Wowpagwatch!!! Gorgeous!

Grey is a colour im consudering to temporarily lift the old kichen til i can wow it , like pagwatch.

Happylittlevegemites,
I agree about light. We painted some of the basement rooms grey - exactly the same colour works in one but I'm not convinced about the other.

Liz - thanks

That's interesting pagwatch (btw love your kitchen! I'm trying to convince the husband to do a similar thing with red. But blue could work - do you think a gloss blue would be brighter than my Matt grey?)

I think also that grey is just a hard color to pull off. We tried it in our hallway in our last house, but even after spending a fortune on samples, and working our way though the F and B brochure we still ended up with walls that looked lavender in certain lights. I'm slightly thinking of trying again in the spare room but am not sure if I can be bothered!

Yep - I know what you mean
i spent ages trying to find a steel grey carpet but it's in now and most of the day it looks bloody blue.
Sometimes I think it's best to just chose a colour you love and work around that rather than trying to achieve a look.
People kept saying 'ooh that's brave' when they saw my blue swatches stuck on the wall but I know I won't go off it.

I like gloss. I think, whatever goes in and out of fashion, it's a really clean, cool look. I have matt paint throughout the house but I like a bit of gleam in the kitchen.

This thread is making me so jealous! I've never had a new kitchen. One day...