What is it with Grey?

[Carryingon]

I saw a house today which had been modernised but it was so monochrome. Flat grey kitchen, grey carpets, black doors and woodwork, very dark grey radiators. And it was all brand new so I couldn’t justify changing it. Someone will love it but sadly not me.

Black doors? That wouldn’t be great from my point of view. If it’s new I’m surprised the carpets are down. Dark grey radiators are also not usual as they are more expensive than white ones. This is a housebuilder making a statement but it’s over the top. It would turn me off but I don’t think it’s standard.

Yes. The house was done up by builders. The radiators are massive and dark grey. I don’t like it.

Can't get my head around the love of grey. We sometimes holiday by the sea in Devon and there's a shop there that sells grey home decorations. Grey candles. Grey vases. Grey throws. Grey cushions. Grey twigs. Grey pebbly shit.

Laughed out loud when one opened up here a few years ago selling similar stuff.

I confess I got caught in the grey thing a little a couple of years ago but have now successfully de greyed my house. 😊

There is a cafe and homewares shop in a posh area in my city called 'Pure Gray'. WTF? You know we've reached peak grey now.

I think my nan was ahead of the time as her bedroom that was decorated in the 80's was grey and white. I always loved it. Now, I think it's all a bit too much. Some grey is fine, but when you look at stuff online everything is just so boring.

It's the magnolia of the 2010's. It's so overdone. It'll look very dated soon.

Black doors and wood work is always going to make grey look worse

I think some greys can look lovely, very warm and elegant, if done well

The issue is folks use too much of it, and they use a cold, hard grey, and often do it quite cheaply too.

A warm pale grey wall, with white wood work, and neutral floors, can look fantastic.

Dulux.

‘Fashionably drab’ as my late Dad used to called it.

Some grey can be nice, I’m not averse to it. But I think its day in the sun must surely be nearly over.

Yep agree with pp it's of its current time as was magnolia and beige carpets previously. 20ishyrs ago it was all blue carpets and terracotta paint to be 'bang on trend' too. Obviously folk looking to sell are going to go for the highest demographic when it comes to current taste. Grey is/was the new 'neutral', but white and navy are now overtaking it again.

Mrs Finch. Who I didn't realise what a thing until others mentioned it on MN. Having seen pics of her home, it is everything I detest. No character at all, just blah.

I feel your Pain. All that grey feels like living in an institution.

I want to retile a bathroom but am waiting until fashion moves away from 'poorhouse chic' and offers something less dreary.

Same here. I don’t understand how someone can walk through B&Q, see the massive wall of Valspar/ F&B etc colours, literally every colour you could imagine, and then plump for Magdalene Laundry Grey.

I think people are just a bit scared of using proper colour because of the 1990s and Changing Rooms.

I like grey find it calming. But not everything.. my living room is grey sofa/chair and then teal and navy blue accessories and some wallpaper - see pic
Bedroom is grey walls but marshmallow coloured cable and cotton lights with bunting etc

Picked two off google. I think the first one is lovely, the second is way too much grey, but it's so individual

It's annoying. We were house hunting recently and gave the totally grey houses a big swerve.

We have ended up buying a house with some grey rooms and will redecorate but it's a waste because the carpets etc are clearly new! I just don't like them at all.

My house is grey. I built it that way 12 years ago. I couldn't stand the incoming brown or outgoing pastel trends at the time.

Done well, it creates a neutral base for bursts of colourful furnishings. I don't have restrictions on which colours look good. No one can easily date my house due to its colour scheme. It's not obviously grey though. Grey-based whites, mainly.

I'm redecorating my house to eventually sell (I live in hope) and have decided to splash a bit of grey on the walls to keep it neutral for potential buyers. The dark hallway will be white and yellow, though, as I think grey there would be utterly depressing.

I love grey as a neutral, I have a lot of it in my house but combined with a lot of colour too. I have dark grey units in my kitchen but they're only on ground level and combined with a thick teak worktop, green leather sofa, open wood shelving and copper lamps and handles. Used with colour it really adds depth. I'd everything is shades of grey it just zaps the energy out of the room, and it looks like a bad grey scale painting!

Bad news for me then.
We have been gradually painting our house grey.
The spare bedroom and en suite are both finished, I need to find a colour to brighten it in terms of accessories. I thin pale pink in the bedroom and yellow in the shower room.

The problem is that often people don’t understand colour. Stark steely greys look cold and uninviting. The greys that @PigletJohn posted from Dulux are typical of the problem. They are bluey greys. The better greys are warm greys. That’s why it’s worth exploring companies like Farrow and Ball who give you schemes where contrasting colours are suggested and the greys are described.

Light grey with a light grey carpet is great in bedrooms. Add crisp white bed linen and blinds in a fabric containing some grey and you have a decent scheme. Always white woodwork. An excellent warm grey is Elephants Breath. It can be accessorised with pale blue, chartreuse, pink, any colour except grey! The main problem is people don’t understand combining colours and pulling a look together. Having settees in grey and carpets in grey is often a step too far. Stick to warmer greys on the walls. Be careful about grey carpets. I prefer wood. Then rugs open up all sorts of possibilities.

A little bit of the right shade is nice. Friend of mine has just moved into a house that had been done grey everywhere. It's horrible and they're changing it.

I had a grey & pale blue bedroom in the early 90s. I loved it

Agree the issue is the cold blue greys, and then people do too much of it.

If you take mrs hinch’s., hers is warm pale greys predominantly, with a lot of white accessories to brighten it. And people try to emulate it but they get the wrong shades, they go for the blue greys, the cold shades that look hard.

Then they add in the same cold grey shade flooring, and a dark grey sofa, and then grey accessories, and it doesn’t look warm or inviting, it looks cold and hard.