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.

Sometimes I see black and white photos used on Rightmove. Until a shot with a view out the window, sometimes of the very green fake grass in the garden, then I realise the photos are in colour after all.

I quite like the grey look but it has to be done right. I just googled Mrs Hinch and her grey styling is a bit OTT for me. Black doors just sound bizarre though - what were they thinking!

I’ve posted loads of photos and all had accent colours added. It’s important to add texture and colour to grey.

I think the pp with every room in grey and every blind in dark grey is expressing the problem rather well. That’s not interior design. It’s no design at all. Why would you do this? Rooms can be individual and designed around aspect, use and size. A certain amount of flair is required to get grey right but in every room?

I think the pp with every room in grey and every blind in dark grey is expressing the problem rather well. That’s not interior design. It’s no design at all. Why would you do this? Rooms can be individual and designed around aspect, use and size. A certain amount of flair is required to get grey right but in every room?

That was me and I explained perfectly, as a consistency across the house to allow us to add colour, texture and retro furniture to each room from an easy neutral base.
A four floor full renovation taking 9 months was completed easily with each room in the same colour. To 'individually design' each room at that point would have been huge. Decorator in, one colour through, very easy finish. Basics in a neutral such as flooring and blinds is cost effective and don't need changing.
Perfect!

I love it. It's a cool neutral that allows everything else to pop. Your forest green or burnt orange velvet sofas pop. Your bright, statement framed print on the wall pops. Your copper coloured lights pop. Love it.

I have a very large house and yes, we have repeated some colours but don’t have the same in every room. It’s a big task but it’s also creative. I relish that sort of challenge.

I don’t hate grey, exactly. What I hate is all grey everything like our darling mrs hinch. Grey walls with wooden floors, white/coloured accessories etc can be very lovely, grey walls with a grey floor and grey furniture etc etc is awful, cold and like you’ve put a black and white filter over your eyes.
It does look dated now too. But I suppose that’s the same as any other trend you follow to the letter.

I've recently tried to buy a bed and am all greyed out. If it's on its way out, it needs to hurry up.

It is a case of one man's neutral is another man's drab and never the two shall agree I suppose. I've friends who have a lot of grey throughout and they firmly believe it's a neutral base and they all have "splashes of colour" which they think stand out more because of the dreary background (again, to non grey lovers it looks like some hope being swallowed by ennui) and lots of textures but even the colours and textures are the same across the people I know. It might look designed, it might match but there is too much grey, it's drab and miserable to lots of other people. At least we've moved on from blush pink as the accent. It's all mustard, burnt orange, bright greens and teal now.

I'm completely redoing a house at the moment and it's taking an age to find variety. It's been a labour of love but actually have enjoyed hunting in vintage, second hand and independent places, reupholstering and upcycling to make things a bit different.

At least it's not twigs and pebbly shit I suppose.

And even though I love it now I think like any 'trend' it will be over.

Brown, caramel, taupe, magnolia...couldn't do that, probably because I remember it first time around...

Do what you are happy with.
Trends change, whatever the trend it is will date...just a way of keeping us all buying😂

@PresentingPercy

I have a very large house and yes, we have repeated some colours but don’t have the same in every room. It’s a big task but it’s also creative. I relish that sort of challenge.

I’m very happy to have every room the same, although I wouldn’t choose grey or have the same window treatment everywhere. Our is a very old cottage. Almost every wall is white and all the carpets are cream which gives the perfect back drop to be creative with colour.

The exception is the snug which is red. The bloke always wanted a red study, he got his wish when we moved in 22 years ago and changing it would involve so much time and paint I can’t face it. It’s been painted the same colour about three times now and it’s lovely in the winter. We use it much less in the summer.

I think you can have a neutral base and add colour and texture without having every room the exact same, all grey walls, floors and blinds.

Basically any pale colour can be a neutral base. For me that’s not consistency, it’s identical. Our house as said is mainly shades of green, with some notable exceptions. The house hangs together and flows, but the rooms simoly aren’t the same.

The only difference is both living rooms are in f&b french Grey, but due to the light in both rooms you’d struggle to immediately see it was the same paint. In addition one has cream carpet, the other exposed floor boards, one has a sort of charcoal bronze silk Roman blinds, the other green velvet ones, the rooms are also on seperate floors. Past that no two rooms are the same colour, but mainly variations on a theme.

It’s down to personal taste but doing every room the same with the same colour blinds and floors wouldn’t work for us. But then I’m sure the posters it does work for would not like mine.

Interior design is a personal thing. Am sure a lot of people hate ours. I know MIL does. I love colour and pattern, always have. Each room is different, because that's what we like.

We won't sell for years. Whatever I do now will be massively out of date in 20 years. So why not go with stuff we like?

I will be honest and say that I don't understand the view that because a house is painted in neutral colours it won't date. Of course it will date. All house styles can be dated. Thats not a bad thing, but its a bit odd to think the current trend of grey with accents won't date.

I have always loved grey but I refuse to follow a trend once it’s got it’s teeth into the entire population. I just have dark muted colours instead.

I actually like the sound of the dark radiators and doors though

its a bit odd to think the current trend of grey with accents won't date

Of course it will. All grey decors will be as instantly recognisable in the future as 2012-25 as brown/orange screams 1970s. Once something becomes ubiquitous it’s done.

Agree everyone is different

In my friendship group

Friend one, house all different bold colours. Like a fushia pink room, a pea green room, a bright yellow room and so on.
Friend two, house white throughout, inc white furniture white kitchen, white flooring.
Friend three, house has all grey walls, Quite dark hard grey, they bought it like that and haven’t changed it. Yet.

All three houses are lovely in their own way. None are to my taste, but I can appreciate rhem as my friends homes, well apart from the white one, it’s just so clinical and tacky. It’s an eighties semi too. With the “pops” of colour in the occasional cushion or ornament. I won’t lie, it’s really really bad.

* 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.*

Who are you kidding. These pictures are from hinches Instagram and she’s decorated with three colours, light grey, mid grey and dark grey, it looks gloomy and depressing.

I seriously regret choosing grey tiles for my bathroom. The worst thing about the grey trend is choosing grey wood floors, they look awful and will date terribly.

Hinches grey home

It’s incredibly very Mrs Hinch. She has a big following as an influencer and her followers will no doubt take inspiration. I used to like grey before it become a thing. Now it screams unimaginative and frankly void of character but some like that look.

Someone posted earlier about seeing black and white images on rightmove until you see the bright green fake grass outside, I actually laughed at that it’s so true, that just screams rough faux money to me. Might as well have a hot tub and a financed Audi on the drive 😂🤣 🤭

🤫shhh 🤗😙😆

@VinylDetective

its a bit odd to think the current trend of grey with accents won't date

Of course it will. All grey decors will be as instantly recognisable in the future as 2012-25 as brown/orange screams 1970s. Once something becomes ubiquitous it’s done.

+1

We have enough grey simply by looking out of the window. It baffles me that we add to it. I need warm tones in my home and I’m not afraid of magnolia, if that means a warm off white. If my gaff was bigger I’d go for rich, darker colours but I don’t have the space.

Oh so much grey ...

www.themodernhouse.com/sales-list/the-southend/

(and then that one pale pink chair)

They even managed to curate an all-greige collection of books!

That Mrs hinch home looks like a tedious B&B run by an anally retentive landlord.

@whataboutbob

That Mrs hinch home looks like a tedious B&B run by an anally retentive landlord.

Completely, it's very 'respectable working class'. The Modern House one, while not entirely to my taste, is a lot more aspirational than Mrs Hinch.

That Hinch house is awfully grey. So joyless and cold. I can quite imagine it being the setting of a biopic, the subject a serial killer who evaded the police for so long due to their forensic level of chemical cleaning. Early in the programme, a maverick profiler will already have theorised about their childhood, obsessive need for order and controlling behaviours.

(this is NO comment on the owner of the house, I merely mean that it looks SO dressed it seems like a set rather than a family home)

@ShowOfHands omg I can see the Netflix show now: Serial Cleaner