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.

@ShowOfHands that’s the first proper laugh I’ve had in a while.

@cunningplan101

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!

God that’s awful. Talk about over-designed! There’s something very depressing about books being used as accessories.

Even worse than all grey imo, is 95% grey and then one accent colour, with cushions, vases etc all in that one accent colour. Very dated.

@JaninaDuszejko I agree about the Ledbury house, which could be redeemed by a systematic repainting. I like the art in it, but the accessories in the Hinch house are ghastly.

I don’t think the Ledbury house even needs repainting, it just needs a lot more colour added in. Even the art is wish washy colours.

I just think when you gave that much space you might as well have fun and use colour on the walls.

I guess some people are just really lacking in confidence. I don’t want variously coloured rooms in our house but that’s because I see them more as a canvas for displaying art and ornamental objects. We’ve got a lot so we take a kind of gallery approach to decoration. Apart from the rogue red room, obviously!

There’s something very depressing about books being used as accessories.

I completely agree about that. Those art books are the only books in the house as well which suggests they've never been opened (at least by the current owner). Still jealous of their beautiful cherner chair though.

The other dreadful designery thing people do is rainbow order their books. I actually did that recently with my cook books for a laugh. DH didn't notice until he was looking for a cookbook and couldn't find it! It looks pretty but is not at all practical for books you use regularly.

Happy to say, looking at the 'Mrs Hinch' photos my house even though all grey, is nothing like that. I hate this photos.

My house is more quirky, maybe it's the retro furniture, Danish classic pieces, vintage finds, natural rugs, assorted cushions, books and log burner. Definitely no hint of Mrs Hinch ( who knew she was the grey influence ..not me).

Shows 'all grey' can also be very varied in style and approach.

Just thinking the 'designer colour coded' books are similar to open shelving and walk in wardrobes...always disappointing when you replicate.
Who wears clothing in only the colours that match their house 😂

There was something in a magazine I read recently (can't remember which one) about turning books the wrong way round (page side out) so they look all beige and better go with the decor...

Matching house clothes...😂

Hate it, too cold

@BraeburnPlace

Happy to say, looking at the 'Mrs Hinch' photos my house even though all grey, is nothing like that. I hate this photos.

My house is more quirky, maybe it's the retro furniture, Danish classic pieces, vintage finds, natural rugs, assorted cushions, books and log burner. Definitely no hint of Mrs Hinch ( who knew she was the grey influence ..not me).

Shows 'all grey' can also be very varied in style and approach.

I'm yet to see a varied style or approach where a house with grey walls is concerned. The grey just overshadows everything. I do know people who have lots of lovely classic or vintage furniture but every room painted the same grey and it screams "we rent and the landlord won't let us change the colour so we're trying to express ourselves against a soulless canvas".

I think the difference is that if you like grey, you aren't distracted by it and look past it. If you don't, it just immediately taints everything else.

We're renovating a whole house and with the hundreds of paint shades available, it's been a joy to choose something different for each room. I'd feel so miserable if every room started grey. I've picked something I utterly love as the starting point for each room (so tiles in the bathroom and our range in the kitchen for example) and built upon n that.

But we're all different, thank heavens, and given the absolute saturation of grey homes, it will sell well for a little while longer yet. People have bought into it.

The other dreadful designery thing people do is rainbow order their books. I actually did that recently with my cook books for a laugh. DH didn't notice until he was looking for a cookbook and couldn't find it! It looks pretty but is not at all practical for books you use regularly.

I hate this too! Completely agree. I have my books organised by genre which is much more practical and hardly ugly.

I’m loving this thread so much for the posts that scream “my taste is so much better than [other person’s taste] and I’m going to try to convey that fact to readers as strongly as I possibly can without putting in exactly those words”.

I think greys can be used wonderfully, and they can be used really badly. People should be comfortable with the idea that an interior design scene can both both be really well put together but also absolutely not what you would ever want in your house. My taste goes towards muted colours, some greys, some blues, some green, lots of natural wood and textiles ). We seem to need those colours at home to feel relaxed, so they work for us, and some rooms are more successful then others at the moment.

I see designs using loads of colour that also look objectively really well done but they would drive me insane if I had to live with them. I can’t relax in a room with too much colour going on, for me that’s over stimulating.

Interior design should be as personal as fashion. In fact the worst interior design is when it looks obviously bought in, like you are buying someone else’s “good taste”. I like to see homes that look like they have built up organically over time, when you can feel the personalities of the people living there and get a bit of a sense of their history.

I had another look at Mrs Hinch's instagram page. The most soulless interior I've ever seen. If that's the 'fashion' then I'm happy that my personal taste is unfashionable.

We're renovating a whole house and with the hundreds of paint shades available, it's been a joy to choose something different for each room. I'd feel so miserable if every room started grey

And your something different for each room would so not bring me any joy. I'd feel this was an uncoordinated mismatch, I'd hate different colours in every room as I love the calm that grey brings or in fact the calmness of any one colour throughout.

But we're all different, thank heavens - something thankfully we do agree on.

That was my entire point Braeburn, that we are all so different and your calm is my dull, my joy is your chaos.

People should be comfortable with the idea that an interior design scene can both both be really well put together but also absolutely not what you would ever want in your house.

I completely agree with this but there is a difference between stuff I think is fabulously well done but isn't my style vs thing that I find unrelentingly unattractive despite being expensive and 'designed'. Like clothing the way people style their home tells you lots about how they wish the world to view them and it would actually be daft to ignore that.

So, e.g. Elle the home bird is a good example of the former, an absolutely beautiful house but not my personal taste. I really like how everything is put together but the things that make my heart sing are more modern than the (many and lovely) antiques she has and my preferred colour scheme is less muted than hers. But that's just a difference in style, I certainly don't think she has bad taste. With the exception of the round mirrors I think her house is timeless enough that it doesn't scream 'now' and it will still look good in 10 years.

Whereas Mrs Hinch while clearly having spent a fortune (probably more than Elle the home bird) is sending out all kinds of negative messages to me. The relentless newness of both her house and her furniture seems very nouvelle riche and the constant grey walls/carpets/furniture is so very of the (highstreet) moment that it is entirely devoid of personality beyond 'I am showing you I have enough money to buy everything within the last five years from Dunhelm'. There's no confidence to go for something slightly quirky or different or unfashionable. The excessive femininity of the styling screams lower class as well. I suspect once the navy/pink/green colours trickle down her house will be completely changed and she'll make everything millennial pink about the time the fashion leaders abandon it.

The relentless newness of both her house and her furniture seems very nouvelle riche and the constant grey walls/carpets/furniture is so very of the (highstreet) moment that it is entirely devoid of personality beyond 'I am showing you I have enough money to buy everything within the last five years from Dunhelm

I think I agree with you actually. The difference between the two homes, Elle and mrs hinch is huge.

Mrs hinches is devoid of personality when you compare it to elles. Mrs hinches is very matchy matchy show house high st, where as Elles from what I can see is very individual in each room.

It’s when you look at them side to side, you see mrs hinches looks really quite downmarket in comparison, when it’s obviously been very expensively done. There is just no uniqueness.

Flawsome Home on Instagram uses a lot of grey, but a huge amount of colour, too.

It’s a bit too much for me - and that’s saying something, because I definitely like experimenting with colour (we have four different colours on our kitchen walls alone; two of which are different greys!), but at least she’s bringing her own style to it.

In fact, you can see even she is moving away from her signature grey. If you scroll down her grid, you will see it was definitely much, much greyer when she first started posting.

And very much agree that Elle’s style is infinitely more aesthetically appealing than Hinch’s.

instagram.com/flawsomehome?igshid=lqjn8o83on9x

Yes, I don’t like that flaw some home, it’s just too much for me too and really not to my taste, nor is it tasteful. I can’t actually decide what’s worse, her or mrs hinches, I think the flaw some one to be honest.

The flawsome home just looks far too cluttered to me. It's actually hurting my eyes just looking at those pics!

I love my rainbow ordered books I like the fact it mixes the genres up!