Why has Britain become obsessed with depressing grey houses?

[bigdot808]

Why do people actually choose to make their entire house grey? You see these houses on Rightmove they it genuinely look like doctors surgeries.

People will call it 'classy' but where's the personality? Colourful walls, weird wallpaper, bold choices? Why are people decorating their homes for imaginary buyers on Rightmove instead of themselves?

Genuine question: do people actually love grey or are we all just terrified of having a personality?

Totally agree. same as you.

I have a grey kitchen and bits of grey round the house, but also other colours (actual colours plus white/off white). I'm not changing my kitchen just because it's apparently out of fashion.

I sat outside a cafe this morning and just looked at all the grey, white and black.
Grey tracksuits, grey cars, black coats, white coats, black prams (BLACK PRAMS!!!), grey houses, black head to toe outfits, grey and black shop signs.

Where did all the colour go? It's soooo depressing.

@Tootsiroll That's going to look fantastic. The Vicar of Dibley's cottage is my benchmark for cosiness.

How often do your decorate your whole home though? If i painted my whole house it wouldn't need done again for 10 years.

I'm not going to the effort and expense every other year to stay on trend.

(My house isn't grey btw but is just various shades of Dulux white).

A good job they're uniformly grey then. Could be worse could be decorated pink with yellow spots!

Greige and grey is just so dull. Yes it's partly lacking in confidence to step outside of what influencers are telling you is fashionable or current, and doing your own thing.

Or the world could just be a cheerier, more colourful place.
This is Bristol.

It is a very sterile look. Grey and white everywhere. And not a book in sight often. Just bits of furniture and a massive tv stuck on the wall.

What is a bit sad is that it is not individual. I love an individually decorated home. That is different. Theirs.
People have always done it though. In the seventies it was all brown and orange. And with blue and white Lino in the kitchen. Unless v posh.

If you are posh and minimalist ( which is where this comes from), the only grey will be the stone flooring, the only white a ceramic sink in the kitchen. You will not have a TV on display at all. Certainly not on the wall.

But why would you want it to be on trend? I prefer to decorate the way I like, not because something is in fashion. I also couldn't live somewhere with grey/white/beige etc walls - I've tried it and even with loads of art everywhere, it didn't feel like home.

We like an eclectic country house interior that is full of our personality, using lots of colour, pattern and texture. I'm not a fan of grey - we last painted a room grey in the 1990s, when it had to be specially mixed and my dad called it 'battleship grey'! We have a mix of blue, green, pink, burgundy and yellow (all breathable paints as we live in a Georgian cottage) plus interesting wallpaper in some rooms. It complements our stuff (antiques/vintage, interesting artwork, loads of books etc) and we won't be changing any of it because someone somewhere says it's unfashionable.

That said, we did recently buy a dark grey sofa - but only because I loved the shape and couldn't get it in another colour - which I'm planning to make new loose covers for 😆

There were articles couple of years back about how the world is losing colour. It's such an odd phenomenon.
I wonder if making things just bland is supposed to balance the fact that world has got considerably louder when it comrs to our senses

Grey is out, dd is painting her house with colour on at least one wall, it’s currently very grey. Our house is a vision in magnolia because we bought it this way and are lazy at home decorating

I quite like it. I 'm not a fan of bright colours, patterns or wallpaper. Obviously not everything in the house is grey but the colours are muted and certainly don't "pop".

😞.

Each to their own.

There is nothing wrong with some grey, an entire grey room with a grey crushed sofa, grey cushions, mirrored furniture is tack though

magnolia is back just rebranded

I’ve just bought a house that is 100% grey.
I can’t live with it so it’s all being changed which seems ridiculous. I’m going to put wooden panelling in which no doubt someone else will rip out when we move!

There’s a fantastic Instagram page called something like “Weeping 1930’s Houses” which is full of these utter monstrosities. Some of them are so bad I sometimes wonder if they’re actually real.

Not really. Completely different colour. Magnolia is a pleasant soft pale cream/slightly peach.

Grey is a shade, and it's boring and dull. It belongs on a battleship or in a prison.

https://www.livingetc.com/ideas/magnolia-color-trend

https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/article/magnolia-paint-colour-ideas

I’ve been looking at a lot of houses recently and not seen a grey one. I think that trend went out over a decade ago. The majority usually take the form of a dark blue kitchen, dark green sitting room, pale pink or green bedroom and a jewel coloured bathroom with herringbone tiles.

It’s a trend that’s run its course

Yes saw those houses when driving there I think

I don’t mind some grey! Like PP I like calm neutrals.

I really don’t like the rusty red trend for kitchens and skirting that Instagrammers seem to have now.

It was popular about 10-15 years ago, but not seen anyone do it since round here. White or cream seems to be the main one people go for, and a couple of years ago there was tons of colour. Blue/green/earthy mainly.