Why has Britain become obsessed with depressing grey houses?

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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?

My house is painted a warm pale grey throughout. It’s very calming. The walls look different colours depending on the light.

I like a bit of colour but honestly don’t care how anyone decorates their house. More colour and a bold print doesn’t to me express more of a personality. Very few people have truly unique houses that reflect personality.

Everybody's house reflects their personality even if that personality is just bland.

It was beige for years

Exterior of ours is sort of off-white lime render - houses either side are bright blue and lavender (Pembrokeshire coastal village).
Inside I couldn't tell you the exact colour (off-white-ish again?) and we haven't decorated in the 20 years since we bought the house. Why would we?
Walls are covered in antique paintings and we've got loads of lamps, the low lighting of which hides all scuffs and imperfections.
Flagstones and big colourful rugs downstairs. No colour scheme whatsoever.
Couldn't give a fig about fashion and trends.

I find grey (and beige and magnolia!) in natural materials relaxing and soothing: jute, hessian, raw flax, unbleached cotton, stone, slate, whitewashed plaster, ceramics etc, relaxing and restful.
The same shades in carpet, laminate flooring, lino, synthetic fibres and fleecy thows etc feel corporate and soulless.
Grey as part of a natural palette, in natural materials is still absolutely fine by me.

Well as someone who grew up in a near-hoarder house which was rammed to the rafters and decorated in various shades of terracotta, lime green and purple, I'll keep my muted neutrals and clutter-free worktops; I find them calming. I find my mind runs ten to the dozen when I'm in a cluttered, busily decorated space.

I do love seeing the dopamine decor houses... I just couldn't live in one long-term.

Interestingly, my mum moved to a dark grey colour for the livingroom. I'm not a fan, but it's not my livingroom.

People live in houses that they like. It might not be your taste….it might be grey, or bold, or old fashioned or whatever.
If you have an ounce of vision, you see past the surface and buy the bones and location of a house. And you make an offer accordingly. There is absolutely money to be made doing that.
I have never once bought a house I haven’t smashed the shit out of. Wall colours are the least of my issues!

When I was decorating my bedroom around 2019 it was around peak grey. I'm not a fan of the November fog look, and it was so difficult to find things like bedding with colour in, particularly as it's a dull NE facing room that needs warming up. Also very little choice in tiles for the bathroom around then.

I'm pleased about the return of colour.

While I'm not a neutrals person, the shift back towards creams is much nicer and more practical. The problem with grey was that it often doesn't sit well with other tones like the warmth of wood, and everything became grey-fied because it needed everything changing to match the cool tones of the grey. Creams and white are much easier to co-ordinate with other colours/ tones e.g. wood flooring/ furniture.

What I find weird about grey-fied exteriors is how frequently the front gardens then get covered over and how little greenery/ plants are used to soften it and keep some nature.

Grey has been out for quite a few years now. The houses that still have it are long past a do-over

The magnolia off-white/cream from before grey was just as bad though. Really can't bear bloody magnolia!

Ooooo and the god awful brown from years ago! Really bloody hated that. Why would anyone decorate their home in tones of shit? And I suspect it'll be in again soon.

The colour grey in home interiors has been out of fashion since at least 2020. No one with any style is painting anything grey anymore.

Millennial grey 2010s... it has been updated to Millennial 'green' pallet don't you know lol.

Navy kitchens and Black on white bathrooms (grout, taps etc...) and also the colour drench are the new trends of the 2020 that will date awfully.

And then theres the sudden 'Victorian revival' that is polar opposing the 'modern grey' with jewel tones thats all about the minton tiles and Lincrusta and William Morris prints etc... its a huge trend that will die soon but at least its based in restoring some history. My main issue though is everyone smashing up 'art deco' tile fireplaces which will likely be the next upcoming tend or people wanting back. There is something ironic in destroying a houses actual history to replace it with fake 'reclaimed' history that is only just slightly older.

Colour wise personally find I feel most at home in 'dated' colours, mostly browns, beige and dark wood or dusky pink and light pastel blues. Regardless of trend they always feel like 'home' to me as those where the colours I grew up with in the late 80s and 90s so that the colours I have had for the living areas every house I lived in. The resale value of the house does not even factor into my choice.

I'm not sure that style is synonymous with following colour trends? Surely it's more about your eye, your preferences, your budget and how you blend those things with your life and your house? I've seen plenty of on-trend houses with no style.

Its not to my taste but I find it weird you've gone straight to "they must be decorating it with an eye to when they come to resell" rather than far more likely "because they like it".

Sounds like the home I’ve moved into but feels comforting. I don’t mind the grey in decor either but not too much of it

I think it’s in part a reaction to feeling overwhelmed by today’s world in all its information and sensory overload.

Each to their own though. If people come home, shut the door and find it comforting then full power to them.

Ok so I looked at the "weeping1930shouses" instagram and I dont get it- some of them look way better after, not before.

Many of the "befores" are very dated, 70's styles, and they are all the exact same shade of brown! I am not quite sure whats so hideous about houses being all grey when before that they were all bloody brown!

They were hardly full of character beforehand and now they are grey instead of brown. Perhaps the owner of that account should post their own house so we can all judge the fuck out of it!

I've just taken a look too and I disagree, finding the majority of the 'afters' hideous!

It's weird because I'm actually not a fan of 1920s/30s houses, especially the ones that lean towards the Art Deco, a style I loved as a student, but now find ugly. However, I'd much rather see them in their original state than made over into boring grey boxes with those awful front doors and firestation handles.

I was brought up in a house built in 1925 which I always found lacking in either the character of a truly old building or the cool of a contemporary one. Ours was quite colourful though - the exterior paintwork was pillarbox red, the bathroom and kitchen bright yellow and I don't recall much brown till the pine kitchen went in during the early '90s. But a friend lived in an '80s townhouse which I recall thinking was uber stylish 🤪

Arts & Crafts houses are a different story. A few years back we bought a very unusual three storey detached house that was built in the early years of Victoria's reign but extended and given an Arts & Crafts makeover in the 1920s. It was beautiful.

If you watch any movie or documentary about life in the middle ages, you'll see that depressing and grey is just a feature of life in England. It's always been like that, its why we are such dour people.

@LibertyLily I mean, fair enough, some of the afters aren’t particularly attractive, but let’s not pretend the befores were architectural masterpieces.

They’re very ordinary brown semis, hardly bursting with character or beautiful design.

To me, it’s like taking a Rich Tea biscuit, turning it into a Bourbon and then having a meltdown because someone’s ruined it. Darling, it was a bloody Rich Tea to begin with. 🤣

Really? Are you looking at the same pictures as me?

I can’t stand grey. Mine starts off relatively tame and then gets bolder as you get deeper into the house🤣

I just look because of your account... the afters are bloody hideous.

But someone has to live, laugh, love I suppose or it wouldn't exist.

Grey is a soulless colour, the colour of cold fog, dust and dead bodies, its unnatural in most things other than some stones, linked heavily to depression and its inherently cold based.

Brown is not, brown is natural and linked to earth tones, wood and nature and is inherantly warm based. Thats why its persisted in homes for hundreds of years as the main base colour for everything.

I don't think the Before pictures are particularly brown anyway apart from the brickwork. At least there are plants in the gardens.