Is the whole worldturning grey?

What an interesting thread! Lots of good decor and colour suggestions here. I'm very impressed by the stylish photos some of you have posted.

At one time I would never have considered using grey in the house, but last year we painted a very long wall in our diner a medium grey. The room is large with several windows and lots of natural light, so the grey looks fresh, bright and 'greyt'! The other walls are an ivory light reflecting paint which really bounces the light around and works well with grey. We have used the same shade of grey on the two end walls of our adjoining lounge, with ivory on one long wall and ruby red on the other. It creates a link and continuity between the two areas.

I'm currently looking for wallpaper for our downstairs hall. I have an upcycled chest of drawers in one corner with vibrantly coloured drawer fronts - shades of aqua, turquoise, teal & white, so taking that as my inspiration. Three people have suggested grey to me! Any other ideas anyone? The area is north facing with only one small window.

It is quite noticeable on these doing up houses programmes that the most upmarket homes are always painted white - never magnolia, cream or grey. Light grey became the new magnolia about ten years ago but none of these colours can compete with white.

Apart from making a room look lighter and bigger, pure white is the most practical paint colour - easy to touch up marks with no worries about getting an exact match..

curios not curious!

I used to enjoy watching Homes Under the Hammer when my granddaughter was having a nap. It was always interesting to see the buyers' various styles of upgrades and decor. Whenever I see a clip now they are all grey, featureless and clinical. It seems to be more about ensuring maximum profit in the event of resale or rental income rather than making a home. I would expire without colour on the woodwork, at the very least, preferably singing loudly with my collection of vibrant curious and eccentric furniture. I have seen that the PM and his wife favour colourful decor but the images that I have seen in various forms of media are far too over the top even for me. I've seen little that is tasteful as well as bold and vibrant elsewhere, however.

I have been house hunting and can't begin to tell you the amount of grey I have seen! Many properties are decorated in grey throughout - all kitchen units, dining furniture, bedroom furniture, curtains, carpets, bedding, it's so depressing. Even worse are the character properties which have had their guts ripped out and replaced with stark grey/white interiors, complete with kitchen island plus the compulsory three dangly lights.

I think the F&B colours are Elephants breath or Moles breath ... something daft like that.

I have calico cotton on most of my walls and a lovely malty colour in my bedroom.

Grey, white, magnolia etc are ok as neutral background colours but I don’t like them dominating a room or house as I think they are unimaginative and dull. I have a parchment colour on my walls purely because I have colour from pictures, furniture and textiles in my home. Of course, everything depends on individual taste. I know someone whose home is all white and grey; I think it’s a bit dreary and boring but she (and many of her friends) find it achingly stylish!

I too love colour! But at first I thought you meant that our world - our thoughts - were grey and depressed! I was relieved to see it was about paint.

You’re right. There is such a proliferation of grey paint, great interiors and grey furnishings that it’s become common. It is also a drab, cold colour and depressing, matching our grey skies.

I used to love grey for decor (and dress) until everyone chose it .

It can look absolutely stunning with splashes of purple, pink ,red ,lemon ,black ,white and navy .
The green leaves of plants look good against it .
But
it's the new magnolia/beige .

Now all my friends have chosen it for the homes -I'm just wondering what the next colour craze is going to be .

Remember avocado bathroom suites ?
There was another craze on orange and chocolate .
My aunts chose lurid pink and turquoise .
I've had to live with a burgundy bathsuite -brand new and couldn't afford to replace it .

A blue toned green is my favourite colour with little accents of lavender and purple -that's what I've painted my new garden room !

When I moved in every single room was painted magnolia including the bathroom with cornflower blue tiles! I hate magnolia and would rather have grey although I wouldn't choose grey, I prefer white walls with accent colours.

Some of those Sophie Robinson makeovers that are on Channel 5 at the moment are horrendous with the excess of clashing colours all though when she pares it back a bit some of her stuff is quite attractive.

I think grey kitchens look really smart, mine isn't grey by the way.

It doesn't look very nice I must admit on the outside of a property. Very utilitarian.

Our living room, redecorated just before the first lockdown, is grey, walls, furniture and carpet but the walls, sugared grey have a pinkish tinge and the curtains are a light complimentary floral from the same brand. There's lots of white to contrast in our Edwardian house and I love it. I'm not keen on grey exteriors though, or indeed anything coloured an unrelieved grey.

God no to grey! I love colour and dress wise I am a colourful vibrant person.

Home wise we are many shades of white/cream base with a feature fireplace in the lounge and other various featire walls in other room in lovely bright colours.

I brighten it up with accessories etc as weĺĺ in each room. For me the many shades of white/cream make the room look bigger and brighter.

I can then make it up with interchangeable accessories so it pops

I was not short of interest when my property went on sale and sold at the asking price.Although not a recent sale,I believe keeping my colours neutral went along way way to its sale.

There are so many shades!

I really do not like grey, too miserable!

We have some F&B shade of light grey on our windows (inherited), doubtless with a daft name. We like it and see it a lot round here on houses made of red brick and flint like ours.

Avocado bathroom suite do I need to say anymore

People are getting bored now. Dark blue and emerald green seem to be the new 'in' colour...

Not a fan of grey but this phase too will pass as have others over the decades. Having moved around a lot we can track the colour fashions through the decades. We have bought houses with bathrooms in avocado, orange, pink. Kitchens too with shiny avocado kitchen units and vinyl patterned wallpaper. DH and I have always been conservative (boring?) in terms of home decor - white , or cream when we're feeling adventurous. We've collected quite a bit of art over the last 50 years so there are lots of paintings on our walls and white best does them justice.

I was thinking of making a post on this very subject. Everywhere you go you have fifty shades of grey. I find it the most depressing colour possible. Even worse is when it is paired with a charcoal carpet and dark grey woodwork. I would far rather have magnolia. Our downstairs walls are a colour called soft peach, which is basically magnolia with a hint of peach, giving a warmer feel. Our carpets, which are a couple of years old, are a deep burgundy. It all goes well with our three piece suite, which we bought at the same time and is a blush pink/light brown colour. We are probably very unfashionable but it suits us and l like to think is warm and welcoming.

Not in our house. Love colour! I chose the paint colours for our dining room??

I don’t see many grey windows but a friend who is an artist has had them for a long time in London and I thought they looked good. White seems pretty universal here in Edinburgh. I suppose it makes the historic tenements look uniform. Which is good. I think in the past they would have been green or brown. I suppose most internal woodwork was also brown. Almost all white now. It seems normal to us almost unnoticeable but would look strange to a time visitor from the past. I have unpainted brown woodwork in my hall. I did have a furniture restorer do some work on it. A dying trade as people don’t like antique furniture. There are so many doors in the hall and it is nice to keep a bit of history as the house was built in 1880. There are other such houses still have unpainted woodwork here. it can look a bit dull perhaps but once painted I don’t think it could ever be restored.