Am I the only one who dislikes the grey wall/greige trend?

[jerseygirl07067]

I seem to love it other people's homes but not my own. I've tried it twice in my house and it just looked so blah and devoid of color, that I went back to the cheerful warm, golden yellow that brightens up my space.

I recently updated my entire living space, swapped out furniture on Craiglist, added fun new pieces and added pops of turquoise, and fun accessories. I was excited to try this greige thing, but I just didn't feel the love.

Anyone else out there?

[jren]

I think it depends on the natural light in your house. Mine doesn't get the right amount of natural light to make gray tones look good. In fact, if there is even the slightest hint of gray in a color, it will just look dead on my walls.


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[meggie t]

Don't like greige. Never have. I do like gray though. I've had a gray room in my last two residences but accented with saturated color. I am a color person. Neutrals are too blah for me.

[mackmama]

Gray is a really really hard color to get right. What looks good in one home will look drastically different in another home. I love the gray trend but it took me 20 tries to find the right gray in our last home. I again picked the wrong one for this home, and the walls looked lifeless. I just repainted our whole house with a new gray, and it is fantastic. Lights up the whole house.

[specialp]

Gray is a really really hard color to get right. What looks good in one home will look drastically different in another home. I love the gray trend but it took me 20 tries to find the right gray in our last home. I again picked the wrong one for this home, and the walls looked lifeless. I just repainted our whole house with a new gray, and it is fantastic. Lights up the whole house.


:yeahthat: Nothing wrong with the yellow you are happy with OP, but IME grays and blues are trial and error to get right. When we moved into this house the common areas including a 2 story foyer were a dark greige that I loved. I struggled with a couple of rooms to get something that coordinated, but was lighter. Popular colors like London fog and Revere pewter were too light, dull and bland/remind me of a doctor's office on my walls although I love in other houses.

[Simon]

We had a cheerful yellow for 11 years and it always looked great. Sometimes I wish we had just stuck with it in the new hours. This time we tried a light gray and it was much, much harder to get right but we wanted a more neutral background.

[Mommy_Mea]

Funny timing, the designer we have used just posted about this on her blog:

https://yourcolorcoach.wordpress.com/2016/09/05/torn-between-two-paint-hues/

ETA: we only have gray in one room, our bedroom. While I don't love the beige neutral the previous owners used, I don't think gray would work either. Our house is very dark, so I will probably just paint with a lighter beige eventually.

[ShanaMama]

We used a decorator to choose colors for the house we built six months ago. The.entire.house.is grey. I am not kidding. I don't necessarily like grey but she pulled it off very well. For example, my living room/ dining is a soft grey that goes well with the tile we selected together. The tile could have gone taupe, cream or grey and she chose grey. My playroom has several colors- about 2 feet of deep blue dropping down from the ceiling, then a wide band of glossy white, then the rest is grey. It's fabulous. My hallways and even my bedroom are various greys. I selected the carpet and she selected the paint. I definitely chose carpets that go well with grey.
The only rooms that I regret are the ones that I copped out on. I put lots of thought into DS & DDs' rooms and our master bedroom. But I have several "extra" rooms- guest rooms and one extra bedroom that the kids play in. They ended up with grey walls and grey carpet and no personality. I wish I had chosen a contrasting carpet color or a prettier wall color. Eta: I was so overwhelmed with selections and I wasn't quite sure how those rooms would be used, so I just picked "safe neutrals" which are blah.
I haven't done any decorating in those rooms yet, maybe furniture and wall art will help. I need to add some color for sure.

Eta: even my kitchen is mostly grey!! I wanted a white kitchen. I chose glossy white acrylic cabinets which I love. Hoewever I was afraid they'd show fingerprints and dirt, so I used the white on wall cabinets only. I chose a textured melamine base cabinet which is a grey wood grain look. The decorator chose dark grey tile and light grey wall color. I also have a mix of white tile backsplash and a grey glass look. It's cool and really beautiful but lots and lots of grey!

[squimp]

Such an individual choice. I really don't like yellow in my house. I tend to prefer cooler colors in general and love blue, grey and white. My mom has grey all over her house and It goes well with her silvers, blues and greens that she loves. She picked that color years ago, before it was trendy.

[TwinFoxes]

I painted our yellow interiors grey when we moved into our house in '09. Just as there are ugly yellows and pretty yellows, there are ugly greys and pretty greys. :)

[twowhat?]

Ugh - duplicate!

[twowhat?]

We just got rid of all the yellow walls in our house and went with a light gray. I am so happy we did it. It took forever to find the right shade, and it totally depends on the natural AND artificial light in the room, the color of the floors and furnishings, etc. We used Benjamin Moore Gray Owl in the living/dining/kitchen and I adore it. It's so soft and soothing with all the white trim/cabinets/shelving and our lighter sort-of-rustic wood floors. It takes on a silvery gray/green/blue at night with artificial lights on. I'm about to put Revere Pewter in my office/guest bedroom. It's north-facing, so I need a more saturated color that isn't dark. The color board that I have up with Revere Pewter painted on it looks lovely in this room, but it looks terrible in the rest of the house (it was a contender and lost big time to Gray Owl elsewhere, LOL!).

There are so many shades of greige with different undertones and you have to find the right one. However, if your yellow sunny happy walls with pops of accent colors in your furnishings makes you happy, then by all means do that!! We were just so SICK of our yellow walls, they made everything (including photos) look yellow and we don't have enough natural light in the house to make the yellow cheery.

[ellies mom]

Grey is hard. I'm in the process of repainting most of the house and we went with a grey for the entryway, living room, stairwell and upstairs hall. My walls were covered with painted swatches. You just can't tell how it is going to look until they are up on your walls. We ended up with a color that technically would be a greige but in in our space definitely looked more like a true grey. We had a gold color on those walls before but I wanted something more neutral. My sewing room and the girls' bathroom is a darker grey.


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[jerseygirl07067]

Well darn, I was hoping some of you would say, yes, I agree, I hate the grey!!! I have a grayish/greenish/blue in my front room and it looks amazing. I get lots of compliments on that room and people ask all the time what color I used. And yes, it did take 8 samples on the wall to find the right one! It seems to transition well into the next room which is my kitchen and family room, whihc has the yellow. That with the pops of turquoise gives it a very coastal feel.

You all have me thinking now to try a few more grey samples. So here's the issue, my family room and kitchen do not get a lot of natural light. The family room gets some, and faces west, but the kitchen is in the center of the house so all artificial light (we have the warmer LEDs in there) So whatever I put on tends to look even darker than the swatch. The two colors I have tried are Benjamin Moore Balboa Mist (which looks super light in my friend's house, but she has a much larger living space and gets lot of natural light) and Valpar Mushroom Risotto. I had samples of Revere Pewter and Edgecomb grey but they tended to look a bit greenish. And honestly the two colors (Balboa Mist and Mushroom Risotto) tended to have a purplish hue which I didn't pick up at all until I put it on the wall.

Yes, blues and greys are tough! Some of the most awesome blues which I have used in other rooms of my house pulled very green in my front room where I did the blue. Palladian blue looked green in there too, so lots of trial and error with samples.

The thing with the yellow as I understand it, and apparently it is not popular currently, is that it is very self reflective. So the brightness of the yellow gets intensified the more walls it is put on. So it really brightens up our room. The other day when I was painting the gray, it started to rain. The grey side looked so blah and the yellow side looked so bright.

I dunno....I dunno....maybe I should just go paint the bathroom, planning on a bluish grey in there, Sherwin Williams Northstar. We shall see!

[jerseygirl07067]

We used a decorator to choose colors for the house we built six months ago. The.entire.house.is grey. I am not kidding. I don't necessarily like grey but she pulled it off very well. For example, my living room/ dining is a soft grey that goes well with the tile we selected together. The tile could have gone taupe, cream or grey and she chose grey. My playroom has several colors- about 2 feet of deep blue dropping down from the ceiling, then a wide band of glossy white, then the rest is grey. It's fabulous. My hallways and even my bedroom are various greys. I selected the carpet and she selected the paint. I definitely chose carpets that go well with grey.
The only rooms that I regret are the ones that I copped out on. I put lots of thought into DS & DDs' rooms and our master bedroom. But I have several "extra" rooms- guest rooms and one extra bedroom that the kids play in. They ended up with grey walls and grey carpet and no personality. I wish I had chosen a contrasting carpet color or a prettier wall color. Eta: I was so overwhelmed with selections and I wasn't quite sure how those rooms would be used, so I just picked "safe neutrals" which are blah.
I haven't done any decorating in those rooms yet, maybe furniture and wall art will help. I need to add some color for sure.

Eta: even my kitchen is mostly grey!! I wanted a white kitchen. I chose glossy white acrylic cabinets which I love. Hoewever I was afraid they'd show fingerprints and dirt, so I used the white on wall cabinets only. I chose a textured melamine base cabinet which is a grey wood grain look. The decorator chose dark grey tile and light grey wall color. I also have a mix of white tile backsplash and a grey glass look. It's cool and really beautiful but lots and lots of grey!

Any change you could post pictures? Sounds awesome!!

[jerseygirl07067]

Funny timing, the designer we have used just posted about this on her blog:

https://yourcolorcoach.wordpress.com/2016/09/05/torn-between-two-paint-hues/

ETA: we only have gray in one room, our bedroom. While I don't love the beige neutral the previous owners used, I don't think gray would work either. Our house is very dark, so I will probably just paint with a lighter beige eventually.

Thank you, and very helpful. I may look at some of those colors she recommended.

[elbenn]

I used to like grey more than I do now, but I think that's because EVERY SINGLE house around here that is being built or redecorated is grey. Most have white kitchens, but a few have grey kitchen cabinets also. It's a neutral, so it shouldn't be as faddish as the blue/sea foam green/mauve color schemes of the 1980s, but still, when the trend is so huge, I think it will date itself at some point. So the bottom line is, go with what you like. If you like grey, find a grey that works. If you aren't crazy about it, find something else you like.

[jerseygirl07067]

I painted our yellow interiors grey when we moved into our house in '09. Just as there are ugly yellows and pretty yellows, there are ugly greys and pretty greys. :)

I hear ya, I just need to find a pretty grey. Our yellows definitely have more of a gold base to calm them down.

[ellies mom]

We went with Lowes Sherwin Williams Essential Shade. I tried it on a whim and didn't love it on the card but I love it on my walls. http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160906/0d09f6e0cd734d1594dff46fe5ad4361.jpg



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[jerseygirl07067]

We went with Lowes Sherwin Williams Essential Shade. I tried it on a whim and didn't love it on the card but I love it on my walls. http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160906/0d09f6e0cd734d1594dff46fe5ad4361.jpg



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Very pretty :) Thanks for posting

[jerseygirl07067]

I used to like grey more than I do now, but I think that's because EVERY SINGLE house around here that is being built or redecorated is grey. Most have white kitchens, but a few have grey kitchen cabinets also. It's a neutral, so it shouldn't be as faddish as the blue/sea foam green/mauve color schemes of the 1980s, but still, when the trend is so huge, I think it will date itself at some point. So the bottom line is, go with what you like. If you like grey, find a grey that works. If you aren't crazy about it, find something else you like.

I certainly hope it does....I guess I am a color person. It really uplifts my mood. :)

[bisous]

I think grey can look awesome. I also think that there are many grey houses these days that aren't my favorite. As to whether you need to make your house grey I think there is a lot to think about.

First I do think it is very much a trend. I think it was Maria Killiam that said we're about ten years in to the 15 year color cycle that is currently favoring grey. We have about five more years before grey becomes really out of fashion.

Second, I think the current really muted palette of greys and silvers and light blues is pretty but it doesn't really fit my design sensibility. I can admire it but I never really feel comfortable in it in my own home. It does feel cold to me but it is my mother's favorite group of colors. We decorate differently because we have different tastes.

Finally, if you look at the really high end design out there, maybe the stuff in Architectural Digest or Elle Decor you'll see a much greater variety than what you'll see in paint stores and model homes. I really do think that if you don't need to be tied to popular colors and trends if you have a good eye and strong point of view. Of course these designers are genius. They look at the architecture of the home, the way light works in the room, the way the family wants to live, and then they add their own artistic touch on top. Maybe not the easiest thing to emulate! Still, if you look at top names you'll see that THEY aren't tied only to grey.

So you certainly aren't alone!

Of course, this is advice from someone who just painted her bedroom.....Linen White! That I know of, this was never a trend in my area. We went straight from Swiss Coffee to Manchester Tan to Gray Owl around here. But I guess my new favorite color for my bedroom is the color that linked article specifically mentioned to avoid! Still, it feels just perfect in my very poorly lighted, small bedroom oasis. :)

[KpbS]

I really don't like gray walls. There, I said it. :duck:

My master is gray (the shade is ok) and 3 bathrooms are gray. I didn't paint these and they are pretty blah IMO. I do love color!!

[jerseygirl07067]

And here is my happy yellow! Hopefully the picture came out the right size on here, it was initially too large to post.

[Indianamom2]

Ok, I am not a yellow person at all, but I think your kitchen is lovely. If yellow makes you happy...go for it! My house is almost completely blue because beige and grey make me feel blah.

[belovedgandp]

I'm a color person. Not afraid to paint walls and have painted many rooms many different colors.

Over 12 years ago I worked with a guy who was building a house. He was not the kind to paint the walls and kept complaining about his old home being beige and beige and wanting color in the new home. He was so excited to be picking all this out. Yes, he did grey walls and grey carpeting in every room. He was so proud of himself for having "color."

[SnuggleBuggles]

Ok, I am not a yellow person at all, but I think your kitchen is lovely. If yellow makes you happy...go for it!

Same here. Yellow isn't a favorite of mine but that looks perfect for your space.


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[specialp]

It's a lovely yellow.

[KpbS]

I love your happy yellow and wouldn't change a thing if it were mine. :)

[pastrygirl]

I like the greener grays, like BM Camouflage, but my husband hates all the grays. We're going with color in this house! My yellow kitchen is posted in my reveal thread. Our living room, bedroom, and long hallway will be other shades of yellow/gold/vanilla. Dining room will be a medium green. I can't wait to get painting!!

[twowhat?]

And here is my happy yellow! Hopefully the picture came out the right size on here, it was initially too large to post.

This IS a happy yellow and if it makes you happy, why change it?? It looks great with the pops of turquoise.

[Mommy_Mea]

And here is my happy yellow! Hopefully the picture came out the right size on here, it was initially too large to post.

I love your yellow too, especially with other bright colors! I am not a huge fan of the gray trend as well, it combined with really dark floors feels really somber to me. But I love color. My dining room is orange, I just painted the largest wall in my living room a saturated teal, and our family room accent wall will be grassy green.

[mackmama]

I love your yellow walls - they look great. I really like BM's Hawthorne Yellow and have it on some of our walls. It's a historical color so even though it's bright it has a lot of gray in it to mellow it out.

Gray is definitely a trendy color, just like the brown phase was a trend. Color trends usually last about 10 years so everything gray will be dated eventually.

[gatorsmom]

I'm not a fan of grey. It feels kind of cold and institutional to me most of the time when I see it in homes. I tried painting it in my ds3's room and filling the room with superhero colors and because I wanted a neutral, calming color for him. It works well for that, but it will be nice to repaint his room some warm colors one day. I used the same color grey in our formal living room (now library) and it looks blue. It wasn't the look I was going for and I was disappointed not long after we painted. We plan to wall paper over it and I can't wait.

I really wanted to love grey because I was so tired of how beige is EVERYWHERE but I'm just not feeling the love. I'm very curious what colorway will become the next new design trend.

eta- OP, I agree your kitchen looks happy and cheerful with it. Yellow is one of my favorite paint colors. I have a golden yellow in my bedroom and love it. :)

[smilequeen]

Everything depends on the house, the style, the look you like.

I'm sure many people are tired of grey because it's super popular right now.

Our house has the main neutral of grey and I love it, it's light and airy and we have more color in art, furniture, window treatments which is my preference. Other people like color on walls. Whatever makes you happy :)