50 Shades of Grey…

For much of my adult life, grey has been a major player in the backdrop of my Millenial experience.

I don’t just mean metaphorically. The ‘grey period’ seemed to follow the greyness of the Global Financial Crisis of the late 2000’s, followed swiftly by the ‘Fifty Shades of Gray’ era of the early 2010’s.

Grey was the only colour on everyone’s mind; and everyone wanted to paint their walls in it. Not just people who needed to decorate; everyone wanted to decorate and they wanted to do it in shades of grey.

Before this, I don’t remember there being as much nuance in paint colour choices. I know there seemed to be as much choice then as there is now, but the ‘Changing Rooms’ DIY scene of the early 2000’s was more about brash colours and decorative themes than the finery of the right shade. And this gaping hole in the market seemed to motivate the flip to the shades of grey era.

The arrival of social media seemed to be timed perfectly with the rise in 10% mortgages and people taking up property development as a ‘side hustle’. Farrow & Balls grey scale, chalky matt paints were in the right place at the right time and online ‘interiors inspo’ was born.

Farrow & Ball subsequently became one of the coolest brands not just in decorating but in the country and decorating became cooler, motivating a rise of F&B type colours in company branding / marketing, and two-word, ampersand joining, brand names.

Pattern was out, in fact everything other than black white and grey seemed to be out in interiors and this triad was like the skinny jeans of the interiors world; you couldn’t get rid of them.

When my husband and I bought our first flat together in 2012, grey was very much at the forefront of our decorative minds, and F&B tester pots were a luxury for our new home-owner budget. Grey walls with white trim and black accents were and still are a staple in design and whether you’re a fan of grey, or not, it’ll likely be hanging around for a while (until Ikea has a ‘chuck out your grey, black and white’ campaign).

Which brings me to that famous campaign of the early 200'0’s, that is forever etched in my mind and ears… google ‘chuck out your chintz advert’ and enjoy having the theme tune in your head for the next few days. Ikea’s catchy, skandy marketing was rolled out across Europe with its campaign against the old, in favour of black white and grey monochrome (with some primary colours thrown in). And we flocked to queue outside stores to buy flat-pack, white grey and black heaven. And Ikea’s take over has continued. But cut to 2020’s and we’re seeing chintz back on the market…with every shade nature inspired green.

But grey continues to reinvent itself as its the grey tones of every colour in the spectrum that has brought colour back to the fore from monochrome mania. The muted / greyer tones of colours have been gradually introduced as exciting new grey options, and they’re re taking over. Anthracite grey (blue-grey) windows have replaced the demand of the previously popular mahogany coloured window (thankfully). Light grey and deep blue-grey are the top two colour choices for a new kitchen. Grey-green and grey-blue are the top picks for an accent wall and of course charcoal (grey-black) has left the log burner and made it on to everything else. Grey has dipped it’s finger in to all the pies to stay current and as such it’s bringing colour back.

And I am here for it.

I love colour, and the multitude of tones available now with the help of grey means we don’t have to think about colour as so vivid, all the time. But we also don’t just have to stick to grey. Much like how pure brilliant white can be offensive (I could write a whole blog about my offense to pure brilliant white) so too can any hue in the wrong light, setting or context.

Interior colour is finding it’s middle ground, between the vivid and the muted. Colour is here to help, not hinder and it’s here to love not avoid. The shades (adding black to a colour), tints (adding white to a colour) and tones (adding grey) are working together in new decorative styles. The grey era is over but grey has found it’s way to stay, to tone the nation up.

And it’s worth its weight in Elephants Breath.