GREY IS RED HOT
Warm tones give way to cool as ‘sneaky colour’ hangs onto top spot
When it comes to painting rooms, grey is red-hot.
Benjamin Moore carries over 150 shades of grey, and SherwinWilliams says that of its top 50 colours for interiors, 30 are greys.
“The trend toward grey started in Scandinavia, became big in the U.S. around six years ago, and is still on the rise,” says Sue Wadden, director of colour marketing at Sherwin-Williams.
Andrea Magno of Benjamin Moore says, “Grey is not going anywhere, and is still growing in popularity. It updates things instantly, and it’s evolving over time. And we’re seeing more grey cabinetry and more trim in grey now.”
Just 15 years ago, she says, “if you told someone you were going to paint your room grey, they would groan and say, ‘How depressing.’ Before about 2010, it was all about warm Tuscan colours. Since then, it’s really about cool modern greys, and not just for paint colours. Stone, marble, tile and wood have also gone a lot cooler.”
But picking the correct shade of grey can be tricky.
“It’s crucial to pay attention to the undertones, and also how the light reacts to it,” Magno says. “Grey is a very sneaky colour.”
Greys have undertones of blue, purple or green, and you’ll want to make sure the undertones are compatible with surrounding tile, furnishings and fabrics, designers say.
For a real “smack-in-the-middle grey,” Wadden suggests her company’s Repose Gray.
“For walls surrounding pink tile in a bathroom, I’d go with Repose Gray, which goes great with pink and creates a neutral background.”
Amazing Gray has a greener undertone, while Passive is cooler with more blue.
“We typically try to steer clients away from purple undertones. Usually, we stick to true warms and true cools, and the middle ground, often referred to as French greys. They are pretty true greys,” says Cate Dunning, who, with Lathem Gordon, runs the Atlanta-based GordonDunning Interior Design.
In addition to undertones, there’s a big difference between cool and warm greys, with the former better suited to modern interiors and the latter often better for traditional homes with warmercoloured furnishings, according to Dunning.
Too cool of a grey in extreme sunlight can sometimes look chalky, Wadden warns.
“My best advice is to select your three favourite greys, paint a poster board with each one, and look at them in your home over a weekend, tallying up which one you like best at various times of the day and night. If you plunge in before doing that, you may regret it,” says Dunning.
“You might love a picture you saw in a magazine, but it’s important to remember that the very same shade of grey might look entirely different in your own home,” says Gordon.
While undertones are hard to spot in a paint chip, they become more obvious on a larger surface like a poster board placed prominently in the room you are planning to paint, Magno adds.
Some of Benjamin Moore’s more popular greys are Gray Owl, Balboa Mist, Coventry Gray, Stonington Gray, Revere Pewter and Thunder, she says.
Revere Pewter has a grey cast “but it’s warm and very livable,” she says. “For cabinetry, it’s Kendall Charcoal.”
What about trims? Although greys are generally used with lighter greys, whites and offwhites, the latest trend is toward trim in the same or even a darker shade of grey.
“We are loving doing everything in one shade of grey,” says Gordon. “It looks great, especially paired with light linen drapery with a little sheen to it. We are also seeing more interest in silvery greys.”
Laurie Pressman, vice-president of the Pantone Color Institute, also sees grey with grey trim as a trend.
“White still feels safer to some people, but it’s easy to overlook how harsh white can feel. Give grey a chance,” she says. “And if you’re nervous starting out, I’d recommend going with a shade with blue undertones.”