More room for grey

Grey and beige makes greige, and grey and yellow, grellow. Here is why grey continues as a post-pandemic shade in homes

“Mr. Grey will see you now.” And so the spider welcomed the fly.

The romance of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele has quite a fan following across the world. Be it the books or the movies, E.L. James’ erotic trilogy is much-loved by the fans. Many of them have also taken inspiration from the title and fallen in love with grey, a colour that’s been on-trend in the décor world for quite some time now.

A lighter shade of black, this elegant neutral is balanced, cool, and conservative. It’s great for formal looks, but can also be the colour that helps you let your hair down if you pair it with other colours to make it pop. The shade card includes charcoal, dove grey, ash, lead, gunmetal, oyster, pearl, powder grey, silver, and slate — and many others. It’s also combined with other colours to create new colours that have their own fan following — think greige, which mixes grey and beige, and grellow, which brings together grey and yellow, to create gorgeous colours that pair well with almost anything.

Sue Wadden, director of colour marketing at Sherwin-Williams, in an interview amid the pandemic, said grey provides a blank slate for homeowners to put their personal touches on a space with artwork and décor.

“Now more than ever, homeowners are thinking about ways to make their spaces more versatile. For example, a living room may also have to serve as a home office and kids’ playroom, and using grey paint as a backdrop can allow a space to serve a variety of purposes — professional or playful!” she said.

She added that grey will always be an important neutral and a popular colour for DIYers and designers alike, just like white has always been.

“However, over the past few years we’ve noticed people craving colour in their homes, which I think is a direct response to how pervasive Scandinavian minimalism was in the previous decade. This doesn’t mean we’re eschewing grey, more so that we’re looking for different versions of it,” she said.