50 Shades of Grey – The Many Shades of Grey used in Interior Design
50 Shades of Grey – The Many Shades of Grey used in Interior Design
Moody greys, dirty charcoals, shiny silvers and soft grey whites.
Grey it never dates and really its the new black.
From light grey to dark grey to charcoal I can always find a shade that I love. But it got me thinking about the psychology of the colour grey and this is what I found –
Kate Smith on Sensational Color says –
Gray is the color of intellect, knowledge, and wisdom. It is perceived as long-lasting, classic, and often as sleek or refined. It is a color that is dignified, conservative, and carries authority. Gray is controlled and inconspicuous and is considered a color of compromise, perhaps because it sits between the extremes of black and white. Gray is a perfect neutral, which is why designers often use it as a background color.
The color gray is an unemotional color. It is detached, neutral, impartial and indecisive – the fence-sitter. From a color psychology perspective, gray is the color of compromise – being neither black nor white, it is the transition between two non-colors. The closer gray gets to black, the more dramatic and mysterious it becomes. The closer it gets to silver or white, the more illuminating and lively it becomes. Being both motionless and emotionless, gray is solid and stable, creating a sense of calm and composure, relief from a chaotic world.
That all sounds very gloomy and dull. BUT from a design point of view and from a compulsive renovator point of view, which is the one I stand from I do see grey as the perfect neutral, I also see grey in different shades and textures. And it’s never really black or white to me its charcoal or silver.
Charcoal as the moody, muddy colour that sits perfectly with a royal blue or a bottle green and is fantastic with creamy whites.
Silver to me is the version of light grey that plays well with metals and is seen in concrete and marble. It’s a colour that is gender neutral and in my household that is not either particularly feminine and possible leans toward a more masculine and minimalistic look. It’s a direction I love.
Below is a selection of shades of grey in a mood board that I’d love to include in parts of for my next renovation.
Click through the 50 Shades of Grey for inspiration