Inspirational ideas
Decorating ideas & inspiration in grey
From pearl greys to deep slates, grey is the great contemporary neutral: it holds the background, structures the woodwork and lets everything placed against it shine.
Our grey schemes warm the shade with brass, timber and chalky whites — restraint, without the chill.
“Grey is not the absence of colour: it is colour that knows how to listen.”
Choosing a grey: from pale grey to deep charcoal
Grey earned a bad name by being everywhere — but it is almost always a question of undertone. A frankly blue grey chills a north-facing room; a grey carrying earth or ochre stays warm at any hour. Nearly all the schemes below play in that second register.
For a pale, liveable grey, Frieze No.84, The Boltons No.28 and Saint Johns No.64 are the three shades that recur most often across our schemes, in every room: colour enough to settle an interior, never enough to darken it. Sloane Square No.92, Chiswick No.100 and Ludgate Circus No.89 pull towards blue, and suit south-facing rooms.
Among the mid greys, Brompton Road No.205, Artillery Ground No.164 and Messel No.39 make excellent ground walls; Lavender Garden No.30 and Early Lavender No.260 add a very fine mauve cast. For deep greys, look at Iron Grey FTT-014, Oratory No.237, Equinox JB.08, Haar JB.09 and Raw Umber FTT-015: taken right around a room they envelop it rather than shrink it. Rose Taupe No.292 and London Brown No.287 bridge across to the browns.
See also our neutral colours, whites and off-whites and black paint ideas, or browse all our grey paints.
Our schemes
36 schemes
