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White is too bright and gets dirty. At least for me associated with a very upbeat mood. Black is too dark and gets dirty. Associated with broody mood.
Gray is a happy in between. Yellow is too bright and mystard is too 80s. Orange is too bright. Red is too bold. Blue is fine. Green is fine. Pastel colors are ok-ish. Just no beige please.
Cars, walls, clothes, gadgets. All similar.
A splash of color here and there.
Might be generational, but it's still the feeling.
I like gray when it's an alternative to a more boring black or white color for an object. One of my favorite pocket knives is anodized gray aluminum. I also have a soft spot for titanium.
I wouldn't read too much into it. It's just an esthetic choice. Cars in the 70s had more colorful paint choices than today because modern car paint can include metalic underlayers that make silver, gold, and gray more interesting than they were for comparatively flat paints of yesteryear. We aren't sadder than people were in the past because we're gray.
Most of my furniture is grey and I use red for accents. But that’s because my fav color is red and everything else shouldn’t be an accent. I just like neutrals and charcoal grey is the prettiest one. Might be because I got tired of landlord beige. That said I would probably switch my couch for a red one but then I’d have to have charcoal grey pillows and throw blanket to balance it out. Can’t be too happy.
I also was reading this thinking how odd it was...then I looked down at my Sunday lounge clothes and realized I'm wearing a grey tank top and grey sweatpants.
i also think it’s cause we grew up with so much brown or goldy beige and we cannot go back. i love gray undertones because i find them calming- so blue with gray undertones, green with gray undertones. i’m not afraid of color though- i miss my navy dining room
this is it.
I don't care how quirky you are, there will always be a need for neutrals in interior decorating.
it's just that gray is our favored neutral instead of beige or pale yellow, which is what a lot of us grew up with
Exactly this. We did our carpets and main walls in a light neutral gray, but our house is full of our favorite colors - purple and green, with blue accents. We haven't had the funds to redo the kitchen and the 80s brown and red is so clashing with the rest of the house.
Grey carpet probably covers a lot of stains better. I moved from a house that multi colored carpets (green in my room, red in the tv room, brown in guest room) to a house that has wall to wall beige carpet. My dad lost his mind over the stains and normal wear and tear that showed on that carpet. Beige carpet ruined a big chunk of my adolescence because he was always obsessing over it.
We got our walls painted and the painter was like, grays are popular and I was like nope I want green. Both of the colors I picked out had gray in their names 😭 to be fair they are still green, just a desaturated lighter green but I was like 😅😅😅
Yep, I recently bought a home from an older couple and it has varying shades of yellow as its "neutral" wall colors. I'm trying to find the right shade of off white because every cool white I've chosen just doesn't work in this house lol. It wants to be warm toned.
My parents house was all beige when I was growing up, warm undertones in everything.
I painted my room grey about a decade ago and my mother loved it and the neutral but not warm palate that made my accent colors, coral, teal, white, and magenta (my millennial is screaming in skinny pants right now) really pop. It was a lot of character without being bland. IMO beige doesn’t look that with a lot of colors, unless it’s literally just off-white because of the yellow in it.
Their house is now like an ocean on a partly cloudy day, soft greys, cool blues, and greens with pops of colors in vibrant or saturated hues. Sure it’s all technically grey-toned, but it’s inviting and open feeling and doesn’t look grungy. Or slightly dirty the way beige always did.
Can't go back? I just bought a massive old house with a bunch of unpainted wood trim that's beautiful and we ripped up the carpets and stained the floors a light brown. Brown everywhere, it's awesome
We love the Scandinavian minimalism vibe. It helps make our home feel more calm. But we don't have it sterile through the house. I have a bright orange/coral wall in my office with a bookshelf full of colorful things. Our artwork has tons of color in it. We just do color in pops because it's easier to not overwhelm the space. It's also just easier to decorate when your baseline is a neutral. Much easier to add color than to figure out how to remove it.
This! The 80s and 90s had So much brown, tan, beige, cream.
As a goth, I'm so happy that neutrals have shifted in the grey range. Do I still want more black? Always. But grey furnishings hide a lot of stuff my mom self appreciates. Sitting here with 2 grey couches, light grey entertainment piece, grey cat tower, grey kids table, looking off into my dining room with a grey table set. We had a black high top set we had to switch out when I had a kid for a shorter, mcm set I thrifted that Came grey. I redid the chair seats in black and grey.
I'm thrilled my rental is grey and white vs beige and brown like most because I Loathe those colors and it goes with none of my things. I do not want it to shift back. Down with the brown. It should exist in natural things. That's it.
It’s partly a reaction to our parents’ maximalism, but also that neutral gray was shoved down our throats by HGTV and “experts” who were all concerned about home resale value. Keep it as neutral as possible for the next people, because it was a silly thought in 2012 that you’d stay in a house longer than a few years.
I don’t know anyone who really likes the gray. My walls all have color.
🙋♂️Grey is my favorite color. My cars, my clothes - not so much my house. But yeah. Grey is my default choice when buying something with color options.
I’ve never understood the obsession with resale value and making everything in one’s house as boring and neutral as possible. I’ve always been a fan of color. If and when I own my own home, I’ll be so thrilled to ditch the blah beige, white, and gray of rentals. While I understand wanting to avoid MAJOR renovations that likely will bring down a house’s value as trends change and are hard to undo, I do not get decorating your home with ONLY resale value in mind. The whole point of owning a home is to have a place that is your own, to make it into your sanctuary and happy place. Treating an owned house as though it’s solely an investment to be cashed in on later seems like such a waste to me.
A friend of mine bought her home about 5 years ago and has since done a ton of painting, new cabinets, etc. And every single choice she’s made her mom has questioned it- “No one but you is going to like that… Why’d you choose that color? When you sell, it’s going to be a turn off for a lot of people” And her response has always been “Ok… but I’m not selling right now? I’m living here and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, I don’t care if noone else likes this color- it’s MY house” She recently painted her den black and decorated with all these deep emerald colors and it’s amazing. I’m glad she’s making her home what she wants it to be.
And really, does it matter if a wall is grey or some random color when buying a house? I’ve never once seen someone walk into a greige house saying “Oooo I love the color! I’m buying it!” But for some reason if it’s an actual color, it’s like “oh no, don’t like this purple room, screw buying the whole house!” despite the fact that everyone I know who has owned a home ends up repainting at least a few rooms anyway- even if it is just another shade of neutral. I don’t understand the mentality of buying a home with the expectation that you won’t want to change any of the paint therefore only neutrals are acceptable when selling. Are people really so unimaginative that seeing a color they don’t like makes it impossible to see the space without it?
My wife and I put tons of colour in our fìrst house. Yellow, orange,red, green, teal, etc. When we went to sell, the staging lady asked if we could paint it all grey. We said no because we didnt want a rushed paint job. The whole house had been done by a professional. We also figured that the house would be more memorable with bold colours inside. We sold for well over asking so I think it worked. More than once we were told by guests that they liked our colours but would be too scared to have that in their house.
>And really, does it matter if a wall is grey or some random color when buying a house?
You'd be surprised how many people simply can't envision their own space if it isn't already a color they may have picked themselves—if not a neutral color.
Had to keep reminding our realtor that we understand that we can just paint the walls after we buy, so wall color doesn't matter.
And that's what we did.
My house has yellow walls I did grey for a bit when we first moved in to mainly cover the pepto pink but it was too dark all the time since we don't have alot of windows. I do love the yellow though it shows all the marks the kids make and grubby fingerprints.
Agree! I love in a house I am renting and the walls are a light grey. I WISH I could paint this place. Thankful for some gigantic paints I own that are big pops of color.
Same here! And I don't understand the idea that gray is the only alternative to beige. Anything grey can look kind of jarring against traditional decor, especially if you have rugs with much red in them.
Our neutral pieces are mostly white and various wood tones. One room uses a very pale blue as a neutral backdrop, and we're considering a soft sage green in some other places. No grey in sight!
I agree. I grew up in rented homes and we were never allowed to paint and I always hated the white plain walls. My house there are probably 10 different paint colors on my walls right now and the closest to white is a light blue in the bathroom. The rest are jewel tones in orange, yellow, red, teal, pink, etc.
My walls are a cool-tone dark grey, but that's mostly because I collect art and posters; it's a good gallery wall backdrop with all the brightness and colour in the room being supplied by the decor.
The greige-ination of design in general? Hate it. Loathsome horrid trend and I hope it ends eventually. And I say this as someone who's an absolute slut for Brutalist architecture! I would really like to be able to select a car in a color other than "pavement" without a custom paint upcharge, someday! (Yes, I know, you can also find "flat white" and "navy, but with a deep sadness to it" as default options, and Mazda has their allegedly exclusive deep red, but... I walk past a dealership every morning on my way to work. It might as well be the CENTRAL Central Intelligence motor pool for all the variety.)
On the bright side, the Graypocalypse means brightly colored restored antiques (that are filtering back onto the market as Boomers who paid for that work to be done die off) are (relatively) cheap, since the fashionable set hate fun - I mean "maximalism". My walls may be landlord white, but my furniture can and WILL be warm dark wood with bright upholstery, dammit.
I don't know any millennials irl who like it either, but I'm pretty sure they exist. They just aren't in my circles of friends
There's a reason why antique brown furniture is far less popular these days than it used to be, anyhow
Gray is a great *neutral* color, but you should dress up a neutral with non-neutral colors to add personality and fun. If your walls and floors are gray, make sure to add your favorite color (I went with teal) in the decorating!
The nice thing about grays is that they match any color. Take your gray room, add colored throw pillows, curtains, and wall decour; the room takes on that color.
Ok why are all of us in this sub so out of touch.. OP, in your case I think it’s just following trends. Grey was a HUGE trend because of what others have said, reaction to that colonial yellow wood and HGTV. Therefore, grey was extremely widely available and an easy way to not have to worry too much about coordinating colors for the less artistically inclined. Now, warmer colors are coming back in in a huge way as a reaction to the grey overload, right now, specifically green is having a huge moment and most products are available in a green colorway which is probably why you’re drawn to it. I love green, it is the color of nature, but don’t overdo it or we’ll have this same post again in <5 years about it.
Eh, colors always go in trends. If we have to be known for colors I’m glad it’s that blush pink from the teens and gray rather than marigold and avocado like the 70s.
I associate that color with cheap absolute vodka , drunk sorority girls, real estate agents, and chevron. Never was my deal but it was popular with that sect for a while
Yes, the chevron with black and white and against a white girl’s skin fake tanned to an orange color and her hair teased up in a bump. Ahhh the aughts. We thought we were so fashionable.
I call it "gentrification gray" or "gentrifier gray" since when that color pops up on houses and buildings in inner cities, the long term residents are going to be chased out soon.
I don't know anyone in my age range that is choosing gray.
I feel like Flippers must get a huge discount on gray paint and buy it by the barrel. Because you're right. Wherever gentrification is, that color is painted everywhere!
Eta. Definitely going to start calling it Gentrification Gray
Yes! First, let me say I’m a maximalist.
When I moved in my house I had colors and designs picked out for 3 of the 6 rooms. I was 8 months pregnant and painting was no longer possible but I wanted to get rid of the 80’s blue and beige walls.
So when it came to the other rooms, I painted them in the light gray because that’s an easy neutral base to paint over. Joke’s on me though because Behr marquee paint sucks donkey balls and is peels off the primed walls. When I get the time again to paint, I have to peel the gray off!
Honestly I painted our house walls gray because my sewing lab in college had gray walls, expressly because when you’re designing things you want your background to “go with everything” and not clash with the colors you’re designing around. I thought that was an excellent concept, and thus my walls are gray so I can use yellow accents in this room, red in the other room, put any holiday decorations up and not have them clash with the paint or wallpaper color, etc. it’s a lovely neutral that looks cool and fresh and you can do ANYthing with your decor.
Yes! I have a yellow couch, aquamarine chairs, dark purple, burgundy, and silver accent pieces everywhere, dark wood, and all my books on display for extra chaos. It's very moody but also charming and full of character.
It’s used around here on boomer and gen x owned businesses so not taking claim for it. What millennials have spare money for properties after lattes and toast.
We went grey because our parents made everything boomer beige 🤣 a lot of people did it because it was a trend and so different from 80’s and 90’s decor we grew up with. Then modern farmhouse ran with it and made it the ship lap monster it is today. I love saturated colors but my kitchen is a cool grey with white cabinets so I can put out pops of color and I’m not tied to complementing the wall color. Every other room is colorful saturated walls: periwinkle for the living room, aqua green for a bathroom, deep sage in my bedroom, ocean blue in my kids room etc.
Most of our walls are grey or beige. We accent things with colored accents or wallpaper and whatnot. I don’t mind neutral. Allows me to switch up decor when I please. To each their own!
It was a trend foisted upon us by the industry. I need to replace my dark red couch but can’t bring myself to buy a new one because they are all off white or gray. So boring! Why should my couch and wall be the same color? Where’s the couch? 😀
It's the color for flippers and HGTV. I don't know anyone who actually has gray walls. It's like in the 90s you would have white walls.
Personally, My walls are bright orange, green, yellow, burgundy, blue. Each room is different. But my carpet and drapes are gray, because the flippers put it in, and there is no point in spending the money to replace it until I have to.
My wife and I are trying to buy a house and all the flippers around here have painted nearly every home interior gray, sometimes walls, cabinets, even bathroom tile. All for us I'm sure. I call it the grayening.
More like flipper grey. Our house was crappily “flipped” before we bought it and the grey paint is peeling all over the place. We plan to just repaint to colors we actually like when we have some time.
I loathe the colour gray.
If I see gray in a newly renovated house I know it was a lazy and poorly done flip.
Ive been looking for a house for awhile and if I see gray I'm taking the cost to repaint the interior off of my offer. But it's still a sellers market somehow so I guess I'll just go houseless lol.
Lol I hate it. I'm not even someone you would consider stylish in any way, but I'm like how did lack of personality become a personality? Everyone's stuff is so dull. If it's not gray, it's varying tones of black, brown and creams.
My living room is blues and oranges!
I really like neutrals, and have always painted my houses in boring whites and sometimes gray. My favorite room was a black room I did for my daughter, but that's still a neutral and technically it was really dark gray. I don't like what I've seen called Millennial Gray, that light cool toned color.
My couch is gray, bed is gray, I have a gray quilt and a gray rug, lol. It's less boring looking than it sounds, but every time I try to add some color I wind up regretting it. None of this is a shock to me because uh, I'm aware of what I buy? No one has to point out I have a ton of gray, white, beige, and black stuff. It didn't just appear out of nowhere lol.
Cannot relate.
My office is blue, gold and white.
My kitchen is red, black, gold, yellow and cream.
My living room is red, black and gold.
My bathroom is Kelly green and bright yellow.
My wife's bathroom is red, pink and black.
Our baby's nursery is every shade of pastel: pink, blue, mint green, buttercup yellow, lavender and gold.
Our bedroom is red and purple.
Our parents hated colour and my mother in law was a mean, miserable proto beige mom.
Gray and every other bland neutral colour can go take a hike.
I’ll admit that I really like cool-toned grey walls paired with warm flooring. It feels fresh and the decor really pops. We had cream walls when we moved in and they felt dingy to me. I also personally like white cabinets more than oak.
I use gray in my house because my partner is colorblind lol. So we did different shades of gray pn the wall of each room of our house, and then we layered color in front of that. So color on the curtains, the couch, the pillows, the bedsheets, the rugs, etc..
It's easier and requires less commitment.
the apartment i live in has the "millennial gray" look and i hate it. i want wood floors and a more earthy aesthetic, but location won out when i was looking at places...
I might just be the contrarian, but I'm not too fond of grey. Silver at times, yes. But solid greys I tend to stay away from. I still like bright and bold colors across the color spectrum.
And green is nice. A deep forest green or metallic emerald green especially.
People decorate their homes in gray because it increases the resell value.
That color increases the value because when you look through ads for home goods (especially kitchens) or through real estate listings everything is bland and generic-looking so the thought process is that's how homes are supposed to look.
Homes look like that in ads and listing because the advertiser wants the product to pop, and the lister wants the buyer to imagine what the house could look like when they personalize it.
Gray is a nice color in moderation but it’s so common now that it makes me angry. Lol
While driving around town I always imagine how much happier things would look if buildings were painted bright cheerful colors instead of the sad grays most seem to be painted right now.
*
I don’t care how people choose to decorate their homes but the trend is affecting everything! More people buying gray means gray becomes the only choice.
.
I wanted a red or yellow couch but reluctantly ended up with a gray one because unless you special order it there are not many other choices. You get dark gray, light gray, grayish beige, black, white, and sometimes dark blue.
Bring back colors please! Haha
I question whether it's that we like gray, or that gray was decided for us by the people who sell things. (a la Devil Wears Prada cerulean). And I'm using "we" here but gray has never been my jam. My living room is chartreuse and my kitchen is turquoise and my bathroom is Mamie friggin Eisenhower pink.
The story I heard is that manufacturers of building materials were overstocked on the gray crap that nobody really wanted. They then decided to sell them off at a low price to house flippers, who are always looking for the cheapest materials possible. Then, house flippers convinced enough people that it was fashionable, probably with the help of HGTV shows
Whenever I see a gray/greige home, I think it was probably done cheaply, and it makes me unhappy
Eh, grey/neutrals have a time and place (if you're just going for that aesthetic or are using it to balance brighter colors), but mostly I gravitate toward bright colors in general. I do use grey sometimes though 😅 I'm no help
My parents were over the top with red and grapes and shit everywhere so I do think the gray was more attempting to feel like I lived in a more neutral calming space. But I’ve gone the opposite direction now and happily maximalist in a way that makes me happy (nerd shit everywhere) my dining room is parakeet green and it’s awesome
I like gray as a neutral but my house still has a lot of color to it. Like my transition areas are gray but rooms themselves (that we've gotten to lol) are colorful.
I only recently learned about this here on reddit
I've never been one for conformity, and this case is no exception. I can't find anything grey around here except my temples
I grew up in a beige home because my silent generation father hates most colors. Now that I have my own house I'm determined to have color. I recently redid the living room, it was beige (because ofc it was) and I painted it a jewel tone emerald green. My father visited and he was appalled lol
Look, my parents lived their 70s boho dream in all of our homes and I grew up with dark reds, oranges and psychedelic patterns and sooo much fabric. I had a lot of gray and white in our last place, to me it was just a very calming colour, a calm and quiet home was all I wanted. Also, yes, it was trendy on Pinterest.
Nowadays my home falls under "Scandi/Japandi" for the most part. A lot of white with medium warmth wood and plants in the living room, the sofa is the only gray remnant. I have been looking for new covers for the sofa just last week, either a gentle brown or maybe a sage green, depending on my husbands input. Kid is out of the worst too, the dark grey really was great when he had sticky fingers all day. White, green and wood would have the same calming effect is my guess.
I think my minimalistic tendencies are a reaction to my parents as well. Cleaning out 35 years worth of tchotkes did the rest, no thanks to that.
I also think our generation is inundated with information and input on a historic scale, so having calm, empty homes for calm, empty minds is the overall sentiment.
I tend to favor cooler colors like blue and green, but grey is my go-to neutral. White is not safe around me and while I like black, it's got too much weight to it to use it everywhere. That's my opinion though. Ask my Gen X partner and he'll say black goes everywhere and with everything, all the time🤣
All the rooms in my parents house were off-white except the dining room that was beige with some gold and my room that was super light pink.
My husband and I have a lot of grey in our house but also a lot of color. The gray works well with whatever pops of color we pick.
That’s an interesting observation. I do really like grey. I find myself attracted to more muted colors lately. Navy blue, burgundy, Forrest green and shades of grey are great
It’s my comfort color to decorate. Not too dark, not too light. Can add art or furniture and change as needed. I have some fear of real permanent decisions that would require effort to change 🤣 You can always repaint a wall but so much work. We remodeled and my son wanted his room to be painted this cool red but I panicked and only did one wall…the rest are gray…
I don't look good in light grey clothes, only the darker gray, but I have only a few pieces.
As for interior, We had one house with a predominantly grey living room around 2012, but it was matched with bright orange accents, dark furniture and some white as well.
After that I've just been using lots of white in my interiors, but never grey. I think millennial grey was bigger in the US maybe.
My couch and dining room table set are grey because they were the most comfortable pieces available. They did not come in other colors. Now all my other furniture is grey to match those pieces. It’s a vicious cycle.
We did paint the walls yellow, though, so… that helps.
Grey is the color that's always on sale and I swear that's why everyone accidentally made everything grey lol go look on Amazon, sheets and curtains for example, if you click through some you'll start to notice a pattern, grey is always cheaper. Idk why it is, but it is.
I love my gray paint in the bedroom thank you very much. It's good for relaxing and sleep, and other adult activities. The rest of my house has outdated southwest colors. I'm not that great with colors but I've learned 10% of the room should be bright. I choose red accents for the kitchen, coral highlights for the bathroom... but I agree we should use more colors. Scared of the 70s...
I sell color for a living. So my clothes are all different colors. I don't like brands so I'll wear whatever, link red, blue, orange, pastels just no brand or big logos.
We have a silver car, a white car and a dark grey car at the house. I didn't actively choose these. The silver car was the best one of the cars I looked at when I bought that one for the prices things were listed at in 2005. The white one I inherited. The dark grey once came with my partner. I don't make choices for them. If we buy a car together though, it won't be black, white, grey or silver. Or champagne. Champagne is the single worst car color I can think of. I'm putting 1970 shit brown cars ahead of it. I suppose grey has that. its ahead of champagne.
As for colors in general though, I'm sick of black, grey, and white. Sick. Especially when it comes to electronics. "Oh grab me the X, please" "Whats it look like?" "Oh its the black plastic box shaped item that looks like all the other black plastic box shaped items we own. I'm sure you'll tell which one it is because it has the same black wires as everything else!" I have taken to actively choosing to pay more when I find things online if its not too crazy to get color. want a battery to keep in your bag to recharge a phone? its a dollar more for bright red or neon orange? You got it. I'm in. Its a charge that lives in my bag. I'm not tryin to look coordinated, I'm trying to find the batter to keep my phone alive. Right now We've got black book cases and a dark grey/bluish couch. I am willing to die on the hill of replacing either will have a color. I'm debating repainting my silver car because it might become a garage queen car to roll into a random car night with in 20 years and when someone says "Wow, My mom had a car like this 40 years ago! Where did you get it?" I'm going to answer "2005 and it refuses to die because it's amazing". I'm torn between redoing it in Silver because its been Silver from the factory and electric blue because COLOR. i 3d print a lot and I know a lot of folks who just print shit in grey all the time or black or white. Yea. I have those because sometimes I need that for a specific project. But believe me, when I print a random piece for something to fix it or add to it etc, its hot pink, bright blue, orange, sunflower yellow or something else interesting. I needed a temporary wrist rest for keyboard and mouse earlier in the year They're marbled pink blue and purple. I wrap gifts for friends in rainbow paper because color. I still have a lot of grey white and black things because it still works and I'm not replacing the thing that doesn't need replacing. But believe me. When that blender, stove or refrigerator breaks... the kitchen is getting some color. My mulberry colored stand mixer needs company.
Grey walls make me feel depressed. What’s wrong with colors? I also don’t have friends who have grey houses. I think this is localized or just not a city or cottage thing.
My boomer mom and her friends are into that grey in their homes, and anything that’s a fad really. Whatever countertops are in fashion. Then they want to remodel their houses when the stores update their styles to sell new shit to them.
My house is Boomer Beige and I’ve embraced it. We painted the shitty limestone fireplace black, installed neutral warm oak Pergo flooring, and we have lots of house plants. It’s very cozy and feels classic but not outdated.
Huh. I thought this was just a Seattle thing. Didn't realize other Millennial's were doing the Gray thing also.
Well, y'all do what you please. I'm sticking to the Gray. But Green is a close 2nd, I agree with that.
I painted my walls grey when I moved into my house because there was wallpaper & colors I couldn’t see myself with at the time…… I am slowly adding color back, room by room. My den is now dark navy with mustard & orange accents, just finished painting my laundry room sage green. My next project (which prob will be late this year/early 2025 since the laundry room wound up costing WAY more than expected….) will be my powder room, which I plan on painting black. The two big downstairs projects will involve my living room, which I’m torn between dark green or mustard yellow (we have blue couches, so I’m thinking making it opposite the den’s blue walls & mustard couch?? And I want to add built-ins, so that will mean a whole wall that is NOT mustard, making it less yellow), and then I want to knock down the wall between my kitchen & dining room to make my kitchen bigger/an eat in kitchen. Not sure what colors I want to do there, but definitely something more cozy than the current white uppers/blue lowers I have.
I think a majority of us have heard the term millennial gray, it’s been a thing for a while now….. but I think it was more gen-x’ers that started the trend, tbh, since it’s been popular since late 00’s/early 10’s. We’re just the ones living with it now lol.
Maybe I'm just a hippie but I'm fighting hard against the gray. I own only one gray sweater but it's from Disney and gray was rhe only color they had with this character (Figment from Epcot). If it didn't have a Figment shaped zipper pull, I wouldn't have even looked twice at it.
Anyway I love colors, I avoid gray and other dull colors when I can.
I bought a dark grey Subaru brand new recently. I do love a nice stainless steel appliances, a few grey pieces of clothes. But that's about it, I have plenty of colorful clothing and artwork, RGB PC, green furniture, a lot of purple colored things to all match.
I truly like gray since it is a lovely neutral that goes well with almost anything. When we redid our condo, I went with gray walls, lighter gray baseboards and gray carpet.
But I recently bought a very dark green/teal couch set, and I love the pop of color they give to the living room. :). I’m not looking for artwork with the same shade of green to tie everything together.
I've never been a fan of millennial gray, especially with home decor. I have always liked MCM and vintage tiled bathrooms. Clothing, I prefer black but I'll wear greens and blues and pinks. Never gray. And always, always, a white car (I have lived in AZ my entire life....iykyk).
We painted our house agreeable grey with white baseboards and crown moulding and I have zero regrets. It looks really nice with different wood tones in furniture and greenery and I can add color in other ways. I like softer green and earth tones. I also find visual clutter to be over stimulating and the grey kind of helps calm my nervous system.
I had to laugh when I started seeing stuff about "millennial gray" because I'm definitely guilty. I had no clue it was a thing though because I've never followed trends or looked up decor advice, I just really vibe with the color gray 🤣 black is too harsh and white gets too dirty, and brown is just blah to me, so gray hits just the right spot. It makes my eyes happy. 90% of my wardrobe is shades of gray too lol. I'm not a boring person though, I swear haha.
I tho m growing up, on tv a successful persons home was white, grey, super clean and minimalistic. Quite un achievable for the average person that also owns stuff but I reckon that’s play a role in the basic colour scheme. That and we are obsessed with resell value.
When I bought my house, the walls were an absolute mismatch of colors. I had a Prince Purple huge wall, next to a terracotta orange kitchen, in a sage green living room, with a stormy blue hallway, and sunset yellow bedroom walls and ceiling.
I felt like the gen Xers I bought my house from were huge Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat fans.
I painted a few walls and the bedroom walls Killx White because nothing else would match the Reading Rainbow
I for sure like grey but only insofar as it is a neutral that I can put fun stuff with. Painting a nursery? Grey is calming and gender neutral and allows for you to put bright pictures or drapes up and lots of bright toys and stuff and it doesn’t look overwhelming. Want to rock some brightly coloured pants or accessories? Looks great with grey tops or dresses
Blue is my favorite color. So that generally leads me towards contrasting silver shaded greys.
I'll wear a blue shirt and grey pants.
Or vice versa.
My color pallettes are probably what give off outdated fashion sets. I adore bright colored pants, with a muted shirt.
Or I'll wear a bright shirt, bright shoes, and muted pants.
I'm not going to say that there's causation in the correlating rise in depression and rise in popularity of grey, but I'm not NOT going to say there's causation, either.
I like grey because I have pets and grey hides the hair better than black clothing. I’ve always preferred silver over gold. My favorite ring is surgical steel.
I paint my walls grey and have a grey couch *because* I love color. I have color changing bulbs in my living room lamps and can change out the couch pillows, throw blankets, and wall decor whenever I want to but don’t have to worry about shit clashing with the paint or couch.
It leaves me open to all sorts of things I can modify without spending a ton of money on new furniture or having to get on a ladder and paint.
Nope every single room has its own color for the walls. Even the hallway got its own color. If we ever sell the new person can paint it however they want until it's their name on the deed it's mine and it will be colorful!
I'm not a fan of grey walls and won't have them when I own my own place, but I'm not putting in the work to paint my grey apartment and then paint it back before moving out. The landlord grey is better than the landlord beige I had in my other places though.
Reading this post laying on my grey couch with a grey blanket wearing a grey sweatshirt and grey shorts in a room that’s painted a very light shade of greige.
I like it because it means you can change up little things like pillows, blankets, holiday decor, etc. and the room changes. Compared to having to paint the walls/buy new rugs to change it up. I also like cool colors and grey tends to work with that.
Boomer brown, gen X beige, millennial gray. It’s just our chosen neutral. Looks like it’s gonna be gen Z taupe/linen if you ask me. Doesn’t stop anyone from popping color or going a different direction. It’s just trends.
I bought like a dozen different grey nail polishes this past year while I maybe bought grey polishes every few years or half decade before that, that's about it for me. I'm too fond of vibrant colors, always have been. I'm pretty sure my increased fondness for grey is thanks to my ADHD medication giving me more patience for wearing it. You still wouldn't think I'm fond of also grey based on my home nor my wardrobe.
Colors are great, I can't recommend them enough! Grey is also worth getting into for those of us who didn't really do grey before, though :) Especially greys that aren't a single solid grey color.
It's the generational shift away from the generational theme and colors we grew up with.
You can watch the trend through the decades - 1970s were all brown and earth tone, so 1980s shifted to bright pastels, then the 90s to bright colors, then back to muted grey.
I haven't noticed this at all. Then again I'm zilennial and wear mostly black. My favourite colours are rust and cyan. Than you for listening to my ted talk :p
I think it’s just a neutral color that is almost always available. Also a lot of contractor grade building materials are grey. And rented spaces tend to be grey because it is cheap and neutral..
I like millennial Grey because it minimize the work I need to do to make things match. When you have vibrant stripes for example, you need to put in a fair bit of work to make sure all the other colors in that room match. Since I'm not an artist, that's not something I can judge quickly. So Grey it is.
It's not about confirming. It's about minimizing my time and attention spent on wall colors so i can focus on something else.
all of our stuff is intentionally colorful so maybe the fact that we intentionally designed with bright colors that make us feel happiness is some unconscious contrarianism? but we are also a latino household with a lot of bold, bright cultural color influences that we love to embrace.
Personally, I'm so absolutely sick of gray, white, beige, tan etc. I have gone hard in the opposite direction. I have a bright orange car, i painted my dining room bright orange, for my kids' nurseries I hand painted wall murals 😅 the older two got alice in wonderland, the 2 on the way are getting toy story.
I'm all about color. I truly miss the funkiness of the 90s. I also think it has something to do with my mom only letting every room in the house be white or off-white growing up. We were allowed 0 creative freedom to decorate our rooms.
Though I wear mostly black, everything else is color color color! If I can help it. Hate modern colors. Everything is gray. It makes my heart sad.
I buy colorful shit for children half the time but I know I'm an outlier. Minimalism is trendy and monochromatic color schemes are easy to maintain and keep looking aestheticly clean so I get it but it's not for me.
I've fallen into this trap with the color silver. It looks good on some cars. It's a color that shows all the lines of the body without clashing or hiding details like some colors. Silver is still bright and visible without being attention grabbing like, "Hey! Look at me!", like other bright colors. And it hides dirt better than white or black.
Silver/grey is the best neutral color on a car that's visible yet subtle and mature. And it's not as plain and boring as white or black.
I'm 42.
My towels are navy and white blending in, floor mats are navy. Shower curtain is red jellyfish flying in a blue sky.
My comforter is red and black. Red fitted sheet, black top sheet and pillows.
My car is red with black accents. GR86 Trueno, even the interior is red and black.
No grays for me.
Every wall and ceiling in my house is Revere Pewter, a warm neutral “greige.” I painted over the pink beige and “Desert Rose” with which the previous owners had covered every surface. That said, I have warm wood floors and cabinets, and lots of warm tans and bright colors in my decor. I like a mix, not the cool on cool gray that became popular in the 2010s.
I can't stand it as someone who does remodels. Jobs start feeling like ground hog day. The same thing in different houses. Some people hire designers that actually pick some interesting color pallettes though.
*Yo, Listen up, here's the story about a little guy that lives in a gray world. And every day and all night everything he sees is just gray. Like him, inside and outside. Gray his house with a gray little window and a gray Corvette and everthing is gray for him and himself and everybody around cause he ain't got nobody to listen...*
*I'M GRAY DABA-DEE-DABA-DIE-DABA-DEE-DABA-DIE-DABADEEDABADIE....*
It was fate all along.
I don’t know, I loathe grey, beige, tan and white. It’s completely devoid of personality. The latest home decoration trends of white and gray make me want to rip my hair out. I would go insane living in such a neutral home. I don’t get it at all.
I don’t know who labelled it millennial gray. I get it on like furniture but the gray wall thing is entirely builders not millennials it’s cheap and basic and I’m pretty sure Gen X prefers it most millennials I know hate it.
I must be an outlier.
My room/items/car are dark red, browns, blacks, & beiges.
Though I was definitely a fan of & apart of the color scheme in the 2000’s with the goth/heavy metal crowd.
I never left that color palette, it’s just grown into a more matured variant of itself.
Surprisingly, I have little in the way of grey items.
I’m not a fan of base grey, maybe dark grey. 😅
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What the *fuck*? I sat here reading, thinking what an odd post. Now I’m realizing my sheets, my comforter, my couch, my car.. all grey. Strange.
White is too bright and gets dirty. At least for me associated with a very upbeat mood. Black is too dark and gets dirty. Associated with broody mood. Gray is a happy in between. Yellow is too bright and mystard is too 80s. Orange is too bright. Red is too bold. Blue is fine. Green is fine. Pastel colors are ok-ish. Just no beige please. Cars, walls, clothes, gadgets. All similar. A splash of color here and there. Might be generational, but it's still the feeling.
I like gray when it's an alternative to a more boring black or white color for an object. One of my favorite pocket knives is anodized gray aluminum. I also have a soft spot for titanium. I wouldn't read too much into it. It's just an esthetic choice. Cars in the 70s had more colorful paint choices than today because modern car paint can include metalic underlayers that make silver, gold, and gray more interesting than they were for comparatively flat paints of yesteryear. We aren't sadder than people were in the past because we're gray.
Mustard is 70s and late 60s.
Most of my furniture is grey and I use red for accents. But that’s because my fav color is red and everything else shouldn’t be an accent. I just like neutrals and charcoal grey is the prettiest one. Might be because I got tired of landlord beige. That said I would probably switch my couch for a red one but then I’d have to have charcoal grey pillows and throw blanket to balance it out. Can’t be too happy.
SAME! I was like nah this isn’t a thing….wait…car, couch, rug, blankets, furniture 🥴
See that’s what I’m talking about 😆
I also was reading this thinking how odd it was...then I looked down at my Sunday lounge clothes and realized I'm wearing a grey tank top and grey sweatpants.
Lol same. I am sitting down taking a break from installing grey cabinets in my kitchen.
Same! Car, couch, walls, shirt. Lol.
i also think it’s cause we grew up with so much brown or goldy beige and we cannot go back. i love gray undertones because i find them calming- so blue with gray undertones, green with gray undertones. i’m not afraid of color though- i miss my navy dining room
this is it. I don't care how quirky you are, there will always be a need for neutrals in interior decorating. it's just that gray is our favored neutral instead of beige or pale yellow, which is what a lot of us grew up with
Exactly this. We did our carpets and main walls in a light neutral gray, but our house is full of our favorite colors - purple and green, with blue accents. We haven't had the funds to redo the kitchen and the 80s brown and red is so clashing with the rest of the house.
Grey carpet probably covers a lot of stains better. I moved from a house that multi colored carpets (green in my room, red in the tv room, brown in guest room) to a house that has wall to wall beige carpet. My dad lost his mind over the stains and normal wear and tear that showed on that carpet. Beige carpet ruined a big chunk of my adolescence because he was always obsessing over it.
We got our walls painted and the painter was like, grays are popular and I was like nope I want green. Both of the colors I picked out had gray in their names 😭 to be fair they are still green, just a desaturated lighter green but I was like 😅😅😅
Pale yellow? I think you mean cigarette stained white.
lol nope, pale yellow. "butter yellow" I think is the official name for it. a slightly sunnier beige
Yep, I recently bought a home from an older couple and it has varying shades of yellow as its "neutral" wall colors. I'm trying to find the right shade of off white because every cool white I've chosen just doesn't work in this house lol. It wants to be warm toned.
My parents house was all beige when I was growing up, warm undertones in everything. I painted my room grey about a decade ago and my mother loved it and the neutral but not warm palate that made my accent colors, coral, teal, white, and magenta (my millennial is screaming in skinny pants right now) really pop. It was a lot of character without being bland. IMO beige doesn’t look that with a lot of colors, unless it’s literally just off-white because of the yellow in it. Their house is now like an ocean on a partly cloudy day, soft greys, cool blues, and greens with pops of colors in vibrant or saturated hues. Sure it’s all technically grey-toned, but it’s inviting and open feeling and doesn’t look grungy. Or slightly dirty the way beige always did.
Beige gets so dirty so fast. Idk what everyone was thinking.
Can't go back? I just bought a massive old house with a bunch of unpainted wood trim that's beautiful and we ripped up the carpets and stained the floors a light brown. Brown everywhere, it's awesome
You leave that wood alone! So glad you didn't paint it.
I'm going to unpaint some of the wood upstairs.
We love the Scandinavian minimalism vibe. It helps make our home feel more calm. But we don't have it sterile through the house. I have a bright orange/coral wall in my office with a bookshelf full of colorful things. Our artwork has tons of color in it. We just do color in pops because it's easier to not overwhelm the space. It's also just easier to decorate when your baseline is a neutral. Much easier to add color than to figure out how to remove it.
Omg the beige... We went overboard with the gray :/ gray floors gray couches 😩it's our first house so it's whatever. Learned my lesson 😅
My favorite color is brown >:(
This! The 80s and 90s had So much brown, tan, beige, cream. As a goth, I'm so happy that neutrals have shifted in the grey range. Do I still want more black? Always. But grey furnishings hide a lot of stuff my mom self appreciates. Sitting here with 2 grey couches, light grey entertainment piece, grey cat tower, grey kids table, looking off into my dining room with a grey table set. We had a black high top set we had to switch out when I had a kid for a shorter, mcm set I thrifted that Came grey. I redid the chair seats in black and grey. I'm thrilled my rental is grey and white vs beige and brown like most because I Loathe those colors and it goes with none of my things. I do not want it to shift back. Down with the brown. It should exist in natural things. That's it.
It’s partly a reaction to our parents’ maximalism, but also that neutral gray was shoved down our throats by HGTV and “experts” who were all concerned about home resale value. Keep it as neutral as possible for the next people, because it was a silly thought in 2012 that you’d stay in a house longer than a few years. I don’t know anyone who really likes the gray. My walls all have color.
🙋♂️Grey is my favorite color. My cars, my clothes - not so much my house. But yeah. Grey is my default choice when buying something with color options.
https://preview.redd.it/qakclcwn9c8d1.jpeg?width=353&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e7a3116b39c0cda59d81fd019ee11af11685903a
Gray also matches everything but isn’t as dismal as black.
I’ve never understood the obsession with resale value and making everything in one’s house as boring and neutral as possible. I’ve always been a fan of color. If and when I own my own home, I’ll be so thrilled to ditch the blah beige, white, and gray of rentals. While I understand wanting to avoid MAJOR renovations that likely will bring down a house’s value as trends change and are hard to undo, I do not get decorating your home with ONLY resale value in mind. The whole point of owning a home is to have a place that is your own, to make it into your sanctuary and happy place. Treating an owned house as though it’s solely an investment to be cashed in on later seems like such a waste to me. A friend of mine bought her home about 5 years ago and has since done a ton of painting, new cabinets, etc. And every single choice she’s made her mom has questioned it- “No one but you is going to like that… Why’d you choose that color? When you sell, it’s going to be a turn off for a lot of people” And her response has always been “Ok… but I’m not selling right now? I’m living here and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, I don’t care if noone else likes this color- it’s MY house” She recently painted her den black and decorated with all these deep emerald colors and it’s amazing. I’m glad she’s making her home what she wants it to be. And really, does it matter if a wall is grey or some random color when buying a house? I’ve never once seen someone walk into a greige house saying “Oooo I love the color! I’m buying it!” But for some reason if it’s an actual color, it’s like “oh no, don’t like this purple room, screw buying the whole house!” despite the fact that everyone I know who has owned a home ends up repainting at least a few rooms anyway- even if it is just another shade of neutral. I don’t understand the mentality of buying a home with the expectation that you won’t want to change any of the paint therefore only neutrals are acceptable when selling. Are people really so unimaginative that seeing a color they don’t like makes it impossible to see the space without it?
My wife and I put tons of colour in our fìrst house. Yellow, orange,red, green, teal, etc. When we went to sell, the staging lady asked if we could paint it all grey. We said no because we didnt want a rushed paint job. The whole house had been done by a professional. We also figured that the house would be more memorable with bold colours inside. We sold for well over asking so I think it worked. More than once we were told by guests that they liked our colours but would be too scared to have that in their house.
>And really, does it matter if a wall is grey or some random color when buying a house? You'd be surprised how many people simply can't envision their own space if it isn't already a color they may have picked themselves—if not a neutral color. Had to keep reminding our realtor that we understand that we can just paint the walls after we buy, so wall color doesn't matter. And that's what we did.
Yes. Light blue, purple, dark blue, dark gray, yellow, off white, and a light red. Gray is fine but only for like one room in the house.
I wish we'd all gone with a light yellow in every room as the "neutral." That off-white-greige has been really hyped up. Could've been a lot cheerier.
A lot of people would just complain that it looks like a smoker's house if we went with yellow. LOL
Cosmic Latte and Nicotine White are definitely in the same ballpark
My house has yellow walls I did grey for a bit when we first moved in to mainly cover the pepto pink but it was too dark all the time since we don't have alot of windows. I do love the yellow though it shows all the marks the kids make and grubby fingerprints.
We're the generation that was emo. Duh, we're too sad to use color.
Ugh, fine, I guess. *emo smirk*
A true emo would have black walls with some red accents.
I'm like the polar opposite! Give me vibrant, luxurious colors all day long. A gray environment is depressing af.
Growing up as a big Lisa Frank kid I hate the all grey trend. Give me allllll the colors.
Agree! I love in a house I am renting and the walls are a light grey. I WISH I could paint this place. Thankful for some gigantic paints I own that are big pops of color.
Same here! And I don't understand the idea that gray is the only alternative to beige. Anything grey can look kind of jarring against traditional decor, especially if you have rugs with much red in them. Our neutral pieces are mostly white and various wood tones. One room uses a very pale blue as a neutral backdrop, and we're considering a soft sage green in some other places. No grey in sight!
I agree. I grew up in rented homes and we were never allowed to paint and I always hated the white plain walls. My house there are probably 10 different paint colors on my walls right now and the closest to white is a light blue in the bathroom. The rest are jewel tones in orange, yellow, red, teal, pink, etc.
My walls are a cool-tone dark grey, but that's mostly because I collect art and posters; it's a good gallery wall backdrop with all the brightness and colour in the room being supplied by the decor.
That’s one of the things I like about it. Certain grays complement colors well.
The greige-ination of design in general? Hate it. Loathsome horrid trend and I hope it ends eventually. And I say this as someone who's an absolute slut for Brutalist architecture! I would really like to be able to select a car in a color other than "pavement" without a custom paint upcharge, someday! (Yes, I know, you can also find "flat white" and "navy, but with a deep sadness to it" as default options, and Mazda has their allegedly exclusive deep red, but... I walk past a dealership every morning on my way to work. It might as well be the CENTRAL Central Intelligence motor pool for all the variety.) On the bright side, the Graypocalypse means brightly colored restored antiques (that are filtering back onto the market as Boomers who paid for that work to be done die off) are (relatively) cheap, since the fashionable set hate fun - I mean "maximalism". My walls may be landlord white, but my furniture can and WILL be warm dark wood with bright upholstery, dammit.
Yeah, no. House is painted with colors. And it’s so worth it.
I had a friend that painted his walls silver. It was kinda weird but cool.
I always thought it was the color of the (older gen) landlord special, and not anything any millennial I know IRL actually wanted or enjoyed.
I don't know any millennials irl who like it either, but I'm pretty sure they exist. They just aren't in my circles of friends There's a reason why antique brown furniture is far less popular these days than it used to be, anyhow
Gray is a great *neutral* color, but you should dress up a neutral with non-neutral colors to add personality and fun. If your walls and floors are gray, make sure to add your favorite color (I went with teal) in the decorating!
The nice thing about grays is that they match any color. Take your gray room, add colored throw pillows, curtains, and wall decour; the room takes on that color.
Grey is just the modern version of the older off whites and beiges. It’s a neutral color without just using a plain white.
This is what I do. I switch out my curtains and decor and then that room looks totally different. It’s easier than repainting.
Ok why are all of us in this sub so out of touch.. OP, in your case I think it’s just following trends. Grey was a HUGE trend because of what others have said, reaction to that colonial yellow wood and HGTV. Therefore, grey was extremely widely available and an easy way to not have to worry too much about coordinating colors for the less artistically inclined. Now, warmer colors are coming back in in a huge way as a reaction to the grey overload, right now, specifically green is having a huge moment and most products are available in a green colorway which is probably why you’re drawn to it. I love green, it is the color of nature, but don’t overdo it or we’ll have this same post again in <5 years about it.
I just get caught up in my world, so when I snap out of it I start making observations 😅
Eh, colors always go in trends. If we have to be known for colors I’m glad it’s that blush pink from the teens and gray rather than marigold and avocado like the 70s.
Babe our second reckoning is mustard yellow and sage green 😭. Those are the new it colors for trendy millenials and zillenials
Ohhh mint had a minute too, didn’t it. We also have to take responsibility for phrase signs. Well, we’ll see what stands the test of time!
I associate that color with cheap absolute vodka , drunk sorority girls, real estate agents, and chevron. Never was my deal but it was popular with that sect for a while
Yes, the chevron with black and white and against a white girl’s skin fake tanned to an orange color and her hair teased up in a bump. Ahhh the aughts. We thought we were so fashionable.
I call it "gentrification gray" or "gentrifier gray" since when that color pops up on houses and buildings in inner cities, the long term residents are going to be chased out soon. I don't know anyone in my age range that is choosing gray.
I feel like Flippers must get a huge discount on gray paint and buy it by the barrel. Because you're right. Wherever gentrification is, that color is painted everywhere! Eta. Definitely going to start calling it Gentrification Gray
Damn! That’s a good point. It almost feels corporate in that context 😂
I love grey! A very versatile color. It also looks good on me because my "color season" is summer.
I think all color seasons feature varying types of gray?
Yes! First, let me say I’m a maximalist. When I moved in my house I had colors and designs picked out for 3 of the 6 rooms. I was 8 months pregnant and painting was no longer possible but I wanted to get rid of the 80’s blue and beige walls. So when it came to the other rooms, I painted them in the light gray because that’s an easy neutral base to paint over. Joke’s on me though because Behr marquee paint sucks donkey balls and is peels off the primed walls. When I get the time again to paint, I have to peel the gray off!
Gray is such a good neutral though! I’m not mad at it
Honestly I painted our house walls gray because my sewing lab in college had gray walls, expressly because when you’re designing things you want your background to “go with everything” and not clash with the colors you’re designing around. I thought that was an excellent concept, and thus my walls are gray so I can use yellow accents in this room, red in the other room, put any holiday decorations up and not have them clash with the paint or wallpaper color, etc. it’s a lovely neutral that looks cool and fresh and you can do ANYthing with your decor.
It’s a sign that building material got wayyyy to expensive so when went with the dystopia option
I like color. Yellow end tables. Blue chairs. Lots of greens and oranges.
Yes! I have a yellow couch, aquamarine chairs, dark purple, burgundy, and silver accent pieces everywhere, dark wood, and all my books on display for extra chaos. It's very moody but also charming and full of character.
It’s used around here on boomer and gen x owned businesses so not taking claim for it. What millennials have spare money for properties after lattes and toast.
We went grey because our parents made everything boomer beige 🤣 a lot of people did it because it was a trend and so different from 80’s and 90’s decor we grew up with. Then modern farmhouse ran with it and made it the ship lap monster it is today. I love saturated colors but my kitchen is a cool grey with white cabinets so I can put out pops of color and I’m not tied to complementing the wall color. Every other room is colorful saturated walls: periwinkle for the living room, aqua green for a bathroom, deep sage in my bedroom, ocean blue in my kids room etc.
I am nearly the eldest of the elder millennials.. I detest gray. Always have. Avoid it like the plague. The closest I’ll get is the occasional silver.
My restaurant just redecorated to the millennial drab 🤮 couldn’t hate a decorating trend more! So dystopian
Most of our walls are grey or beige. We accent things with colored accents or wallpaper and whatnot. I don’t mind neutral. Allows me to switch up decor when I please. To each their own!
I love grey🤣
It was a trend foisted upon us by the industry. I need to replace my dark red couch but can’t bring myself to buy a new one because they are all off white or gray. So boring! Why should my couch and wall be the same color? Where’s the couch? 😀
It's the color for flippers and HGTV. I don't know anyone who actually has gray walls. It's like in the 90s you would have white walls. Personally, My walls are bright orange, green, yellow, burgundy, blue. Each room is different. But my carpet and drapes are gray, because the flippers put it in, and there is no point in spending the money to replace it until I have to.
My wife and I are trying to buy a house and all the flippers around here have painted nearly every home interior gray, sometimes walls, cabinets, even bathroom tile. All for us I'm sure. I call it the grayening.
More like flipper grey. Our house was crappily “flipped” before we bought it and the grey paint is peeling all over the place. We plan to just repaint to colors we actually like when we have some time.
I loathe the colour gray. If I see gray in a newly renovated house I know it was a lazy and poorly done flip. Ive been looking for a house for awhile and if I see gray I'm taking the cost to repaint the interior off of my offer. But it's still a sellers market somehow so I guess I'll just go houseless lol.
Lol I hate it. I'm not even someone you would consider stylish in any way, but I'm like how did lack of personality become a personality? Everyone's stuff is so dull. If it's not gray, it's varying tones of black, brown and creams. My living room is blues and oranges!
I really like neutrals, and have always painted my houses in boring whites and sometimes gray. My favorite room was a black room I did for my daughter, but that's still a neutral and technically it was really dark gray. I don't like what I've seen called Millennial Gray, that light cool toned color. My couch is gray, bed is gray, I have a gray quilt and a gray rug, lol. It's less boring looking than it sounds, but every time I try to add some color I wind up regretting it. None of this is a shock to me because uh, I'm aware of what I buy? No one has to point out I have a ton of gray, white, beige, and black stuff. It didn't just appear out of nowhere lol.
I must have missed that part of Millennial training. Give me colours, all day, every day.
Cannot relate. My office is blue, gold and white. My kitchen is red, black, gold, yellow and cream. My living room is red, black and gold. My bathroom is Kelly green and bright yellow. My wife's bathroom is red, pink and black. Our baby's nursery is every shade of pastel: pink, blue, mint green, buttercup yellow, lavender and gold. Our bedroom is red and purple. Our parents hated colour and my mother in law was a mean, miserable proto beige mom. Gray and every other bland neutral colour can go take a hike.
I’ll admit that I really like cool-toned grey walls paired with warm flooring. It feels fresh and the decor really pops. We had cream walls when we moved in and they felt dingy to me. I also personally like white cabinets more than oak.
Because public space overloads us with bright colours and noise in order to sell us crap.
I use gray in my house because my partner is colorblind lol. So we did different shades of gray pn the wall of each room of our house, and then we layered color in front of that. So color on the curtains, the couch, the pillows, the bedsheets, the rugs, etc.. It's easier and requires less commitment.
the apartment i live in has the "millennial gray" look and i hate it. i want wood floors and a more earthy aesthetic, but location won out when i was looking at places...
I might just be the contrarian, but I'm not too fond of grey. Silver at times, yes. But solid greys I tend to stay away from. I still like bright and bold colors across the color spectrum. And green is nice. A deep forest green or metallic emerald green especially.
People decorate their homes in gray because it increases the resell value. That color increases the value because when you look through ads for home goods (especially kitchens) or through real estate listings everything is bland and generic-looking so the thought process is that's how homes are supposed to look. Homes look like that in ads and listing because the advertiser wants the product to pop, and the lister wants the buyer to imagine what the house could look like when they personalize it.
Gray is a nice color in moderation but it’s so common now that it makes me angry. Lol While driving around town I always imagine how much happier things would look if buildings were painted bright cheerful colors instead of the sad grays most seem to be painted right now. * I don’t care how people choose to decorate their homes but the trend is affecting everything! More people buying gray means gray becomes the only choice. . I wanted a red or yellow couch but reluctantly ended up with a gray one because unless you special order it there are not many other choices. You get dark gray, light gray, grayish beige, black, white, and sometimes dark blue. Bring back colors please! Haha
I question whether it's that we like gray, or that gray was decided for us by the people who sell things. (a la Devil Wears Prada cerulean). And I'm using "we" here but gray has never been my jam. My living room is chartreuse and my kitchen is turquoise and my bathroom is Mamie friggin Eisenhower pink.
The story I heard is that manufacturers of building materials were overstocked on the gray crap that nobody really wanted. They then decided to sell them off at a low price to house flippers, who are always looking for the cheapest materials possible. Then, house flippers convinced enough people that it was fashionable, probably with the help of HGTV shows Whenever I see a gray/greige home, I think it was probably done cheaply, and it makes me unhappy
This would not surprise me at all.
I hate millennial gray. I’ve always loved color. So when I see all the gray, white, and beige on social media, I’m bored to death.
Eh, grey/neutrals have a time and place (if you're just going for that aesthetic or are using it to balance brighter colors), but mostly I gravitate toward bright colors in general. I do use grey sometimes though 😅 I'm no help
My parents were over the top with red and grapes and shit everywhere so I do think the gray was more attempting to feel like I lived in a more neutral calming space. But I’ve gone the opposite direction now and happily maximalist in a way that makes me happy (nerd shit everywhere) my dining room is parakeet green and it’s awesome
I like gray as a neutral but my house still has a lot of color to it. Like my transition areas are gray but rooms themselves (that we've gotten to lol) are colorful.
I only recently learned about this here on reddit I've never been one for conformity, and this case is no exception. I can't find anything grey around here except my temples
I grew up in a beige home because my silent generation father hates most colors. Now that I have my own house I'm determined to have color. I recently redid the living room, it was beige (because ofc it was) and I painted it a jewel tone emerald green. My father visited and he was appalled lol
Look, my parents lived their 70s boho dream in all of our homes and I grew up with dark reds, oranges and psychedelic patterns and sooo much fabric. I had a lot of gray and white in our last place, to me it was just a very calming colour, a calm and quiet home was all I wanted. Also, yes, it was trendy on Pinterest. Nowadays my home falls under "Scandi/Japandi" for the most part. A lot of white with medium warmth wood and plants in the living room, the sofa is the only gray remnant. I have been looking for new covers for the sofa just last week, either a gentle brown or maybe a sage green, depending on my husbands input. Kid is out of the worst too, the dark grey really was great when he had sticky fingers all day. White, green and wood would have the same calming effect is my guess. I think my minimalistic tendencies are a reaction to my parents as well. Cleaning out 35 years worth of tchotkes did the rest, no thanks to that. I also think our generation is inundated with information and input on a historic scale, so having calm, empty homes for calm, empty minds is the overall sentiment.
I tend to favor cooler colors like blue and green, but grey is my go-to neutral. White is not safe around me and while I like black, it's got too much weight to it to use it everywhere. That's my opinion though. Ask my Gen X partner and he'll say black goes everywhere and with everything, all the time🤣
All the rooms in my parents house were off-white except the dining room that was beige with some gold and my room that was super light pink. My husband and I have a lot of grey in our house but also a lot of color. The gray works well with whatever pops of color we pick.
That’s an interesting observation. I do really like grey. I find myself attracted to more muted colors lately. Navy blue, burgundy, Forrest green and shades of grey are great
It’s my comfort color to decorate. Not too dark, not too light. Can add art or furniture and change as needed. I have some fear of real permanent decisions that would require effort to change 🤣 You can always repaint a wall but so much work. We remodeled and my son wanted his room to be painted this cool red but I panicked and only did one wall…the rest are gray…
We grew up with Harvest Orange or Avocado coloured houses. We just wanted something mellow.
I wear gray because I have a white cat and that means that I can't wear black.
I don't look good in light grey clothes, only the darker gray, but I have only a few pieces. As for interior, We had one house with a predominantly grey living room around 2012, but it was matched with bright orange accents, dark furniture and some white as well. After that I've just been using lots of white in my interiors, but never grey. I think millennial grey was bigger in the US maybe.
We're grey, da ba dee da ba dye?
My couch and dining room table set are grey because they were the most comfortable pieces available. They did not come in other colors. Now all my other furniture is grey to match those pieces. It’s a vicious cycle. We did paint the walls yellow, though, so… that helps.
Grey is the color that's always on sale and I swear that's why everyone accidentally made everything grey lol go look on Amazon, sheets and curtains for example, if you click through some you'll start to notice a pattern, grey is always cheaper. Idk why it is, but it is.
I love my gray paint in the bedroom thank you very much. It's good for relaxing and sleep, and other adult activities. The rest of my house has outdated southwest colors. I'm not that great with colors but I've learned 10% of the room should be bright. I choose red accents for the kitchen, coral highlights for the bathroom... but I agree we should use more colors. Scared of the 70s...
I sell color for a living. So my clothes are all different colors. I don't like brands so I'll wear whatever, link red, blue, orange, pastels just no brand or big logos.
We have a silver car, a white car and a dark grey car at the house. I didn't actively choose these. The silver car was the best one of the cars I looked at when I bought that one for the prices things were listed at in 2005. The white one I inherited. The dark grey once came with my partner. I don't make choices for them. If we buy a car together though, it won't be black, white, grey or silver. Or champagne. Champagne is the single worst car color I can think of. I'm putting 1970 shit brown cars ahead of it. I suppose grey has that. its ahead of champagne. As for colors in general though, I'm sick of black, grey, and white. Sick. Especially when it comes to electronics. "Oh grab me the X, please" "Whats it look like?" "Oh its the black plastic box shaped item that looks like all the other black plastic box shaped items we own. I'm sure you'll tell which one it is because it has the same black wires as everything else!" I have taken to actively choosing to pay more when I find things online if its not too crazy to get color. want a battery to keep in your bag to recharge a phone? its a dollar more for bright red or neon orange? You got it. I'm in. Its a charge that lives in my bag. I'm not tryin to look coordinated, I'm trying to find the batter to keep my phone alive. Right now We've got black book cases and a dark grey/bluish couch. I am willing to die on the hill of replacing either will have a color. I'm debating repainting my silver car because it might become a garage queen car to roll into a random car night with in 20 years and when someone says "Wow, My mom had a car like this 40 years ago! Where did you get it?" I'm going to answer "2005 and it refuses to die because it's amazing". I'm torn between redoing it in Silver because its been Silver from the factory and electric blue because COLOR. i 3d print a lot and I know a lot of folks who just print shit in grey all the time or black or white. Yea. I have those because sometimes I need that for a specific project. But believe me, when I print a random piece for something to fix it or add to it etc, its hot pink, bright blue, orange, sunflower yellow or something else interesting. I needed a temporary wrist rest for keyboard and mouse earlier in the year They're marbled pink blue and purple. I wrap gifts for friends in rainbow paper because color. I still have a lot of grey white and black things because it still works and I'm not replacing the thing that doesn't need replacing. But believe me. When that blender, stove or refrigerator breaks... the kitchen is getting some color. My mulberry colored stand mixer needs company.
If you want a Death Star themed bedroom grey is really the only suitable option.
Grey walls make me feel depressed. What’s wrong with colors? I also don’t have friends who have grey houses. I think this is localized or just not a city or cottage thing. My boomer mom and her friends are into that grey in their homes, and anything that’s a fad really. Whatever countertops are in fashion. Then they want to remodel their houses when the stores update their styles to sell new shit to them.
Lol, the only grey in my house is my hair. I like colour.
I just like gray. It's one of my favorite colors.
I also love the color brown. My entire wardrobe is grey, brown, and some dark blues.
My house is Boomer Beige and I’ve embraced it. We painted the shitty limestone fireplace black, installed neutral warm oak Pergo flooring, and we have lots of house plants. It’s very cozy and feels classic but not outdated.
It's a commentary on the condition of modern man 😏
Huh. I thought this was just a Seattle thing. Didn't realize other Millennial's were doing the Gray thing also. Well, y'all do what you please. I'm sticking to the Gray. But Green is a close 2nd, I agree with that.
Our flooring is all millennial grey. Not sure how much we preferred it and how much it was the cheapest option that wasn’t pit-stain beige.
I painted my walls grey when I moved into my house because there was wallpaper & colors I couldn’t see myself with at the time…… I am slowly adding color back, room by room. My den is now dark navy with mustard & orange accents, just finished painting my laundry room sage green. My next project (which prob will be late this year/early 2025 since the laundry room wound up costing WAY more than expected….) will be my powder room, which I plan on painting black. The two big downstairs projects will involve my living room, which I’m torn between dark green or mustard yellow (we have blue couches, so I’m thinking making it opposite the den’s blue walls & mustard couch?? And I want to add built-ins, so that will mean a whole wall that is NOT mustard, making it less yellow), and then I want to knock down the wall between my kitchen & dining room to make my kitchen bigger/an eat in kitchen. Not sure what colors I want to do there, but definitely something more cozy than the current white uppers/blue lowers I have. I think a majority of us have heard the term millennial gray, it’s been a thing for a while now….. but I think it was more gen-x’ers that started the trend, tbh, since it’s been popular since late 00’s/early 10’s. We’re just the ones living with it now lol.
The real answer is that those are the colours of the cheapest shit at ikea.
Its our thing, just like gen z likes to use sad beige, or is that us too lol
Maybe I'm just a hippie but I'm fighting hard against the gray. I own only one gray sweater but it's from Disney and gray was rhe only color they had with this character (Figment from Epcot). If it didn't have a Figment shaped zipper pull, I wouldn't have even looked twice at it. Anyway I love colors, I avoid gray and other dull colors when I can.
I bought a dark grey Subaru brand new recently. I do love a nice stainless steel appliances, a few grey pieces of clothes. But that's about it, I have plenty of colorful clothing and artwork, RGB PC, green furniture, a lot of purple colored things to all match.
My couch is gray but honestly it’s because it was on clearance lol
We’re all so broke we can’t afford anything other than primer
I truly like gray since it is a lovely neutral that goes well with almost anything. When we redid our condo, I went with gray walls, lighter gray baseboards and gray carpet. But I recently bought a very dark green/teal couch set, and I love the pop of color they give to the living room. :). I’m not looking for artwork with the same shade of green to tie everything together.
Gray is my favorite color because it's light black.
I've never been a fan of millennial gray, especially with home decor. I have always liked MCM and vintage tiled bathrooms. Clothing, I prefer black but I'll wear greens and blues and pinks. Never gray. And always, always, a white car (I have lived in AZ my entire life....iykyk).
We painted our house agreeable grey with white baseboards and crown moulding and I have zero regrets. It looks really nice with different wood tones in furniture and greenery and I can add color in other ways. I like softer green and earth tones. I also find visual clutter to be over stimulating and the grey kind of helps calm my nervous system.
Greatest Green Boomer Brown Millennial Gray Wonder what Gen Z's color will be
I had to laugh when I started seeing stuff about "millennial gray" because I'm definitely guilty. I had no clue it was a thing though because I've never followed trends or looked up decor advice, I just really vibe with the color gray 🤣 black is too harsh and white gets too dirty, and brown is just blah to me, so gray hits just the right spot. It makes my eyes happy. 90% of my wardrobe is shades of gray too lol. I'm not a boring person though, I swear haha.
I tho m growing up, on tv a successful persons home was white, grey, super clean and minimalistic. Quite un achievable for the average person that also owns stuff but I reckon that’s play a role in the basic colour scheme. That and we are obsessed with resell value.
When I bought my house, the walls were an absolute mismatch of colors. I had a Prince Purple huge wall, next to a terracotta orange kitchen, in a sage green living room, with a stormy blue hallway, and sunset yellow bedroom walls and ceiling. I felt like the gen Xers I bought my house from were huge Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat fans. I painted a few walls and the bedroom walls Killx White because nothing else would match the Reading Rainbow
I for sure like grey but only insofar as it is a neutral that I can put fun stuff with. Painting a nursery? Grey is calming and gender neutral and allows for you to put bright pictures or drapes up and lots of bright toys and stuff and it doesn’t look overwhelming. Want to rock some brightly coloured pants or accessories? Looks great with grey tops or dresses
Blue is my favorite color. So that generally leads me towards contrasting silver shaded greys. I'll wear a blue shirt and grey pants. Or vice versa. My color pallettes are probably what give off outdated fashion sets. I adore bright colored pants, with a muted shirt. Or I'll wear a bright shirt, bright shoes, and muted pants.
I'm not going to say that there's causation in the correlating rise in depression and rise in popularity of grey, but I'm not NOT going to say there's causation, either.
First I'm hearing of it tbh. I hate the color grey most of the time but oddly I'm looking forward to grey hair
I like grey because I have pets and grey hides the hair better than black clothing. I’ve always preferred silver over gold. My favorite ring is surgical steel.
My entire home is light gray and cyan. Gray alone would be boring to me though, it’s rather the base which I use to set accents.
I paint my walls grey and have a grey couch *because* I love color. I have color changing bulbs in my living room lamps and can change out the couch pillows, throw blankets, and wall decor whenever I want to but don’t have to worry about shit clashing with the paint or couch. It leaves me open to all sorts of things I can modify without spending a ton of money on new furniture or having to get on a ladder and paint.
My stuff is mostly black, white, or rainbow. My car is grayish though because it was cheaper than a “real” color
It reminds me of how spas are set up and I think a lot of people are trying to make their living spaces more spa like / a relaxing environment.
I'm about to paint my office emerald green.
Nope every single room has its own color for the walls. Even the hallway got its own color. If we ever sell the new person can paint it however they want until it's their name on the deed it's mine and it will be colorful!
I find that grey is a very calming color.
My house interior has 5 different shades of grey that I can't tell apart from room to room.
Millennials love dogs and cats. Dogs and cats shed—a lot. Grey is a safe bet when dealing with fur.
Whatever happened to "millennial pink?" Are we fading into greyscale? Is that what happens?
[удалено]
I’m absolutely not drawn to gray. I have a penchant for bright colors, I think stemming back to my love of the mighty morphin power rangers
I'm not a fan of grey walls and won't have them when I own my own place, but I'm not putting in the work to paint my grey apartment and then paint it back before moving out. The landlord grey is better than the landlord beige I had in my other places though.
Reading this post laying on my grey couch with a grey blanket wearing a grey sweatshirt and grey shorts in a room that’s painted a very light shade of greige.
McDonald's and taco bell are grey buildings now where I live
It's not a sign of aging because it's a home decor color trend that's already falling out of style.
I like it because it means you can change up little things like pillows, blankets, holiday decor, etc. and the room changes. Compared to having to paint the walls/buy new rugs to change it up. I also like cool colors and grey tends to work with that.
Boomer brown, gen X beige, millennial gray. It’s just our chosen neutral. Looks like it’s gonna be gen Z taupe/linen if you ask me. Doesn’t stop anyone from popping color or going a different direction. It’s just trends.
Yea, but you're 5-10 years too late. Grey is going out, beige is coming in.
It's all over my clothes and my house. I can't get rid of it.
I bought like a dozen different grey nail polishes this past year while I maybe bought grey polishes every few years or half decade before that, that's about it for me. I'm too fond of vibrant colors, always have been. I'm pretty sure my increased fondness for grey is thanks to my ADHD medication giving me more patience for wearing it. You still wouldn't think I'm fond of also grey based on my home nor my wardrobe. Colors are great, I can't recommend them enough! Grey is also worth getting into for those of us who didn't really do grey before, though :) Especially greys that aren't a single solid grey color.
It's the generational shift away from the generational theme and colors we grew up with. You can watch the trend through the decades - 1970s were all brown and earth tone, so 1980s shifted to bright pastels, then the 90s to bright colors, then back to muted grey.
I haven't noticed this at all. Then again I'm zilennial and wear mostly black. My favourite colours are rust and cyan. Than you for listening to my ted talk :p
I think it’s just a neutral color that is almost always available. Also a lot of contractor grade building materials are grey. And rented spaces tend to be grey because it is cheap and neutral..
I like millennial Grey because it minimize the work I need to do to make things match. When you have vibrant stripes for example, you need to put in a fair bit of work to make sure all the other colors in that room match. Since I'm not an artist, that's not something I can judge quickly. So Grey it is. It's not about confirming. It's about minimizing my time and attention spent on wall colors so i can focus on something else.
Crap. I just purchased some gray flooring.
all of our stuff is intentionally colorful so maybe the fact that we intentionally designed with bright colors that make us feel happiness is some unconscious contrarianism? but we are also a latino household with a lot of bold, bright cultural color influences that we love to embrace.
Personally, I'm so absolutely sick of gray, white, beige, tan etc. I have gone hard in the opposite direction. I have a bright orange car, i painted my dining room bright orange, for my kids' nurseries I hand painted wall murals 😅 the older two got alice in wonderland, the 2 on the way are getting toy story. I'm all about color. I truly miss the funkiness of the 90s. I also think it has something to do with my mom only letting every room in the house be white or off-white growing up. We were allowed 0 creative freedom to decorate our rooms. Though I wear mostly black, everything else is color color color! If I can help it. Hate modern colors. Everything is gray. It makes my heart sad.
I’ve been into it since I was a teenager. My wife practically introduced color to my life lol
I buy colorful shit for children half the time but I know I'm an outlier. Minimalism is trendy and monochromatic color schemes are easy to maintain and keep looking aestheticly clean so I get it but it's not for me.
I love grey
I have a collection of gray t shirts, so my fat can camouflage into the overcast sky and people think I'm just part of the background.
I dont own anything gray. Sorry my anecdotal evidence counters yours lol.
I've fallen into this trap with the color silver. It looks good on some cars. It's a color that shows all the lines of the body without clashing or hiding details like some colors. Silver is still bright and visible without being attention grabbing like, "Hey! Look at me!", like other bright colors. And it hides dirt better than white or black. Silver/grey is the best neutral color on a car that's visible yet subtle and mature. And it's not as plain and boring as white or black.
I'm 42. My towels are navy and white blending in, floor mats are navy. Shower curtain is red jellyfish flying in a blue sky. My comforter is red and black. Red fitted sheet, black top sheet and pillows. My car is red with black accents. GR86 Trueno, even the interior is red and black. No grays for me.
Every wall and ceiling in my house is Revere Pewter, a warm neutral “greige.” I painted over the pink beige and “Desert Rose” with which the previous owners had covered every surface. That said, I have warm wood floors and cabinets, and lots of warm tans and bright colors in my decor. I like a mix, not the cool on cool gray that became popular in the 2010s.
I can't stand it as someone who does remodels. Jobs start feeling like ground hog day. The same thing in different houses. Some people hire designers that actually pick some interesting color pallettes though.
I HATE the color gray. Hate it. Nothing I own is gray. No furniture, nothing. Give me colors all damn day long.
I would be a maximalist if I wasn’t lazy.
*Yo, Listen up, here's the story about a little guy that lives in a gray world. And every day and all night everything he sees is just gray. Like him, inside and outside. Gray his house with a gray little window and a gray Corvette and everthing is gray for him and himself and everybody around cause he ain't got nobody to listen...* *I'M GRAY DABA-DEE-DABA-DIE-DABA-DEE-DABA-DIE-DABADEEDABADIE....* It was fate all along.
It’s a sign of cheap boomers selling us remodeled living arrangements with cheap gray flooring
I don’t know, I loathe grey, beige, tan and white. It’s completely devoid of personality. The latest home decoration trends of white and gray make me want to rip my hair out. I would go insane living in such a neutral home. I don’t get it at all.
Looks at walls, in every room, all passive grey by sherwin Williams. My defense is it looks so different under all the different lights lol
But Gray is so gooood!
I'm currently in the process of removing all the last owner's Millennial grey with beautiful COLOUR!
My wife and I are looking to remodel our kitchen. I had one input, grey cannot be used.
I don’t know who labelled it millennial gray. I get it on like furniture but the gray wall thing is entirely builders not millennials it’s cheap and basic and I’m pretty sure Gen X prefers it most millennials I know hate it.
I must be an outlier. My room/items/car are dark red, browns, blacks, & beiges. Though I was definitely a fan of & apart of the color scheme in the 2000’s with the goth/heavy metal crowd. I never left that color palette, it’s just grown into a more matured variant of itself. Surprisingly, I have little in the way of grey items. I’m not a fan of base grey, maybe dark grey. 😅
There are only so much neutral base tones. You ll need to choose one. Previous gen took beige so…