Interiors Pinspiration: Chasing Charcoal Grey

This week on Pinterest, we’ve been watching gentle greys get more gutsy…

It’s difficult to write about the colour grey, given that it isn’t really one – at least not officially. The colour grey, rather confusingly, is achromatic – in other words a colour without colour. I find this contradiction in terms intriguing, but it seems like I might be the only one. According to Wikipedia, survey respondents in Europe and the US associate grey with conformity, boredom and old age, and only one per cent consider it their favourite colour.

In January, author Chris Green released a tongue-in-cheek book called 50 Shades of Grey Paper, referencing both these unfavourable stats and the indomitable EL James cash cow in one fell swoop. The book begins with a black page and ends with a white one, with the 50 pages in between increasing in increments of five on the Photoshop colour scale. One Amazon review refers to this comedic delight as “the perfect Valentine gift for the graphic designer or artist in your life”.

It would seem that in everyday life, this sometimes sheepish shade can elicit surprisingly strong negative reactions, even in terms of its spelling (grey or gray?), but the world of interior design takes a more favourable view. Earlier this year I wrote about the infatuation with pale neutrals, which is still a thing. This season, though, once-docile greys have been getting more courageous. Expect an influx of even richer mid-tones for winter, with lots of smoky slate tones that are far from boring…

I’m a little bit in love with this shot from Marks & Spencer Home’s autumn/winter 2015 lookbook. From the new Colby console table to the Nordic teapot to the dusky finish and colour of the walls, everything about it screams functional sophistication.

This meticulous yet mellow dining room, part of a home styled by Hans Blomquist for the Swedish brokerage chain Fastighetsbyron, elegantly blends authentic rustic elements with fun, youthful touches to create an impressively cohesive, contemporary look.

The luminescent Rasovetro by Italian door designers Lualdi‘ seems to give the impression of weightlessness, thanks to its concealed hinges and frosted glass surface.

Pick up our current issue to learn how to use bottomless blues to warm up your winter interior… Available from newsagents now, priced €3.99.