Shades of Grey: Decorating with the most elegant of neutrals E-Book

Kate Watson Smyth

• Herausgeber: Ryland Peters & Small
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 111

Beschreibung

Crammed with fascinating facts, expert advice and a wealth of essential information, Shades of Grey will guide you through the minefield that is choosing exactly the right shade of grey paint.

Leseprobe

SHADES

OF GREY

SHADES

OF GREY

DECORATING WITH THE MOST ELEGANT OF NEUTRALS

KATE WATSON-SMYTH

SENIOR DESIGNER Toni Kay

SENIOR COMMISSIONING EDITOR Annabel Morgan

PICTURE RESEARCH Christina Borsi

PRODUCTION MANAGER Gordana Simakovic

ART DIRECTOR Leslie Harrington

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Julia Charles

PUBLISHER Cindy Richards

First published in 2016.

This revised edition published in 2019 by Ryland Peters & Small

20–21 Jockey’s Fields, London WC1R 4BW

and

341 East 116th Street, New York, NY 10029

www.rylandpeters.com

Text copyright © Kate Watson-Smyth 2016, 2019

Design and photographs copyright

© Ryland Peters & Small 2016, 2019

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 978-1-78879-124-3

E-ISBN 978-1-78879-331-5

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress CIP data has been applied for.

Printed and bound in China

CONTENTS

Introduction

Going grey

Why do we all love grey?

The psychology of grey

Choosing the right shade of grey

Grey matters

Index

Picture credits

Sources

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION

There’s no doubt about it, grey is the shade of the moment. Restaurants, shops and homes are coated in it. There’s not an interior decorating programme that doesn’t use it. And never mind 50 shades – the human eye can, it’s been claimed, detect more than 500. As can the average paint chart. And if you thought the whole grey thing was about to be over, I refer you to global paint giant Dulux, who have just expanded their range of greys and now offer 557 in total. “Everyone wants to paint their houses grey at the moment,” says Karen Haller, a colour expert who teaches industry professionals the science of applied colour psychology, “but it’s one of the most difficult shades to get right because of the colours that lie beneath.”

No wonder that in past years we all just slapped a pot of cream paint on the wall, then hastily turned on the TV. But everything’s changed now. To start with, we’re much more design-savvy. And the global economic crisis has meant that, for the first time in years, we’re decorating our homes to live in them and not just to be attractive to prospective buyers. A decade ago, we redecorated every three years; it’s now between every five to seven years. So we need to actually put some thought into our choice of paint colour and work out what we like, because we are going to be living with it for a while.

Nowadays, entire careers are built on colour consultancy, psychology and therapy. There are specialists and technologists where once there were simply painters and decorators. Research, albeit of the very unscientific ‘let’s-just-check-on-Twitter’ variety, shows that amateur decorators (that’s you and me) try an average of nine different shades before they get it right. And the final colour, which may look grey on the wall, is probably called smoky blue. That’s if it’s not referencing small furry animals, Hollywood film stars or dead fish.

Shades of Grey will reveal the difference between grey and gray and discover why it has become such a dominant trend in modern interiors. No blushes will be spared in sharing other people’s (oh all right, my) mistakes so that you can get it right. We will discover, once and for all, how to use those pesky sample pots to best advantage, and whether it’s worth splashing the cash on pricey paint. Armed with this book, you’ll be able to find the perfect shade of grey, and you can put the money you save on sample pots towards going somewhere hot and sunny, where grey is the colour furthest from your mind…

“Context is everything; you never see grey in isolation. There will always be other colours around it from furniture, paintings, or a person's possessions, so it will always change in different environments.”

Simon March, founder of Colour Makes People Happy

GOING GREY

Grey is no passing fad. But it is one of the hardest colours to get right when it comes to decorating your home. To find the best shade, you need to consider which direction your room faces, what time of day you will be in there, the prevailing weather (even the hemisphere makes a difference) and last of all (in fact, let’s be honest, least of all) the actual shade you like.

At this point, I should issue an apology to all those who were expecting something a little racier on the subject of shades of grey.

No, this isn’t that book. But you may well get a little breathless when you realize that you can’t paint your north-facing sitting room in Gauze (as the entire family will sink into a depression) but have to make do with Mole’s Breath instead.

So how do you choose the right shade of grey? It’s not as simple as buying a pot of paint and slapping it on the wall. If it were that easy, you wouldn’t be reading this book. If it were that easy, I wouldn’t have had to write this book just so that I can finish decorating the kitchen.

Grey Tadelakt bathroom designed by photographer Paul Massey.

When you drift into the paint shop with a view to grabbing a colour chart, you are confronted with hundreds, even thousands, of options. Most of them look roughly the same to the untrained eye, but they all have different (usually meaningless) names. “Grey?” you say casually to the sales assistant, hoping for a steer towards the dark, mid- or light variety. Instead of which, you find yourself plunged into a tangle of adjectives, obscure historical references and basic biology (who knows what colour an elephant breathes anyway?). Will that be Silver Fox, Mole’s Breath or Bunny? What about Blackened (which is actually pale blue), Clooney (as in George) or (raises eyebrow sardonically) Urbane? You might prefer Timeless… or Urban Obsession?

It doesn’t stop there. Do you want that in a heritage range? Gloss, matt or eggshell? Are you going to paint all four walls or just one? Which colour will you pair with it? And will it go with your sofa? (Because, let’s face it, after all the money you’ve spent on paint you’re unlikely to be buying a new one of those any time soon.)

So at last you’ve chosen a grey. There’s been a row. Some sulking. Possibly even a few tears. But, finally, it’s done. Now all you need to do is to cover the walls in it. Cut to three days later. The grey that looked so beautiful in the tin has turned your hallway into a prison corridor. It’s made your kitchen so cold that you can’t afford the heating bills. And who said it was grey? It looks distinctly lilac, now you come to mention it. Back to the shop you trudge for another sample pot…

So, as we have seen, making the decision to go grey is the easy part. Once you have decided on that, the possibilities start to multiply like a swarm of locusts.

As Amy Wax, former president of the International Association of Color Consultants and creator of the Color911 app, which allows you to find a paint colour from a photo, says: “Choosing grey has to take into consideration warm light, cool light and the amount of sunlight. What makes the grey palette so challenging is that there are so many factors to keep in mind.”

One interior designer admitted to me (completely off the record) that she used to try at least five different shades per wall and the only reason she gets it right now is that she sticks to one shade of grey from one paint brand. That way, she reckons, she has learned exactly how it will react in any given space.

Perhaps it’s no surprise to hear that other professionals use exactly the same trick. They gather about ten different shades, usually from different companies, and they ‘learn’ them. Which is fine and dandy for them, but doesn’t really help the rest of us. As the US stylist and TV presenter Emily Henderson says, “I’ve probably painted over 50 rooms in the last couple of years, so I’ve learned a thing or two.” As opposed to the rest of us, who have simply painted the same room 50 times in 50 different shades.

So for those of us who just want to finish painting the sitting room, move the sofa back into place and go back to thinking about what to have for dinner, what can we do to avoid any painting pitfalls and minimize the mistakes? This book aims to guide you towards choosing exactly the right shade of grey. Just read on, and you will (hopefully) find out.

Fancy that

Ivory Black, a 19th-century black paint, was made by burning the ivory from offcuts of the comb-making industry. Sold in blocks, it mixed well with white lead to create a beautiful pearly grey colour. So, environmentally disastrous and possibly poisonous as well.

WHY DO WE ALL LOVE GREY?

Back in 2009, I wrote an article for the UK’s Independent newspaper headlined: ‘Grey Paint: Top of the Pots’. Here’s what I said: “Whether you're moving or improving, a neutral base is generally a good start and the colour experts at Dulux have decided that grey is the new magnolia, only they are calling it Steel Symphony, because no one actually wants to paint their house grey.” (Pause here for mocking laughter as we reflect on just how wrong I was. Because clearly everyone wanted to paint their house grey.) This new trend for grey was, said international paint manufacturer Dulux, part of a trend towards a more sophisticated look with a refined modern twist.

THE PERFECT NEUTRAL

Both interiors experts and paint experts agree that grey is only just beginning to hit the mainstream. You might feel like you’ve been sitting in grey-painted bars and restaurants for years, but in fact it’s only recently that the colour has spread from the walls of interior designers’ homes and the pages of magazines to, well, every other house in the street.

So why this passion for grey and where has it come from? There are, perhaps unsurprisingly, as many different answers to this as there are shades of grey (many, many more than 50, by the way). Theories range from the gloom and doom of the current world economic climate to the change in artificial lighting from incandescent bulbs to LEDs, via our new love for all things Nordic and the popularity of grey in fashion.

Grey will change colour according to the natural light in the room, so if you have windows on more than one side, you need to take that into account when choosing your shade. Try Little Greene French Grey for a warm pale grey that won’t dominate or darken a space.

Dark grey in a bedroom is really restful; add pale bedlinen in summer and switch to something dark and cosy in winter.

Fancy that

Of the 28 shades of grey in the Little Greene paint range, only one – Gauze – is made purely from black and white. It is not a bestseller.

According to PPG, the automotive paint firm that supplies most of the industry, 76 per cent of all new cars sold in the UK in 2010 were either grey, silver, black or white.

Painting your furniture to match the walls is a great way to create layers of texture and colour.

Darker shades will make your artwork and prints stand out as well as making the room cosy at night. Warm Pewter from Dulux is a good match for this wall.

Interior design has always followed fashion – just look at the recent mania for all things 1970s, which started on the catwalk and quickly spread to our houses via cork furniture, macramé plant holders and the return of that 1970s staple, the house plant. Still not convinced? A few seasons ago, Burberry Prorsum sent a jumper with an owl motif down a runway. Within weeks, lifestyle stores were selling owl cushions, candlesticks and cups.

Tony Glenville, the creative director of the School of Media and Communications at the London College of Fashion, says grey has slowly been replacing black on the catwalk for several seasons now. “Although black still sells, it has been slowly eroded by other neutral colours – including brown and navy as well as grey. The use of grey came from a need for a trans-seasonal colour, since fashion now delivers so many times a year. It works as a black substitute, an eco colour and looks great in everything from brocade to cashmere.”

Mix patterns and textures in different shades of grey to create a warm, tonal effect. This makes it easy to change one or two cushions for a totally different look.

A plain grey headboard with white bedlinen is a classic look. Keep it monochrome or add colour with a throw that you can change with the seasons.