Check Pinterest or any shelter blog. Gray is all the rage. (I’m not talking about the movie. That Grey is the British spelling, a proper noun.) Even though Pantone’s color of the year is Marsala, interior designers on the web prefer smoke, graphite, and flint. They caption photos, “Moody gray walls are dramatic with a small pop of color.”
Imagine a ruby throw slung over the foot of an ebony bed in the center of room painted pewter. It’s a black and white glossy with a single dash of interest. Of course, the color pops. It’s a giant red arrow directing everyone’s attention to the bed. Mmm. Sexy.
The home goods industry isn’t the first to capitalize on the emotion of a limited palette. Steven Spielberg used the technique in Schindler’s List. He shot the opening scenes in gray-scale, except for one beautiful little girl wearing a red coat. The audience follows the child through the decimation of the Krakow ghetto. Later, when we recognize her lifeless body in a pile with other lifeless bodies, we’re devastated because we know her. She’s wearing red. Now, Her life’s extinguished. The world is colorless.
Not so sexy, and not the visual association designers had in mind when they painted all of those bedrooms gray. Even without Spielberg’s images, the trend reminds me of a generic hotel room. Stark. Neutral. Forgettable. I don’t want my home to look like a hotel, and if I have to stay in a hotel, I want my room to look like home.
CRISPLY SPOKEN 
I’ve spent enough time on HGTV, I’m entirely with you! Grey is already a trend aging poorly, and its current ubiquity in kitchens is bewildering. It’s an appetite suppressant, a constraint of joyful entertaining and the social imperative of breaking bread together in *warmth*.
My kitchen still has its original 1950 tile counter and red Formica/chrome-trimmed peninsula, and half the designers out there would call it a gut job because it’s not popular this year. Yet its function and style have held up now for the better part of seven decades! Generations. That kitchen is a major part of what sold this home when I bought it fifteen years ago. Everyone can have their grey and granite and travertine; I like my original (clearly durable!) design and the warmth that no fad nor fashion can provide. 🙂
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I love spaces with character. Your 1950s kitchen sounds wonderful. I’ll take warmth and memories over cold and slick every time.
Thanks for stopping by!
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