My Love Affair with Gray-Via Santa Rosa Interior Design

October 27, 2011

I’m having a love affair with Gray! Grey, Gray, Greige…light, dark and every shade in between. Inspiration for gray comes from nature, photography and every other place you can imagine. And I personally think it looks fabulous in our homes today.

I’ve already written one blog on the fact that greige (a combo of gray and beige) is the new neutral of the decade. And, I’m incredibly pleased by that as I’ve never been much of a beige fan. Beige has always looked washed out and a bit dirty to my eye…but grey, that’s a whole other story.

How do I love gray? Let me count the ways:  

• It’s sophisticated
• It’s elegant
• It’s mysterious
  

  Thanks to Chemin Faisant for this fab image of a double-crested cormorant by Amy Marques!

• It’s magical
• It’s moody
• It’s edgy
• It looks good mixed together tonally
• It’s a GREAT foil for color
• It’s a GREAT neutral
• It looks new…again

Right now I’m working on a clients new home and we just chose a greige for the master bedroom, and a green-gray for the living room. Both colors have an edge to them that will set the tone for each room. I’ve also Venetian stucco’d a couple of rooms in a clients home in the desert, and the glossy finish acts as an amazing reflector to both day and night light.

The other way I am loving the use of dark grays in a house is in the form of chalk paint. LOVE a chalk wall in a kids room, home office or kitchen/mud room. Great way to leave messages, note to remember things and just to have plain fun with, every single day.

What about you? Are you sold yet? Anybody adding gray to your decor? If so, how? Can’t wait to hear what you have to tell me.

In the meantime, enjoy the inspiration and ideas in the video below. Cheers!