These grey living room ideas will make you want to redecorate
Grey is one of the most popular and versatile colours in interior design. It is ideal for a living room because you have so much choice in terms of shade, intensity, and colour combinations. From a barely-there grey to a deep gunmetal shade, it's the perfect base colour to help you decorate the living room of your dreams.
‘Grey is an incredibly versatile colour, forming an ideal base from which to expand your palette,’ says Kelly Collins, interior designer and head of creative at Swyft Home. ‘When looking for wall colours to go with grey sofas, you can get away with pretty much anything from light to very dark, but try and avoid bright tones. Think classic white, a rich dark navy, and other shades of grey or muted green tones.
'Colours with a cool undertone (blues and other greys) will complement grey well while colours with warm undertones (terracotta or burgundy) will contrast the shade and bring a touch of warmth into the space.'
Need some grey living room inspiration? Here, we look at 21 fabulous ways you can introduce grey into your living space.
Grey living room ideas: complementary colours
When decorating with grey, consider it a neutral base rather than a fully formed colour scheme. 'Black, grey and white schemes are very stylish alone but for extra drama you may want to consider adding in some colour,' says Amy Wilson, interior designer for 247 Curtains. 'Bold colour pops of hot pink and yellow can look striking and quite contemporary.'
Pictured: Lamp Room Grey at Farrow & Ball
Grey living room ideas: pair with pastels
There can be a tendency to lean into the subtleties of grey, pairing them with whites and metallics, but this can occasionally appear washed out, especially if your living room receives a lot of natural light. This living room is a great example of using pastel colours to soften and brighten grey features.
Shop now: House Beautiful Claudette Sofa at DFS
Grey living room ideas: charcoal grey
Dark charcoal walls are a great way to define your space, but extra consideration is needed in styling. 'To avoid your monochrome schemes from feeling too stark or cold, introduce texture,' says Amy. 'Consider all of the surfaces and finishing touches and where possible combine soft, smooth pieces with more tactile textures such as sheepskin with concrete.'
Pictured: Lock Keeper No.18 at Mylands
Grey living room ideas: pale
There is always a case for embracing soft grey, and matching with an equally pale wood and chalky accessories. As you can see here, it creates a really serene spot. The green tree is an important styling element here, as it prevents the living room from looking washed out.
Pictured: Cookham Reclaimed Coffee Table, and all accessories at Layered Lounge
Grey living room ideas: grey and pink
'You’d be right to think graphic shapes and gunmetal grey is a typically masculine look, so add curves with blush pink and plaster pink on the walls to soften the look and keep it the right side of pretty,' says Sarah Keady, Style and Interiors Director at House Beautiful.
Pictured: House Beautiful Luna Moonlight Rug at Carpetright
Grey living room ideas: monochrome
This is a classic design route for living rooms, and it won't steer you far wrong. Stick to a grey, black and white palette, and introduce metallics – you can mix gold and silver as long as they are complementary tones like a gunmetal and brushed brass. The organic motif on the rug is a nice touch here to soften the severity of a modern monochrome design scheme.
Pictured: Furniture and accessories, all at Dunelm
Grey living room ideas: traditional
As this fabulous living room shows, grey needn't be reserved for contemporary or minimal spaces. Brown leather is such a surprising pairing here, but adds a great deal of warmth and richness – in recreating this look, make sure to use an equally warm grey on your walls.
Pictured: Purbeck Stone at Farrow & Ball
Grey living room ideas: greige
The grey-beige mix known as 'greige' is often favoured over a true grey for its capacity to warm up a design scheme. Greige is really the best of both worlds, combining the cooler tones of grey with the warming nature of beige.
Pictured: House Beautiful Freya Sofa at DFS
Grey living room ideas: consider how grey interacts
One of the joys of grey is the way it changes when placed next to other colours – use grey against an intense purple for instance, and it will bring out lilac tones. Consider this if you're after a soft and feminine space, and sit your greys next to rosey pinks or buttery yellows.
Pictured: Sloane Square No.92 at Mylands
Grey living room ideas: complementary styling
Black accessories will always work in a grey living room. So too will your pale creams and off-whites. A matt black is especially effective, as light lands so softly on a matt surfaces – glossy black would look a lot more harsh here.
Pictured: Black Stripe Cushion, White Rattan Stool and Black ribbed Vase, all at Layered Lounge
Grey living room ideas: wall treatments
Grey tends not to react to natural light in the way that a warmer colour does, and so a common complaint in grey living rooms is that walls can appear flat. To mitigate this, consider a wall treatment that adds a bit of texture.
'You can consider incorporating texture on your walls with the use of some of the more interesting paint finishes available like limewash, polished plaster or even a textured paper,' says Amy.
Pictured: Ercol Amalfi Sideboard and Avanti Snuggler at Heal's
Grey living room ideas: black metals
Black metals are your best friend in contemporary grey living rooms. Any big pieces of furniture like coffee tables and sideboards will look light and willowy in a black metal.
Pictured: Metal Sideboard at Cox & Cox
Grey living room ideas: pattern
Soft greys lend themselves to rooms full of rich pattern. Consider this living room with a white sofa or walls, and it loses a lot of its warmth.
Pictured: Tokyo Modular Sofa at John Lewis & Partners
Grey living room ideas: Japandi
The Japandi trend combines clean lines, neutral colours, understated silhouettes and a nod to the natural world. All of these elements make it a great design choice for a living room. Here, several grey shades sit alongside pale wood and heaps of texture to create a serene and comfortable retreat.
Pictured: All wall art available at Poster Store
Grey living room ideas: accents
Cheerful colours have a great way of standing out against a more neutral grey – the pink poster draws the eye here, so too does the purple in those velvet cushions, as well as the hints of green. And we love this fabulous gallery wall with painted black frame.
Pictured: House Beautiful Harper Saxony Carpet at Carpetright
Grey living room ideas: try bohemian elements
Grey is not an obvious choice for bohemian styling – usually sandy neutrals and greens are favoured – but grey works almost universally, no matter your preferred design theme. Take some design cues from this modern bohemian living room, and use plenty of dark wood, lush greenery, and some warming red and mustard accents.
Pictured: Model 03 3 Seater Right Chaise at Swyft
Grey living room ideas: silver and pink
This silvery putty colour is a brilliant choice if you want something soft and feminine in your living room. As you can see here, it works well with pinks and taupes.
Pictured: Dora Buttoned Modular Corner Sofa at Cox & Cox
Grey living room ideas: the grey sofa
'Grey is likely a slightly more popular sofa colour choice as it's the most versatile of all the neutral colours,' says Ben white, design and trade expert at Swyft Home. 'This allows homeowners to change up the colours of their living room more often (if they like to redecorate) by introducing different accessories and wall colours, at a lower cost than replacing large pieces of furniture.'
Pictured: Fluted Isla 2 Seater Sofa at Sofology
Grey living room ideas: warm grey
The warmest greys can appear almost taupe, and in fact if you do choose warmer grey as your principal colour in a living room, you can really layer on different warm neutrals like beige and cream.
Pictured: Holly 2.5 Seat Sofa in Cashew at Sofa.com
Grey living room ideas: shelfie
This is a great example of how to use monochrome accessories in your grey living room. Again, matt surfaces are important here as they make your black and white pairings appear soft and organic.
Pictured: Juno White Vase, Faux Horn Coral and Storage Jar, all at Layered Lounge
Grey living room ideas: combined spaces
If you have a combined kitchen and living room space, consider a grey colour scheme. A combined space will naturally require lots of furniture, accessories, storage, and surfaces, plus zoning, and so a soft and neutral grey can mitigate some of the busyness.
Pictured: Fellini 2 Seater Sofa at Sofology
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