Shades Of Grey: How To Use Grey In Your Kitchen Design

Let’s be honest – when someone asks you your favourite colour, ‘grey’ is very rarely going to be the first word on your lips. In fact, apart from a certain saucy series of novels, it’s fair to say the colour grey doesn’t hold a particularly cherished place in our national culture. That’s not the case for kitchen design though! With a little bit of forethought, the colour grey has a veritable ton of applications in kitchen design.

The Grey Option

As a designer kitchen specialist, our designers often get plenty of questions about the best way to use grey in client projects. Far from looking drab, the colour grey can actually be essential to achieving some marvellously chic designs, and it can be easy to forget that the term ‘shades of grey’ actually has a very literal meaning! There are light greys and dark greys, grey glosses and grey matts – not to mention textured grey surfaces like putty concrete. On the whole, skilfully applied grey shades can give your kitchen a contemporary and sophisticated style, especially if you make use of recessed storage and straight, clean lines. Keeping a mostly neutral colour palette also gives you the freedom to play around with depth and textures, too. Basically what we’re trying to say is that if you keep an open mind, the colour grey opens up a whole world of design possibilities!

Bold, Eye-catching Kitchen Designs

As you’ll know if you’ve even spent five minutes on any of our blogs – or with any of our staff! – we’re big on colour here at Kitchen Design Centre. After all, it’s one of the primary tools we use to express ourselves, and expressing ourselves is most of what interior design is all about. A well-chosen colour palette can completely alter the mood of a space. From cosy and inviting to powerful and impressive, formal to playful – colour has a lot to say in deciding the feel of a room.

When it comes to using grey, we’ve already talked about how used alone, it can project a sophisticated style, but it’s also an amazing supporting colour. With grey as a base colour, you can draw the eye to statement pieces in bolder shades of red, green or blue. The grey enhances the vibrancy of these colours, providing a neutral backdrop for them to really pop.

And it’s not just colours either – grey shades are a fantastic way to highlight materials and give texture to the space. When using warm wood species for example, too much bold colour around them can be distracting. Grey kitchen cabinetry can beautifully offset materials like wood, marble and stone. It gives them a chance to make their own impressions, helping your kitchen project its own distinct personality.

Using Grey In Established Styles Of Kitchen Design

We talked last week about how to design the perfect industrial style kitchen, so we won’t repeat ourselves too much here – but basically, the colour grey is key to achieving that rough-around-the-edges industrial style. In the right context, it’s looks raw, powerful and imposing; exactly what you want for the perfect industrial kitchen.

We hope this blog has given you just a taste of the wonders that grey can do for your kitchen! If you’re still undecided, we’re only too happy to help – just pop into any one of our designer kitchen showrooms in Manchester, Blackburn or Colne, where you can feel free to have a chatter with us while browsing some of our magnificent designs.

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