Fifty (and more) Shades of Grey
Back in January I attended the KBIS (Kitchen & Bath Industry Show) in Las Vegas to keep up with the trends in the cabinet industry. The one trend that stood out most was the shift to grey as a dominant design color for cabinetry. I saw inklings of this at last years show but this year it was an avalanche. Virtually every manufacturer had a version or versions of grey in every style - traditional, old world, Shaker, contemporary and modern. Unlike past "me-too" trends where everyone had the same color of espresso or white this one implied a lack of consensus as to just what shade of grey homeowners wanted. No one company seemed confident and so they they were trying a lot of different versions. Some were beautiful, some were downright ugly and others were just so-so. Ultimately the homeowners will vote with their pocketbooks and perhaps we will see more standardized greys next year...
...or perhaps we won't see any greys at all.
Why do I say that? In my 39 years of being in this industry I've seen a lot of trends and fads come and go (trends are long lasting, fads fizzle fast). In the 70's everything was practical earth tones, then in the 80's the shift was to easy-on-the-eyes lighter tones (as a revolt against the dark colors). The 90's saw a shift to mid-tones and artistic coloration (glazes, etc.). The early 2000's was a confused period due in part to the explosion of choices (manufacturing advances made larger color pallets more readily available) and the aftermath of the shock of 911. Then starting in 2006 we saw the shift to espresso (thanks to Ikea) and white (in 2013 50% of all cabinets sold in the US were white). And now... maybe... we are gravitating to grey.
We've been here before. On the color radar grey briefly popped up on the screen in the mid-80's and 90's. I saw it come and then, poof! two years later it was gone. And while it has always had a following in the coastal states of New England, nowhere else that I have seen did it endure long. Why? I think because, while grey is easy to live with and calming, it is also the color of a cloudy day and, like it or not, color affects our emotions. Perhaps people walk into their two year old kitchen or bath and say, "Hey this is depressing!"
The colors individuals, communities and nations choose reflect their mood. And while the Color Marketing Group (http://www.colormarketing.org/) dictates the colors that most manufacturers of stock goods offer you (clothing, cars, etc.) when we have choices outside their standard offering we choose the color that best reflects our outlook on life or we choose colors that we hope will cause us to change our outlook.
Make no mistake grey will affect your mood. Initially it will calm you and in light of the constant demands on our time and attention that is a good thing. But ask yourself, "How will I see this color in two years?" before you plunk down thousands of dollars on grey cabinetry.
There is no wrong or right answer. It is up to you. But if you are feeling somewhat overwhelmed and depressed by the world and life I strongly recommend that you don't choose grey because odds are you won't feel this way forever and you may regret your choice.
The best way I know to make this decision is to be able to get in touch with how grey makes you feel. And a simple way to do that is to go Houzz here - http://www.houzz.com/grey-kitchen - and imagine yourself standing in a grey kitchen or bath. Enlarge the picture and imagine walking around in there two years from now. If you like how that feels go for it. If not, look at other tones.