Wednesday, June 25

Shades of Gray.

The fact that it's a bit of a gray day here at sfgirlbybay does not reflect my mood. I am not down in the least, in fact I find gray quite soothing and calming. Rooms designed with gray shades in mind are peaceful and relaxing, and coax me to spend the day languishing with a pile of books and blankets. Cozy! I found a bunch of those kinds of rooms in my home design magazine piles. You'll be seeing a lot of what I found in those piles of Domino, Marie Claire Maison, Elle Decor, Dwell, and more this week, if you haven't figured that out all ready - inspiration like this is too good to leave un-shared!

I will, one day, own a comfy gray flannel sofa before I leave this planet!



Gray is a great compliment to other colors, too...a subtle background
that only enhances bright shades and brings out the best in color!


I love the contrast of tough gray slate with pretty, living things.



Add to the gray mood with accessories, like Blanket Wall Covering
from Mayaromanoff; a gray flannel floor lamp from West Elm; and
gorgeous pottery from infamous artisans, Heath Ceramics in Sausalito.


Chalkboards are a natural and functional way to add a dose of gray to a room.


Pretty gray trim looks so clean and fresh as an accent to white paint.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love all of these inspiring examples - grey/silver is my favorite color!

Uncle Beefy said...

I am loving grey/gray too...very much. I totally hear what you're sayin', V. But living in the Northwest I worry about how I'd feel about it in the wintertime...? The couch? Oh, I could get behind that any time of the year!

Anonymous said...

I really, really love the bench+empty frames photo.

Ah. If only I had an entry way big enough for a bench in my apartment!

Anonymous said...

I think gray works really beautifully with cheery yellow accents, too.

Nice post. Glad you're on the mend!

Rose

Jess said...

hooray for grey! i love it!

Stephanie said...

I am ALL about gray lately! Especially with small controlled pops of canary yellow or orange. yum!

Great blog!

c r a f t r a b b i t said...

Lately, I have also been obsessed with gray! I live in the NW and I still love gray. It looks particularly yummy with chartruese green. Thanks for the beautiful photos!

Amanda said...

my boyfriend and i have always been very attracted to gray everything- decor, clothing, we even have a kitty named dorian- guess what color he is. i love your blog and was very happy to see this entry today. thank you.

Dottie said...

i've been dying to lay a nice coat of grey paint in my bedroom. thanks for all the lovely inspiration!

Tracey said...

I also like gray as a soft, soothing neutral. I am seeing a lot of gray with yellow, black and gray this summer.

Unknown said...

Victoria, I am thinking about grey for my new house, the floors will be grey homigon, but I am afraid of doing a sad house, maybe the walls in a warm hue of white, I do not decide yet, but great post for me today!

Stacy said...

I saw the top image when it was in the magazine and loved it. such a fabulous room.

Anonymous said...

something about the color 'charcoal grey' has always comforted me.

i was thinking at first the post was about how the bay area skies are literally gray with all the fires.

SimplyGrove said...

YAY for GRAY!!! My fav!

Anonymous said...

Lovely and inspiring post. I've always loved grey, too -- and, like sanriofreak, charcoal grey is a comfort colour for me, too.

Glad to hear you're feeling better!

Lori

Anonymous said...

I love this post! Grey definitely isn't the first color on my preferences list (I think I somehow associate it with boring), but these are all great inspiring images and I think grey is a great color to combine with brighter colors indeed.

l.m. glam said...

I have always known gray is my favorite color, but I think I will start admitting it openly:)

Anonymous said...

I think when I changed the banner on my blog to grey, I realised just how much I love it. I used to be all about that chocolate brown that's everywhere. But now - just give me grey! My art room, my rug, my new couch, my car, my favourite jacket - it's all grey!! It's like I've loved it for so long, and didn't even know it. And it's going to be creeping into my artwork soon - some colours just look awesome placed against a grey background - I can't wait!!
So thanks for this grey post - it's nice to see that someone else likes it too :)
[www.lexy.typepad.com]

Anonymous said...

grey (i'm australian) is easily my favourite colour ('ou' for us! man, who knew how many spelling differences there were?!); i'm instantly drawn to it like that old foot locker ad where the goth keeps asking 'have you got it in black? any blacker?' (i think it was an american ad that was dubbed with australian accents for us...they do that all the time here, and yes it's as stupidly annoying as it sounds), except it's always grey marle for me...it's so versatile; i wear grey every day, and it goes with EVERYTHING...it's the new denim!

Anonymous said...

That lovely shaggy grey pouffe in the third photo from bottom ~ can't read the credit! Would you mind telling me where it is from? These are very soothing images; thanks so much for sharing them all.

Anonymous said...

I gave it one last squint and saw that it was from Abigail Ahern in the UK ~ six hundred and twenty five pounds ~ so over $1,200! Sheesh, if anyone knows where I could find something similar at a realistic price, please let me know!

agrasshopper said...

Thank you for reminding me why I love grey so much! My secondary fav colors like red and mustard yellow keeps trying to overtake! haha And I am glad that so many cool ppl love grey too because some friends think that I'm acting like an old granny! hooray for gray!

Anonymous said...

This is wonderful! I love the chalkboard...Does anyone know where you can get something like that?

sfgirlbybay said...

The flea market has vintage chalkboards sometimes, and I think Pottery Barn has them.

Jordan said...

Where is the headboard from? I LOVE IT!