Are Grey Skirting Boards Finished?

Too grey, or not too grey...

In the recent past there has been a lot of talk about whether painting your skirting boards grey is the best look for modern colour schemes.

Whilst in the past white was the only colour most people used on their skirting, we now have paint companies who have come up with the most vibrant or subtle colours you could want.

Does this mean we should abandon grey in favour of something else? If so, what?

Back to the future!

One of the first to really make a splash was a kind of pastel grey that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a sweater paired with a pink shirt in the 80s. It made skirting and architrave more of a feature without making it dominant and breathed new life into this often-overlooked part of a room.

It also worked because, as long as you had the off-white walls that most homes start off with, the grey went well with it and it felt adventurous! Also, if you had a very traditional looking wallpaper or something in the National Trust style, the grey would complement it greatly.

Over time, different shades of grey vied for attention as everyone looked for something that would make their grey skirting stand out from the rest.

The Rainbow Revolution

However, as is the way with everything, and more and more homes adopted the look, there will always be someone ready to buck the trend and go the other way.

Looking for something different, people began exploring their paint swatches with more of an open mind and pairing off other colour matches either in contrast with each other or two shades of the same colour. Even the seventies made a comeback with a brown and yellow combination.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Little Greene (@littlegreenepaintcompany)

Essentially, people were now looking at each room in their house on an individual basis, rather than as a whole, and were deciding to convey a mood, via the colours, upon entering a room. This varied up the limited space in homes and also allowed individuals to experiment with their interior design ideas room by room.

All of these things were just symptoms though. The dominance of grey skirting board was being challenged.

What could happen next?

Invisible skirting boards

Whereas previously the growing trend of grey skirting boards had been challenged by other palette combinations, a new wave was asking the question “Why paint your skirting board a different colour at all?”.

This led to a burst of activity where homes were now the same colour from ceiling to floor. Possibly from dado rail to floor as well, but that’s another conversation

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Little Greene (@littlegreenepaintcompany)

This movement wasn’t necessarily eschewing the colour grey, but they just weren’t limiting it to skirting boards! The search was now on for colours that would work for both features.

The aesthetic benefits of a skirting board, where it played with the lighting in the room, weren’t being ignored either, in fact, the colours people chose were intended to either make shadows deeper and the highlights crisper and also to remove that typical border effect that has so long been associated with skirting.

Painting a wall, skirting and architrave all one colour works best when it's a feature and there's some character or texture you can bring out. So, if you have boards, dado or panelling you can use lighting to great effect here to throw these things into relief.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Little Greene (@littlegreenepaintcompany)

Should I still choose grey skirting board?

If this journey has shown anything, painting your skirting grey broke the dominance of white skirting board in people’s minds.

What it also did was open people up to the fact that skirting boards could be any colour and that has made everyone's lives brighter!

So, while it may no longer be the trend it once was, it is now just one of a number of colour combinations that are possible and the only thing that is bang on trend...is your taste!

Find the perfect design for your home in our skirting board section.