There has always been a bit of grey in the world. Grey clouds. Grey Elephants. Birmingham. But all of a sudden, about ten years ago, grey started to appear in other places. On things like walls. And sofa throws.
Fuelled by the queens of Instagram, grey began to spread as the nation’s favourite neutral. Footballers adopted it, turning their houses into grey wombs, the only non-grey part being their Playstation and new copy of FIFA, in order to play as themselves on the long, grey afternoons.
Before long, everything was grey. From Essex to Cumbria, from Newcastle to Somerset. But especially Essex.
Well, now the age of grey is over. I have the numbers to prove it. But what, if anything, can take its place?
Grey popularity spikes in 2020
Perhaps it’s unsurprising that a global pandemic coincided with a longing for grey. In truth, all home improvements took a big rise in popularity in 2020, as people sat in their home and unanimously decided it could be improved. Often, by making it grey.
And not just grey paint. Grey laminate flooring. Grey sofas. Grey tiles. The graph below shows search interest on Google Trends for the UK over time.
But it’s also clear from the graph that this grey obsession is waning. Which begs the question: what next?
Most popular paint colours in 2025
Look, grey is still popular. And, as a neutral, it will always have a place. But it’s not the king anymore. The king is now white, the original neutral. White is the most popular paint colour in the UK. This feels obvious, but for two years, grey was more popular than white. Which, frankly, is crazy.
Now, grey has clearly dropped. Even black paint is more popular than grey right now, overtaking it in 2022.
But what about other colours? Interestingly, green is hugely on the rise.
Sage green and dark green in particular. Although ‘grey-green’, predictably, is still popular.
Blues such as duck egg and navy do well. And pink has been quietly increasing. But green is clearly the most popular non-neutral paint colour right now.
