Interior Design Clinic
A weekly interior design podcast about UK homes, and what things cost.
Hana and Marcus take one trend each week and work out whether it holds up in a British house. Dulux naming three Colours of the Year and all of them blue. The end of cool grey. Midimalism and the year everyone decided texture mattered. Warm wood kitchens. Period detail coming back.
Interior Design Clinic
Why Grey Is Over: Warm Neutrals and Colour Drenching
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Britain painted everything grey for about twelve years. That's ending, and what's replacing it is harder to get right.
Hana and Marcus go through the warm neutrals coming in — greige, mushroom, clay, chestnut, terracotta — and the green nobody has mentioned, which is up 22 percent year on year and has moved into the slot grey used to occupy. Jane Landino of Taylor Howes calls the palette sun-baked, which needs some translating for a Leeds semi.
Then why grey took hold here harder than anywhere else. Small rooms, poor light, and a country that thinks about the next buyer from the day it moves in. Grey photographs well on a property listing and nobody can criticise you for it, which matters if you're not sure you're staying.
The technique half of the episode covers colour drenching, which works better in small British rooms than a feature wall does, and is also considerably faster to paint. Then material drenching, and the two surfaces almost nobody touches: the ceiling and the floor. Farrow & Ball's Joa Studholme calls painted floors cost-effective and transformative, and most floors under British carpet are exactly the kind you would never sand and varnish.
Also: what cool grey does under northern light by four o'clock in January, why greige goes pink on people, and why lime plaster on a solid wall is a damp question before it's a decorating one.
A box room drenched floor to ceiling is under £200 in materials and a weekend.
00:00 Four flats, four landlords, all grey 01:30 The replacement palette, and what sun-baked means here 03:20 Green is up 22%, and what that number actually counts 04:40 Shades you can ask for by name 06:00 Why Britain took grey further than anyone 08:10 What cool grey does by four o'clock in January 09:30 Why warm neutrals are harder, and the plaster-cast wall 11:00 Colour drenching, and why it's faster to paint 12:30 Material drenching, the ceiling and the floor
Mentioned: Farrow & Ball Scallop, Hay, Sardine, Mizzle and Sap Green. Little Greene Ashes of Roses. Pantone Cloud Dancer.
Sources: House & Garden, the Telegraph, Livingetc, Ideal Home, and the 2026 UK paint guide at getmaster.co.uk
The podcast comes from the Interior Design Clinic app. If you want to see one of these trends in your own room before you pay for it, you can upload a photo of the room and try it in 26 different styles at interiordesignclinic.com
Got a room you're stuck on, or a trend you want us to price up? Tell us and we'll take it on the show.
New episodes every five days. Following the show in your podcast app is what tells the app to show it to other people, so if this was useful, that's the thing that helps.
This show is made by Interior Design Clinic. If you want to see a trend in your own room before you pay for it, you can upload a photo of the room and try it in 26 different styles at interiordesignclinic.com
Got a room you're stuck on, or a trend you want us to price up? Tell us and we'll take it on the show.
New episodes weekly. Following the show in your podcast app is what tells the app to show it to other people, so if this was useful, that's the thing that helps.