A trend towards using grey within home decor has been around for a while, and it is a colour that speaks of sophistication and allows for one or two signature pieces to be showcased.
Design trends are constantly evolving, and people are beginning to combine the different shades of grey, whether that be a soft grey, pale grey or a deeper dark grey and gold.
On first consideration, this colour palette feels like a daunting combination and one that potentially creates a clash of ideas. Yet, when looking to freshen up your grey space, adding some gold accents can be an amazing way to bring a sense of luxury and decadence to that modern coolness.
Here are some of my gold and grey interior design ideas for your living room that I hope will inspire you and help you and help you with your living room decoration and design.
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Do Grey and Gold Go Together?
Before we dip into specific grey and gold living room ideas, let’s explore what the two contrasting hues offer separately and then together.
As grey is a neutral colour, it can be the perfect pairing to most other colours and work successfully as the perfect backdrop to your living room. However, the reason that grey became a signature colour is because it offers a contemporary interior design look, which immediately impresses the viewer with a sense of modern sophistication.
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To add grey into a living room can be as simple as using metal objects such as mirror frames, a coffee table or other items of furniture. These metallic colours can offer reflection and light, which stops the use of grey making living rooms look drab and dreary.
Yet, this desire to use grey while avoiding drabness is why designers are moving to match it with gold. Rather than the cool tones of the grey, the gold adds warmth and richness. The cool grey is sophisticated, while the gold is luxurious and graceful.
While you can have a grey feature wall as a focal point, you can also add some gold touches that pop within the design. Together, the wonderful contrast of warmth and coolness is super hot right now.
Grey Living Room With Gold Accents
Image credit: Coaster Fine Furniture
The success of grey with simple gold accents is that you get the elegance of the gold, followed by a moment of dramatic interest, as shown in this stylish living room.
Imagine panelling walls painted a light grey. Then, you have one picture or mirror over the fireplace with a striking and dominant gold frame. You get the cool elegance from the grey, and then you speak of the luxury in the gold. The combined hue of the two metallic colours can create significant moments of interest in a design.
A Tip For Larger Rooms
Larger living rooms, like the example shown, work better when neutral colours are used on the expansive floor and within the furniture. As an interior designer, you are looking for that one moment of contrast that surprises and delights, which is where the gold accents come into their own.
Adding the blue feature wall not only compliments the adjoining grey walls but also highlights the elegant furniture, whilst not clashing with the gold of the mirror, picture frames and cushions.
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Grey, Black and Gold Living Room Decor
Image credit: Pinterest
Bringing elements of black into your gold and grey living room design can have a dramatic effect. Black against grey creates a cool monochrome feel, which can then be paired with gold cushions or small pieces of furniture to bring warmth.
Without the gold in this mix, the effect of the black and grey would be clinical and dower. Adding this with soft furnishings takes some austere and makes it feel homely.
Be aware mixing grey and black can suck the light from a living room, even with gold extras. Therefore, it is best used in an open-plan space, and the black is being used to divide this living room into distinct areas.
The transition from a black floor in the kitchen to a lighter carpet in the living area can create a sense of flow while offering distinctive spaces.
Grey Sofa With Over-Sized Gold Cushions
Image credit: Amara.com
You do not have to commit to a full living room makeover to make use of this grey and gold colour combination. You can maintain white walls for the reflection of light but bring in a grey sofa that you adorn with oversized gold cushions.
While you get the crispness from the white walls and modern grey of the sofa, the gold decoration of the sumptuous cushions brings the warmth that such a design would require.
The more decadent the cushions, the more of a luxurious feeling living room you will create while being bang on-trend.
Cream and Grey Living Room With Gold Accents
Image credit: luxdeco.com
When we think of gold, some of us envisage excess and garishness. As with any colour, there are many different shades of gold, such as rose gold. The brighter and more vibrant, the closer to garish it becomes.
It is important to use soft lighting and only subtle hints of gold to stop this being the case.
Keep The Gold Accents Muted
Rather than going bright, go for more muted hints of gold within your traditional grey living space. You could have a dark wood floor, for instance, that lifts the glow of gold in your living room, or exposed oak beams with a warm stain could frame a grey living room perfectly.
Throw in a few black and gold accessories for a much more sophisticated and contemporary look.
Equally, it may be just one piece of gold within a living room that will do the trick. It is especially powerful if you have a gold chandelier or other ambient lighting, as this will offer a glow of gold in the living room and create the illusion of warmth in an otherwise cold space.
Gold Accessories With a Grey Backdrop
Image credit: foter.com
Becoming more and more popular in a modern living room is a slice of colour within the grey walls and furniture. Painting the walls grey and keeping the fireplace the same colour is an on-trend and classic look.
However, designers are now adding a thick line of gold paint, using feature wallpaper on one wall, or creating the same effect with gold curtains.
Rather than the subtle use of gold and grey explored already, this look creates a dramatic contrast in a living room and makes a definite statement. It works particularly well where you have a dark wood floor that is polished to a sheen, which speaks of the drawing rooms and music rooms of Jane Austin’s England.
Add in some gold signature pieces, such as a chandelier and a gold wall mirror, and the look will be complete.
Shiny Grey and Gold Living Space
Image credit: wooddecors.co.uk
When designing a living room, it is more about the light and the contrast with the shade that brings the drama to a space.
As both grey and gold are metallic colours, you can play with this light and shade using reflective materials. For instance, using a piece of silk fabric for your cold cushions, or having metal frames on your furniture can offer depth to a space.
Add to this look a silk-like fabric in a rug, and you bring moments of interest all around the living room.
Contrast is Key
The key to this design is contrast – and not only in colour. You need to offer a balance between the matte finish and the shine of the materials. Where you place these contrasting materials will make the difference.
While this is a difficult design choice to pull off, the interest created in a living room by the light that pours in is worth some experimenting with.
Grey and Olive Green With a Pop of Gold
Image credit: Kilz.com
If the stark contrast of grey and gold feels too much for you, then you could introduce some olive green to act as a transition colour within your design.
Olive green and grey is a classy combination and, along with the shiny silver of the legs of the sofa, chair and side table, brings a beautiful elegance to a living room.
The green also brings something of the outside indoors, which is calming for a living room space.
Olive green also combines perfectly with gold. When adding pops of gold in a mirror or a picture frame, you draw out the warmth in the green as well as offer a moment of interest.
A Classic Combination of Colours
Olive green, grey and gold create a classic look in the world of interiors and one that works well for someone more conservative in their taste. It allows the homeowner to feel as if they are matching the latest trends while also living in a space that reflects their need for subtlety.
However, it is possible to completely blow this conservatism out of the water by changing from olive green to pine green, and now the neutrals of the grey help make your green and gold statement pieces sing.
Pale Grey Living Room Decor
Image credit: Pinterest
When people think of grey, they often see a battleship grey in their mind’s eye. It is a colour that can easily suck all of the light from a living room.
While this darker grey would offer an interesting contrast with gold, it would be a dramatic look that would need careful balancing.
A simpler option is the use of a very light grey, which is almost white but not quite. With this shade of grey, you can use much more dramatic gold pieces, which would stand out as elegant and luxurious against a neutral background.
This is often the easiest starting point when testing out a love of grey and gold together, as the subtlety of the final look is more conventional.
My Final Thoughts
The idea of mixing grey with gold is to take the neutral colour and add in some stunning features, such as within the furniture and room decor. However, there is room to play within this too.
As with metallic colours, gold and grey allow you to have fun with light in your space, which can create a beautiful effect.
Grey is looking to continue being a favoured colour for interior designers, so it is exciting to see some branching out and experimenting with warmer and more homely hues.
We have spent a lot of time in our family homes recently, and the need to feel comfortable is equally as important as being on-trend.
And Finally...
This article was created in partnership with Anna Sharples, who is the marketing manager for Sloane & Sons Tub Chairs. Sloane & Sons, is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of homewares and has over 25 years of industry experience.
Author: Matthew Chiappini
