Grey has had a long run, and for the best part of a decade it was the safe answer to almost every interior painting job in London — flats, terraces, new builds, all defaulting to some shade of it because nobody wanted to get colour wrong. We're seeing that change on the jobs we're booked for right now.
The Move Away From Cool Grey
Warmer, earthier colours are pulling ahead of cool grey this year — browns, softened blues, botanical greens, neutrals with actual depth to them rather than a flat base. Sharps, the furniture brand, ran a Censuswide survey of 2,001 UK homeowners alongside their own search data for 2026 and found earthy tones drew over 18,000 searches a month across the UK in 2025, up 22% on the year before. That's not a small shift.
A lot of London's housing stock is period property — cornicing, high ceilings, proportions that cool grey tends to flatten rather than flatter. A warmer palette generally sits better against original features than the showroom-grey approach that dominated the last decade.
Green Is Having a Moment, and the Shade Matters
Green has stayed near the top of UK interior choices for a while now, but it's the softer end of the palette doing most of the work this year — sage, olive, deeper botanical greens. It reads as calming rather than trend-chasing, which is probably why it works in both a Victorian terrace and a new-build flat without looking out of place in either.
-
What This Looked Like on an Actual Job
We finished a bedroom feature wall in exactly this direction a few weeks back — a deep, grounded green taken right across the wall rather than used sparingly. Colour at that depth is harder to get even than it looks. Roll it top to bottom without a plan, and you'll see patchiness once it dries. We work the wall in sections and keep a wet edge throughout, so each pass blends into the last instead of leaving a visible line where two dry edges met.
Neutrals Have Stopped Being the Default Nobody Thinks About
Beige used to mean "I couldn't decide." That's shifting too. Warm clay, soft putty, gentle greige — these are being chosen deliberately now, often as a base that lets original woodwork or a single bold wall do more of the work. Finish has moved alongside colour: soft matt and eggshell are winning out over anything glossy, partly because they hide the small imperfections that older London walls tend to have.
Choosing a Colour for Your Own Room
North-facing rooms and south-facing rooms take the same green completely differently — worth testing a sample patch on your actual wall before committing to a whole room, not just trusting how it looks on the tin or on someone else's Instagram.
Preparation still decides more than the colour choice does. Filling and sanding before the first coat, protecting floors and furniture properly, two even coats rather than stretching one — that's what holds up after a year, whichever colour ends up on the wall.
The Numbers Behind the Shift
Sharps, the furniture brand, ran a Censuswide survey of 2,001 UK homeowners in January 2026, alongside their own 2026 UK Interior Trends Forecast search data. That research found searches for "earthy tones" reached over 18,000 a month across the UK in 2025, up 22% year-on-year.
The exterior side of the market tells a similar story. FacadeColorizer's 2026 analysis, based on 16,983 previews, found sage green to be the most popular exterior paint colour in the UK this year. The same research, published as their "2026 White Barometer," found that 73% of homeowners change their initial colour choice after testing it on a photo of their own property.
Working With Painters and Decorators in London Who Know What They're Doing as Royal Painters London works across homes and flats throughout the city, from full room repaints to single feature walls. If you're thinking about moving away from grey and want it done the first time properly, get in touch for a free site visit and a written quote.
Connect with Royal Painters London ↴
Contact Details: +44 7561 204205
Our Website: www.royalpainterslondon.co.uk