‘Light gray walls or flooring are popular colors for luxury homes. In fact, gray is the most popular color for bathroom walls and floors across most homes, according to 1,144 US homeowners surveyed by Houzz.

Gray cabinets are also gaining in popularity, climbing from a 10% share in 2016 to 16% in 2018.”

We must turned a small apt that was painted back in my “off-white days” and painted it Repose grey with white trim. Looks like an entirely NICER apt. Rent just went up!

I repainted a unit repose and white in November. Walls were white and pale yellow. It's was ugly. Rent is dropping to less than what a 4 year tenant was paying when he was evicted in October. Still not rented. I've been switching to the gray for 2 years now at turnover. (When it needs painted.)

Big fan of Battleship Grey for :

Foundations, basement walls / floors, front and back porches.

Maybe my Wife (retired Female, U.S. Navy, 21yrs.)

At the big Indianapolis Home Show MANY dealers were showing dove gray cabinets. Similar to Battleship gray but richer undertones.

I asked several and they said half of customers preferred white, half preferred dark wood, and they were showing gray because gray was coming on strong with designers and new construction.

when I look at the dark grey tones in magazines, open houses or on television, I like the look ... but not for me.... too cold and dark.

I am slow to change ... earth tones are coming back ... most of my house is earth tones. Rentals are basically shades of green and beige.

Early on I painted white walls, it looked like a hospital. And prospective tenants reacted to it in a negative way.

Then painted earth tones. Positive feed back!!!

Now use the gray tones. I have used a white with gray undertones, this color picked up other colors in the room.

When it comes to colors...what goes around, comes around.

The old colors come back.

In rentals, off white, Swiss coffee, Navajo white or earth tones will always be my choices for walls - with white trim and baseboards.

I have never really liked the beige tones. To me they are dirty, dingy and boring. Maybe scrubbing nicotine coated walls ages ago got me to that point. I do see beige colors in some pictures in the magazines that I think look nice, but I could never live in it.

Remember when all the "colors" we could get were off white with just a little blue, green or shade. I love the colors that are a bit deeper that are now available. With color matching, you really can get any color on the spectrum.

Brad, thanks for the post, and that sounds right and believable. I've noticed that the color combination of grey walls and floors seems popular on HGTV, local tile stores in San Jose and Oakland, and in local craigslist rental ads.

I think the LL's perception of "nice" is based on age, what we grew up with.

Another article showed 43% of buyers are age 35 and younger. They don't want what their parents and grandparents had - no carpet, greys, blacks, chrome, funky...

Every LL MUST spend time inside IKEA. They KNOW what people are buying. I love to WATCH the young families as they touch the products and talk about the colors.

My (40s+ ages) sons and their wives want COLOR color and MORE COLOR on their walls. Every room, a different deep color. Probably a reaction to the stark white walls they grew up with.

My 30-ish son hates the yellowish-beige tones in his own house, painted by the previous older owner (looks dirty to him.) He and his wife like muted earthy-greyish tones - their apartment was painted in a color called "Rock" or maybe "Stone" and they are going with a grey color in their house when they get around to it.