Home Design Trends - Greige

I thought I was doing a pretty good job of keeping up with the latest decorating trends (including colors) by getting most of the available home decorating magazines and faithfully following quite a few blogs and pinterest boards. However, the trends toward "greige" in home decor snuck up on me.

Greige (color) Walls and Woodwork - source

First, I thought I was seeing a spelling error - should that say "grey"? Then I noticed that the term was more and more commonly used to describe "greyish" neutral spaces and fabrics. Today, I finally succumbed and actually spent some time researching the term and the images to get a better understanding of what I have been missing.

Evidently, sometime in 2011 (as far as I could tell), the term started showing up in two ways:

1)  To define an undyed or unbleached (untreated) fabric like linen as in "Most people assume that greige refers to a color, but it's actually a fabric. Greige is an unfinished woven or knitted fabric that hasn't been bleached or dyed. It can be used for upholstery, window treatments, clothes ..." - source. 

2) To define a color which is a combination of grey and beige although some "experts" have a much broader color spectrum associated with the word "greige".  "Over the last few years a new neutral was born – Greige, a mixing of grey and beige tones that deliver a gorgeous neutral hue. Since it is a neutral it can be paired with pops of saturated colors or complimented with varying metallic and shades of grey." - source

Greige (color) walls and trim - source 

Greige Decor - source

SO, it appears to be used in both ways - a look defined by a certain set of grey/beige colors and use of fabrics that are undyed and unbleached which probably leaves them, as seen above, with a grey/beige color.  I am not sure how revolutionary all this is but people do seem to be engaged in a lot of "greige" dialogue to demonstrate they are on top of their decorating trend game.

It is so hard to explain this color... greige.  It just makes me feel so relaxed and so wonderful...  If only I could recreate this - not to much purple, not too much brown, not too much grey..  just the right amount of everything would be perfect and it would be perfect in every light.  Oh and don't forget that tiny bit of texture too.... - source

Actually, I don't care why this image is called a "greige" image - whether it is the color or fabrics but I do love it - source

Well, I guess that takes some of the mystery out of "greige" - it does seem like much ado about nothing!