I’m weird, but I like colors and real wood tones. It just kind of hurts me to see literally everyone it seems, live in this ‘aesthetic’ where everything is pure white walls and grey fake wood floors. And how this scheme has taken over every home, office, and retail space.
I guess it’s the equivalent of how all 80% cars are gray scale now? (black, white, or a gray/silver shade). Why has color become so ‘offensive’ the past decade?
It’s so bad that I’ve had folks tell me my blue car is ‘weird’. and my home, which is wood trimmed/floored with maple stained wood, and off-white tints in each room, is ‘gross’. My bedroom’s are robin’s egg blue, and my kitchen and living room are an off white yellow. I love it, especially at night when I use the low-temp lighting and it’s warm instead of HARSH. Folks keep telling me how ‘old’ it looks and that i need to repaint everything BRIGHT white and then put that shitty grey flooring over everything. I hate them.
When landlords and flippers get regulated out of existence
Have you ever looked at the color theory of economics? It was originally about cars. When the economy is nice, people buy fun color cars, because they like fun colors. Then the economy is shit, people buy black/white/gray/red because those colors maintain resale value.
Never forget they did this shit to the titular character in Home Alone.
When young people can finally afford their own houses and their own renovations.
People call this shit “millennial core”, but the truth is its the most marketable aesthetic for flippers to sell houses or landlords to rent them out. This is yet another way capitalism has ruined literally every aspect of life.
Meanwhile, at my parents’ old house, I had painted a bedroom so each wall represented a different season, complete with a mural of a colorful tree losing leaves for the autumn side (since it’s my favorite season.)
When a couple bought it last year, they fell in love with it. My old “seasons” room is being turned into a nursery. My mom recently shared a post by the buyer with me, where she said something along the lines of, “Spending our first summer in our dream house!”
Thank goodness no “flippers” ever got their hands on it.
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I am fully comfortable with this style.
Whenever the house color cabal will decide it’s over. I think those trends tend to last about a decade so this one will be over in a couple of years.
When it’s no longer the cheapest option at the nearest store. We’ve been sold on the fact that slop building materials are a stylistic choice.
Part of it will be the ‘blank canvas’ look. When people want to sell a house, they are told to remove any trace of personality or uniqueness. It presents the idea of a ‘blank canvas’ onto which prospective buyers (if human) can project their imagination, saying ‘This grey is dull. I’d paint it blue.’ For some reason, painting walls, say, red tends to lead to them thinking the room is ‘finished’ with the red colour, so they think ‘I don’t want this house. It has red walls.’ You can paint both, but the unconscious brain is incredibly stupid.
The other element is imitation of wealth. Wealthy people have ‘clean’ (can be read lifeless) space as a show of wealth. Many people, especially Western European and American people, have a bit of a Calvinist bent that leads them to imitate the wealthy. Knockoff luxury items is a big industry.
I’m a big amateur of history and anthropology, and as far I can tell, people in all civilizations have been trying to imitate the wealthy to an extant.
The other element is imitation of wealth. Wealthy people have ‘clean’ (can be read lifeless) space as a show of wealth.
This is a large part of it, TBH. Completely clear spaces mean you have space. Lots of large houses have kitchens that are almost barren with cooking tools, because they actually have space to properly store everything. And that means they have a large kitchen. It’s not that they have fewer things; they just have more places to put the things they have.
Also, modern “influencer style” minimalism is actually fairly expensive. Minimalism is usually focused on having high quality items that can last a long time, work well, and can do multiple tasks. And it also means you’re okay re-buying things that you may only occasionally need.
They’d never dream of using the rusty hand-crank can opener that is older than your grandparents. The thing takes a whole 30 seconds to open a can, and your wrist is tired afterwards. Instead, they’ll use an automatic can opener, jar opener, jar re-sealer, soda can crusher, vacuum sealer, and sous vide cooker, all in one. It is an essential part of every minimalist kitchen, and you can have it for the low low price of only $5000. Oh, all of those things can be independently purchased for a fraction of that cost? Well now your kitchen is full of single-use tools that all take up space. Not very clean and tidy, is it? Now all of your storage space is full, and your kitchen is messy because you couldn’t afford the all-in-one tool that takes up less space.
Really rich people give their servants tiny galley kitchens.
I suspect the influencer type wouldn’t know there was more than one kind of can opener. The well-off influencer lifestyle is a consumer lifestyle, paying others to handle work. The person they pay to make the food probably knows all about it, but their focus is on how best to make shocked faces for thumbnails.
From what I’ve heard, wallpaper is making a comeback and I’m here for it. I’m not talking about your grandmother’s vertical flower print stuff. I’m talking all the colors and all the designs. The possibilities are endless. I particularly like some of the art deco stuff. It’s awesome. I tried uploading a photo and it’s not working, so just image search “modern wallpaper” followed by a color. You’ll see what I mean.
This is just my personal experience after many houses where we went all in on the paint…I no longer want my walls to have interesting colors.
Why? Painting is hard work and if you don’t like the color then you have to repaint. Or if you outgrow the color then you have to repaint.
Nowadays we stick to white walls and we decorate with color. Paintings, throws, pillows, furniture, dinnerware. Pop your colors and show your style there.
Honestly I’ve started thinking the House Reno videos I see online are pure rage bait. I see so many videos of people coming in and tearing out good quality materials, beautiful structures with personality, warmth, and color. They tear all of this out and make everything bland, boring, soulless grey and white. The comments sections are always absolutely flooded with people raging about how awful it looks compared to what it was before and the owners responding all smug like “whatcha gonna do about it? Our place our rules”
I don’t think we get away from that until we also get away from looking at the “resale value” of our homes and cars. We can’t enjoy them while we have them because we constantly have to worry about either “turning a profit” or “mitigating a loss”.
:(
As someone who is not a fan of this decorating style, I came across the term “Millenial Grey” it’s a fun thing to read up on to get a handle on why this seems to be the prevailing decorating style. I dislike that it is another thing being put at the feet of an already put upon generation when the reality is, it’s economically more viable to corporate interests and the algorithm.
Yea it’s just the most neutral color, thus the most safe for investment for renting out or selling.
K-economy baby. FWIW I work in residential design/construction and have noticed that more clients than before are inquiring about stained trims, colored walls, and natural materials. Very few are able to afford the cost difference. We specifically try to seek out first time buyers and people looking for “affordable” (still too much) houses, so these aesthetic details are usually the first to go, especially when it’s between that and a whole bedroom, for example.
Exactly. Making it look good, while not doing the standard whites or muted pastels using standard trims is expensive.
You can sometimes find an old home that has a bunch of that done well, but to keep it affordable, it probably looks bad and needed a sand and refinish 30 years ago, which puts a ton of buyers off as they are buying a very visible, labor-intensive project.
