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[Free gift] The Color Recession May Be Permanent - the observable preferences of landlords, homeowners, car buyers, and consumers have grown detached from what people claim to like.
The economic factors the article points out are absolutely real. As housing has become a speculative commodity, resale value is prioritized. Flippers make bland choices so as to be acceptable to the majority of prospective buyers, and people are financially insecure enough that painting their house a fun color no longer seems safe in case they need to unexpectedly sell.
People used to buy things that were intended to be theirs for their lifetime, or the lifetime of the thing. That no longer seems to be the case. They're not only detached from their style preferences, they're detached from their own possessions.
Houses aren't the only things people possess. The clothing world, for women and men, is plenty varied in color.
I don't think you have to have a bright yellow house or fridge in order to be connected to your style. I don't even think you even need to HAVE a style.
e: It's pretty weird how every conversation has become a debate.
Actually clothing trends have steered more and more towards neutrals since the late 2010’s, at least for women in my area (Indiana) and on social media.
Yeah, women have mostly stopped wearing colorful eyeshadow for fun too. They mostly wear neutrals/office friendly eyeshadow or eye looks. Some just use mascara, thats it.
Are there some women who wear colorful eyeshadows (outside of browns and taupes)? For sure! But the majority do not wear eyeshadow in general. I love wearing eyeshadow and sport it every day, but 90% of the women i see in the twin cities MN (USA, in the areas i go to specifically) do not use eyeshadow.
When things become financially dire, it seems tyat people start dressing up in bland colored basics. Theres no money to spend on being colorfully creative.
A lot of us have discovered we have hooded eyes. Zero point in eyeshadow. I love it but there's no upside if 90% of it is invisible in the fold of my skin
This article is mainly focused on houses and cars.
If anything, brightly colored clothing and flashy micro trends in fast fashion clothing prove my point. Color micro trends are possible because clothing is seen as cheap and disposable and low-stakes. Higher quality basics that one expects to wear for multiple seasons or years is often more neutral in color.
The article also is about generalizations in color trends. You don't need a bright yellow fridge or a brightly painted house, but if on a larger scale, fewer people are painting bright colors, something can be inferred as this article is doing.
Your last point was that people are disconnected from their style and posessions. Maybe their style just changed. Culture changes, and on a wide basis. Attention shifts to other things. It does this constantly, trends go in and out. Trends about food, colors, lifestyle.
I don't disagree that expense plays a role, but how big is it? I'm not sure.
My point was that people are (possibly) becoming disconnected from possessions like houses and cars out of a fear they may lose them due to financial instability. The article points out that neutral colors can preserve resale value.
This is an opinion piece, not a sociological study.
I frankly would prefer a brightly colored car, as they're easier to spot in parking lots 🤷🏽♀️
I don’t really think the preponderance of grayscale cars really reflects consumer preference. Automakers have moved all the non-grayscale colors into premium trims
Exactly right. We ended up with a gray vehicle because I decided that I would under no circumstance pay $400 more to have a color. People who do pay that upcharge probably think, what’s $400 over the life of the car? My thinking instead was, fuck if I will.
The numbers don’t lie on car colors though. Everyone is buying white, gray and black. Here in Texas it feels like every single car is white for the practical reason that it’s hot as shit all the time here.
And contend that’s because automakers have configured their trim configurations to make you pay through the nose for a non-grayscale color. Sure the car is available in blue…but only on the top trim on vehicles that are packed with other expensive option packages.
In my household we drive two gray cars. Not because we chose gray, we didn’t.…we’d rather have a “real” color. But we didn’t want that enough to pay 20% more for the car.
I get what you’re saying now I misinterpreted your original point and yes I agree about the price of premium car colors. I still feel like even if they were the same price most people would just pick white, black or gray. I’m actually somewhat depressed in talking to people about color and learning that hating any kind of bright color whatsoever is way more common than I thought :/
What's interesting is that car color diversity has been on the decline for decades. Peak color diversity in automobile sales in the United States was 1972. Since then the number of base car colors has decreased in variety and number.
Why are people downvoting this? Person provided some amount of evidence, which is a lot more than others here. It's so fucking bizarre what people think needs to wiped away from the comments.
Even if you think they're wrong, they're engaging in good faith and supporting the conversation.
I love color and try to get the most colorful version of most things, whether appliances, vehicles, furniture, etc.
Color and status seem to be the opposite of how it was back when dye was rare, and color was only for the ultra-wealthy. These days, polyester and other cheap synthetics are able to be dyed bright vivid colors. Natural, more expensive textiles don't hold color as well. You see celebrities give glimpses inside their homes and everything is monochromatic white or beige.
I think colorful things can be a status thing if it's expensive to get it. For example when I was in high school my friend's dad bought a Camaro and had it painted a shimmery blue/purple/green that changed color depending on the angle you looked at it.
Soulless bland white/grey/beige/black color scheme is also a great way to "subtly" flex that you're rich enough to have cleaning staff to handle the constant, miserable chore of keeping those colors looking spotless, because they tend to start looking disgustingly grimy so fast, especially in places like the kitchen or bathroom
"In the name of protecting property values, homeowner associations ... decided that “uniformity is actually a positive,” Evan McKenzie, a University of Illinois Chicago professor who studies HOAs, told me. Many mandated earth-tone palettes for home facades, and even restricted the colors of street-visible features such as mailboxes, roofs, and curtains. Instead of resenting these limits, buyers came to see greige paint as securing their investment. “You’d want a neighborhood where you can restrict your neighbor, because your neighbor might do something crazy,” McKenzie said."
It’s possible to make a curtain with a liner that is seen from the outside that is a neutral color acceptable to a picky HOA, and then the inside layer is colorful and meant to please you.
Yep, that's how our HOA's deed restrictions are written: any color for the inside, as long as the street-facing side is white, light beige or light gray. And they don't enforce it especially well.
Jesus that’s a depressing quote. I’ve always said that as long as it is legal in whatever city we live in, anyone can do whatever they want to their house. I might hate it, but tough shit; it ain’t my house.
Yup. I might end up with neighbors who think I'm a nut for, say, the wild act of putting a vegetable in the front yard, but if I can help it, I'll never live somewhere they can do anything about it.
(Yes, for anyone not aware, some HOAs really do have rules against things like that. It's common enough some seed sellers have sections for edible ornamentals so you can sneak a useful plant onto your property.)
I love colour. Life is depressing enough these days without everything bland and boring. I look at all the monotone shades of Grey on the street and think it reflects the state of the world right now. I would never buy a black/white/shades of Grey vehicle. How the hell do they find them in the parking lot?
When I travel, every once in a while I catch a rerun of Friends and my heart years for when people had colorful, interesting stuff. I still do, but I seem to be the minority.
It's unfortunate that the market seems to be pushing people into this. I hate seeing Sanitorium Grey in every house I see. It's so drab and dull.
I bought my house in 2022. We've been slowly updating it. Green for my office, copper for the bathroom, light pink in the basement. My husband's office was already bright blue and red and our living room is burnt orange. I'm not interested in decorating my home for some nebulous concept as the "average buyer". One of the things I looked forward to most about owning my home was that I could paint and decorate how I wanted.
Honestly, if you're looking to buy a house and THE THING that keeps you from buying is the paint colour, then I am afraid to say that your lack of imagination is sad. "I can't see myself in it" has become a rallying cry for the HGTVers of the world to justify bland, inspiration-less design choices. And people seem to have abdicated any creativity they might have had to the safe beige, grey, and white colour palette. Good God it isn't hard to repaint a room!
As for cars and appliances: They are bland because manufacturers want them to be. It's more likely they'll sell more of their stock if there's fewer colours. And because buyers and sellers keep insisting on Insane Asylum White, that pressure is upwards as well as market-driven.
I also want to propose the theory that this incessant emphasis on a "clean", "elegant", or "sophisticated" monochrome palette is a reflection of the growing influence of fascism: uniformity, conformity, and detachment.
When we bought our place ten years ago it was (and continues to be) very unfashionable due to its lack of white and grey. The estate agent remarked, as we walked through the kitchen, “You’ll want to get those wooden cabinets replaced”. No, no we won’t. The wooden cabinets were one of the reasons we bought it! Everything we looked at was dominated by flat grey and white. We bought this place to live in, not as an asset that must be transformed into marketable condition.
I'm biased because it's my favorite color, but I absolutely hate how green has been pretty much banished because "it'll make you look washed out, especially in photos."
I'll admit that it can be a bit of a tricky color for pinning down the right shade for a room's natural light, but it's ultimately possible; and even that is because I don't want the room to look like a cave, not because I'm fussy about photos. It's my home, damn it, not a studio backdrop that needs to be #optimized for #selfiemaxxing
Interesting! I attended a lecture earlier this year on fascism and color. The gist was that as fascism rises, color/fashion preferences get very stark, neutral and black/white.
I love color, but I also do NOT love colorful homes or cars. I do not think it's boring to have neutral colors everywhere. Lots of natural beautiful things are minimalist colors. Grey and white are the color of clouds and Florida beaches. The wool sheared off our sheep
Is a mix of off white and grey. Beige is a soft warm wood color. Beige stones line the water's edge of a bubbling brook. Black is the night and the color of my dog's lush fur coat. Why does everyone find neutrals dull or boring? I find them so relaxing and falsely colorful environments to be overwhelming.
Exactly! I personally think the neutrals trend came about as a direct response to our overstimulating world and lack of engagement with nature. Bright colors just look artificial. I prefer natural materials with their natural muted colors. Pops of color can come from
indoor plants, book spines on my shelves, and wall art.
Wish i could afford to paint the outside of my house - would love to see it transformed from the current Sad Beige. In the meantime, I’ll keep planting lots of things that bloom.
The inside, however…. That part is a dopamine explosion of color, texture, and pattern. I wouldn’t have it any other way ❤️.
elle-elle-tee | 16 days ago
The economic factors the article points out are absolutely real. As housing has become a speculative commodity, resale value is prioritized. Flippers make bland choices so as to be acceptable to the majority of prospective buyers, and people are financially insecure enough that painting their house a fun color no longer seems safe in case they need to unexpectedly sell.
People used to buy things that were intended to be theirs for their lifetime, or the lifetime of the thing. That no longer seems to be the case. They're not only detached from their style preferences, they're detached from their own possessions.
saryndipitous | 16 days ago
Houses aren't the only things people possess. The clothing world, for women and men, is plenty varied in color.
I don't think you have to have a bright yellow house or fridge in order to be connected to your style. I don't even think you even need to HAVE a style.
e: It's pretty weird how every conversation has become a debate.
tinmanshrugged | 16 days ago
Actually clothing trends have steered more and more towards neutrals since the late 2010’s, at least for women in my area (Indiana) and on social media.
LaIndiaDeAzucar | 16 days ago
Yeah, women have mostly stopped wearing colorful eyeshadow for fun too. They mostly wear neutrals/office friendly eyeshadow or eye looks. Some just use mascara, thats it.
Are there some women who wear colorful eyeshadows (outside of browns and taupes)? For sure! But the majority do not wear eyeshadow in general. I love wearing eyeshadow and sport it every day, but 90% of the women i see in the twin cities MN (USA, in the areas i go to specifically) do not use eyeshadow.
When things become financially dire, it seems tyat people start dressing up in bland colored basics. Theres no money to spend on being colorfully creative.
SnooKiwis2161 | 15 days ago
A lot of us have discovered we have hooded eyes. Zero point in eyeshadow. I love it but there's no upside if 90% of it is invisible in the fold of my skin
saryndipitous | 16 days ago
Are you disagreeing with the statement "clothing is plenty varied in color"?
I'm not saying we're back in the 70s. Just that it's still here.
elle-elle-tee | 16 days ago
This article is mainly focused on houses and cars.
If anything, brightly colored clothing and flashy micro trends in fast fashion clothing prove my point. Color micro trends are possible because clothing is seen as cheap and disposable and low-stakes. Higher quality basics that one expects to wear for multiple seasons or years is often more neutral in color.
The article also is about generalizations in color trends. You don't need a bright yellow fridge or a brightly painted house, but if on a larger scale, fewer people are painting bright colors, something can be inferred as this article is doing.
saryndipitous | 16 days ago
Your last point was that people are disconnected from their style and posessions. Maybe their style just changed. Culture changes, and on a wide basis. Attention shifts to other things. It does this constantly, trends go in and out. Trends about food, colors, lifestyle.
I don't disagree that expense plays a role, but how big is it? I'm not sure.
elle-elle-tee | 16 days ago
My point was that people are (possibly) becoming disconnected from possessions like houses and cars out of a fear they may lose them due to financial instability. The article points out that neutral colors can preserve resale value.
This is an opinion piece, not a sociological study.
I frankly would prefer a brightly colored car, as they're easier to spot in parking lots 🤷🏽♀️
Xyzzydude | 16 days ago
I don’t really think the preponderance of grayscale cars really reflects consumer preference. Automakers have moved all the non-grayscale colors into premium trims
lilblackcloudinadres | 16 days ago
Exactly right. We ended up with a gray vehicle because I decided that I would under no circumstance pay $400 more to have a color. People who do pay that upcharge probably think, what’s $400 over the life of the car? My thinking instead was, fuck if I will.
Historical_Wash_1114 | 16 days ago
The numbers don’t lie on car colors though. Everyone is buying white, gray and black. Here in Texas it feels like every single car is white for the practical reason that it’s hot as shit all the time here.
Xyzzydude | 16 days ago
And contend that’s because automakers have configured their trim configurations to make you pay through the nose for a non-grayscale color. Sure the car is available in blue…but only on the top trim on vehicles that are packed with other expensive option packages.
In my household we drive two gray cars. Not because we chose gray, we didn’t.…we’d rather have a “real” color. But we didn’t want that enough to pay 20% more for the car.
Historical_Wash_1114 | 16 days ago
I get what you’re saying now I misinterpreted your original point and yes I agree about the price of premium car colors. I still feel like even if they were the same price most people would just pick white, black or gray. I’m actually somewhat depressed in talking to people about color and learning that hating any kind of bright color whatsoever is way more common than I thought :/
Excellent_Valuable92 | 16 days ago
Do they really have other options though?
ReverendDizzle | 16 days ago
What's interesting is that car color diversity has been on the decline for decades. Peak color diversity in automobile sales in the United States was 1972. Since then the number of base car colors has decreased in variety and number.
saryndipitous | 16 days ago
Why are people downvoting this? Person provided some amount of evidence, which is a lot more than others here. It's so fucking bizarre what people think needs to wiped away from the comments.
Even if you think they're wrong, they're engaging in good faith and supporting the conversation.
Stop being assholes.
SeahorseRevolution | 16 days ago
I love color and try to get the most colorful version of most things, whether appliances, vehicles, furniture, etc.
Color and status seem to be the opposite of how it was back when dye was rare, and color was only for the ultra-wealthy. These days, polyester and other cheap synthetics are able to be dyed bright vivid colors. Natural, more expensive textiles don't hold color as well. You see celebrities give glimpses inside their homes and everything is monochromatic white or beige.
I think colorful things can be a status thing if it's expensive to get it. For example when I was in high school my friend's dad bought a Camaro and had it painted a shimmery blue/purple/green that changed color depending on the angle you looked at it.
GamersReisUp | 15 days ago
Soulless bland white/grey/beige/black color scheme is also a great way to "subtly" flex that you're rich enough to have cleaning staff to handle the constant, miserable chore of keeping those colors looking spotless, because they tend to start looking disgustingly grimy so fast, especially in places like the kitchen or bathroom
[OP] Gladyskravitz99 | 16 days ago
"In the name of protecting property values, homeowner associations ... decided that “uniformity is actually a positive,” Evan McKenzie, a University of Illinois Chicago professor who studies HOAs, told me. Many mandated earth-tone palettes for home facades, and even restricted the colors of street-visible features such as mailboxes, roofs, and curtains. Instead of resenting these limits, buyers came to see greige paint as securing their investment. “You’d want a neighborhood where you can restrict your neighbor, because your neighbor might do something crazy,” McKenzie said."
cheesaremorgia | 16 days ago
I live in a condo townhouse and I swear it’s less restrictive than an HOA. Mandated curtain colours? Insane.
FighterOfEntropy | 16 days ago
It’s possible to make a curtain with a liner that is seen from the outside that is a neutral color acceptable to a picky HOA, and then the inside layer is colorful and meant to please you.
sleep_zebras | 16 days ago
Yep, that's how our HOA's deed restrictions are written: any color for the inside, as long as the street-facing side is white, light beige or light gray. And they don't enforce it especially well.
ValosAtredum | 16 days ago
Jesus that’s a depressing quote. I’ve always said that as long as it is legal in whatever city we live in, anyone can do whatever they want to their house. I might hate it, but tough shit; it ain’t my house.
Murakami_Ysera | 16 days ago
The mentality that is required to find this kind of structure appealing is one that I certainly don't want to be neighbors with, that's for sure.
Fumquat | 16 days ago
Imagine being able to tolerate your neighbors peacefully enjoying their property… shudder
saintangus | 16 days ago
The casual sociopathy this mindset requires is deeply alarming.
SixLegNag | 16 days ago
Yup. I might end up with neighbors who think I'm a nut for, say, the wild act of putting a vegetable in the front yard, but if I can help it, I'll never live somewhere they can do anything about it.
(Yes, for anyone not aware, some HOAs really do have rules against things like that. It's common enough some seed sellers have sections for edible ornamentals so you can sneak a useful plant onto your property.)
saryndipitous | 16 days ago
Why?
This feels like an offhand comment that is sinister if taken seriously.
IKnowAllSeven | 16 days ago
My teenage kids LOVE color in their wardrobes and so we end up buying alot of vintage on eBay, Depop etc.
Purples, teals, pinks!
DyllCallihan3333 | 16 days ago
I love colour. Life is depressing enough these days without everything bland and boring. I look at all the monotone shades of Grey on the street and think it reflects the state of the world right now. I would never buy a black/white/shades of Grey vehicle. How the hell do they find them in the parking lot?
Diarygirl | 16 days ago
It was depressing looking online at furniture and finding out that greige is a color now. They took the two most bland colors and combined them.
TheJenerator65 | 16 days ago
When I travel, every once in a while I catch a rerun of Friends and my heart years for when people had colorful, interesting stuff. I still do, but I seem to be the minority.
Alaizabel | 16 days ago
It's unfortunate that the market seems to be pushing people into this. I hate seeing Sanitorium Grey in every house I see. It's so drab and dull.
I bought my house in 2022. We've been slowly updating it. Green for my office, copper for the bathroom, light pink in the basement. My husband's office was already bright blue and red and our living room is burnt orange. I'm not interested in decorating my home for some nebulous concept as the "average buyer". One of the things I looked forward to most about owning my home was that I could paint and decorate how I wanted.
Honestly, if you're looking to buy a house and THE THING that keeps you from buying is the paint colour, then I am afraid to say that your lack of imagination is sad. "I can't see myself in it" has become a rallying cry for the HGTVers of the world to justify bland, inspiration-less design choices. And people seem to have abdicated any creativity they might have had to the safe beige, grey, and white colour palette. Good God it isn't hard to repaint a room!
As for cars and appliances: They are bland because manufacturers want them to be. It's more likely they'll sell more of their stock if there's fewer colours. And because buyers and sellers keep insisting on Insane Asylum White, that pressure is upwards as well as market-driven.
I also want to propose the theory that this incessant emphasis on a "clean", "elegant", or "sophisticated" monochrome palette is a reflection of the growing influence of fascism: uniformity, conformity, and detachment.
othervee | 16 days ago
When we bought our place ten years ago it was (and continues to be) very unfashionable due to its lack of white and grey. The estate agent remarked, as we walked through the kitchen, “You’ll want to get those wooden cabinets replaced”. No, no we won’t. The wooden cabinets were one of the reasons we bought it! Everything we looked at was dominated by flat grey and white. We bought this place to live in, not as an asset that must be transformed into marketable condition.
GamersReisUp | 15 days ago
I'm biased because it's my favorite color, but I absolutely hate how green has been pretty much banished because "it'll make you look washed out, especially in photos."
I'll admit that it can be a bit of a tricky color for pinning down the right shade for a room's natural light, but it's ultimately possible; and even that is because I don't want the room to look like a cave, not because I'm fussy about photos. It's my home, damn it, not a studio backdrop that needs to be #optimized for #selfiemaxxing
Infamous-Round-1898 | 16 days ago
Interesting! I attended a lecture earlier this year on fascism and color. The gist was that as fascism rises, color/fashion preferences get very stark, neutral and black/white.
vegetepal | 15 days ago
The rule is that no-one can live with or stand for a second any bath that isn't white!
Funny how just about everything these days is marketed on personalisation and individuality, while seeming to actively suppress both at every turn.
Snoogles_ | 16 days ago
What a great read. Thank you for sharing!
mountains-and-sea | 16 days ago
I love color, but I also do NOT love colorful homes or cars. I do not think it's boring to have neutral colors everywhere. Lots of natural beautiful things are minimalist colors. Grey and white are the color of clouds and Florida beaches. The wool sheared off our sheep Is a mix of off white and grey. Beige is a soft warm wood color. Beige stones line the water's edge of a bubbling brook. Black is the night and the color of my dog's lush fur coat. Why does everyone find neutrals dull or boring? I find them so relaxing and falsely colorful environments to be overwhelming.
mamaspike74 | 16 days ago
I agree. I have neutral gray walls in my home and the furniture, rugs, artwork, and plants give it plenty of color.
mountains-and-sea | 16 days ago
Exactly! I personally think the neutrals trend came about as a direct response to our overstimulating world and lack of engagement with nature. Bright colors just look artificial. I prefer natural materials with their natural muted colors. Pops of color can come from indoor plants, book spines on my shelves, and wall art.
VarietySuspicious106 | 15 days ago
Wish i could afford to paint the outside of my house - would love to see it transformed from the current Sad Beige. In the meantime, I’ll keep planting lots of things that bloom.
The inside, however…. That part is a dopamine explosion of color, texture, and pattern. I wouldn’t have it any other way ❤️.