The inexorable slide to boring neutrality has left us all with beige walls.
It’s official: room decoration appears to have lost all sense of adventure and imagination. Gone are the days of bold and invigorating colour, houses have slipped into a boring monotony of blandness.
People all seem to have collectively decided to all decorate their homes in exactly the same colour.
Magnolia seems to be the universal colour of choice, an off-beige which is so unbearably neutral that it must have Swiss heritage. Consumers have been blinded and baffled by the marketing teams behind paint manufacturers who create an overwhelming illusion of choice. Creative teams giggle like young school girls as they pump out a new name for exactly the same shade of beige they have been selling for years.
Anyone who claims there is a significant difference between “Morning Light” and “Vanilla Cotton” is either being excessively pedantic or overly protective of their own wall colour choice.
At what point did the rest of the colour spectrum go out of the window? Where have all the bright yellows, the bold blues and the deep vibrant reds gone? Since when did colour in houses cease to exist?
A contributing factor, of course, is that people tend to move a lot more than they used to. If a house is not a long-term investment then keeping the colour choice neutral makes it easier to sell. With houses and flats to rent, prospective tenants are less likely to be offended by neutral tones.
This kind of thinking leaves no room for inspiration though. Colour can add so much character and atmosphere to a room, yet religiously sticking to inoffensive bland colours stifles potential. If we continue in this rut, the great colours of this world will disappear lost in a myriad of “Natural Ivory” and “Wicker Cream”.
For the sake of originality; for the sake of inspiration; for the sake of colour… please plump for paint colours a little bolder than beige next time you choose to decorate.
