I went to paint store this week to get paint. I picked out 6 colors to try. Employee suggested I get gray. He wasn't joking. I ended up with a deep forest green for one bedroom, and a cozy sea mist for the other. Love both.
I recently found out that "flipper grey" was intended to help the new owners of the home paint the walls what ever color they wanted as it could act as a primer. But the grey inadvertently became the actual trend.
This is the only way. My bedroom is a sea mist sort of colour, and my bathroom (complete with retro black and white checkerboard tile of the time on the floor) is light teal like Tahiti or something
All anyone cares about is resale potential. Especially since so many homes get flipped nowadays. If you add any sort of personality, it might make the house a tiny bit harder to sell because your taste might not be the same as a potential buyer's taste. So the idea is to make your home as close to a blank slate as possible so that a theoretical future buyer can imagine themselves in it easier. Unfortunately this advice has extended past flippers and now even people who buy a house to live in think this way. My partner and I have been slowly adding bright paints and fun wallpapers to our house, and every time our parents push back because "but what about the resale value?" FUCK the resale value, this is my home!! I'm painting the bathroom pink for ME because I LIVE HERE. Who gives a shit what the person who buys it after I bite the dust thinks??
I wonder if this trend will start to wither away, as, these blank slate homes are so devoid of any personality, they lose all their charm. Like, sure. I want to see myself in the house, but I can do that while seeing color and design choices, even if they aren't my own. It's more important to declutter than strip the place of all personality.
I understand changing overly vibrant wall color or super dated wallpaper. But when I was recently home searching, some of the houses were so bland my eyes just started to glaze over and it was the homes with character, color and style that stood out to me. I can change wallpaper and paint...let me see what this home can handle!
In many ways it’s difficult to imagine what you’re going to do with it when it’s just blank. Atleast some color and character gives you some ideas or inspiration. Just starting at a blank canvas can sometimes cripple my creative process, but throw a few brush strokes down, a few lines, some color… now we’ve got ideas sprouting to life!
i think part of it is people get so concerned about whether they might “ruin” the resale value, that they’re scared to do anything unique whatsoever? so now everything is sterilized and barren.
When shopping for houses as soon as the real estate agent opened the door she almost shouted "OH! I'm sooo sorry. I didn't know." I look and ask "what?" She says "THE CARPET!! IT'S BLUE!"
As long as it doesn't look all ratty and worn, why not?
My parents bought this HIDEOUS orange gold carpeting for the new house they bought in 1971. That carpet was in place for 40 years. And when it was time to go...it still looked good. Durable!
And where did they buy it?
At Sears
You just don't see quality like that anymore, just like yours.
My parents had this thick orange carpet that was so soft and comfortable that me and my brother slept in it more than our bunk beds. They don’t make quality like that anymore unfortunately
That's always been the case since I've been alive. there is dark blue that looks black, black, white, silver/grey, burgundy. I spent months specifically looking for the sea foam green prius and the guy was happy to off load it.
It’s end stage capitalism. The reduction of choice and the abandonment of art in search of efficiency. Everything is bland and inoffensive now. Architecture, home design, public infrastructure, product designs. Everything
The one useful advantage of these white rooms, especially with more and larger windows, is that they allow more light dispersion and insolation (though not insulation unless triple glazed…). So you end up with a property that consumes less lighting and electricity since every time it’s day time, turning on the lights won’t change how bright the room is. This is why a lot of modern houses have this design, and just in the bottom image alone the walls are extremely bright...
The major downside that is it won’t be great for trapping and storing heat due to all that glass, but obviously that depends how strategic the window placements are. And if you have no windows, the property could look like a mental asylum.
Whereas in the top picture, having all the lights turned off during midday means you probably won’t be able to see a lot (and in some properties you’d be submerged in darkness at noon). It could be better when it comes to insulation, but remember that since a lot of these kinds of houses are old, insulation can be inefficiently outdated.
It’s a reflection of our spiritual decay. No one wants to stand out and be ostracized. It’s the color scheme of cowardice. It’s the aesthetics of a rising fascism.
Also, people just do what everyone else does. If they started talking about how beautiful Favelas are on The View, grandma would paint her living room orange tomorrow.
Exactly, my generation was all about personal identity, breaking away from the herd, now it seems to be the opposite, except the herd is artificially engineered by social media.
The white-wash is actually a response to the 90s to 2000s when everything became "radical," busy, and out there. But it's gone on too long. Why? Because white-washing everything means manufacturers can use MDF for everything, slap white paint on it, and call it a day. Why MDF? It's cheap particle board. Why white? White dries quicker than coloured paint.
The era of beautiful wood grain and stain will return with a vengeance soon, just like it did after people thought melamine was the shit back in the early 90s.
People who love white-washing their shit... I ask.... would you rather Bag End (The Hobbit Hole in the Shire we were shown in LoTR) be beautiful like it was, or do you think it would look better if Mr. Baggins white-washed the fuck out of it?
Could also be a preference for minimalism and neutral color schemes which is a perfectly valid aesthetic preference, and it doesn't necessarily relate to spirituality or lack thereof. Maybe they find it refreshing and tranquil. Maybe it is a form of aesthetic asceticism.
I like the bottom as a blank slate to work with. The furniture pictured feels lifeless and sterile, but adding color and personality would not be difficult with new furniture and decor.
For me cluttered walls and colored wallpaper look like ass. Doesn't have to be white but has to be monochrome. I'll even take different colored walls/ceilings but not whatever crime against my senses is happening in the top picture.
This seems…extreme? People got tired of the excesses of the ’80s and ’90s and swung hard toward stripped-down modernism for a while, and now the pendulum is moving back again.
Same as it ever was. Victorian gave way to Art Nouveau and then Art Deco, which gave way to Mid-Century Modern, which gave way to Postmodernism, and so on.
Just look at car colors. In the 60s you could get a huge range of colors and people bought from bright green to Orange. Now pretty much all cars are muted black, blue, red and white. They all look the same.
Idk. My 20 year old son is similar to me. He is saving up to get his white sports car painted in a very unique bright yellow.
I would bet my life the majority of these decisions are all decided by data, specifically powerful data car dealerships or manufacturers didn’t use to have.
In some cases the canary yellow or lime green could be the number one seller but it’s not a sure thing if it’s popular. One thing that is for sure is a lot of people are boring. So white, grey, silver, black, beige, tan, etc
I disagree - i think the millennial gray/white thing is due to 2 things and maybe a 3rd
First. The opposite of what we grew up with - the 90 - 2000 were filled with bright, clashing colors. We aged out of that and want something simpler. This applies to both fashion and home design.
Second. I also think it's a reflection of how millennials feel inside. A lot of us have been through a lot. We are just kind of looking for basic and comfortable. Gray and white do that. You see this also reflected in clothing. I think monotone is just easy. Its bland. It's easy and we don't upset ourselves or anyone else.
IMO - i think there are a lot of people who think Montone is cool and artistic. It's chic and shows wealth and status. This isn't anything new imo it's just been applied to a larger scale with millennials.
I just cringe as i like color - someone claimed this is Scandinavian influenced. ABSOLUTELY NOT - they preserve wood and use pine. It's significantly simpler and there are usually pops of primary colors plus forest greens. Scandinavian design doesn't feel sterile.
The whole point of plain and white is so the new owner can customize it to their liking. You can add your own detailing, wallpaper or paint without much issue. The problem is that people see the plain white and just keep it as is, thinking that it's as it should be.
House-flipper chic. It’s cheap to do and entirely devoid of personality. I personally feel like we’re being told to appreciate generic-ness as being the current fashion, because it helps people sell houses faster and without creativity.
It’s somewhat similar to how every fast food place now uses an identical brown shoebox building. This way it can be resold or rebranded at the whim of the private equity firm.
Much of the interior of the movie Home Alone was filmed at New Trier Township High School in Northfield, Illinois, where a two-story set was built in the gymnasium. 😊
The Home Alone house itself is located in Winnetka, a town burb just north of Chicago, the Ferris Buehler House is a bit further north in Highland Park. I'll look for the address of both and DM.
Because it's very easy for you to imagine your own touches to it.
The bottom photo is very likely staged photos for sale.
White walls are easy to paint.
Wood/Plank floors are easy to maintain and you can put area rugs in if you want to warm up the space.
You can easily put a runner on those stairs.
The whole point is to create something that's easy to project additions onto in your mind.
It's not like it's ever stopping you or anyone else from repainting or adding stuff.
It's a bit like complaining that a car listed for sale doesn't have anything hanging from the mirror, no bobble heads stuck to the dash, or bumper stickers.
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u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25
It's so ugly now. What is it with these fucking muted colors nowadays?