The Beige Industrial Complex
Welcome to Wednesday, futurists.
There's a quiet conspiracy in your local Home Depot paint aisle. Thousands of swatches promise infinite possibilities, but actually deliver subtle surrender to economic efficiencies.
This past week, an image made the rounds on social platforms (along with the related discourse) from Realtor.com showing the trend of popular interior paint colors by decades. The trendline, of course, shows that homogeneity hasn’t just appeared in the UX of the eCom site, the profile of the crossover SUV, or in the electric toothbrush; it’s also in the interior paint choice.
We’ll continue the editorial after this word from our partner, Cimulate. Join us for our upcoming webinar on February 19th.
The Beige Industrial Complex
Look at any timeline of popular home colors, and you'll witness a form of chromatic collapse. From the deep reds and rich teals of the 1920s to the marigold and tangerine hues of the ‘60s… by the 1990s, when “Trading Spaces” made its way into the living room, America's walls were already in their slow fade into greige.
As I see it, four forces converged to drain the color from our homes.
First, retail infrastructure. When paint companies moved mixing operations out of specialty stores and small hardware shops and into big-box stores in the late 1980s (Home Depot advertised computerized color-matching by 1989), they outsourced skilled labor to hourly wage staff. Neutrals forgive imprecision. A slightly off-spec "Agreeable Gray" still looks like a wall, whereas a botched crimson looks like a crime scene.
Second, the economics of coverage. American homes have nearly doubled in size (median new builds now exceed 2,100 square feet), and open floor plans contributed to the muted tones. More square footage, larger sightlines = more paint, less drama.
Third, the paradox of choice. Consumers want options, but brands want margins. Paint companies have learned to balance the feeling of abundance by expanding their neutrals and white-adjacent palettes, giving consumers more choice with fewer inputs (like pigments and bases) and seemingly more outputs.
Fourth, media. This is the most important of the four contributing factors. Consumers are more aware today of future resale value than ever before. HGTV launched in 1994 and taught Americans that their homes were future listings. Zillow publishes resale guidance on demand and in your inbox. The algo has opinions about your walls, and you should, too.
This is the multiplayer effect. Enough players entering a system with shared incentives until they converge on a platonic ideal.
The paint aisle is modern commerce, but perfected: Infinite options, but a predetermined set of outcomes.
Just as with the convergence of smartphone design (they’re all shiny black bricks), there might be one ideal interior, and if it’s any one of fifty shades of grey, I’d prefer that Paige Davis keep her hands over my eyes.
— Phillip
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In their view, there is a secret third option: propriety. When one operates under the condition “of being right, appropriate, or fitting,” they are the sommelier of their organization and their audience. Let’s unpack this topic together…
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