Have you seen the announcement that the Brady Bunch House is now officially open for tours? I immediately clicked the link and saw the photos of the famous kitchen, with its bright orange countertops and “avocado” colored appliances — the colors that make it unmistakably 1970's. It made me think about color trends over the years and what they said about us. Colors with names like “Mushroom” and “Harvest Gold”, meant to invoke nature and earthiness, and tell everyone that you are grounded and real. This was a reaction to the sleek, modern white kitchens with more of a laboratory vibe that typified mid-century design, and silently told the world you were modern. And since every trend has a reaction, when we got into the 80’s, people were done with hippy macrame and deep groovy shag carpeting, and they went for traditional florals from Laura Ashley and Ralph Lauren to give a feeling of upscale elegance and old money. Then of course that look gave way to a more subdued pastel color palette, making every home feel like a bowl of soft dinner mints, and projecting that you were very cool.
In the 90’s I remember a lot of Southwest Chic, with pine armoires, Navajo rugs and adobe clay toned walls, so again we were back to earthy, but a very different version of it where Santa Fe stole the spot light from Miami Vice, in another attempt to show that we were authentic. As we lived through this ever changing landscape of design fads and shifting concepts of how we wanted to be seen, somewhere in the early 2000’s, along came the home remodeling shows, which told us we must focus on resale value! Instead of trying to tell the world that we're earthy, or modern, or that we come from old money, we need to depersonalize because our house would be worth much more if it didn't look like anyone lived there. By getting rid of all traces of personality and painting everything a nice shade of white, you let the buyer imagine themselves living there (even if you're not selling)! Now I have to say, at first it felt like a breath of fresh air — getting rid of some of the unfortunate trends that didn’t age particularly well, but even that impersonal trend was, in fact, a trend.
Now it seems we've become afraid of showing too much about who we are -- are we afraid of being judged for loving colors and patterns? White and minimal feels safe, but it's ok to take risks and choose something less neutral. Repainting a wall is quicker than growing out a questionable haircut. This doesn’t mean that everyone needs to now follow the trend of painting their homes in deep, bold colors --- If white and minimal is you, live your truth! But don’t be afraid to let yourself live in a "sophisticated aubergine" room painted with Farrow and Ball Brinjal, or try living in Silhouette, Benjamin Moore's color of the year because it’s kind of awesome and maybe it's time to tell the world you are a fearless trendsetter!
