Read "The Sneetches" by Dr. Seuss

At least here at Houzz we ask what people want / how long they are planning to stay - encourage personalized decisions, etc.

I also find that getting older allows you to not give a crap about what other people want.

Part of my misspent youth involved selling cars. One summer, there was a Teamsters strike and we cold not get cars delivered from the manufacturer but we could from some auctions / other places - so we ended up with some "interestingly optioned" vehicles. We said "how is THIS THING" going to sell? Well it always did. And usually not for super low prices either. And thus the car saying - "there's an a$$ for every seat". :-)

So - make things your own. If you like it - someone else will too. May you limit the numbers? Sure. Might it take longer to sell? Yup. But if you are building FOR YOU and not for the market - then do what makes you happy. Life's too short for an entire life of colorless uniformity.

Don't get me started on HGTV. I mean, I admit I watch it for fun sometimes but it is beyond unrealistic. It's the Pinterest of television. I like to actually live in my home, thank you very much.

We eschewed the white and grey kitchen trend for our gut remodel and I am SO glad we did. We would have hated it. Now, interestingly, I am seeing our cabinet color pop up all over everywhere (including HGTV and here). Whadyaknow about that?

This stuck out to me:

"Wrong, in this case, has become defined as a decision that will make your home less appealing to buyers, even if you have no plans to put it on the market."

How many questions and ANSWERS on these forums are relatable to that statement...

My niece and her DH visited our new house recently. They are late 20s/early 30s. They grew up with the gray trend being marketed to them and used by all their friends. He walked around my house saying how some of my choices were now trending and that gray was no longer on trend. I have medium brown engineered wood floors ... which have always been around ... but they would never have looked at, because when they did the floors in their previous house they put in gray toned LVP wood-look, which was on trend! The house they bought had all gray finishes and they thought it was on trend and perfect, at the time. I thought it was funny how he thought I was following some new trend, because there is nothing gray in my house.

In different houses I have had medium wood floors and white trim for the last 30 years. I have lightened my wall colors over the years, but have an eclectic mix of furniture and art with lots of color that I have used and repurposed in different houses, so I'm definitely not following trends.

The house I built in 2021 was a cleaner, more modern interpretation of my previous house, which was built in 2000, and was an updated interpretation of Spanish houses built in 1920, so definitely not following the current major trends!

The colour theme of our new build is dark grey and black with occasional vibrant pops.

Behind the times as usual.

Due to the cyclical nature of some trends, you may be ahead of your time.

It's not the grey. It's the dullness, and the "all neutrals go together" execution that is so depressing. It's the anonymity and sameness that's depressing.

What is your name? HU-XXXXX

What is your quest? To redecorate my living room

What is your favorite color? Blue - no Gray --- oh, I don't know!

This struck me:

“People are ripping out perfectly good kitchens and replacing them because they have the wrong color for the season,” says DeSantis. “I think that message needs to change because the environmental impact is so huge.”

We redid our kitchen (and actually whole house) in 2010 and unfortunately, followed the trend of using neutrals and bringing colour in through accessories. Hogwash. My previous kitchen was full of colour and there was no commitment at all to colour in the new space.

We are building new and there will be colour in the cabinets and contrast in the space and throughout the space and we were lucky enough to find a contractor and designer who have followed along.

We live on the Cdn west coast where we are under grey skies from October to April and there will never be any grey in our house. No more trends for me.

I must have been ahead of the times but didn't know it. Younger, I didn't know trend from anything other than clothing and hair and put in a gray and white bathroom. Carrera tub surround. Dove grey corian vanity. What had been there was a tub/shower combo, all fixtures turquoise, paneled walls - so dark. I loved that new light bathroom and I do mean 'light'. I'd had a skylight put in and I've never again had a bathroom with such wonderful natural light. If I could pass inspection in that bath in the morning, I was good to be seen anywhere.

In fact, I'd done the whole house - late 80's - in taupe, dove grey, warm white. It probably wasn't trendy, but we liked it. It's hard to believe that was more than 35 years ago ;)

My parents had a grey LR with accent colors of bright pillows--in 1958-62 or so.

The house across the street has two all grey bathrooms that are very handsome--from 1983.

Like I said, it's not the grey or the neutrals, it's the sameness of what everybody does with them. I don't remember houses looking so interchangeable inside when I was younger.

My takeaway was that is wasn't the gray, it was designing your interior to please some hypothetical future buyer rather than yourself. Recently, that's been lots of gray; in the 90s it was beige and Tuscan with some burgundy and hunter green accents. In the late 80s it was peach and mauve and dusty blue. In the 70s it was avocado and harvest gold.

HGTV has just made it worse since it instantly and widely disseminates any trend and presents it in a way that makes it seem like the only option that will be acceptable to future buyers (or your family, friends, and community).

To some extent, the media drives what is available then, as well. And most people buy what is readily available, not custom, or not even needs to be specially ordered but is not custom. Almost every sofa that is readily available at Room and Board appears to be grey or beige. But the sofas are also available in several other fabrics within the same time frame, if you look, and myriad other fabrics if you are willing to wait ten weeks or whatever. But most people want everything immediately.

It also drives what is available, even as custom. When I was selling my old place in 2010 or so, I wanted a couple pillows or a throw or something for the real estate photos for the one bedroom which was kind of dull. I had a specific true green in mind because I had some prints with a true green or kelly green in them. Do you think I could find Anything in that color in 2010 short of ordering yardage (if I could find That) and having them made? Nope. Everything was olive-y, mustard-y or bilious green at that point. Later of course, true greens are more readily available. Same with other colors. If it's not hot, you can't find it.

I see both sides of this. In 2008 we redid our home knowing we would sell it later. Not planning to stay. So we tried to choose neutrals and keep things fairly simple to please more. I’m glad we did. We built our current home five years ago and it’s a lot of grey. I love it as much today as I did the day we moved in.

As palimpsest says, there is a messed up mindset on these forums about ripping everything out and starting new. Posters ask “Can you help with a paint color recommendation” and then get pummeled with every imaginable issue. Is your kitchen layout IDEAL? Then don’t bother until you have 100k+ to fix it. It makes me sick to read sometimes.

Sad but true. I must say that I am very grateful to the pro's and long-time contributors that provide realistic, helpful and upbeat answers to the questions being asked.

The gray trend lasted around 15 years, so not such a quick turn around for a trend. Builder beige was probably around for a similar time span. It takes a while for it to work its way around the country and through the different price ranges.

Can't be true. I haven' yet seen a "BORING" sign on a wall

I've bought two houses thus far in my lifetime. Both instances were for purpose of having somewhere to live, no concern for resale value. The first one was built in 1982, I bought it in 1991, lived there until 2005, never updated anything. It sold the day it was listed, the realtor had buyers waiting for a house on the street. They asked for a flooring allowance, deal done.

Maybe beige will come back some day and i’ll be in style! i pretty much have always hated grey and it does not match with my craftsman wood. i think hgtv and such is causing everyone to paint over the lovely old wood in their houses and i find it tragic. the real estate agents in my area also update everything to look the same to sell - white cabs, quartz counters, grey walls. even replacing 100 year old fireplace tiles with modern ones that clash with home style. but i guess they find it sells…

I don't remember houses looking so interchangeable inside when I was younger.

They weren't. Each house was the personality of the person(s) living in the house. My closest friend had a house that was shades of blues. Our house was autumn colors. My aunt's house was red/white/blue shades.

Maybe beige will come back some day and i’ll be in style! i pretty much have always hated grey and it does not match with my craftsman wood. i think hgtv and such is causing everyone to paint over the lovely old wood in their houses and i find it tragic.

I agree with you 100%.

There will never be gray in my house. I don't wear gray and I don't live with it.

My house built in 1898 was the only house in my town to sell in 2010 during the recession and it sold for our price. And it was tans, greens and reds as accents. It fit the house.

Our apartment sold in 2016 for the second highest price in our condo building. The one that sold for a higher price had better kitchen appliances and had a direct view of the water. Ours didn't have a direct view. Again the colors were tans, greens and reds.

The only neutral in my house is in my studio with a light beige. Why? Because as an artist, I need to keep it neutral so my colors in my drawings aren't influenced by the walls.

And what colors are in the rest of our house? Tans, greens and reds.

I think if done well, and done so it works with the house, you can give it your own personality.

I admit that I sometimes watch HGTV (and sometimes mock what I see, like horrible paint jobs or fridges jammed in a corner.) I like Windy City Rehab better than others. I know the neighborhoods, SO knows one of the contractors, and mostly we like that she’ll go to Salvage One (cool place to poke around if you’re in Chicago) to find unique pieces to repurpose.

The house next door to me was run down and purchased by a flipper. He gutted it and is rebuilding; growing close to the finish line, his helpers have painted long strips of wood trim white and set them in the sun to dry today. I’ll bet $1,000 he rolls in next week with LVP for the whole house, zebra-striped with gray, black, and white. Dreadful, IMO of course.

But, it’s already sold to a newly married young couple. Maybe they will love it.

The Houzz boards can be just as bad as HGTV in regards to discouraging thinking outside the box.

The obsession and subsequent overuse of ideas like ‘dated’ and ‘trend’ are the problems. Colors are just colors, whether you like them or not or whether they are heavily used in Instagram posts or not. Every color imaginable can be used well or used poorly, and it’s the same with surface materials. Thought and intention and application are what makes a space lovely even more than what colors or items were picked.

The problem is that certain colors become trendy and everyone thinks they need to use them instead of looking to themselves and the actual colors they are attracted to. As I mentioned, every friend's house was different.

The other problem is that manufacturers will latch onto the marketing trends and only manufacture products in the trendy colors. How many of us had a hard time finding anything, but gray toned/themed accessories for the 10 year time period when the gray trend was dominating? I know I did.

Every catalog also arrived looking like all their photos were printed in black and white!. Restoration Hardware being the worst offender with their huge drab and depressing catalog!

So the few people that wanted to be more creative couldn't find anything available for sale, unless they were able to order custom accessories and upholstery.

When you see it in the clearance pile or the discount store its too late but OK for a flip.

The other problem is that manufacturers will latch onto the marketing trends and only manufacture products in the trendy colors. How many of us had a hard time finding anything, but gray toned/themed accessories for the 10 year time period when the gray trend was dominating? I know I did.

I did too. Drove me nuts trying to find stuff that would work with my house and not be a generic trend in color or design,

I also think people are growing up thinking of only online, inexpensive furniture and don’t once much value on it. Of course I understand the concerns that young children will trash it, so are afraid to buy good pieces. Not really sure of that though since that would apply to every single item, plus people are choosing a lot of pale neutrals that show stains& dirt.

Many don’t have color confidence, or décor confidence. Also perfectly understandable, except, where did these skills come from in the “ olden days”? Well, maybe didn’t exist so much because a lot of the nostalgic decor was ho- hum also.

But to the point on custom upholstery — many people can choose from at least a range. But also, could have custom- made SOMETHING to add personality or the ever- sought- after “ pop”, or could search from other vendors & catalogs online to get something that adds more personality , but just don’t.

It’s budget to some extent but not completely since people may spending a lot on other things.

I already said this elsewhere, but I was really struck by Sarah Richardson’s use of so much custom upholstery, including pillows & ottomans. The result was the ability to control the color palette plus some patterns while getting the other qualities needed in the furniture. So, no worries about wrong combos of too warm, too cool, too drab.

The point is not to go the whole 9 yards into expensive custom fabrics ( haha) and labor, but that it can be hard to put together even a good neutral color scheme if you only use a few quick ship/ discount store items, especially if you add comfort, size/ shape etc. So being willing to pay for a few custom pillows or small items would could really make a difference. Or vice versa, invest in a beautiful sofa or chair that lends itself to simpler easy to match items.