When did color become scary?
When did we decide that beige was safer than blue and neutrality became the default instead of a choice?
I’ve been designing homes long enough to notice a pattern. As the world became more hyper-correct, interiors started doing the opposite. They got quieter. Softer. Paler. Everything moved toward what felt “inoffensive.”
Beige isn’t a trend. It’s a symptom.
For years, we lived in a culture where standing out felt risky. Saying the wrong thing. Liking the wrong thing. Choosing the wrong color. So people stopped choosing altogether. Neutral interiors became a way to hide: hide taste, hide opinion, hide personality.
Clients would tell me things like: “I want something nice, but not too much ”, “I don’t want to regret it ” “I just want it to be calm”. And calm, very often, was just another word for lifeless.
One client comes to mind immediately. Successful, intelligent, well-traveled. His apartment was immaculate and emotionally empty. Beige sofa. Beige rug. Beige walls. Even the art felt apologetic. When I asked him why everything was so neutral, he didn’t talk about design. He talked about fear. Fear of being judged. Fear of committing. Fear of making the “wrong” choice.
We didn’t start with color. We started with permission. Permission to like green because it reminded him of childhood summers. Permission to choose a bold artwork even if guests didn’t “get it”. Permission to let his home feel personal instead of correct.
When color finally entered the space, the shift wasn’t just visual, it was emotional. He stood differently in his own home. More grounded. More present. More himself.
What I’m seeing now, especially recently, is a change. People are tired of shrinking. Tired of neutral as a personality. Tired of homes that look like waiting rooms for lives not yet lived.
Color is coming back: not loud but intentional. This isn’t rebellion for the sake of it. It’s honesty. Homes are becoming places of truth again. And truth is never beige.
If your space feels polite but silent, beautiful but empty, finished but unfinished; that’s the moment to question it. Your home should not disappear to make others comfortable. It should support who you are becoming.
That’s the work I do. Not decorating. Revealing.
If you’re ready to move away from safe and toward something that actually feels like you, let’s talk.
Written by Carole Vaudable, interior designer.
Carole Vaudable, interior designer, with a piece of artist George Condo at Miami art Basel 2025.