Brown is the New Black

When I started writing this column in 2008, Tuscan was the interior design trend of the day. That was brown, chunky, olive green, burnt orange, the  kitchen with brick walls, rustic wood beams, and faux-finished walls. We all remember that.

The trends came and went. I’ve seen Gray Everything, Black and White, Farmhouse, and now the current trend of  Modern Organic Farmhouse Cottage, come and go.  This current trend features a shift away from black and white, a return to earthy colors, an emphasis on texture, and a focus on well-crafted, artisanal pieces. Back to where we were, with some modifications certainly, in 2008.

So, really, who cares? Right?   Unless you are building a new home, or renovating one, or changing the curtains because they are too old to launder anymore, these design trends don’t mean anything to you. But, they DO impact your life, sometimes in ways you don’t even realize.

I was watching Maria Killam on her ‘Decorate or Renovate’ channel the other day, and she was shopping for aqua cushions for a Decorate client. She mentioned that they were lucky to find some, because as soon as the green trend gets a firm hold, aqua accents will disappear from the shelves. Because aqua and olive green don’t work together, they won’t be shown together. So the aqua won’t be available.

This is why, when you want to find pink towels for your granddaughter’s bathroom, there aren’t any.

Or why you want a runner for the back entry, but nothing is working with the blue  walls. (Your walls are blue-gray, I bet, and the new greens don’t work with blue-gray; the walls need to be green-gray.)

Or why, when you want to get some new place mats for the breakfast nook, the soft pastels you love are nowhere to be found.

If you were unlucky enough to have gray floors installed, you will find it increasingly difficult to find a kitchen bar chair that works, or countertops, or backsplashes. Or area rugs. Or linens.

We know that the manufacturers of all the stuff we see have been working on this color/trend shift for at least two years.  We know that. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Remember the scene about blue in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’? The colour poo-bah’s are the ones, really, who determined the current trend. They do it based on a lot of factors, but the truth is, we are told what the trend is, we don’t actually determine what the trend will be. We buy what’s available.

Of course, these people aren’t stupid; they look at our society: the economics, the politics, the weather, the changes in social norms, the increase or decrease in disposable income, and base their trend forecasts on that. After years of cold black and white, with an ‘interesting’ political climate, lots of social unrest, and our future in question, who wouldn’t want a bit of soft earthy textures and warm colors to come home to?

I love the look of  warm colors. I don’t want to live with it, though. I look very ill in browns, beiges, and olive greens, and why would I put those colors around me when I know that they don’t work for me? I’ll stick to my colors, thank you, and ride this trend out for a few years till my colors are back on trend. Not that I really care that much, but I might want a new area rug by then.

Because everything cycles. If you have a lovely gray room and you don’t want to change it, just wait. It will be ‘in’ again. You just have to be patient.