Is Beige really back?

Just when everyone has finally erased all signs of the Tuscan trend in their homes, replacing all brown with grey, beige goes and makes it’s comeback. Read on for the difference between the brown trend of the 2000’s and what we’re seeing today, as well as how to do grey right, even as we leave the grey trend.

This is from a project we completed in the spring, in which part of the brief was to take this cold, grey basement suite and make it a warm, fresh new home for our client’s parents.

BEFORE:

Grey walls, grey tiles, grey curtains and taupe floors.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with grey, however, we have recently come out of a season of using it in excess, which is why the ever moving pendulum has once again swung back to warmer undertones in our neutrals.

Grey came in hot and heavy after the Tuscan Brown trend. We were craving something cooler after years of brown and beige (late 90’s to about 2010).

Grey came to stardom as a beautiful crisp backdrop to COLOUR . But what got lost over the years of the grey trend (2008-2018), was the use of colour, and we saw homeowners opt for the grey version of every piece of furniture and accessory when shopping.

Which can lead pretty quickly to a humdrum, gloomy, cold vibe!

Let’s take a look at grey done wrong:

Now here’s a good example of Grey done right!

See how the colours pop against the grey? Stunning! To be fair, this is a warmer grey, I’d call it taupe. So see a cooler version below.

So if you still love grey, then now you know how to do it well! Repeat the grey a few times then turn your sights to 2-3 colours which you derive from an inspiration piece (a rug, artwork, or even a pillow!) In the above example, the artwork was the starting point and the pillows and comforter were chosen from that piece.

But you’ve probably begun to see more and more rooms that look something like this:

Notice the tones are all a lot lighter than the beiges of the 2000’s, they’re more in the land of complex creams than mid-tone beiges. If you’re home is all mid-tone beige/brown, you’ll want to take it to lighter versions of beige for it to feel fresh.

But that said, we are seeing browns making an appearance again, for a deeper, more saturated look. I’ve observed the popular browns of today have more of a purple undertone, which greys them down slightly, making them feel fresh for today.

You’ll find that the beige on beige on beige rooms will date themselves quickest, for the same reason the grey on grey on grey rooms did. But if you infuse thoughtful colours into the design, you’ll achieve a timeless designer space that you’ll love for years to come!

So back to our project, Operation Beige 🙂

We swapped out the grey flooring for a high end Blonde laminate – that is both scratch and water resistant, perfect for a basement. We like high end laminates as they often look like real wood, as opposed to LVP which can have a plastic appearance in certain lights, although we love to use LVP too!

We retiled the fireplace in a warmer tone, and added custom built ins, which always help to elevate a space, and create an area for beautiful styling and good storage.

Here Kellen is working on the floating shelves:

And here they are installed:

Pictures were taken with accessories from our own home, as we wanted to get in and out before the clients moved in, but a TV is to go in place of the artwork 🙂

Again, below was the before:

And here is the kitchen from the same space:

Before:

After:

We also painted walls in BM OC-9 Ballet White in place of the existing HC-173 Edgecomb Grey.

Now this basement suite looks just as bright and inviting as any main floor living space with the help of warm undertones, don’t you think?

How do you feel about beige and browns hitting the scene again? Do you love grey or are you ready for a change? Let me know below!

Do you need help choosing colours for your home? Check out our colour consult package here:

Thanks for reading, until next time!

Meghan

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