There’s a big factor that i didn’t see in my skim of the article: painting and repainting costs time and money. In the 60s, 70s and 80s consumers had the money to mess around with colors on a whim. You had the money to buy a new car and keep it in whatever condition you like. If you changed your mind later, nbd, just change it back.
These days I don’t know anyone with a house (of those who can afford them) who can spend money on anything but the safest and most conservative options. Even if you put aside resale value of a home or vehicle, a daring color will probably fade or your tastes will change or it will clash with new surroundings or become hard to match as it’s phased out of stock.
In 10 years I’ll probably feel exactly the same about my off-white wall as I do now. It will look the same with basically any furniture. It might fade to a slightly different shade of unobtrusive white. Why would I spend my limited money to give my future self headaches? Just for a different vibe?
As someone lucky enough to have been able to afford a house, the best thing we did was paint the main level no less than 4 different colors including a bright fuchsia in the bathroom. an upstairs bedroom/bathroom each got their own color & in the other bedrooms we’ve left the colorful blobs & rainbow that the prior owners painted bc they were kids bedrooms.
The basement was out of our budget to paint, & it’s def the saddest room in the house with its off white walls
There’s a big factor that i didn’t see in my skim of the article: painting and repainting costs time and money. In the 60s, 70s and 80s consumers had the money to mess around with colors on a whim. You had the money to buy a new car and keep it in whatever condition you like. If you changed your mind later, nbd, just change it back.
These days I don’t know anyone with a house (of those who can afford them) who can spend money on anything but the safest and most conservative options. Even if you put aside resale value of a home or vehicle, a daring color will probably fade or your tastes will change or it will clash with new surroundings or become hard to match as it’s phased out of stock.
In 10 years I’ll probably feel exactly the same about my off-white wall as I do now. It will look the same with basically any furniture. It might fade to a slightly different shade of unobtrusive white. Why would I spend my limited money to give my future self headaches? Just for a different vibe?
As someone lucky enough to have been able to afford a house, the best thing we did was paint the main level no less than 4 different colors including a bright fuchsia in the bathroom. an upstairs bedroom/bathroom each got their own color & in the other bedrooms we’ve left the colorful blobs & rainbow that the prior owners painted bc they were kids bedrooms.
The basement was out of our budget to paint, & it’s def the saddest room in the house with its off white walls
Maybe rich people did. This is a really wild take and I don’t think it’s grounded in reality at all.
miserable