Beige is more than Builder
“Beige is atmosphere. It’s bisque, it’s ivory, it’s cream, it’s stone, it’s toast, it’s cappuccino. It’s, well, it’s magic.”
Beige for most people is, at its least; boring, at its worst; abhorrent. Drastic right? And the reason for this is that about two decades ago, and still sometimes at present, beige was often used by developers and construction companies as a go-to wall color. Mainly for it's neutrality and mostly for it's low cost. Hence the term "Builder's Beige". The connotation now is that beige is as uninspired as department store furniture sets and plastic flowers in the powder room. Pose the same question to interior designers and you may get a more varied response. Most will likely say that beige has it's place. That it is a fantastic neutral that allows other colors to take foreground. Other designers will praise it for it's elegance and range. I am from the latter school of thought. Despite growing up in an off white and beige home, I can still attest to the subdued sophistication of beige. Beige isn't just yellow, grey and brown mixed together into a muddy mush. Like it's more accepted cousins, off-white and grey, beige has a range that is just as vast. As noted in Albert Hadley's famous quote, it creates an atmosphere that can contain all the elegant colors of ivory, cream and stone. A single cohesive space can be created with the many tones of beige. Like with any color, achieving a tone on tone look can be done to great success with the introduction of varying textures and form. So before I start waxing poetic about the amazing qualities of beige, I will leave you with a single thought. Don't discredit the use of beige in your home. It can indeed be magic.