Four squares containing bright and busy textile patterns designed in the 1950s and 1960s by textile designer Lucienne Day. The upper left design has a taupe background with black, white, yellow, and red half moon shapes of different sizes and patterns aligned along straight lines like stylized flowers on stems. At upper right are white outlines of leaves overlaid on squares of varying shades of green. At lower left is a grey background overlaid with roughly rectangular faded coral, faded blue, and white shapes with tiny black characters (stars, squares, leaves) overlaid above the colors in lines. At lower right is a goldenrod covered square with many square and triangular lines and dots overlaid in black.

Design 101

Midcentury Modern Colors

January 16, 2023April 13, 2023 by Laura Grey No Comments

This attractive contemporary room in midcentury modern style gets the shapes right, but its lack of color is less than authentic—the orange and yellow of the balconies outside are more accurate than the colorless interior of the apartment itself | Thanos Pal by Unsplash

When someone mentions midcentury modernism, what colors come to mind? Chances are, you think of the olive, gold, teal, and orange tones popular in textiles from the late fifties and early sixties. Or maybe you’ve seen so many recent midcentury reproductions upholstered in beige or grey that you think of the era as a time of neutrals. Actually, interiors were often quite colorful and full of contrasting tones and exciting patterns. Don’t let the many solid grey and beige midcentury furniture reproductions in home furnishing stores fool you. Midcentury modern colors were often vivid and varied.

Midcentury modern (also known as MCM) color palettes for interiors changed significantly from the early 1940s to the mid-1970s. Undertones went from grey to white to shades of brown over time, but in the U.S., the period was decidedly not a neutral one, colorwise. Let’s take a look at some examples from the main color palettes of the period.

To learn more about the continuing popularity of midcentury modern interior design, see my article, Midcentury Modern Interior Design.

The War Years: Late 1930s to Mid-1940s

Interiors of the 1930s and early 1940s tended to feature colors with grey or white undertones instead of warmer undertones. Mauve, maroon, dusty rose, sage green, forest green, and peach were popular. Complementing maroon tones with green hues, light or dark, was common. Bright, clear colors like red, true blue, and yellow were popular in kitchens. Many bathrooms built from the 1920s to 1940s boasted boldly colorful contrasting tile and fixtures. By the late 1940s, pristine white or pastel bathrooms that showed off cleanliness became more popular again. However, there were still plenty of unusually colorful bathroom tiles and fixtures. Outside the home, cafes and diners often used more saturated colors and bright lighting to lure customers.

A colored postcard taken circa 1940 and labeled "The Falcon Room. Hotel Mellen, Fall River, Mass." The image is a painting of the dining room, which features midcentury modern tables, chairs, and booths in shades of red, yellow, and blue all placed on a red, yellow, and blue checked floor. Columns placed roudn the room are blue on the bottom, pink in the middle, and white on top, which matches the pink, white, and blue checked floor on the entryway to the Falcon Room, seen at right. An upright piano is against the wall at left, and blue booths, each with its own tall silver metal coatrack attached to each booth, line the back wall. The booths near the center have tall red backs, chrome arms and trim, and adjoin a chrome-trimmed blue half-wall at right. The free-standing two-top tables in the center have round and rectangular blue tops, and chrome legs or pedestals. They're flanked by bent chrome armed chairs with red seats and yellow backs. — Hotel Mellen’s Falcon Room, Fall River, MA, circa 1940

A long pale wooden bar at right is covered with medium blue linoleum, which is also used on the tables of freestanding tables in the room's center and in booths at left. Booths, chairs, and stools are upholstered in matching blue vinyl. The floor is covered in a brown and beige patatern of small squares and rectangles with black outlines, probably linoleum squares. The walls are painted in a lighter version of the blue on seats and counters. Wood trim on the counters, tables, and seats is pale, perhaps maple or clear pine. The back counter at far right is covered in mixers and other soda fountain accessories. — Hotel Mellen’s Falcon Room, Fall River, MA, circa 1940

Indoor lighting was dimmer than we’re used to. Many rooms lacked overhead lighting. As a result, people relied more on table and floor lamps in living rooms and bedrooms. Table lamps were often quite sculptural and colorful. But that didn’t mean people necessarily left walls white to create brighter interiors. Many homes had dark or colorful wallpaper. Walls of light to medium green with dark wood baseboards and furniture were also popular.

MCM style spread slowly before the 1950s

The sleek lines and lighter-toned woods we associate with MCM style didn’t take over from more traditional wood furnishings until the 1950s. After a ten-year depression and four years at war, people of the U.S. didn’t have money to spend on new furniture. Some furniture companies had shut down during the war and had to retool. When they went back into production, they started by producing pieces in their existing styles from the early forties. Mostly, people continued to make do with older, usually darker woods until the economy had thoroughly rebounded and they could afford more modern pieces. So midcentury modern style took a few years to really ramp up after the war.

The post-war baby and housing booms eventually led to a need for lots of new homes and furniture. However, it took a few years for the sleeker modern shapes imported from Europe to really take hold in the U.S. When they did, the palette of midcentury modern colors shifted as well.

Late 1940s & Early 1950s

In the forties, pure white kitchens with red accents (or dark green trim) were common. Accent colors decorated countertops, wallpaper, canisters, and small appliances. By the early fifties, there was a vogue for kitchens with pastel wood or metal cabinets, floors, and appliances. Soft yellow, pink, or turquoise kitchens felt bright and lively. Pastel tiles and fixtures—oh, so many pink tiles!—were also popular in bathrooms.

A kitchen with white metal cabinets and blue-grey countertops and walls. The back wall has a window framed with ruffled curtains and built-in shelves and cabinets. The insides of the cabinets are painted blue. The floor is burgundy linoleum. A rectangular light-wood table with six chairs is under the window. — Passthrough cutouts between kitchens other rooms were popular in midcentury homes. Later open plans made them less necessary, but in the 1940s they opened up kitchens to the rest of the home

A small kitchen with bold yellow walls and upper cabinets includes white metal cabinets and appliances, a small in-kitchen table with dark wooden chairs, and a sideboard and hanging display shelf on the wall at left. The floor looks like dark burgundy-red tile. — Passthrough cutouts between kitchens other rooms were popular in midcentury homes. Later open plans made them less necessary, but in the 1940s they opened up kitchens to the rest of the home

Lively wallpapers were nothing new in the 1940s. However, vibrant Scandinavian wallpaper in fantastical botanical designs by Josef Frank were different from standard wallpaper designs. Svenkst Tenn’s modern reissues of Frank’s designs still look utterly fresh and contemporary today, rivaling the wildly popular botanical wallpaper designs by favorite design sources like Rifle Paper Company.

Colors popular in the 1940s were often clear, with bright undertones. Because home decor was considered the domain of women, pink abounded. Pink walls and ruffled sheer curtains were common in bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, and formal living and dining rooms. More tailored decor reigned in dens, basements, and family rooms. In the early 1950s, colors and patterns loosened up, and decor became more casual throughout the home.

MCM wasn’t the only popular style

While midcentury modern style is what we tend to think of when we think of the 1950s and 1960s, it had heavy competition. The style known as Early American (or Colonial, or Colonial Revival) was well established by the 1940s. It continued to sell well right up through the seventies, and some of its shapes have never really gone out of style.

Early American furniture and associated decor was based on traditional New England style—think Chippendale tables and chairs, highboy chests, Windsor chairs with curvy spindles, braided oval rugs, and Colonial-style brass candlesticks and chandeliers. Colonial furniture often has dark walnut or dark reddish cherry stained finishes. These darker pieces are nowadays referred to as “brown furniture,” and they’ve been largely out of fashion since the 1990s. However, brown furniture is starting to make a comeback. While not currently hot in the way the sleeker, paler midcentury modern designs are, Early American designs are often classics that fit well with traditional home styles.

If you like Early American shapes but not their dark woods, they can look great painted in black, white, or even bold colors. (I love a painted Chippendale highboy in a matte teal or a lacquered red finish myself.) Lots of modern furniture restorers love finding deals on outdated Colonial as well as MCM desks, dressers, and bedside tables, then refinishing them. They often restore old brown furniture by painting it in vibrant colors that make it instantly bold and fresh.

A boxy sofa with a carefully tailored floral slipcover with pink gladioli and burgundy piping is the star at the center. Behind the sofa are venetian blinds over a window flanked by lacy sheer curtains and two matching drop-leaf side tables topped by matching lamps with cylindrical clear glass bases and pink cylindrical shades. Next to each lamp is an ash tray and a plant. In front of the sofa is a low, small, rectangular coffee table topped with a porcelain tea set. — During the forties, living rooms were often balanced and formal in design. These rooms tend more toward Early American than MCM, but their colors were popular for both styles. Note the matching curtains and upholstery, and the pairs of tables, chairs, and lamps. Matching pieces were seen as tasteful, and they were a way to signal wealth and success—they proved that one could afford to buy a whole set at one time (All images from the Ladies’ Home Journal, 1948)

This living room is full of busy pattern and color, but manages to give an airy feeling thanks to the lattice-like wallpaper featuring white squares with recessed grey blocks, evoking a garden enclosure. The green painted furnishings and accessories and red chairs and cushions echo the red flowers on the window sill.a — During the forties, living rooms were often balanced and formal in design. These rooms tend more toward Early American than MCM, but their colors were popular for both styles. Note the matching curtains and upholstery, and the pairs of tables, chairs, and lamps. Matching pieces were seen as tasteful, and they were a way to signal wealth and success—they proved that one could afford to buy a whole set at one time (All images from the Ladies’ Home Journal, 1948)

Mid-1950s – Mid-1960s

Kitschy patterns like boomerangs, starbursts, rockets, and atomic symbols showed up around the mid-1950s. Sometimes they appeared in large swaths on linoleum or vinyl floors, kitchen counters, or curtains. At first, patterns used chalky white with pastel or vivid colors. These included baby blue, bright turquoise, pure orange, peony pink or pale pink, or a slightly greyed version of yellow. They were often outlined in pure black, so patterns popped.

Autumn colors hit the big time

Photo of an open-concept living room in early 1960s style. At left is a grand piano. At center left are two sets of sliding glass doors with a waterfront view with skyscrapers in the far distance. At center is a sofa with a coffee table, end tables, and easy chairs facing each other. At right is a large curved modular sofa facing a large fireplace. The ceiling is a low A-frame with many large beams supporting a long central beam. Colors throughout are textured beige-grey neutrals with dark furniture and a grey wall-to-wall carpet. — *A subtly colored model home featuring muted blues, beige, and grey | New York World’s Fair, 1964 | Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain*)

By the mid-fifties, the crisp colors of the early 1950s had largely made way for browner hues. These were considered more sophisticated and closer to nature. Until the 1960s, kitchens were often the exception to this transition. They were expected to look sparkling clean—whites and crisp colors made them feel fresher. Classic midcentury modern colors—golds, oranges, browns, greens, and beiges (in addition to greys, blues, greens, and blue-greens)—were more popular in the rest of the home.

MCM rooms of the fifties and sixties often combined warm and cool colors to create energizing contrasts. During the matchy-matchy forties, rooms often used the same color or pattern throughout. By the fifties, mixing colors of the same intensity in a room felt more modern and casual. Blues were often paired with caramel or goldenrod yellow. Turquoise frequently danced with orange. Olive green and grey created a cool vibe, like moss growing on a riverside stone. Mixed cool and warm hues balanced each other out, and made rooms feel lively.

A bedroom with many sleek rectangular elements, crisp coral-colored, piped bedspread, matching dresser, desk, and bed suite, tropical curtains, and grasscloth wallpaper — Left: A bedroom of the late forties featuring a sleek matched suite of furniture, bold leafy curtains, soft coral twin bedspreads, and textured wallpaper. Shapes are similar, coordinated, and precise. Right: A Danish modern dining room in the more relaxed style of the 1960s. It features Danish teak furniture, a bold geometric area rug in multiple green hues, and a goldenrod-yellow tablecloth | Left: Ladies’ Home Journal, 1948. Right: Tidens Samling Museum | Leif Jørgensen (CC BY-SA 4.0) | *Both via Wikimedia Commons*

A museum exhibit that reproduces a 1960s Danish dining room complete with Danish modern table (covered in a goldenrod yellow tablecloth_ and four side chairs and a coordinating credenza/sideboard and side table. On the table are Danish plates, glasses, flatware, and ceramic candleholders. On the credenza are various glass, caved wood, and ceramic decor elements. The star is the vibrant area rug under the table and chairs in four shades of green from lime to olive to forest. The rug pattern has unevenly spaced undulating rows of squared off shapes. — Left: A bedroom of the late forties featuring a sleek matched suite of furniture, bold leafy curtains, soft coral twin bedspreads, and textured wallpaper. Shapes are similar, coordinated, and precise. Right: A Danish modern dining room in the more relaxed style of the 1960s. It features Danish teak furniture, a bold geometric area rug in multiple green hues, and a goldenrod-yellow tablecloth | Left: Ladies’ Home Journal, 1948. Right: Tidens Samling Museum | Leif Jørgensen (CC BY-SA 4.0) | *Both via Wikimedia Commons*

The mid-to-late 1950s

A vibrantly colored photo from the 1950s of a hotel lobby in Miami Beach, FL. At the center is a circular turquoise vinyl upholstered padded bench with a pagoda-like structure built on top of it. Coral vinyl arm chairs dot the lobby, and wooden benches with vaguely Chinese-like coral and gold medallion applied decoration. The back wall full of windows covered in shades is framed in beams and posts painted turquoise. Amber glass rounded lanterns with pointed bottoms hang around the lobby, and coral-stained beams crisscross the high wooden ceiling. Seventeen people are seated or walking around the lobby, including a woman walking down the floating staircase at left. — *Contrast was a hallmark of MCM design | Castaways Oceanfront Hotel in Miami Beach | 1950s Unlimited for Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)*

As the 1950s progressed, pastels became less popular, and more earth tones entered the palette. Coral, goldenrod, and cocoa where everywhere. Fifties interior design palettes also included green-based blues. These went from light turquoise in the early 1950s, to darker teal by the early 1960s. There was always interest in true blues (i.e., blues without green) and midrange greys. These were often used to contrast with warm golden or orange colors.

Baby blue might appear in bathrooms or bedrooms, but medium true blue was more common among later MCM colors, especially in upholstery. Greens remained common in the 1950s and 1960s. While clear minty pastels and dark forest greens were more common in the 1940s, yellow-greens were popular from the 1950s to the 1970s. Sage (a greyish pale green) was used throughout the period.

A painting of a vibrant kitchen features an array of linoleum-covered kitchen cabinets in brown, gold, turquoise, purple, and white. The linoleum floor features long thin stripes of black, grey and white with short horizontal stripes in the bright colors found on the cabinet doors above. — The MCM openness to new shapes, textures, materials, and colors led to this wild combo featured in an ad for Jackstraw Gold Seal Inlaid Linoleum, 1954 | 1950s Unlimited for Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

The more long-lasting interior design color palettes we associate with the late 1950s to mid-1960s included many greens. These included olive, darker avocado, yellowy spring green, sage, and celery. Other popular colors during this period including goldenrod, teal, orange shades from faded coral to tangerine, blue-grey, brick red, and soft pink.

Heathered grey, tweedy fabrics similar to men’s suiting fabrics appeared on a lot of office furniture. Midrange blues and greys were staple colors of office upholstery as well.

Homes were anything but colorless

A view of a boxed-in midcentury hotel room in Brazil, circa 1965. At the back is a window showing a view of high-rise buildings in the distance. In front of the window (which is flanked by beige sheer curtains) is a low round coffee table on an olive green area rug topped with four boxy, wooden, squared-off midcentury modern armchairs with leather seats. Closer to the photographer at left is a long simple rectangular console table upholstered in a simulated alligator hide and topped with a large glass bowl filled with long curvy branches. In front of the console are two low carved round wooden stools. The ceiling above is low. At right is a wall with a dramatic, deep, horizontal passthrough lined with blood-red marble. — *Earthy and neutral shades decorate this room in the Hotel da Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, circa 1965 | Paul R. Burley | Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)*

By the late 1950s, high-end Scandinavian designers had influenced the U.S. market. They emphasized texture, highlighting artisanal skill in ceramic and glass elements, and letting wood tones speak for themselves. Letting color and pattern do all the heavy lifting was passé. Homes were airier and brighter. Colors were usually less saturated and dark than they had been in homes of the 1940s. But even in sophisticated homes, color on walls and upholstery was the norm, not the exception.

Since about 2010, midrange grey has become a popular color for reproductions of MCM furniture. However, neutral upholstery was less common during the midcentury period. Back then, sofas and chairs wore dark olive, forest green, teal, maroon, harvest gold, medium blue, or burnt orange upholstery. Leather seating was often dyed caramel brown or black. Grey was just one option out of many, and wasn’t the default.

Bold prints made grand statements

A hotel room with peachy walls and beige carpet with long thin dark stripes in it holds two full beds with bright orange thin coverlets and low wood headboards at right. Two wood-framed armcharirs with thin rectangular brown cushions sit at either end of the room. The curtains on the back wall are cream colored with black, beige, and brown midcentury geometric patterns. A prit with people walking on a beige road hangs over one of the beds. At left is a desk with a midcentury wooden side chair with a black vinyl seat. A portable TV sits on the desk. — MCM in a nutshell—wood-framed chairs in simple shapes, graphic and geometric curtain textiles, an array of browns, and two juicy tangerine bedspreads decorate the Allenwood Motel, Allentown, PA, 1965 | Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

Chairs and sofas were often upholstered in printed fabrics or brocades. Nowadays, we worry about patterns or colors going out of fashion. We tend to avoid big color commitments, opting for neutral walls and furniture to be safe and make resale easier. “Safe” was definitely not the byword of midcentury design.

Showrooms full of MCM reproductions nowadays mislead buyers into thinking this is how midcentury homes looked. They were rarely monochromatic. While fully neutral rooms were favored by some early modernist designers of the 1920s and 1930s, most people even then preferred more color and pattern in their homes. Colorful accents were seen as more homey, comfortable, and welcoming. Even the homes and offices of major MCM designers like Arne Jacobsen and Frank Lloyd Wright, who embraced neutrals and emphasized wood, show that they used and enjoyed color and pattern in their own lives.

Textiles & wallpaper told stories

Four squares showing samples of 1950s-style wallpapers. Upper left: White leaves surrounded by atomic shapes on a pale turquoise background. Upper right: Geometric shapes in teal, turquoise, and grey on a white background are covered by black lines, circles and squiggles. Lower left: A simulation of a wooden room divider with shelves and wooden drawers built into it appears to hold a toy ship, a bottle of chianti, a pendant, a book,a vase with flowrs, a lamp, toy horses and roosters. Lower right: A white square appears splattered with paint, Jackson Pollack-style. Splatters are in black, peach, and mustard. — *Love MCM wallpapers? Indulge in a few of Bradbury & Bradbury’s exciting 1950s-style reproductions | Bradbury.com*

Printed textiles were big in the fifties and sixties. While some now look dated, many patterns from this period still look fresh and appealing today. Looking for midcentury-style prints and patterns for furniture, curtains, pillows, or runners? Print-on-demand textile companies like Spoonflower print new, vintage-style patterns on many types of fabrics, including upholstery fabrics.

Patterned wallpaper was also popular. Popular motifs included Western themes for kids’ rooms, nautical motifs for dens, and flowers or spice racks in kitchens. Fuzzy flocked wallpapers sometimes showed up in hallways or bedrooms.

Bold, oversized patterns by the Finnish design house Marimekko first appeared in 1951. They still make wonderful midcentury modern statement pieces with a number of the patterns they originally created in the 1950s and 1960s. These add great excitement and style when used around the home, especially in curtains, runners, throw pillows, or bedspreads.

Money-saving tip: Marimekko fabrics can be expensive, but even a novice at sewing can repurpose a vivid sheet or duvet cover to create curtains or throw pillows. I’ve recently seen sheets in some of their more popular patterns at discount prices at stores like HomeGoods and Macy’s.

Late 1960s – Early 1970s

During the 1960s, midcentury modern colors in home interiors tended to be bolder and more saturated. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, synthetic fabrics and furniture materials became more popular. Vivid synthetic upholstery fabric and glossy vinyls and plastics began showing up on home furnishings.

Marimekko's iconic Unikko pattern features large red flowers with orange center (and tiny black ovals in their centers) on a white background. — *Marimekko’s iconic Unikko (that’s “Poppy” in Finnish) was designed in 1964 and is still the company’s flagship pattern | Marimekko*

While clothing colors of the late 1960s and 1970s ran the gamut from drab to bright to earthy, home interiors tended toward warm autumny colors. Of course, there were brilliant exceptions. Look at British clothing designer Mary Quant’s vibrant pink, red, and silver extravaganza, designed by Marion Best in 1967. People with pop art sensibilities and a love for all things mod incorporated bright color, shimmering metallics, and rounded, glossy plastic pieces into their homes. Interior decor colors became more intense as the 1970s neared. But across the U.S., roughly carved, blocky, and dark Mediterranean-style furniture took over from the smoother, paler, simpler Scandinavian style. Colors with brown undertones, dark wooden paneling, and dark brown furniture made early seventies’ interiors broodier. By the mid-seventies, the organic shapes, smooth natural materials, and airier Scandi-infused style so popular in the early 1960s were things of the past.

Earth, sky & sun—the colors of the seventies

By the early seventies, late midcentury modern colors were mostly brown-based—shades of goldenrod, olive, rust, or chocolate. Oranges of all sorts had a major moment, from bright tangerine to burnt orange to rusty reddish-brown. Browns in milk chocolate and dark chocolate shades were everywhere. Mustard and “harvest gold” furniture, carpeting, wallpaper, bedding, and upholstered furniture were all the rage. Latch-key kids opened cans of Spaghetti-Os in fluorescent-lit yellow kitchens with bold oversized floral wallpaper. My mom made macrame wall decor and plant hangers for our family room, and hung a big, bold print of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers over the mantel, picking up the golden yellow of the wallpaper and the striped velvet sofa.

A 1970s hotel room with white walls, olive green shag carpeting, dark wood headboards, dresser, and bedside chest, a boxy red upholstered arm chair, and matching quilted bedspreads and curtains with a large red and pink floral pattern with olive green leaves on a white background. — Brown’s Hotel, Fallsburg, NY

A hotel room of the 1970s covered in dark wood paneling on the walls, with bright gold, white, and brown quilted bedspreads and curtains, a burgundy-brown shag carpet, boxy yellow maple headboards, bedside chest, and dresser, yellow vinyl armchairs next to a small pedestal table by the window, and a portable TV on a metal rolling TV cart. — Brown’s Hotel, Fallsburg, NY

Even during the earth-tone-loving 1970s, blues were always in fashion, but the particular hues and saturation varied over time. From the late sixties through the seventies, home decor tended to include midrange true blues instead of the greenish-blues of the fifties and sixties.

But all trends must end. The long midcentury love affair with warm tones eventually petered out. By the early 1980s, cooler colors like mauve, soft pink, teal, and turquoise came back into vogue. Pastels were set off by bold black accents, giving them a New Wave edge. Brown had at last left town.

The rise of synthetic fabrics

Colorful patterns and textured fabrics were popular on furniture by the late 1960s and into the 1970s. By this point, upholstery was often woven of synthetic fibers that resisted staining or fading. Imagine a bold living room with a rust-colored shag carpet, an armchair fully upholstered in orange and gold floral brocade, and a striped velvet recliner in three shades of olive. That, my friend, was the living room of my early childhood—and it was oh, so stylish for its time. At least that fabric was soft; my stepdad’s Herculon olefin sofa in an oversized brown-on-cream plaid was so scratchy, its arms made my elbows itch. But that upholstery was 100% waterproof—you could spill a whole cup of Hawaiian Punch on it without a worry. Nothing could stain that ugly couch.

Shiny textured vinyl or corduroy-covered beanbag chairs in brown, gold, white, black, or blue dotted family rooms across the land in the seventies. Lumpy brown sofas, chairs, and ottomans covered in Naugahyde fake leather made squishy sounds as people plopped into them to watch The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch. Vinyl, plastic, nylon, and other synthetics replaced natural materials all over the house. And yes, the tackiness factor was off the charts.

What Colors Make You Feel Most at Home?

A brightly decorated contemporary living room features vintage midcentury furnishings. Featured are a royal blue vinyl sofa, orange shag rug, glass-topped kidney-shaped coffee table, and tall wooden entertainment center wall unit. — *This contemporary mix of fun vintage and modern repro midcentury pieces makes the most of the era’s energetic colors, shapes, and textures | Jens Behrmann for Unsplash*

Midcentury designers created plenty of colorful and patterned furniture. But modern tastes vary. After years of seeing neutral rooms all over websites, showrooms, and TV shows, color is back. Interior designers and retailers showcase bolder paint, fabric, and wall coverings. Greens, lavenders, pinks, and oranges are named colors of the year. But what if you prefer neutral home decor?

Perhaps you love the textures and shapes of midcentury modern interior design, but can’t see going for a bold sofa, wallpaper, or window treatment. That’s fine—do what makes you feel good! Modernists of the 1930s like the architects and designers of the Bauhaus movement tended toward neutrals and minimalism. So did popular home furnishings retailers of the 2010s, who prized texture over color. You can, too. You don’t have to follow trends that don’t work for you.

Expect your tastes to change

An all grey, black, and white living room features white walls and a grey and white area rug with regular patterns in thin black lines. A low rectangular sofa covered in dark grey tweed sits on silver metal legs next to black wooden chunking round side tables. A think black floor lamp sits at the right. Above the sofa is a large painting with a large white rectangle at left, a smaller grey rectangle in the center, and a thinner black rectangle at right. Pillows are white and grey with various geometric patterns and textures. Before the sofa is a rectangular midtoned wooden coffee table on black wooden legs. — *Not convinced that color is for you? It’s fine to follow the contemporary trend of using MCM shapes and textures without the era’s colors—do what works best for you | Trend for Unsplash*

It is true that repeated exposure to colors and prints does make us more comfortable with them. However, after years of being surrounded by solid beige, grey, or white, you may find patterns or saturated colors out of your comfort zone. As more colorful interiors slip back into style, you may find in a year or two that you actually like emerald green, autumny orange, sunny yellow, even misty lavender. This is standard and normal. As we’re exposed to more color and pattern, we get more comfortable with it.

If you just want a light wash of color in your home—or even none at all—go for it. Your taste matters far more for your home than so-called tastemakers’ choices. I love color and pattern, but even I have strong negative reactions to some hues. Follow your heart. You deserve to live in an environment that helps you to feel comfortable and happy.

Color can bring life to a room

While it’s perfectly fine to keep colors and patterns subtle, consider pulling at least some color into your space to give it some life. A fully neutral space can feel clinical or “designed” instead of natural. Texture and shape are great as far as they go, but it’s color that usually creates the greatest emotional reaction.

A single Arne Jacobsen Series 7 chair sits on a white floor with a black wall behind it. The curved single piece of plywood is bent in a 90-degree angle to create both the seat and the chair back. The top of the seat back is straight and it curves at the top corners and narrows toward the seat, creating a kind of curved triangle whose base point melds into the seat. The seat is curved at the back and sides (which dip upward slightly) and curves down and forward at the front where leg will drape over the edge. The top of the chair rests on thin, bent chromed steel legs that end in black rubber feet. — *Arne Jacobsen’s Series 7 chairs were originally plain plywood, but sometimes even an icon likes some oomph | Holger.Ellgaard, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)*

If a color brings you joy, find a place for it in your home. Don’t be afraid to let a colorful element draw some attention. Start with small, impermanent things. Try a colorful pillow, towels, a table runner, some dishes, a tray, or a patterned rug. A soft and colorful throw or a painted bench at the foot of your bed can make your bedroom feel so inviting. It’s good to feel invited to feel cozy and happy in your own home.

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