How We Lost Our Color (and How We Get It Back)
TL;DR
Our world has been systematically drained of colour over the past 400 years and it's not an accident. From colonization to corporate culture to HGTV, we've been conditioned to see colorlessness (especially whiteness) as sophistication.
But colour deprivation harms our mental health, productivity, and joy. This episode traces the history of the "Great Grey-down," explains what it's actually about, and gives you practical ways to bring colour, joy and resistance back into your life.
Key Takeaways:
- The colours that increase depression and anxiety
- The colours that improve healing, learning, creativity, and productivity
- What role colonization and capitalism have to play in our colour associations
- Why and how choosing colour is an act of resistance and reclaiming of joy
Resources & Links Mentioned:
- Home Alone house's new interior
- Science Museum Group study on Colour in everyday objects
- Washington Post article about the greyness of gentrification
- Joyful book by Ingrid Fettell-Lee
- Colour Joy - our 'find your colours' program
- Cult of Neutral episode of Joy First
The Home Alone House That Broke the Internet
So as I record this, we are deep in the season of Christmas movies… In my house that means a LOT of the animated Grinch film… I've already guilty-pleasure-watched The Holiday twice (I mean, it's a bit on the nose what with me being an American married to a Brit)... but this was also the season I found out my husband has never seen one of the most classic holiday films of all time: Home Alone.
He finally cuddled up with the girls this past rainy Saturday and they all got to see it for the first time together, which was delightful… but afterwards he shared that he didn't expect it to be as good as it was, that it had such heart.
Funny enough, in preparation for this episode I'm recording now, I had just recently watched the Films That Made Us episode about Home Alone—which I'll tell you more about in a minute, but as a lover of Christmas films, it was the Director Chris Columbus' number one mission to make sure this film, with all its slapstick gags and violent pranks, was in fact full of heart. I think we can all agree he nailed it…
But Home Alone has been back in the spotlight recently… not because of its holiday charm, but because about a month ago the house where it was filmed went up for sale, and the internet exploded when photos from the interior of the home were positioned as "then and now", as you can se... it is stark and depressing. The totally white and grey monochrome that exists in real life in this house near Winnetka, Illinois now… versus the incredibly warm palette that exists in the movie from 30 years ago.
Photos c/o: @kjp
Now of course, Home Alone wasn't filmed inside this home, it was only used for the exterior shots… the real set was filmed on a sound stage where they built the entire interior of the house from scratch in a local gym. Which allowed them total control… and what I love about this, and the internet's outrage, so perfectly illustrates the power of color psychology… and why it matters in our homes.
Why We Feel So Connected to That Movie Set
The home we saw in the movie, the one we're mourning the loss of, was perfectly curated in red and green for the Christmas themes in the film… but not just that, if you look at these set designs, the almost exclusively red and green and cream and gold and warm wood is in near-perfect Fireside harmony. This color palette that Set Decorator Eve Cauley designed is no accident, just like the way Wes Anderson uses his signature palettes to make us feel whimsical melancholy, every corner of this set was built to make us FEEL the warmth, joy, and magic of Christmas. And it worked! Home Alone earned over $476 million despite its meagre $18 million budget…
The fact that the internet is so pissed off that the home we've learned to associate with all the things we love about Christmas has been wiped of warmth and joy (even though this entire set was fake to begin with)... is a perfect example of how powerfully we feel about and associate with colour… and just how much continuing to "millennial grey" and "modern minimal" our interiors is stealing from us.
Last week I dove into this when we discussed Pantone choosing white as their 2026 Color of the Year. But for weeks before this massive grenade was dropped into the cultural conversation about colour, you guys have been tagging me in and forwarding me this viral conversation that's going on about the "greying down" of our world… linked to this conversation about the Home Alone house, so let's get into it.
Is our man-made world becoming less colourful, and if it is, why? And what the heck are we going to do about it?
Hi, I'm J.Nichole Smith, you can call me Nic, and today on the Joy First Podcast we're going to break down The Great Grey-down and look at ways to ensure we're not stripping the joy, love, wellbeing, and magic out of the spaces we spend the most time in.
My Mission: The Fight for Colour
So, if you've been here a while, you know I'm on a mission to create a joy first world, and that one of my main enemies in this mission is the colour grey.
Now, let me clarify that no color is inherently bad or good… but the problem with grey is that it has zero positive psychological benefits. It has negative ones… it can depress and drain you… but it can't give you anything good.
Alongside grey, the next most damaging color in decor is brilliant white. One of the only paint colors that doesn't actually exist in nature, this overstimulating, over-the-top cold color is so bad for us that data around it is compelling… so much so that it has sparked widespread change in hospitals and medical environments…
The Science: White and Grey Are Bad For Us
So if you have a visceral reaction to seeing those stark white and dull grey palettes in the Home Alone home… your instincts are right on… the reason we should not be perpetuating these color schemes is not about personal preference for modern minimal—it's about how it actually really feels to be in them:
White is no longer used pervasively in hospitals because the starkness of it causes psychological stress and anxiety—not to mention discomfort… bright white surfaces (especially with all those new cold LED spotlights everyone seems to be using) and on gloss surfaces like your shiny counter or gloss white kitchen create quite a lot of glare which can lead to eye strain, fatigue, and even headaches.
Plus, spending a lot of time in an environment this stark and monochrome can contribute to feelings of depression and isolation.
So all of that is to say—especially those of you who love your white and grey decor—I'm not coming after you or your preferences, I'm not criticizing your desire for cleanliness or minimalism… especially those of you who are Starshine—this is going to be personal preference and there's no changing that… it's just to encourage you to find colors that aren't bright white and grey that can contribute to an environment that actually feels good and supportive and calming to BE in, which these colors just can't give you.
The Evidence: Our World IS Getting Greyer
But it's not just our homes that are getting this treatment…
A now-famous study from the Science Museum Group (which is the primary study referenced in a lot of these internet memes and TikTok videos) analyzed over 7,000 photographs of everyday objects from 1800 to today… so that's over 200 years of objects…
Things like cameras, lamps and other household items. Things we use every single day. They essentially counted up the pixels and grouped them by color.
What They Found:
- Since 1800, gray tones have become wildly DOMINANT
- Yellowish and brownish colors FELL
- Vibrant colors? Almost disappeared entirely
- The shift accelerated from the 19th century to the 20th century
- And it's been getting worse ever since
What This Looks Like in Real Life:
Compare vintage ads from the 70s/80s/90s to today—vibrant versus muted. Compare fashion runway photos from each decade. Compare car colors (remember when cars weren't just black/white/grey/silver?). Compare home interiors from magazines across decades. Compare product packaging (remember colorful cereal boxes?).
So if you grew up in the 70s, 80s, or 90s, you REMEMBER what it was like to live in a world full of color: The avocado green refrigerators. Orange shag carpet. Yellow kitchens. Brown everything of the 70s… the red gloss and classic purple/teal and magenta combos of the 80s, and of course the wild dayglow of the 90s—and yeah, loads of it was garish.
Some of it was absolutely terrible.
When we moved from the suburb of Issaquah near Seattle over to Whidbey Island, our new house was right on the edge of a bluff overlooking the beach—the views were glorious… but the interiors? They were wild: we had brown flower-power indoor/outdoor carpet in the kitchen, with turquoise counters speckled with gold… our bathroom was all pink tile, pink bathtub, pink sink and toilet—it had CHARACTER for DAYS.
And some of it I hated, but some of it I kind of loved. It was tacky, but it was ALIVE.
Most of these colors we grew up with were actually really GOOD for us.
What We've Lost
Now? Walk into any "sophisticated" home and it's white walls, gray couch, beige everything. Maybe the house plants are allowed to be fully green… but more likely even the plants are fake to fit the decor.
We've been conditioned to call this "chic." "Minimalist." "Sophisticated." And by the way, this programming started WAY before the 2000s—this has been in our DNA for generations.
This reverting back to monochrome isn't evolution. It's regression.
And actually it's rooted in something much darker than design trends and decision fatigue.
The Dark History: How We Got Here
Let's take a look at the history of the association between whiteness and sophistication.
1. Colonization & "Civilized" Color (1400s-1800s)
Back in the early days of colonization, in the 15th and 16th centuries, the traditional dress of the poor was undyed or cheaply dyed coarse fabrics like wool and linen, which led to an entire population dressed in drab browns, greys, and pale blues. A depressing and muted monochrome.
The wealthy, however, who could afford more expensive fabrics like silk and satin—which took dyes better and held vibrant colors more effectively—delighted in the richest and brightest colors they could find. This is probably why we love seeing the worlds of Bridgerton and Marie Antoinette—excessive color used to be a status symbol and it was an absolute delight to behold.
There were also sumptuary laws where many regions had specific rules which dictated which social classes could wear certain colors and fabrics. Like purple, which is now famous for being exclusively for royalty or high religious figures—this color was so rare because it was labor-intensive and costly to make… Yet another practice rooted in resource extraction and exploitation, it was collected from the mucus of thousands of sea snails from the Mediterranean.
Ironically during this time, one of the most difficult and expensive colors was a rich, deep black: it was difficult and expensive to achieve with a lasting finish. This may very well be the root of our obsession with "black tie" and our associations with black being the ultimate in formality.
The Protestant Reformation Changes Everything
Then came the Reformation in the 16th century, which brought with it a significant shift in some Christian views on color… Now in case you're not aware, the Reformation is what sparked religious dissenters to leave England for North America, so Protestant ideas were hugely influential in foundational American concepts like individualism, self-government, and the separation of church and state… and of course Sociologist Max Weber's famous idea of the "Protestant work ethic."
But along with these ideas came the "Protestant palette": subdued and earthy colors such as black, brown, and grey—a major rebellion against the bright, rich hues that had become associated with the luxury and excess of Catholicism.
Protestants valued modesty and piety, so wearing plain, less saturated colors was seen as a sign of modesty, humility, and a focus on inner godliness rather than outward display of wealth or status, where expensive dyes like ultramarine blue and crimson were used to denote divine authority and wealth.
Colonization Spreads the "Civilized" = Colorless Message
Colonization and Protestantism picked up and spread at a similar timeline, and horrors like the slave trade were justified as "divine mission" all the way to manifest destiny of the 19th century in America, and Protestants provided much of the moral and legal justification for the enslavement of Africans.
Of course, as these righteous Protestant colonizers began encountering Indigenous peoples in the Americas and peoples in Africa, they found something that TERRIFIED them: color. Lots of it.
Vibrant textiles. Colorful body paint. Bright ceremonial dress.
The darker skin colors and the bright cultural color palettes associated with Indigenous people were all lumped together as "savage." "Primitive." "Uncivilized"—thus pushing the reverence for monochrome even deeper into the cultural consciousness… now adding the importance and godliness, goodness, and superiority of whiteness above all.
The English-speaking cultural message was clear in America and in Protestant England: colorful people were heathens.
So our association with sophistication being monochrome, with whiteness right at the tippy top, is no accident.
The exaltation of whiteness is a long-standing tool of oppression.
When you strip people of their color, literally and figuratively, you strip them of their identity. Their culture. Their JOY.
2. Industrial Revolution & The Color Pendulum (1800s-early 1900s)
I talk a lot about the "Cult of Neutral" and how house flipping shows on HGTV have a lot to answer for when it comes to driving our colorless homes—but it certainly didn't start there.
The Great Grey Down didn't start with Chip and Joanna Gaines… our hunger for and preference for white, grey, and beige neutrality started with colonialism.
But what we see over and over again in our history is a pendulum swing towards and away from color in pop culture… decade by decade.
First, during the Industrial Revolution, in the Victorian Era, suddenly we were able to create chemical compounds to make colors more affordable and we started to be able to mass-produce things cheaply. Resulting in a saturation of daily life for normal people with color… Hooray!
Then as the "Modernism" era took off into the 1900s, color became unsophisticated again… "Real design" became about clean lines. Minimal ornament. Neutral palettes.
White walls. Steel furniture. Glass and concrete.
Color was dismissed as "decorative." "Feminine." "Frivolous." Which, by the way, is still code for: not taken seriously by the patriarchy (those who make the rules)—white Christian men.
Then decade by decade with the weight of war and then prosperity and then war, we see pendulum swings of color trends. The 50s in America was an especially colorful time, which, as wealth, comfort, marketing, and consumerism started to take root, consumer culture got more and more colorful, accelerating all the way through the 90s…
3. Corporate America & The "Professional" Aesthetic
But during this time, something much less colorful took root as well: corporate America & the "Professional" aesthetic.
This defined the colors of success, professionalism, and wealth as: black, grey, and white shirt (with a splash of navy blue if you're feeling saucy).
Colorful = Unprofessional.
While color might have been growing at home for housewives and kids, this was fundamentally not the stuff of men in suits who held all the power. Therefore, not to be trusted.
This extended deeply into our workspaces: the famous gray cubicles. Beige walls. Cold fluorescent lights.
Workspaces were literally designed to be as colorless and joyless as possible… thinking we were creating focus farms for worker bees to achieve greater and greater productivity and profit. As if joy is the opposite of high-performance (boy, how wrong we were!!)
Because color = emotion. And capitalism doesn't want you emotional at work, right? Color was for your day off, for the weekend. For family time and that holiday to Disneyland, or those famous places in the global south where color is life.
4. The Tech Boom & The Apple Aesthetic
Then of course, enter the tech boom. And the Apple aesthetic, which has pretty well defined the 21st century.
Now let's not forget that when it was still cool in the late 90s, Apple—leaders in design innovation, who still had a rainbow logo—saved us from the hideous grey and greige PCs and brought us iMacs in the full rainbow… but it didn't last long.
In 1998, Apple went monochrome with their logo—a harbinger of things to come…
And as the tech boom, the internet, the dot-com era swept in, suddenly "sleek" means silver.
And as we enter the 21st century, our favorite symbol for sophistication is back on top: White.
Throughout the early noughties, minimalist and clean became the ultimate status symbol, just like the iPod and then the iPhone in your pocket.
Tech companies convinced us that colorlessness = innovation. Intelligence. The future.
Meanwhile, bright colors once again became "cheap." "Childish." Unsophisticated.
5. The 2010s: HGTV & The Cult of Neutral
Alongside the escalation of sleek, monochrome tech in our lives, the HGTV era brings us the cult of neutral in our homes…
Now we finally arrive at Chip & Joanna Gaines. HGTV brings us the instant sensation Fixer Upper, and Joanna and her shiplap and "farmhouse chic" define an entirely new era of neutrality: beige. Cream. White. Gray. And "greige."
HGTV and this new wave of house makeover TV makes boring, lifeless neutrals THE standard for resale value. And as we're now VERY aware that our houses are assets for resale, as much or more than they are places to sew love, joy, and memories… we resist creating something unique and joyful, we resist taking risks with color and instead default to the cult of neutral—to improve resell. To keep up with the Joneses. To increase the perception of our sophistication and taste.
Plus, nearing the 2020s, we're fully in the stage where us Millennials who grew up in homes full of raucous color are getting our own places, renting (where we're not allowed to paint anything) or buying (and VERY keen not to live in the shag carpet chaos of our youth)—fueled on by affordable flat-pack from Ikea, the grey cubicles we now work in, the desire to feel more "grown up," and the cultural phenomena all around us (Pinterest, I'm looking at you)—we veered heavily into the modern minimal and Millennial grey is born.
The Through-Line: It's Always Been About Control
So we're nearly caught up now… but do you see the through-line?
Colonialism → Industrialization → Modernism → Corporatism → Tech Culture → HGTV
Every single era, we're told the same lie: "Sophistication = Colorlessness. Especially whiteness."
And every single era, it's sold to us as aspirational, prestige, and something to achieve…
But what it's actually about is CONTROL.
- Control over our sinful base desires (Protestantism)
- Control over Indigenous cultures and people of color
- Control over the working class
- Control over women (who were dismissed for a variety of reasons)
- Control over workers (who might feel JOY if their spaces weren't beige boxes)
- Control over consumers (who must buy new things when trends change)
- Control over homeowners (who value resale over personalization)
It's behavior modification to support what capitalism wants most: compliance + consumption.
The greying down of our world, our stuff, and our homes isn't just some accidental aesthetic.
It's a hangover from western colonization and a worrying consequence of accelerating capitalism.
What Color Deprivation Does To Us
Ok, so if this is what the research tells us, if all of this is true, let's take a look at what this color deprivation does to us:
The Data on Color and Wellbeing:
- Children naturally gravitate to bright colors—we TRAIN them out of it
- Color-deprived environments increase stress
- Places with more of the right colors are better for literally everything: our wellbeing, our productivity, our positive associations and connections with others, and even our speed of recovery
- Hospital studies show colorless spaces slow healing
- Schools with colorful walls improve learning outcomes
- Workplaces with color increase creativity and productivity
For better or worse, color stimulates neural pathways and cognitive function and a whole host of other physical, mental, and emotional experiences. When we learn how to use it correctly, we can significantly impact the people who spend time in these environments.
Psychological Effects:
Gray environments (and sometimes bright white too) increase depression and anxiety. We think we are creating simple, modern, sophisticated spaces—but at best we're creating numbing cocoons (fine sometimes but not somewhere we want to be living and working 24/7). At worst, we're amplifying feelings of anxiety, depression, and isolation.
Color Creates Community and Safety:
There have been multiple studies and examples of how bringing color through painting homes, buildings, and creating more green space in deprived neighborhoods—from Mexico to Cape Town—helped build a strong sense of place, community pride, reducing violence and crime.
And the entire city of Tirana, Albania—a story Ingrid Fetell Lee talks about in her book Joyful—was painted to overcome the sense of urban decay, and the results were absolutely wild:
- People reportedly stopped littering in the streets
- Residents began paying their taxes
- Shopkeepers removed protective metal grates from their windows
- People claimed the streets felt safer, even without an increased police presence
- Public life returned, with people gathering in cafes and public places
Color Serves Other Purposes Too:
Wayfinding: Color-coding different functional zones in large complexes (healthcare districts, commercial areas) helps intuitive navigation, reducing cognitive load and stress. Think parking garages—color helps you remember where you parked.
Public Shared-Use Buildings: Using calming blues and greens promotes relaxation and healing, while warm colors like oranges, pinks, and yellow are used in commercial districts or creative spaces to stimulate energy and social interaction.
Climate Response: In some warm climates, light colors on rooftops and facades are used to reflect sunlight, which helps lower indoor temperatures and reduce energy consumption for cooling.
Gentrification = Color Extraction
Meanwhile, when white people move into neighborhoods and take them over—a process we often refer to as "gentrification"—you'll often find that color itself is one of the very first victims of the culture theft from places that have typically historically been home to people of color.
There was a widely shared article in the Washington Post earlier this year, the tagline of which reads: "A Washington Post color analysis of D.C. found shades of gray permeate neighborhoods where the White population has increased and the Black population has decreased."
Eww.
Why Do We Keep Doing This When We Know Better?
Why is this the case when we actually KNOW that color is good for us and neutrals are NOT?
We know this. It's not a secret.
We have the science. We have the data.
We can FEEL it in our BODIES every time we walk into an environment where supportive color schemes and color harmony abound.
For fuck's sake, we escape our drab grey apartments, townhouses, condos, suburbs, and McMansions to go on holiday—we choose cultures and countries and continents where color is an absolute necessity: Mexico, Italy, India, South America, Africa. We even come home and put photos of these places on our wall for a tiny little "pop" of color…
But we've been so conditioned to fear color and look down on it that we struggle to even bring ourselves to paint a single wall something bold. Something we absolutely love.
The Fear Talking:
Many of us can't even PICK a color we absolutely love because we're so terrified of getting it wrong.
We say things like:
- "I'm afraid I'll get tired of it"
- "What if it's too much?"
- "What will people think?"
- "Will it hurt resale value?"
- "What if I don't like it and I have to redo it?"
This is not joy. This is fear.
And it's ABSURD. When we look at this in the cold light of day, isn't it obvious how ridiculous this sounds?
These aren't design questions. This isn't a lack of creativity.
This is PURE ANXIETY and NOT-ENOUGHNESS and PERFECTIONISM…
And like it or not, if you take anything away from this episode, I want your lightbulb moment to be that this fear, these feelings—this is white supremacy internalized.
- Perfectionism is white supremacy
- Fear of standing out or being "too much" is white supremacy
- Prioritizing "what people think" over your own joy is white supremacy
- Prioritizing your home (regardless of how long you'll be living in it) as an asset for resale, not a place to support your best life—that's a result of white supremacy too
- The fear of color? Yup, a major tool of white supremacy
Can you see it now? Remember our through-line from history?
"Sophistication = Colorlessness. Especially whiteness."
This is not an accident. This is by design.
What Do We Do About It?
So what do we do about it?
The joy first revolution requires us to shake off these fears we inherited but didn't ask for. That we never agreed to.
The reason I'm SO passionate about helping people understand color is that it's such a powerful tool for helping ourselves AND strengthening each other and our resistance at the same time…
Color As Resistance Around The World
Let's talk about resistance for a second…
Around the world, color has been used as a symbol of resistance…
But more than that, in places less ruled by white supremacy, where Indigenous culture is still strong, color is an absolutely essential part of life—not just in the places where people live and work, but LIFE itself: festivals, rituals, food, celebrations, traditional clothing for every day and for special occasions…
While we wear white and black at weddings, how exquisite are traditional Indian wedding ceremonies? They're absolutely feasts for the eyes with color in every conceivable place.
Where Color Is Honored As Part of Life:
1. Architecture in the Global South:
- Mexico: Bright pinks, blues, yellows (Luis Barragán made it high art)
- India: Colorful festivals, Holi, vibrant saris, painted buildings
- Morocco: Blue cities, colorful tile work
- Caribbean: Pastel and bright painted houses
And even more passionate places in Europe like Italy.
2. Black American Culture:
- Sunday best fashion—bold, vibrant, unapologetic
- Black church aesthetics
- Soul food presentation and restaurant design
- Black-owned businesses often embrace color
3. Latino/Hispanic Culture:
- Dia de los Muertos bright altars and celebrations
- Colorful murals and street art
- Home interiors that prioritize joy over trends
- Marketplaces full of vibrant textiles and crafts
4. Indigenous Communities:
- Traditional dress maintaining bright natural dyes
- Beadwork and textile patterns
- Ceremonial spaces
- Art that centers color as cultural identity
Notice Something?
The communities that maintained color? They're the ones who were TOLD their color was uncivilized.
And they said: Fuck that. This is WHO WE ARE.
That's not just aesthetic preference.
That's cultural survival. That's RESISTANCE.
And it's a lesson for all of us.
3 Ways to Bring Color Back: Increase Your Color Consciousness
So how are we going to fight back? Make a different reality? A more joy first world for ourselves and our children and their children?
1. Name It. Notice It. Acknowledge What It Is.
First, we name it. We call out the greying down and whitewashing for what it is: not sophistication, not modern minimalism, not "neutral," but perpetuating a system of oppression and numbness.
We stop defaulting to it and start thinking more actively about our color choices.
Ask yourself:
- Do I actually LIKE gray?
- How does it make me feel?
- Is there something else I might actually like better, given the chance?
- When you say "I love neutrals," is that true? Or does it just feel nice and safe?
2. Start With Small Experiments
You don't have to paint your entire house tomorrow. Or replace all your carpet or furniture or clothes.
If you have defaulted to grey or white or beige because it's clean, safe, and soothing in a life that feels like A LOT (trust me, I have two kids under 6 and my husband and I are both self-employed, I get it!), know that there are more supportive colors that can help you build the environment you want, that provides you the mental, physical, and emotional support you want to have in your spaces and day-to-day life. (Loads of resources on my website!)
By default, my first options to replace greys are almost always blues and greens.
Start with:
- Bedding
- A bright piece of art
- A painted or wallpapered accent wall
- A makeover of a very small room or closet
- Colorful dishes
- A habit of fresh, colorful flowers
- Or, my favorite experiment: go for a week without wearing white, black, grey, or navy on the top half of your body—force yourself to make more color-rich choices
3. Practice Letting Your Joy Lead
Let your joy lead instead of your logic. Your inner kid instead of your inner critic. Your pleasure instead of your practicality.
Ask yourself:
- What would be fun?
- What would be joyful?
- What would make you smile?
- What would you choose if you weren't afraid of what other people would think?
If you're not brave enough to do it during the day, start with your pajamas.
If you're not brave enough to do it in a room, start with drawers or closets—start carving out spaces with the pure intent of making you smile, or bringing cheer.
What's the worst that could happen?
The Number One Question: "Which Color Should I Choose?"
Now I know what you're going to bump up against, if you're like most of my clients and the people who get in touch, is: "How do I choose?"
THE NUMBER ONE QUESTION I GET ASKED is about "which color":
- Paint my kitchen
- Dress for a party
- Living room
- Etc.
I always answer this question with the same question, before I can give an informed answer:
"How do you want it to feel?"
Move in the direction of what you want, what feels good… what feels supportive—not away from what you're scared of or don't want. Being willing to push fear aside to put JOY FIRST.
If you end up hating it? Worst case scenario is a new can of paint. YOU WILL SURVIVE, but I promise every day you walk into that room once you've taken the risk on joy, you'll be glad you did.
A Few More Tips For Your Color Comeback:
Get Main Character / Dream House Energy
Reject the Resale / Temporary Mindset: Stop designing your life for theoretical future buyers.
Your home is not just an asset—it's where you LIVE. It's where your life happens, it's where your kids' childhood happens.
You deserve to live in your version of JOY, and so do they… and you can ALWAYS paint before you put it on the market (you probably will anyway!!)
Get Inspired By (But Don't Steal From) Color-Rich Cultures
Follow designers and artists from the Global South, Black creatives, Indigenous artists. And not just people of color, but follow artists and people who aren't afraid of color and can drop some of that courage and inspo into your feed each day. I'm loving Substack for this, and my Instagram too.
Let people who aren't afraid of color remind you what it looks like when we're living more fully into our potentiality for joy.
Make It A Rebellion
Every time you choose color over gray, you're choosing joy over what the patriarchy and white supremacy and capitalism want for you.
You're choosing self-expression over conformity.
You're choosing resistance over compliance.
That matters. Let this be your small but mighty daily act of defiance that brings joy to not just you, but everyone around you who gets to experience the color you're bringing with you.
What I Want You To Remember
Look, all in all, here's what I want you to remember:
The greying down didn't happen by accident.
Bringing color back isn't just about aesthetics.
This is about reclaiming JOY in a system designed to keep us disembodied from it.
This is about resisting centuries of conditioning that told us colorlessness = godliness.
This is about honoring the people and the cultures and communities who NEVER gave up their bright colors, despite being repeatedly punished for it.
And it's about building a future that looks more alive and vital than our beige, gray, colorless present.
Pantone choosing white for 2026? That's a symptom.
The disease is much deeper.
But the cure?
The cure is in your hands.
Paint that wall. Buy that bright couch. Wear that vibrant dress.
Find, choose, and share joy. Color and resistance today, and all week long.
One Favour: Share This Episode
And if I can ask you one favour, please share this episode.
Share it with a friend, a family member, a colleague, or better yet in a group: your mastermind, your local networking group, your stitch and bitch or book club gals, rally your coven or congregation or office or school moms or anyone you can to join you.
This is how we stop the Great Grey-down: which is step one in our #joyfirstrevolution. It's up to you and me and our little circle of influence to create this change, and I know we can.
Thank you for tuning into the Joy First Podcast. And I'll see you next week for our special Christmas Eve episode, our second-to-last in this season and this year…
until then, all my love xx - Nic
