Scanning Around With Gene: Growing Up Beige

When I grew up, our house was anything but colorful. Everything that could be painted was painted beige. Furniture was either beige or white, and accessories such as lamps and tables were either beige or wood. We didn’t have colors such as “eggshell” and “dusty winter,” we had beige. In fact, if I were to choose a title for my autobiography, it would probably be Growing Up Beige.
Choosing beige was not some sort of interior design statement by my parents; it was, quite simply, the safest possible choice. Beige is neutral and they didn’t have to worry about it looking good or bad — it didn’t look like anything. Sort of like my mother’s cooking.
So today I thought I’d look at some colorful rooms from 1967 through 1969 culled from the pages of a stack of Better Homes and Gardens magazines I recently found at a garage sale. Click on any image for a larger view.


The other good thing about beige is that it doesn’t look that bad when covered in a thick film of nicotine. Smoking and cottage-cheese ceilings were just a routine part of life in those days.


Growing up beige didn’t stop at the color of the walls or the quality of the food. It extended into fashion, art, and music, all of which took on muted tones. My dad surely had an artistic flair, but when it came to interior design he was beige all over.



I can’t really blame my parents for being bland, but they were. Not what you’d call risk-takers. However, looking at these images makes me wonder if beige was so bad after all.


There’s something about the late ’60s that defies logic, since it’s impossible to imagine anyone ever thought these rooms looked good, regardless of whatever drugs were popular at the time.


Remember, this is the period of Harvest Gold and Avocado appliances. I guess anything that seemed bold and different was considered fair game. The magazine even uses language like “subtle shades of purple” and “calming green” to describe these rooms.


I guess the late 1960s were like that — you were either psychedelic and colorful, or bland and beige. Both extremes seem rather silly in today’s world of designer paint hues and the Home and Garden channel.


The thing about growing up beige is that, as with all dysfunctions, at the time you have no clue that the rest of the world isn’t beige, too. I honestly can’t imagine growing up in any of the rooms pictured here, and wonder if, in some parallel universe somewhere, some guy is writing a blog called Growing Up Purple.

Gene Gable has spent a lifetime in publishing, editing and the graphic arts and is currently a technology consultant and writer. He has spoken at events around the world and has written extensively on graphic design, intellectual-property rights, and publishing production in books and for magazines such as Print, U&lc, ID, Macworld, Graphic Exchange, AGI, and The Seybold Report. Gene's interest in graphic design history and letterpress printing resulted in his popular columns "Heavy Metal Madness" and "Scanning Around with Gene" here on CreativePro.com.
  • Anonymous says:

    Thanks for this article! The furniture industry is still fighting the battle of the beige. It’s the best-selling color for sofas, even when bright colors are on the sales floor. (Brown is the second-best selling color.) The really interesting thing about the photos you are showing here is that some of the design elements and furniture style are coming back into fashion today!

  • Anonymous says:

    when trying to view these in larger mode, after about the fifth one, they either are corrupt, or i get a missing link error.
    thanks, how fun these are!
    pete

  • Anonymous says:

    I was thinking the same thing, Gene. The toilet room wallpaper in the fourth picture from the top would be enough to make any child need serious psychiatric help. Yes, give me beige any day!
    Michael King
    http://www.bsiw.us

  • Anonymous says:

    Wow – that wallpaper — did Dramamine sales spike in the late 60s? Luckily I missed a lot o this. It took money to get crazy and paint your ceilings pink and buy those hot-pink carpet and drapes. And of course a lot of our “decor” was hand-me-down (“family heirlooms” in spin terms.) And anyway, my mom was so into colonial that we’ve told her we’ll scatter her ashes in a Williamsburg reproduction catalog someday.

  • Anonymous says:

    Great post again Gene. We remodeled our kitchen 10 years ago just as the Stainless Steel appliance thing was taking off. I was very proud of my brand new, contemporary, monolithic, brushed, stainless steel refrigerator until one of my friends looked at me and said “You know, this IS the harvest gold of our generation.” I wonder what I’ll think of it 30 years from now….

  • Anonymous says:

    Hey Gene!
    I had a sister who insisted on PURPLE walls for her bedroom and got away with it. Beige ain’t so bad.

  • marksimonson says:

    This article reminded me of James Lileks’ hilarious Interior Desecrators web gallery (which he later turned into a book): https://www.lileks.com/institute/interiors/

  • Anonymous says:

    I have a blog called “Vintage Treasure-a-Day” and I wanted to let you know I’ve put you on my blogroll as a great vintage design blog. I also linked to your page with the Sherwin-Williams “Applikay” books at the end of one of my posts, which will appear Friday, May 13, 2011.
    http://www.vintageousbk/vintage-treasure-a-day

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