I’m not liking the style these days (mostly with TOYS and kid’s room DECOR) with neutral, beige, or shades of greys, especially in children’s products. I know it’s just a style, and styles change, but I don’t like that it’s becoming the norm for quality children’s brands to only offer beige or watered down colors. I’m talking grey rainbows, or blocks that are only shades of beige, xylaphones that are only beige, Christmas trees that are beige with shades of beige ornaments, and even beige birthday decorations. Maybe it’s because I grew up in the 80s, but I think it’s selfish to deprive kids of colors, especially in their own rooms and with toys, just because you’re a sad beige mom. Like who is visiting your toddler’s bedroom that you’re trying to impress so hard? Get off the Insta Becky, no one cares about your beige Stanley cups.
Edit: I see there are actually quite a few people who like the beige… I guess this might be an unpopular opinion 😆
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I have never seen this and I have a 19 month old.
Edit: I love reddit for downvoting someone when their experience is different.
You’d like deep dive on YouTube about this epidemic of beige sweeping the homes of families everywhere.
This isn’t sarcasm, it’s a real thing haha. Parents are choosing aesthetic over what their children might actually want.
Millennials are running the show now, and are very much into minimalism and muted colors. I agree with things like kids toys it’s a little sad, especially when beige and grey things are considered “upscale”.
Like why should a shitty taco place or burger joint try to pass themselves off as upscale by having everything be grey and empty? It’s all so cold.
they are just clothes. who cares
Oh my goodness, yes. That’s why when I have I have kids I want everything to be circus themed, at least while they’re babies, because circuses are fun and have lots of bright colors.
This is only on social media in real life, kids’ things are filled with color. Stay off of social media and interact with real families.
Just go shop at Target, Gap and Old Navy – we still got colors at this price level 😆
It reminds me of “I’m the same colors as the Department of Motor Vehicles and you…look like a flower.”
I’ve noticed a lot of the kids’ toys and clothes are a bit boring nowadays. I guess that’s what the younger generation likes, minimalist decor. My grandson’s room is nice and bright with brightly colored toys, so they are out there if you look for them.
Kids don’t need everything to be super saturated bright colours, natural wood shades are great, and realistically coloured animals just make sense to me, but yeah, when everything is beige or grey?
I mean, rainbows?!? Ug.
And of course what the child wants should be the most important factor.
My wife and I are replacing our quilt and 95% of stuff I’m seeing online is grandma core and cottage core….all muted colors and boring. Just soul killing.
https://youtube.com/shorts/CQSnVY4m3gg?si=px-herx_bdsXbN_v
Ive leaned into full-on rainbows everywhere for mine. We have prism window dangers, colorful rugs, you name it. How the heck are the kids going to learn colors if all I have is sad beige everywhere?
“Sad beige” being not cool is definitely not an unpopular opinion…but it isnt a popular one either. Ive seen a lot of people start this way when theyre tiny then give up once they get older. Who knows…
I hate the gray but I do like the muted colors and earth tones.Â
My mom did not buy into the neon-color kids decor movement and our childhood rooms were always awash in pastels with real wood furniture. It was nice to have a space that felt calm and grown-up. In high school I would sleep over with friends whose rooms were bright teal and orange and purple because their parents let them pick the color at 8 years old and Jesus Christ. It’s not pleasant!Â
Kids have plenty of access to real colors outside. They don’t need Paw Patrol wallpaper to learn their colors.Â
This might be a good thing. As kids, we grew up expecting everything to be brightly colored, including food. This resulted in manufacturers using artificial food dyes that have been alleged to be bad for your health. RFK, Jr is an idiot, who has a lot of dumb ideas. However, one good thing he is doing is pushing to outlaw artificial food colorings. It’s an idea that has been debated for years, but looks like he is giving it that final push over the top and making it law.
Unfortunately, your Froot Loops probably won’t be as brightly colored. That’s why getting kids used to more gray and beige and faded colors is a good thing…
It’s literally just ONE color option in an entire market of children’s products. Are you saying you can’t find a single non-beige rainbow stacker?
I didn’t grow up in a pink or rainbow colored house growing up but somehow learned my colors and actually became a designer.
If anything, making everything colorful would make you notice colors less since nothing stands out versus purposeful colors in a neutral room.
I could see it being the case that people might assume that because a child is “exposed” to colors passively as a by product of their surroundings they might forget the fact that you should still read books and do art activities to expose children to colors in purposeful, hands-on ways.
Owning a neutral or colorful rainbow stacker shouldn’t replace the above imo.
So, let me start by saying, I am not a typical beige toy buyer. I like colorful things in general. That being said, I feel like for a lot of people, the era of all the kids stuff being in their rooms or playroom is gone.
We have an open plan kitchen living dining. It’s got my daughters wood jungle gym, her red ikea play kitchen, her brown wicker basket filled with stuffed animals, her wood and pale rainbow toy piano, a wood and white kids ikea table we turned into her Lego table, and a bookcase full of children’s books out ALL THE TIME. She also has other toys that take over when we don’t keep up with it.
She has her own room but still cosleeps with us so she is basically never in there. She isn’t quite 3, so it isn’t like she is in her bedroom unsupervised all the time, she is in the main living space with me. So it doesn’t make any sense to not have her activities in the main space with her.
I think her stuff is cute and works in our space with our vibe, but if it didn’t, I can totally see wanting to get something that does. Lots of people have small apartments and they are sharing spaces with the kids and when EVERYTHING is colorful, it can be overwhelming. Even with us, I got the plain wood and white accent jungle gym and a pale beige teepee to use with it. The kids gym mat we put under it all is bright red and pink stripes and that is plenty of color. For her wood Lego table, The top is white until she flips it over and then it has a bright pink Lego base for her colorful duplos. Not every item has to be colorful for it to be cheerful. Sometimes it just makes it an overload
Honestly I think the ALL beige is mostly social media. Kid’s stuff is colorful in general, you’ll definitely end up with color in your house no matter what.
I sometimes feel overwhelmed with soooo many colors (multiply all the things you have with saturated red/blue/green/yellow to get the picture) and try to buy some of these beige/muted colors, but my house is still full of color. There’s a balance between beige and overwhelm too. lol
Meh, live and let live. Someone having different color preferences than you is a silly thing to lose sleep over.
At least it`s not pink!!!
In all fairness, there is some research to indicate that creating a child’s space with more muted colors can be beneficial, as well as limiting the brightly colored toys. There are cases to be made that it can be overstimulating. I don’t think that means that EVERYTHING has to be beige and boring, but having a balance can be a good idea for some kids.
Although I can’t speak for every beige obsessed mommy influencer, there are legitimate reasons parents might want more natural, muted earthy tones for their children that don’t just add up to the mom finds bright colors garish and offensive to her personal aesthetic
Bright colors aren’t inherently more joyful, they’re just louder. The association between bright colors and childhood comes more from commercial branding and western 20th-century consumer trends than any universal truth about development.
Have you ever seen a kid watching Cocomelon? It’s like crack for them. The bright colors, flashing, constant noise and sound effects hijack their attention span and flood their brains with dopamine. When parents take away that stimulation they literally go through withdrawals and meltdowns. Think of the iPad addicted toddler that cannot function without constant stimulation. The same principle can apply to children’s toys.
Bright, saturated colors, especially when used in excess can overwhelm their senses, especially young children whose sensory systems are still developing. Muted tones can foster a more calm environment and encourage more creative play with toys and activities rather than creating a chaotic, high-energy atmosphere.
Bright, character-based items often go out of favor as children’s tastes evolve quickly. So you buy a toy with their current flavor of the month, they get a dopamine surge, play with it, then the novelty wears off, rinse and repeat. It’s reinforcing consumerism from an early age. Muted, timeless items tend to have longer appeal and encourage less novelty-seeking. Natural colors are less likely to be associated with fleeting trends, which can lead to more sustainable buying habits that are reinforced with the child so they don’t become an Amazon addicted adult who buys shiny things on the internet to feel something.
There is room for both things – sugary treats/bright overstimulating toys among a healthy diet/ timeless muted toys. People are starting to become more aware of the overstimulating nature of children’s programming, and instead favoring less stimulating shows with a slower pace, more muted colors, less manic characters with high-pitched voices, and less constant sound effects, like PBS programming. I would venture to say Bluey owes a lot of its popularity to the fact that it manages to be a gentler paced show that favors emotional intelligence over bright flashing colors and an endless parade of noise. It makes it not only a good show for kids, but a show that can have cross generational appeal, and parents can watch it with their kids, instead of the nerve grating torture that can be watching Ms. Rachel that will force parents from the room to leave the child alone with their hyperstimulating content.
Although alternative education models like Montessori and Waldorf can be very kooky in a lot of ways, they both embrace the more ‘sad beige’ models for their toys and classrooms specifically because they create a calmer environment that encourages exploration and imaginative play. I imagine such models are also popular among the influencer class that aspire towards the crunchy, health-conscious upper class lifestyle, and want to appear virtuous, without seeming aggressive or controlling. Montessori is part of their ‘branding’ and so they gravitate toward the natural colors and materials for their children that are associated with Montessori.
I am a millennial who absolutely hates beige. I get so frustrated anytime I see my parents watching those house renovating shows and see these people buying pretty houses and painting everything freaking beige. They just strip every house of its personality and leave it utterly bland.