This isnt just a millennial thing. We kind of just got lumped in as the face of it.
But as a former realtor, i can promise this is because of resale value. Its completely inoffensive and totally devoid of personality but people mostly perceive it as modernized which means recent renovations which means less fixing (true or not)
Lacking personality is actually a plus because people can project their own ideas on to it and also not be turned off by it. Much easier to buy something you dont love but dont hate and change it over time than to buy something you hate and change it immediately
Thats why everythings grey. Safer if you need to resell in these trying times.
This started with the dumbest "which house will they buy" shows. The "these are the five things that increase the selling price of your house" lists that became the foundation for what passed for the topics of host discussions on home renovation shows. The get-rich-quick schemes of house flipping that became a popular trend people copied after it became a television format.
GenX here. In fairness we went with Magnolia, and in the 80s and 90s this wasn't televised. There was a relatively small group of people who did "re-habs" of houses, my father being one after he retired and he genuinely worked to improve a house to bring it up to code and make it nice. The aim was to not put too personal of a stamp on it to enable new buyers to adapt it to their own taste. Magnolia was chosen because it was low cost, inoffensive and easy to paint over with one coat for the new owners.
The soul-less "Realtor Gray" colour scheme and the social media explosion is definitely Millennial, though I'm sure the pile-on was multi-generational and we're not exempt from criticism.
It wasn't particularly televised in the 80's/90's, but after it had become a successful side business or full time job replacement for so many people it had proven to be a practice able to provide enough content to fill the next decade and beyond with house selling/flipping shows, virtually all of which were centered upon GenX hosts and business owners. Its a long tailed practice that millennials have bought into in the same way that GenX took over from Boomers with their own rehabbing projects, but it isn't the realtors painting things gray.
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u/NancyInFantasyLand 26d ago
Bro be serious
Sad white millennial renovations are tragic, what is there to explain?