America seems to be in a color recession, threatening to turn our world permanently gray, Amogh Dimri reports.
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House colors in America are becoming more gray-dominant, Sue Wadden, the director of color marketing at the paint company Sherwin-Williams, told Dimri. A study of homes in Washington, D.C., last year found a sharp rise in the number of gray homes, especially in the most rapidly gentrifying wards. Sherwin-Williams’s color of 2026 is “Universal Khaki”—otherwise known as “greige.”
The trend toward dullness doesn’t stop at home exteriors: The share of new cars in grayscale colors rose from 60 percent in 2004 to 80 percent in 2023. Production of purple cars dropped 93 percent over that period.
Dimri explores what’s behind the color recession—and why it seems like we may be past a point of no return.