How colour drained from our furniture | The European Correspondent

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How colour drained from our furniture

I'm moving apartments. As I was packing up, I found myself looking at my grey IKEA couch: the L-shaped one that can be turned into a bed. Why did I buy such a drab sofa? The contrast with the lively Art nouveau apartment I was leaving felt sobering. For years, interior design had felt like watching black-and-white TV.

I vowed to bring colour into my new place, and asked myself: where did all the colour go?

To find out what happened to our European living rooms, I tallied the colour of every couch in IKEA’s (now discontinued) catalogues from 1960 to 2021. 3,500 couches later, I have confirmed my suspicions.

Of course, there was a faster and smarter way to do it. But I grew up leafing through IKEA catalogues, and I miss them. Not knowing when I’d next have the chance to go through IKEA’s entire archive, I committed to the bit. Aside from the mind-boggling designs of the late 1960s and early 1970s, IKEA offers a unique view of how ordinary people furnished their homes over the decades.

Sadly, our interiors did indeed become less colourful, and increasingly grey, in the 2010s. But if we can learn anything from the beige 1980s, it’s that the 1990s embraced colourful patterns like never before. And judging by the fact that IKEA is reviving long-forgotten designs from decades past (I saw the originals!), our grey days may be numbered.

Toon Vos<br>28 July 2026 at 01:00

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