Image : Mylands Neutrals Collection, 2019.

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Part three of my colour focus series today, having started with green and then blue, and with a world of turbulence outside the window, I’ve decided to look at a calm colour that makes us feel comforted. It’s not sexy, or attention grabbing, more of a default tone. Often used in rental properties as a catch all neutral which isn’t used because it’s universally loved but rather as one that doesn’t polarise. Beige reduces noise, and can really calm an interior space. It is seen to represent simplicity, and can feel sanctuary-like when done well. Words I associate with beige are still, quiet, relaxing and steady, all things that I am craving right now.  In the nineties it was called magnolia, a tone that had slightly more yellow to it, in the noughties mushroom, and where we stand today taking influence from grey in Greige, or pink in nude, this very liveable tone can look incredible, think of the modern popularity of tadelakt but less expensive.  

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Image Credit : Ferm Living.

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Entirely unobtrusive, there is something grounded about this neutral shade. It’s quiet dependability lends an enormous versatility to interior space. If you are a minimalist, beige can be the perfect compromise colour, less harsh or stark than white but with the ability to recede, if you’re style is more rustic then this perfectly romantic tone will blend with vintage and rough wood alike, whilst if you are a maximalist it may not be the right fit for you(!). There are so many ways to use beige, but I think they work best within monochrome, a room in beige and white can feel sanctuary like, one accented with black is really chic, or adding a little grey as a halfway measure can ground the shade without competing with it.

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Image Credit : Fantastic Frank

Image Credit :Ferm Living.

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Call it what you will, nude, buff, stone, linen, putty, plaster, clay, greige, biscuit, taupe, its a hue that never really goes away thanks to its reassuring and versatile nature. If you call it linen, by the way, you may be nearer to the truth than you realise as the word beige comes from the French term for cloth made from un-dyed sheep’s wool. Offering some of the warmth of brown, and the freshness of white it’s a pragmatic option.

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Image : Farrow & Ball Drop Cloth.

One of the exhibitions I was madly keen to see before the virus shut all the galleries in London was Cecil Beaton’s Bright Young Things at the National Portrait Gallery. This was a retrospective of Beaton’s nineteen-twenties portraits, often printed in bromide they feel more than a little beige. But this isn’t just a tenuous link(!), I mention Beaton because I was reading one of his many essays recently and his discussion of taste really struck a cord in relation to the perception of beige (and possibly grey for that matter too).

“Taste breaks out of all rules: as soon as it is pigeon-holed it is dead. It must always renew itself, and be seen in new perspectives…The obvious becomes vulgar – and so taste has to invent something fresh and different as with Francis Bacon on Beauty: there must be something strange about it. What is good taste at one time, is bad at another.”

Cecil Beaton, At Home: An Interior Life.

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Image Credit : Jotun Lady, shade Soothing Beige.

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Beige suffers in the way Beaton describes thanks to its sturdy populism, what he later goes on to describe terrible good taste, it’s never quite out of fashion, but it’s also never really in fashion either. Not sexy, or cutting edge, it’s often associated with attributes that reassure or reinforce safety, but I don’t think that needs to make it necessarily pedestrian or commonplace. And, whilst it feels like everyone is having a moment with another nineties tone, lilac, right now (have you noticed? It’s everywhere!), I’m staying firm with an old favourite that’s been quietly growing in vogue, particularly in Europe, over the last few years. 

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Images: Design Soda, Grouse by Mylands in the Dining room.

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Whilst growing in popularity, Beige is still a little under the radar, having a quiet moment, and it can be so charming when done well. I’ve been really seduced by the beige’s that I call stone and buff over the last few years. When I repainted the dining room in Grouse with ceilings in Pediment from Mylands last year, a contemporary take on beige was at the top of my agenda, and I find myself collecting accessories in this natural tone more and more of late.

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Image : Fantastic Frank

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I find beige calming, in the same way I’m drawn to green, but it’s a colour in interiors that requires less commitment. The pieces I pick up in this tone are always amongst my favourites. In fact, when looking through my current wants list on Pinterest (things can sit on this list for years unedited!) I was struck by how much of it was beige. Below you will find some of my favourite pieces, partly because I love looking at all this beige together, but partly because I wonder whether sharing it will stop me from buying it! What do you make of beige, is it a safe easy option for you, or one that feels pedestrian?

Brilliant Beige : Accessories Edit

Items from top left, left to right: //  Bosca planters, MADE  //   Marble Lush Jar, Trouva  //  Block 01 Print, Wall of Art  //  Herman Magazine rack, Ferm Living  //  Bendum Vase, Ferm Living  //  Shoulder travertine, Cooee Design  //  Ridge vase, Muuto  //  Lato Table, &Tradition  //  Ridged Vase, Lyngby Porcelain  //  Collage Cushion, Ren London  //  Speckled espresso cups, Form Lifestyle Store  //  Stoneware dish, Form Lifestyle Store  //  Speckle plate, Studio Sukha  //  Familia Yoshi, Studio Arhoj  // Marbled Mug by Hay, at Selfridges