The Color Recession May Be Permanent - The Atlantic
theatlantic.com · 2,267 words · saved by 1 readers
Consumers are so afraid of getting colors wrong, they don’t use them at all.
Updated at 12:10 p.m. ET on August 11, 2026 When Bob Buckter, a 79-year-old housepainter who also goes by “Dr. Color,” began his career, in the 1970s, the job was a lot more fun. Acid-tripping hippies in his hometown of San Francisco wanted “wild-ass color combinations” for their facades, he told me. Armed with mustard-yellow, lime-green, and vermilion paint, Buckter happily transformed drab Victorian and Edwardian homes into vivid eye candy. Today, almost no one seems to be looking to the hues of jelly beans for inspiration for their home—or car or couch or fridge or practically anything…
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