Move over envy, green is donning a fresh face and a new attitude that’s totally Brat. Often referred to as hyper and hedonistic, the searing hue is causing a raucous from somewhere between chartreuse and slime-green – HEX #8ACE00, to be exact. This color, developed from pixels rather than pigment, has supersaturated the zeitgeist with tendrils of influence extending from the digital world into a very physical realm with significant implications.
Its inception is credited to British club-pop provocateur Charli XCX and artist Brent David Freaney of the creative tech company SPECIAL OFFER, Inc. Freaney was enlisted to manufacture a garish color free from preconceived cultural associations and unencumbered by taste. “What I find interesting is that it was a conscious decision to use color to communicate the feeling in a Goldilocks-style process that took time to get right,” says Laura Guido-Clark, color experience consultant and founder of Love Good Color. “I also find it fascinating that both sound and color are wavelengths, and perhaps this is meant to get people on the artist’s desired wavelength… life lived in full tilt.”
From summer anthems to fashion accessories to a political campaign, the Bratty aesthetic now echoes in home furnishings. And while microtrends proliferate online, often with an expiration date not far from when they’ve found viral success, the interior design trade has long been accustomed to the cyclical nature of respective current taste. But how can those not brazen enough for full commitment to the brash hue start introducing it as an element in one’s personal design expression? Decide first if the trend is worth tapping into. “Color is very emotional, so you should make sure that the palette in your home reflects your personal taste, rather than trends,” says Leah Ring, principal designer at Another Human, an interior design firm sought out by clients for their fantastical, color-forward approach.
Delivery method and dosage are equally important aspects to consider in the prevention of visual overconsumption from one’s color story as well. For some, hue is the hero anchoring its space through walls and flooring, while others introduce it in contrast as an antagonist through upholstery, window treatments, and accessories that pull focus to create drama. What’s more, practice makes perfect. Public opinion of bright, bold color trends venerable as tastemakers demonstrate successful execution of color.
“The key to using shocking colors in interiors, without looking like a trend chaser, is to implement them in accents to a space,” says Rudy Saunders, the design director of America’s first formal interior design firm, Dorothy Draper & Company. “Lining a bed canopy in chartreuse or the pop of an acid green napkin on a table – these pops add a statement. It is important when using these colors that you do it with bravado and the energy to carry it off successfully.”
For those ready to indulge their color curiosity or others that already dabble in it, read on to discover some of Design Milk’s selections for the exacting shade…
This sculptural vase is inspired by brutalist architecture while bucking the norms of something typically delicate and demure. Designer Jonah Takagi considers every surface in its unusually faceted form for an objet d’art that pulls focus at every angle. Glass is blown into each initial mold, allowed to cool slightly, and then broken free from those confines for a one-of-a-kind vessel.
Zinc marks the latest edition added to Quiet Town’s Sun Shower Orient collection designed in collaboration with NYC-based Coming Soon. The color-blocked curtain catches light for a fuel-injected shower experience sure to wake up those who showcase it in their bathing space. It’s equally consumer-conscious boasting a non-chlorinated EVA vinyl that is PVC and BPA-free.
Originally entitled Model 70, the Eero Saarinen-designed Womb Chair with Ottoman style has been iconic since the furnishings’ initial inception in 1948. The primordial pieces defied manufacturing techniques of their time while embracing new technologies, which ultimately led to a liberated form and freedom from expectations of traditional seating.
Julia Elsas has a creative practice as animated as her work, which features ceramic pieces akin to tiny moments plucked from performance art and frozen in time. The Wiggle Wall Hook is especially fun in its subversive solution for an oft overlooked, banal home furnishing. Each funky handmade object is unique and comes with powder-coated screws in contrasting colors.
With a form open to interpretation, this foam lamp by New York-based maker Joseph Algieri vacillates between soft, squishy, and vaguely slimy while its irreverence elicits a variety of visceral reactions from the off putting to endearing. It also serves as an interesting conversation piece for unapologetic interiors interested in comedic relief or some serious experimentation.
Swedish designer and ceramicist Gustaf Westman makes this pigment even more potent with a punk silhouette for his Spiky Cup in an evolution of, or perhaps departure from, the cherubic Chunky Cup that preceded it. Though the original drop for the edgy drinkware was part of an exclusive launch through Highsnobiety, it has quickly become a cult classic among fans of his work.
These quirky candles are all about catching the right vibe with their handcrafted undulating forms and meandering wick. The Canada-based, women-owned company prides itself on facilitating fun with interior accessories that focus on joy as the centerpiece of any set dressing or tablescape design.
Those who want to lean into repetitive forms, stacking, or tone-on-tone color can satisfy the urge with Steven Bukowski’s Terrace Candle Holder. The various levels offer two readings and can be flipped for dual functionality so that users may burn the wick at both ends, so to speak, with one position for a taper candle and the other to house a votive.
Known for their neotenic design, New York-based studio Jumbo dabbles in isomorphic correspondence with a series of suggestive vases reminiscent of fruit and confections changing state, caught mid-undress as they melt from solid to liquid. The cheeky designs are highly technical and totally whimsical.
Floral motifs from the 16th century are tempered by art deco sensibilities for a textile design – rendered in Goodweave™ Certified New Zealand wool – that is tied to the past as much as it caters to the present. Varied tones create depth and allow for a clear articulation of the grid in the lighter, iconic green color.
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