Shortly after Emma Ganzarain moved into her boyfriend’s apartment in Oslo, the couple got to work on a redesign. They added light-colored herringbone floors, with radiant heating to combat the Norwegian cold, and taupe kitchen cabinets. In the living room, the couple swapped a purple lamp for a white one and replaced a maroon armchair with a similarly sized off-white chair.
When the work was almost finished, Ganzarain, 26, posted some before and afters. photos on Tiktok. “Every man needs a woman in his life,” he wrote in the caption.
The reaction was not what she expected.
Her post has been viewed nearly 8 million times since it appeared earlier this month. It has also generated more than 55,000 comments, most of them negative. Many people have accused Ganzarain, who had around 3,000 followers on TikTok at the time of publication, of ruining her boyfriend’s space, replacing her warmth and character with a more sterile appearance.
“Before is better,” wrote one commenter. “Afterwards he is very clinical and cold.” The person continued to notice “Patrick Bateman vibes” from the renovated apartment, a reference to the serial killer protagonist of “American Psycho.”
In an interview, Ms. Ganzarain, who works in resource management, explained her aesthetic: “I love the basic neutral palette. Beige, white, brown. Earth colors”. She said her boyfriend had lived alone before she moved in, and she added that the apartment was old and needed some upgrades.
Some commenters went beyond criticizing the redesign and accused Ganzarain of controlling his partner (who was very involved in the process, he noted). Others sent her death and rape threats, she said.
Several of Ganzarain’s detractors resorted to the phrase “sad beige,” an Internet term used to describe a minimalist style with an emphasis on neutral tones. Hayley DeRoche, a librarian from Petersburg, Virginia, who stops by @sadbeige on TikTok, he helped popularize the term through numerous posts lampooning the trend.
“It’s a very specific aesthetic that incorporates neutrals to an almost absurdly monochromatic degree,” said DeRoche, 37. A typical “sad beige” room, he added, has “a lot of eggshell, a lot of cream, a lot of oatmeal, cardboard, biscotti, sand.” Referencing the Kardashians, who are well-known fans, DeRoche added that the clean-lined, almost colorless appearance can be an effective indicator of wealth.
Ms. DeRoche added that she does not approve of those who use the term “sad beige” as a weapon to attack an individual sign. She also theorized that the strong reaction to Ganzarain’s post could indicate a larger shift in home decor, from uncluttered minimalism to something cozier and less polished.
Emily Rayna, a interior designer in New Hampshire, agreed that the era of neutrals might be about to end. “People are leaning toward maximalism, which warms my heart,” she said, “but we’ll probably suffer some pushback from that, too, at some point in the future.”
Ganzarain said he believed TikTok’s reaction was partly due to him posting the before and after photos before the redesign was complete. “We didn’t even have lights in the kitchen!” she said. “The sink was not installed.” Still, she said, she’s enjoyed some of the conversations she’s had with people online, touching on everything from the temperature of the lighting to the cushions.
As for her boyfriend, who declined to be identified for this article, he weighed in just over a week after his apartment became famous on TikTok.
“Did you really like how we changed the apartment?” asks Mrs. Ganzarain in a video that shows her pointing a toy gun at his head.
“Mhmm,” he responds, nodding at the camera with a blank expression.
“Blink twice if you need to be rescued,” reads one featured comment.
