In New Albany, the paint colors black and gray are the new beige. Ugh.

Have you noticed that various shades of gray and black have become ubiquitous when it comes to putting coats of paint on commercial buildings downtown?

Interestingly, throughout history the names of famous people have been used to described colors, as with Alice Blue, which was named for Teddy Roosevelt's daughter, and Titian Red, after the painter.

Jeffie Charcoal, anyone?

Paint it black, architecturally speaking? Better yet, just make it stop, by John King (San Francisco Chronicle)

If nothing else, sheltering in place these past two months has allowed us to get to know our neighborhoods very well — close encounters of the strolling kind, day after day after day.

Which means that I can now state emphatically, without reservation, that the black house craze has gone too far.

As happens with any fashion trend, from padded shoulders in the 1980s to man buns of more recent vintage, houses cloaked in dark gray or jet black have crossed the line from sexy and stylish to been there-done that. In and of themselves, some look great — they “pop,” to use a word favored by color consultants. En masse, you’d think tar was being poured from airplanes onto random homes for no particular reason.

It’s enough to make one long for sheepish beige ...