Millennials are now being attacked for 'millennial gray,' or the drab and dreary monochromatic color schemes in all of their homes

• "Millennial gray" is a viral term used to stereotype the way millennials typically decorate their homes.
• After hearing the term on TikTok, some millennials have realized their homes are covered in gray.
• Others have made videos bashing the color scheme and singing about its corporate blandness.

Over the last few months, TikTok has lit up with videos attacking millennials for their uncool ways. The latest diss has been about "millennial gray," or the drab and dreary ways the generation has decorated their homes. 

And millennials don't seem to be fighting it — in fact, some are having hilarious crises and realizations that their homes are covered in the same gray color scheme.

The term "millennial gray" has become more popular as more TikToks making fun has gone viral. The idea is that millennials are, in theory, more likely to decorate their interiors using a benign gray color scheme akin to the displays at IKEA. 

While the origins of the trend can't be pinpointed to one exact moment in 2000s history, the interior design blog House Digest theorized that it could have gained traction as a reaction to the previously prominent Tuscan-inspired browns and tans of that decade. Gray was a simpler and sleeker shade, the publication suggested. 

A hashtag for "millennial gray" has over 700,000 views on the platform, with a flood of clips over the last few months unpacking the term.

"I was scrolling through TikTok and I heard the term millennial gray, and they're not wrong," user @ivyyyyyyy8 said in late March. "I mean, the number of things that I have in my house that are gray." 

Millennials, along with everyone else, are realizing that it is a very uninspiring way to decorate their homes. 

In one video bashing the color style, a man announced that millennial gray is "finally being recognized as the cold, dreary color it's always been." He said the color conjures up the worst kinds of images and scenes: prisons, pigeons, rain clouds, and reptiles.

Other videos have featured people documenting millennial gray color schemes they spot in the wild, like at a fancy coffee shop.

A TikToker even went viral with a song where they warble in auto-tune about how they were utterly dismayed to find a "millennial grey-looking restroom" inside a vibrant Mexican restaurant.

"It's giving sponsored by Hobby Lobby," user @chloeisag sings. "It's giving house flipping, renovated kitchen looking. It's giving airport. It's giving live, laugh, love. It's giving corporate. It's giving women's conference."

Some have shared tours of their houses upon realizing they've fallen "victim" to the generational stereotype. 

In one video from March with 5.8 million views, user @victoria.thatsit showed viewers her gray bathroom, gray floors, gray counters, and her two dogs, who both have grayish fur. 

"I haven't been the same since I heard this term," another user @ifakeitsoreal captioned their video from March, also filming the numerous gray items in their home. 

It seems the call-out has had a real impact on the older internet generation. Some millennials said they've tried adding a bit more color to their living spaces as a way of escaping the lifestyle. One user wrote in a series of on-screen captions in June that they were previously "afraid" of experimenting with color. After adding more bohemian-style touches to their home, they offered the following advice: "Don't be afraid to mix and match and just fully express yourself." 

Videos sketching out generational divides — specifically the characteristics of millennials, Generation Z, and baby boomers — are extremely popular on TikTok, and often a subject of viral debate. There have been fiery discourses about everything from how millennials take a pause at the start of their videos, to specific fashion choices (like wearing skinny jeans), to the differences in generational humor (zoomers have ridiculed millennials for being too earnest).

The genre has become so pervasive that people are growing tired of the generational wars, too. One TikToker made a video railing against categorical generational idiosyncrasies, claiming that generational differences are created by economists to clock how people spend money and to market to those people.

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.