A Detailed History of Sage Green in Interiors — From Indian Buddhist Frescoes to Queen Victoria's Bedchambers and Beyond
We break down the enduring appeal of this soothing shade, from the very, very beginning
Sage green is a color that’s nothing new on the decorating circuit. It feels like ever since we’ve had walls, we’ve been drawn to painting them in the subtle, soothing tones of sage, and while it’s had its time in and out of the spotlight, the color has never been far from our thoughts. "Sage is dusty, but it still has a bit of zest to it," says interior designer Pernille Lind. "It's wistful and has a vintage feel, bringing familiarity and comfort, like a memory you can't quite place."
A muted, gray-tinged green with a dash of yellow, sage green hangs between olive and eucalyptus, as soft to look at as its namesake herb is to run a thumb over. "The color evokes the feel of the English countryside," says Louise McGarry, co-owner and creative director of Studio Braw. "It makes the bones of the house feel like they’ve been there for some time; that it has history."
Decorating with sage green straddles the idea of new growth and earthy, grounding depth at once — connecting the home to the natural world in a way that’s gentle, easy, and approachable. "As a soft, slightly muddied green, sage has quite a lot of gray to it, which takes away some of the freshness you get with other greens," explains interior designer Rachael Gowdridge. "It feels tranquil and grown-up."
“Sage has a sort of quiet energy," adds interior designer Rebecca Wakefield. "It's calm yet fresh, so it pairs well with nearly all colors, which makes it so classic." That energy has given sage the stamina to traverse the decades and centuries with such grace. Below, we break down the history of sage green, from ancient pigment to paint-chart go-to.
SAGE, SALVIA OFFICINALIS
As we all know, the color sage takes its name from the diminutive gray-green shrub with downy textured leaves, the evergreen plant native to the Mediterranean, but now probably to be found in a garden or window box not too far from us all.
Christened after the Latin word salvare, meaning "to save", and officinalis, which links back to the traditional medicines and herbs storerooms in monasteries, sage has been a go-to for centuries for its healing properties, as well as its ability to jazz up a mid-week pasta dish.
One of the most revered herbs in human history, sage has long held a place in medicine. In ancient Egypt, it was used as a fertility treatment; it was recommended in ancient Greece to aid wound healing, women’s health, and to sharpen the mind (a favorite pastime of the wise, or ‘sage’); during the Middle Ages, it was used to ward off the Black Death. Because of its perceived medical powers, the plant was highly covetable in 17th-century China, with one pound of European sage leaves eagerly exchanged with Dutch traders for three or four pounds of tea. Before toothpaste, sage leaves were rubbed directly onto teeth (well, it is a member of the mint family…)
Has any of this stood up to modern medicine? Well, not all of it, perhaps not even most of it. But while it’s by no means a miracle remedy, it is proven to have antioxidant properties. (There are ongoing studies into its potential effects on cognition, and it has been shown to help issues from mild menopause symptoms to stomach cramps and sore throats.) “With the herb used for centuries in kitchens and medicine and for its healing properties, it's perhaps these associations with nature, health, and wellbeing that explain why it continues to feel so restorative in interiors," muses Carly Allison, head of brand and product at Fired Earth.
And the plant isn’t just for kitchen or medicine cabinets. Burning, or smudging, certain types of sage is a long-held spiritual tradition primarily rooted in many Indigenous peoples of North America, with similar traditions found in cultures around the world. "Sage has long been burned in households to cleanse a space," agrees Pernille Lind. "It's actually something we practice in our own studio."
Spreading the herb’s aromatic smoke around a room or person is believed to purify spaces, bodies, and souls, along with improving mood and dispelling negative energy.
With her eponymous London-based interior design practice bringing curiosity to every project, Pernille’s work focuses on quality and longevity over fleeting trends and fuses Scandinavian design aesthetics with a touch of Asian sensibility. The homes the studio creates are atmospheric and creative, filled with objects that tell stories.
Making Sage (the Color) With Natural Pigments
The frescoed ceilings in the AJANTA Caves of Ancient India, located in a village in the southwest of Amrawati in the Midwest of India.
While the term ‘sage green’ only appeared around 1800, recognizable muted gray-greens litter our cultural and decorative history. "Before colors were mass-produced, a name such as ‘sage green’ could refer to a variety of subtly different shades," explains Ruth Mottershead, creative director of Little Greene. "It could depend on the pigments available, how the color was mixed, and even how it was interpreted by the person using it."
Delicate green-tinged iron-rich clays have been used as pigments since ancient times, with the color known as green earth or terre verte including sage’s iconic green-gray makeup — step back in time at least two thousand years, and you’ll find it on everything from Roman wall painting to Indian Buddhist frescoes and Argentinian rock art.
Ruth Mottershead leads the creative studio of iconic paint and wallpaper manufacturer Little Greene, translating the brand's eighteenth-century roots into beautiful contemporary designs. Little Greene works in close partnership with the National Trust to create an ongoing range of historic designs, and it works with natural, organic, and safe synthetic pigments.
The minerals needed for the pigment are abundant around Europe, with green earth experiencing a moment in medieval Italy when painters realized it worked beautifully as an underlayer for pink skin tones (which is why, after a few centuries fading, some figures look a bit sickly), and the gray-green tones were still being harnessed during the Renaissance to create depth and softness.
Meanwhile, in late medieval England, sage’s cousin green earth found itself painted onto walls — in homes both ordinary and noteworthy — in water-based distemper. Created by mixing chalk with a glue made from animal parts, distemper had a subdued, matte appearance and was slightly uneven, as well as cheap, easy to make, and able to be applied to fresh lime plaster without damaging it. Colored with organic pigments, distemper’s limited palette included green earth (along with some reds, browns, and yellows).
The Decorating History of Sage Green
GEORGIAN (1714–1837)
The 'Green Library' at Mottisfont, Hampshire, a Tudor mansion that was remodelled into an 18th-century Georgian country house in the 1740s.
The gray-green became a fashionable interior staple in the Georgian era, with paint recipes often featuring a sage-like color formulated with green earth, or by combining yellow ochre, white lead, and Prussian blue (the first modern synthetic pigment). "These historic greens tend to have a more complex, muted quality because of the pigments and materials available at the time, compared to modern sage, which can be precisely formulated," says Carly Allison.
"Softer greens were particularly popular in Georgian interiors, when color became an important part of decorative schemes for both grand and domestic spaces," explains Dominic Myland, CEO of Mylands. "They were often used on walls, joinery, and furniture."
Sage green was found everywhere from 18th-century urban townhouses to aristocratic estates, complementing dark timber, gilding, art collections, and libraries; the color marked a shift in domestic taste away from heavy, dark Baroque styles toward pale, airy tones. "It’s perhaps no surprise that it was a favorite in Georgian drawing rooms, libraries, and dining rooms, as its softness makes it a natural partner for antiques, working well with the darkness of wooden furniture," says Louise McGarry.
As synthetic colors hit the market, a craze for paints and wallpapers in more extreme, vivid hues (such as Scheele’s Green in 1778 and Emerald in 1814) took off. Once it was revealed, however, that such brilliance came at a health price (they were laced with arsenic), mellower shades stepped forward, and the era of true sage began.
VICTORIAN (1837–1901)
This lavish bedroom at Penrhyn Castle shows how sage green was used during the Victorian era. In fact, Queen Victoria was reported to have stayed here.
The first sage peak came when Queen Victoria held the throne. In 1876, Rhoda and Agnes Garrett — known as Britain's first professional female interior decorators — ushered “sage-green” into Victorian bedrooms, noting its sense of restfulness and space, and praising how it absorbed light and eased eye strain.
"Softer, more muted shades such as sage became popular during the Victorian period," says Ruth Mottershead. "It was valued for its calming qualities and became associated with rest and wellbeing, creating a sense of tranquility and a connection to the natural world that still resonates today."
Sage green was seemingly enjoyed as a low-intensity aid to reading; on bathroom ceramics and hearth surrounds to promote cleanliness; in bedchambers and nurseries to lower sensory stimulation; and in parlors and drawing rooms as a nod to the outdoors.
ARTS & CRAFTS (1860s–1910s)
Sage green was given a second wind with the Arts & Crafts Movement of the 1860s–1910s, as William Morris rejected chemical colors and turned to sage-like greens in more historic natural dyeing processes to create those distinctive chalky gray-greens for textiles and wallcoverings.
Elements such as the greenery of 1866’s Fruit and the background of 1887’s Willow Bough (and many more) were realized in a soft, subtle sage tone, creating an ode to the simple forms found in the British landscape that made the Arts & Crafts Movement an enduring household name.
EARLY 20TH CENTURY (1900s–1930s)
By the time the Edwardian era rolled past in 1910, sage green felt outdated and fell out of favor as new generations reached for more progressive colors such as creams, whites, and light pastels, and throughout the 1910s and 20s, bolder Art Deco hues reigned.
That said, sage never truly disappeared; it was used here and there through the decades as an accent or hint of the organic, most notably popping up again during the 1930s as a low-cost slice of calm amidst the Depression, and alongside eau de nil in nature-inspired schemes.
LATE 20TH CENTURY (1990s)
It was the 1990s by the time sage had another run in the spotlight. As we began to reject 80s brights and the popular Hunter Green in favor of a more shabby chic aesthetic, sage gave that distressed, romantic feel we all needed to listen to Alanis Morissette amongst.
We wanted to restore our Victorian properties to glory, and did so with the heritage sage tones of Farrow & Ball’s iconic Lichen, while Changing Rooms taught us to rag-roll and sponge-paint our walls sage to counter all the cast concrete and brushed stainless steel we suddenly needed.
2010s
As the late 2010s came around and we grew tired of so much cold Millennial gray, sage-y shades offered a gradual transition back to pigment, bringing warmth back into interiors, with the design world dubbing it a ‘new neutral’.
"As a soothing yet fresh color, it’s a great alternative as a neutral — with more depth than most," says Rebecca Wakefield. It’s a view shared across the industry. "Sage is very much used as a neutral in our studio," explains Louise McGarry. "It is a great option for a neutral that is not a cream, white, or gray and works very hard as a neutral backdrop without feeling bland."
Its versatility is all part of the appeal. “Sage can be used in much the same way as a warm gray or a putty," adds Rachael Gowdridge. "That’s probably why it has such longevity — it doesn’t really shout for attention and can just sit quietly amongst everything else."
Around 2018, we learned the phrase 'biophilic design', and sage sprouted up again throughout the home as we dosed our open-plan living spaces and loft conversions in it, reveling in the soul-enriching power of Mother Earth.
2020+
It was the 2020s that saw sage rise to a decorative dominance it hadn’t reached before, as lockdown led us to spending (a lot) more time in the home and craving a calm, remember-what-it-was-like-to-be-outside palette.
Dulux’s pale gray-green Tranquil Dawn was its 2020 Color of the Year, and the shade felt like an easy introduction into the ‘color drenching’ we would soon all know and love. And as trend cycles tend to go, Dulux just dubbed its 'Soulful Sage' the Color of the Year for 2027, so something tells me we're about to see a lot of the soothing shade again.
Will olive green, sea green chiffon, or matcha ever live up to sage green's cult legacy? Only time — perhaps a lot of it — will tell.
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