Down the road from the park visitor center at Furnace Creek is Death Valley Elementary school, a flat-roofed building beside a dry streambed, which blends easily into the gray-brown landscape.

NPR: Students Blossom in the Desert

Their vibe is masculine with a gray-and-brown palette and a surfeit of technology, such as the maddening touch-screen panel meant to control the suite's three TVs (one in the bathroom mirror), DVD player, radio, iPod dock, temperature, drapes, lights, and many other things I never got the hang of.

FORBES: Debut

The Conklins' brown-gray hemlock floor plank has grains you can lose yourself in.

FORBES: Barn Again

Everything has a pale brown-gray tone.

CNN: 'Cultural jackpot' hardest hit

Mongolian spots (technically named congenital dermal melanocytosis) are flat bluish-green, gray or light brown areas where cells called melanocytes have been trapped in a layer of the skin called the dermis.

CNN: What are Mongolian spots?

She was wearing a drab ensemble of gray cotton sweatpants and a loose-fitting pale-yellow knit top, and her brown hair fell in bangs just above her eyes.

NEWYORKER: The Hardest Vote