I've used #412f1c for years as my personal site background. I've now changed it to #4A412A (Pantone 448 C). Looks just as good to me. Has better story. https://www.ronilan.com/ What do you think?
I get why it failed market research, it's surprisingly bold for such a drab color. Which I think makes for an interesting feeling because I find drab and bold to be antithetical to each other, yet this color manages to be both.
Also, it feels neither warm nor cool, which is also a little off-putting. I was playing around with making the grey banner at the top a more warm grey, and it was terrible, but I went with an even cooler grey, and it was still terrible. The most complimentary color I found was something around #dedfd9, and it's still merely, not terrible.
It does kind of remind me of an old Gameboy, especially with the sepia picture of you.
(which according to https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/ is WCAG AA OK in contrast to the ugliest colour in the world)
Old one looks way better than the new one. But the story might be worth keeping the change :)