diff --git a/src/components/TrendsSidebar.tsx b/src/components/TrendsSidebar.tsx
index 3e32e93..d895437 100644
--- a/src/components/TrendsSidebar.tsx
+++ b/src/components/TrendsSidebar.tsx
@@ -10,17 +10,6 @@ interface Article {
   published_at: string | null;
 }
 
-function ago(iso: string | null): string {
-  if (!iso) return "just now";
-  const t = Date.now() - new Date(iso).getTime();
-  const m = Math.floor(t / 60000);
-  if (m < 60) return `${m}m ago`;
-  return `${Math.floor(m / 60)}h ago`;
-}
-
-// Tiny inline entity extractor: count tag occurrences in recent vs older
-// articles and surface the top 5 by lift. Not vector — just keyword
-// salience. Phase 6b will replace with pgvector semantic similarity.
 function detectTrends(recent: Article[], baseline: Article[]) {
   const recentCounts: Record<string, number> = {};
   for (const a of recent) for (const t of a.tags || []) {
@@ -39,8 +28,11 @@ function detectTrends(recent: Article[], baseline: Article[]) {
     return { entity: k, lift, count: c };
   });
   scored.sort((a, b) => b.lift - a.lift);
-  const top = scored.slice(0, 5);
-  return top;
+  return scored.slice(0, 5);
+}
+
+function titleCase(s: string): string {
+  return s.replace(/\b\w/g, (c) => c.toUpperCase());
 }
 
 export default async function TrendsSidebar() {
@@ -55,7 +47,7 @@ export default async function TrendsSidebar() {
 
   const since7d = new Date(Date.now() - 7 * 86400000).toISOString();
   const since30d = new Date(Date.now() - 30 * 86400000).toISOString();
-  const [recent, baseline, total] = await Promise.all([
+  const [recent, baseline] = await Promise.all([
     sb
       .from("wp_imported_posts")
       .select("title, excerpt, tags, wp_published_at")
@@ -71,7 +63,6 @@ export default async function TrendsSidebar() {
       .lt("wp_published_at", since7d)
       .order("wp_published_at", { ascending: false })
       .limit(800),
-    sb.from("wp_imported_posts").select("wp_id", { count: "exact", head: true }).eq("status", "published"),
   ]);
 
   const recentArts: Article[] = (recent.data || []).map((r: any) => ({
@@ -82,47 +73,37 @@ export default async function TrendsSidebar() {
   }));
   const trends = detectTrends(recentArts, baselineArts);
 
-  const nowIso = new Date().toISOString();
-
   return (
     <aside
-      className="rounded border border-[#252525] bg-[var(--color-background-secondary,#111)] p-4 relative"
-      style={{ borderRadius: "var(--border-radius-md,6px)" }}
+      className="rounded p-4"
+      style={{
+        background: "var(--color-trends-bg, #F5EFEB)",
+        color: "var(--color-trends-text, #2F4F5B)",
+        borderRadius: "var(--border-radius-md, 6px)",
+      }}
       aria-label="BB AI detected trends"
     >
-      <span aria-hidden className="absolute top-2 left-2 w-3 h-3 border-t border-l border-[var(--color-text-info,#60a5fa)]" />
-      <span aria-hidden className="absolute bottom-2 right-2 w-3 h-3 border-b border-r border-[var(--color-text-info,#60a5fa)]" />
-
-      <div className="flex items-center justify-between">
+      <div className="flex items-center justify-between mb-3">
         <h2 className="font-serif text-base font-semibold">BB AI · detected trends</h2>
-        <span className="inline-flex items-center gap-1.5 text-[10px] font-mono uppercase tracking-wider text-[var(--color-text-info,#60a5fa)]">
-          <span className="bb-pulse-dot" />
+        <span className="inline-flex items-center gap-1.5 text-[10px] font-mono uppercase tracking-wider opacity-70">
+          <span className="bb-pulse-dot" style={{ background: "var(--color-trends-text, #2F4F5B)" }} />
           live
         </span>
       </div>
-      <p className="text-[10px] font-mono text-[#6b7280] mt-1">
-        monitoring 47 sources · 24h
-      </p>
 
-      <ol className="mt-4 space-y-2">
+      <ul className="space-y-1.5">
         {trends.length === 0 && (
-          <li className="text-xs text-[#6b7280]">No trend data yet.</li>
+          <li className="text-xs opacity-60">No trend data yet.</li>
         )}
-        {trends.map((t, i) => (
-          <li key={t.entity} className="flex items-center justify-between gap-2 text-sm">
-            <span className="font-mono text-[10px] text-[#6b7280] w-8">{String(i + 1).padStart(2, "0")}</span>
-            <span className="flex-1 truncate text-[#e5e7eb]">{t.entity}</span>
-            <span className="font-mono text-[11px] text-[var(--color-text-info,#60a5fa)]">+{Math.round((t.lift - 1) * 100) || t.count}</span>
+        {trends.map((t) => (
+          <li key={t.entity} className="flex items-center justify-between text-sm">
+            <span className="truncate font-serif">{titleCase(t.entity)}</span>
+            <span className="font-mono text-[12px] opacity-80">
+              +{Math.round((t.lift - 1) * 100) || t.count}
+            </span>
           </li>
         ))}
-      </ol>
-
-      <div className="mt-4 pt-3 border-t border-[#252525] text-[10px] font-mono text-[#6b7280]">
-        Vector pass {ago(nowIso)} · n={(total.count || 0).toLocaleString()}
-      </div>
-      <div className="mt-1 text-[9px] font-mono text-[#444]">
-        /* PHASE 6b: replace keyword similarity with pgvector or ChromaDB semantic similarity when wired. */
-      </div>
+      </ul>
     </aside>
   );
 }
diff --git a/src/styles/redesign-tokens.css b/src/styles/redesign-tokens.css
index fe5172c..7ed1aef 100644
--- a/src/styles/redesign-tokens.css
+++ b/src/styles/redesign-tokens.css
@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@
   --color-text-warning: #f59e0b;
   --color-text-danger: #ef4444;
 
+  /* Trends sidebar palette (Ryan, 2026-05-15) */
+  --color-trends-bg: #F5EFEB;
+  --color-trends-text: #2F4F5B;
+
   /* Type families */
   --font-serif: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Tinos", serif;
   --font-mono: "JetBrains Mono", "Fira Code", "Courier New", Courier, monospace;