For some reason the background-color of the default button is not defined as $default-color (actually the line is commented out), therefore you can't change it via variable:
// _buttons.scss
// .btn-default { @include btn-styles($default-color, $default-states-color); }
.btn-primary { @include btn-styles($primary-color, $primary-states-color); }
...
See https://github.com/creativetimofficial/now-ui-kit/blob/master/assets/scss/now-ui-kit/_buttons.scss#L83
For some reason the
background-colorof the default button is not defined as$default-color(actually the line is commented out), therefore you can't change it via variable:See https://github.com/creativetimofficial/now-ui-kit/blob/master/assets/scss/now-ui-kit/_buttons.scss#L83