If you’re anything like me, you look around your house every year or two and feel like absolutely everything needs to go! Unfortunately for most of us, that’s not a financial reality. However, we can freshen up the place a bit without blowing the budget. One of the fastest ways to make a big impact is by creating updated artwork that utilizes the newest interior color trends.
Every year, the biggest names in paint and design put out their Color of the Year and suggested palettes. Let’s dive into the 2024 color palettes from Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, and Pantone to freshen up our spaces on a dime!
Pantone Color of the Year 2024: Peach Fuzz
The official color of 2024, and the newest winner of the coveted spot, goes to 13-1023-Peach Fuzz. This is kind of an otherworldly color. It’s light. It’s bright—a real feel-good color. This color is meant to conjure feelings of warmth and an innate connection with nature. It’s an easy-breezy color but with alluring mid-tone features and enough girth on the deep end to feel vibrant and full. With Pantone’s suggested 2024 color palettes, it can be made to fit almost any interior design scheme. In the official marketing, Pantone uses a delicate flower displaying these varying tones perfectly.
What is the Pantone?
In the 1960’s the innovative Pantone printing company changed the way see and use color by developing a system of categorizing color and a way of reproducing identical shades consistently. The Pantone Color Institute is renowned for its color matching system and is utilized in almost every industry from graphic design and social media to textile and high fashion runways. Every year, Pantone chooses a color of the year. It then collaborates with interior designers, fashion companies, and health/beauty companies to design collections utilizing the newest trends.
Pantone’s 2024 Color Palettes
The great thing about this color is that it almost presents as a neutral in some of its tones. Therefore, it can be combined with a range of color options evoking every style from French Country to Retro.
Libations
The first color palette suggested by Pantone is called Libations. It gives off an urban vibe with sophistication, combining light and medium shades of almond, mauve, muted purple, mustard yellow, and a warm reddish-brown called Marsala. If you want that Industrial after-dark look, this is your palette!
Flavor-Full
The second color palette is Flavor-Full, which is far more playful and punchy. It combines the Pantone colors Mango Mint (mustard), Party Punch (fuschia), Grapemist, Blueberry, Green Banana (sage), Dijon (brown mustard), and Honey Yellow (caramel). If you love a sixties vibe or have a young girl’s space to overhaul, this is your choice!
Peach Plethora
Last but not least, Peach Plethora is a color palette for those who love a monotone look. It combines Peach Fuzz with an array of peach tones, almonds, and a few pops of pink thrown in for fun. It’s a great color for respite spaces like she-sheds, reading nooks, or even your vanity area. If you’re looking for that antique or shabby chic look, this would be a great option for you too.
How to Incorporate Peach Fuzz
Unless you love color, you’re probably not going to paint an entire room a vibrant peach, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pull it in with a giant piece of acrylic pour art. Go big, creating a leaning piece for your living room wall! Better yet, tape off rectangular sections of your bedroom wall and utilize the peach in a painted floral motif reminiscent of wallpaper!
Behr Color of the Year: Cracked Pepper
Mega paint gurus, Behr, went sultry and sophisticated this year with the perfect shade of deep charcoal gray that borders on black—Cracked Pepper. Peach Fuzz and Cracked Pepper inhabit disparate places —we’re going total other end of the spectrum here. (However, they actually pair well together.) This trend is for the bold, but it instantly brings gravitas to a space. Though you may think it bleak or strange to paint an entire room black, when done right, it has an endlessly classic appeal that’s unexpected and feels regal at the same time.
Cracked Pepper Color Palette
Behr recommends pairing Cracked Pepper with a wide array of colors from a muted, midtone blue called Laguna Blue to a creamy white called Whipped Cream, a muted mauve called Malted, and a sage named Provence Blue. It pairs nicely with shades of amber, warm mahogany and camel leathers, as well as gold accents.
How to Use Cracked Pepper
Cracked Pepper works very well to highlight interesting architectural elements. If you’ve got a focal wall with a great fireplace. Make it pop by painting the wall black. It works well for kitchen cabinet walls or underneath your island. Think banisters, columns, staircases, etc.
However, don’t let the naysayers tell you that an entire black room will be too dark either. It’s perfectly legit to paint your bedroom Cracked Pepper, and it will look fantastic! Of course, you can always save some dollars and bring in this intense shade through some art, like a new acrylic painted countertop or a fabulous new pour painting for your mantel!
Benjamin Moore Color of the Year: Blue Nova 825
Andrea Magno and her team of color experts at Benjamin Moore went with Blue Nova 825 this year—a medium, meditative blue with just the slightest hint of violet. Blue Nova beckons us to a bygone era and would be at home on the traditional facades of any Craftsman or Cape home. This trend feels classic at first glance, but it can really be spiced up to fit a lot of different flavors.
Blue Nova Color Palette
The Benjamin Moore suggested palette for the year is very similar to Behr’s. With Blue Nova leading the way, they toss in a light mauve, a honey shade, a muted sage, creamy white, and terracotta. The Moore color trends are a bit lighter and more airy than their counterpart’s.
How to Use Blue Nova
This blue shade is a classic, and easy to incorporate in accessories or art. However, if you want to move away from the ultra-traditional look of it, my favorite trick is to go completely monotone. That means your doors, trim, architectural elements, and accessories will all the Blue Nova. This look isn’t for everyone, but in a well-lit house, monotone rooms are continually changing and provide intense visual interest. Consider mixing sheens if you go the monotone route for even more interest.
Color Memories: I once had a monotone bedroom in a shade very similar to Blue Nova, accented with gold hardware. To this day, it’s still one of my favorite rooms that I’ve designed. The corner was filled with a giant poor painting, and the room felt elegant and cozy. Don’t be afraid to spray blue everywhere! Benjamin Moore color trends are always on point, and they have some of my personal favorites for interiors.
Sherwin-Williams Color of the Year 2024: Upward
If your mood board is filled with linens, sheer drapes, and beachy vibes, then Sherwin-Williams’s official color of 2024 is right up your alley. Upward is a very light blue with a hint of silver. It creates a peaceful ambiance, which hopefully will inspire you to take a deep breath and relax a bit.
Upward Color Palette
Sherwin-Williams recommends pairing light grays with a brown undertone, a traditional olive green, and a rusty color called Antiquarian Brown with Upward. They also add a pop of vibrance with a deeper shade of blue called Gale Force, which I love. This is a far more traditional color palette than the others mentioned, and honestly, it lends itself to a certain style. While not impossible to make your own, this palette is the least flexible of the ones we’ve hit today.
How to Use Upward
Upward is a great wall color. It’s neutral enough to blend with most furniture, and you can add your pops in with accessories. You could also take Upward and combine it with a few more blue shades like light denim, some aqua blues, and a deep blue shade like Gale Force to create an interesting monotone pour painting. I suggest adding in some veins of your favorite metallic!
Closing Thoughts-A Word to the Wise
While color trends are wonderful and help us branch out with new ideas, don’t ever choose a color palette just because it’s on trend. I encourage you all to take a leap into unknown experiences when it comes to color, but if you don’t like, it don’t go there. Getting out of your comfort zone can be good, but too big a jump and you’ll end up hating your space. That’s the reason I recommend starting with a piece of art! You can utilize one of these hot color trends, display it in your space, accessorize it with some new vases, and see how you like it. If you love it after a few days, then dive in further. If you don’t, sell the painting, and try something else!
Need some more help with color combinations, check out our beginner’s guide on choosing colors for your art!
