When did WHITE become color of the year?

I was always under the impression that The Color of the Year, was devoted to showing us a color of amazement. This color should represent our times, and the essence of now. (You remember our colors of years past: burgundy and ivy green -circa 90’s, mauve and teal -circa 80’s, and the best one yet harvest gold and avocado green- circa 70’s.) During those time periods these color made us inspired to redecorate, redesign and reinvest in our homes.

Harvest Gold

MAUVE!!

1990’s burgundy glory

THREE of our major paint companies have selected shades of white for their 2016, colors of the year, what does that say about us NOW? Are we tapped out? Waiting for the next color change? Unsure of our future? Do we not see our homes, our real estate, worth the investment?

Benjamin Moore- Simply White

Farrow and Ball- Shadow White

Sherwin Williams- Alabaster

I suspect maybe all of these.

In less than a decade we have had a major recession, cost of living is higher than ever, people are having less babies, getting married less often, buying houses less often, people of all ages and across most employment fields are suffering from multiple episodes of unemployment, and living with their parents longer. Here in Cleveland, we are having a BOOM—in apartments. Does this mean we are willing to invest in the temporary, while our world is unsettling? Will we have a home buying boom once people feel their employment future is more stable? Does white represent calm, and peace in an ever unsettling world? Perhaps it is just a neutral color that we can depend on until the next great design concept comes along.

White is a neutral and will always be in our color palettes, and yes it needs to be there. However, white is not really a fun jazzy accent color. Sooooo, where the accent color?

So in 2016 Pantone gives us Rose Quartz and Serenity. Both colors are lovely and very peaceful. However for Interior Design, these color are more likely to be used in nurseries, and ladies powder rooms. (Pantone selects colors across all industries, so their colors are used for everything from home accessories, to art, to t-shirt colors, and marketing campaigns---so they only think of Interior Design for a part of their design concepts.) So this may explain why they have something other than white as their color(s) of the year.

However, where does that leave our Interiors? I see so many lovely colors out their right now…but none of them were considered a statement color- at least enough to be COLOR OF THE YEAR.

Does this mean we are left to our own bidding to decide for ourselves what our own statement color this year is?? The color gurus at every major Interior Décor company have officially left the building- so we are on our own. The Walking Dead of Décor. Survival of most fabulous. This is ground zero of color selection. So I suggest to everyone to live it up, and enjoy this time!!!!

By 2017, the Gurus may be back and they will try to sell us on: fluorescent orange and acidic purple, with Moroccan patterns, with a heavy German Brutalist vibe.

#BenjaminMoore #SherwinWilliams #FarrowandBall