Every paint company is announcing their “color of the year” for 2024 and as the hosts of the RepcoLite Home Improvement Show we always have a lot of opinions around this subject (check out the last segment of Episode 328 here!). While these color trends can feel fairly arbitrary, color does hold a certain ineffable power. Color affects our mood, focus, confidence, life outlook, it can induce hunger, color can even gain our trust! So even when trends may not rule our lives, color can have a profound effect on us. For that reason, defining the current moment via color can be a way of orienting ourselves.
Benjamin Moore
Benjamin Moore has centered their paint brand around color. They employ color experts and designers to not only keep the company relevant but also formulate new colors with a designers eye. Many architects and designers look to Benjamin Moore as a color authority. Many paint companies have already announced their color of the year. However, Benjamin Moore always keeps us waiting! So while we wait for their big reveal, let’s assess where we are and make a prediction!
Current Trends
The past few years have been heavily centered around Biophilic Design. This concept is all about bringing the outside in. Hence the trend towards greens and browns. This trend began during the pandemic. These natural colors were brought in as we felt increasingly cut off from the world around us. They acted as a way of grounding us in our space, creating an environment that provided a sense of connection and balance even if we felt like those things were deteriorating.
This year we saw a push toward the individual. Current color trends are less about your space or internalizing the external and more about going inward, finding your voice and putting it out into the world with confidence. In a way, these colors are more about creating a fresh start and inviting creativity.
What will 2024 Bring?
2024 will have the presidential election in the forefront of many of our minds. Elections bring hope for the future, creating feelings of excitement & enthusiasm. While at the same time, they create anxiety about the unknown. As we plan for the future and assess our expectations, 2024 will place a higher value on intellect. There will also be continued focus on the individual and finding your voice or acting with confidence.
2024 Color Prediction
Chestertown Buff is a muted gold, reminiscent of a wheat field, this color is warm but not overwhelming. Despite being an energizing yellow, there is a calmness to chestertown buff. The brown undertones, take the edge off the yellow and bring it down to earth. This color feels safe, warm and cozy. Chestertown Buff is a long time favorite of designers and it deserves it’s moment.
So why Yellow? Yellow’s represent hope, excitement, anxiety, intellect and have been proven to create feelings of self confidence. All feelings that are sure to define 2024 because of the election season. This hue also balances out the grounded greens and browns that have dominated the past few years. Yellow will bring some much needed levity while still reinforcing aspects of biophilic design, calling on natural wood and prairie land hues.