Even in residential new construction, grey is being offered as an optional wall color. To me that is big news.For years, the only color option buyers had in new construction was white for the walls. Of course, once you hear that grey has made it so mainstream that it is an option in new construction, you know it is on its way out soon!
Pantone Greenery
Still, the new colors of the year for 2017 are fairly mellow. Deep grayish blues and purples dominate, but some warm neutrals and bright yellows also made the cut. Color-management company Pantone Color Institute recently announced its Color of the Year for 2017, a vibrant spring-green hue called Greenery. Pantone describes greenery as nature’s neutral, a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore and renew. Illustrative of flourishing foliage and the lushness of the great outdoors, the fortifying attributes of Greenery signals consumers to take a deep breath, oxygenate and reinvigorate.
Greenery is marketed by Pantone as a versatile “trans-seasonal” shade that lends itself to many color combinations. As displayed in the 10 palettes below, Greenery is paired with neutrals, brights, deeper shades, pastels, metallics and even the enduring presence of Pantone’s Color of the Year 2016, Rose Quartz and Serenity. Pantone assures us all that these palettes easily cross over fashion, beauty, product and graphic design applications.
Pantone Color of the Year
Don’t worry! Homeowners are not expected to change the color scheme of their home with each passing color trend. Where these selections can be useful, however, is when there’s a particular color being touted that you really like. It becomes much easier to find furnishings and decorative accessories that coordinate with the favorite hue because it’s trending.
So what are the colors that other companies have chosen as their color of the year? As you can see, most of the colors are in fact staying in that grey-blue-lavender tone with the exception of Honey Glow by Dunn-Edwards.
The grey family is well represented with the first five colors shown. Benjamin Moore’s selection, Shadow, is a deep, dark purple-gray hue that’s quite a shift from its 2016 choice, Simply White. It’s a beautiful color, but it definitely makes a statement so it should be used in small doses or in spaces where you don’t tend to linger, such as a stairway. Kelly-Moore is offering Kettleman as its choice for 2017, a dark gray that has some warmth to it, ideal if you find true gray too chilly. Like Shadow, it’s a rather dark color, so it needs to be used in small doses or paired with plenty of contrasting light hues. If Shadow and Kettleman seem too dark to you, then you might consider PPG Paints’ Violet Verbena. Like Shadow, Violet Verbena is also a purple-gray hue but one that’s much lighter and brighter. It’s not a pastel but it is still soft and soothing. This would work well in a bedroom or sitting room where a peaceful, easy feeling is desired. If you want something even lighter, you should consider Olympic’s Cloudberry. Like Violet Verbena, the addition of gray here keeps it from going pastel, so it’s another good choice in a bedroom. Byzantine Blue by Glidden is another purple-gray, but trending more toward blue. It is very neutral because of all the grey in its tone, so it works well with lots of other hues in a home.
Sherwin-Williams’ choice of Poised Taupe is a good choice for homeowners who are tired of the cool gray hues that have been so popular recently. If you aren’t ready to go beige then you might consider taupe — essentially a cool medium brown — which some see as the perfect compromise between warm and cool. Honey Glow from Dunn-Edwards is like a burst of sunshine amid the cooler, moodier hues from the others. It’s a happy, welcoming hue that works well in a kitchen, living room or on the front door.
Other paint companies are promoting multiple colors for 2017, rather than just one. Behr chose 20 colors divided into three categories: Comfortable, Composed and Confident. Since I love strong colors and have a deep red dining room, I liked the Confident palette, shown above. You might choose one of these saturated colors for an accent wall, in a niche or on the ceiling only. I am not sure that you would want any of them on all four walls in a room!
If you are thinking of selling your home and need to get it ready to put on the market, feel free to give the Lise Howe Group a call at 240-401-5577 or email us at lise@lisehowe.com. We love helping homeowners pick the perfect color to create a great impression for buyers!
