The Colour of the Year

Hi Everyone and thanks for checking back with me. My last couple of posts have dealt with colour, Colour Schemes and how to use it effectively in your interiors. Today I thought I’d go off on a little Colour Tangent and talk about two wonderful paint companies’ “Colour of the Year 2019” selections that have just been announced. It’s a very exciting time of year for us Designers when this happens - it’s not like “The Oscars” exciting but it’s close. Like “The People’s Choice Awards” exciting. Anyhoooo, two renowned paint companies - Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams - have just announced their selections for 2019 and I thought we’d talk about it. First of all, I like both of these companies and will give them equal time in this post. Asking me to choose between them is like asking me to choose between pie and cake or pick my favourite episode of “The Partridge Family”. You just can’t do it. What is great is that they’ve both picked very different colours to showcase for 2019 which I hope will make for a nifty Design experiment on this post. Now, you’ve probably heard about this *Colour of the Year* business from watching design enthusiast shows like Cityline or Marilyn Denis and wondered how these selections happen. Basically, these companies have a think tank of smarty pants (some of whom I even know and spoke to about this so I got the skinny straight from the source) who analyze trends and influences such as fashion, decor, entertainment, political climates, the state of affairs, etc. and find a colour in their existing fan decks they think best represents those things and how it will move us forward. The companies have several higher ups around the world who get together, present their findings, and look for common threads to come to their final decision. Surprise! The CotY is not a NEW colour they create - they narrow it down from their 1000s of hues. Also, it isn’t just some marketing ploy to boost sales or some Anna Wintouresque CEO simply pointing to something on a whim. They spend months researching on the global level to make their choice. Along with the CotY, they suggest a palette of hues and trend colours as well as textile choices you can use to combine a trendy look. This might all seem very confusing for you in terms of what you should be doing with all the suggestions they give you. So, I thought it would be fun - and demystifying - to do another “1 Room, 2 Looks” experiment where I design the same Den using each of their respective CotY and combination suggestions to interpret two distinctive looks. Let’s begin!

Benjamin Moore Colour of the Year: Metropolitan AF-690

So here is Benjamin Moore’s choice: Metropolitan- a cool silvery Grey they suggest pairing with layered greys, neutrals, greens and crisp whites. They also suggest shiny metallics for a clean, modern and sophisticated feel. So here’s the CotY and coordinating palette:

So, keeping in mind we’re using Metropolitan with some selections from the Colour Trend palette and shiny metals to create a sophisticated Den as suggested by the creatives at BM, the look I Designed is this:

Room Design By Steve Ryan Designs - Created Using HOMESTYLER App

So you can see, I’ve combined Metropolitan with greys, tans, whites, chromes and hunter green to create a Den that is very sophisticated and contemporary. Also, while the CotY is the wall colour, the other trend colours appear in the fabrics, textiles, and case goods - and I didn’t pick all of them - I just took some suggestions and pulled the look together.

Sherwin Williams Colour of the Year: Cavern Clay SW 7701

Sherwin-Williams picked Cavern Clay as their CotY. It’s an earthy, orangey brown similar to a terracotta pot. It’s much warmer and rustic - almost desert inspired. They suggest pairing it with off whites, dark browns, tans and blue-greys :

They also suggest pairing it with rustic elements like raw/heavy woods, leather and natural fibres. So I took all those suggestions and interpreted them into this Den:

Room Design By Steve Ryan Designs - Created Using HOMESTYLER App

You can see that this room is cozy and much more rustic than the previous with its dark woods, wrought iron metals and leather. You’ll also note, the furniture layout, floors/exposed brick stay the same. I’ve only changed the wall colour and combined them with the colours and textures each company suggested to achieve these two very different looks. Let’s see them in a side by side comparison:

So there’s a few things I want you to notice here. While I put the CofYs on the walls of both rooms, you don’t have to. You can do a focal wall, paint only your doors, use a tinted or shaded version or use it as a fabric or textile colour. Also, I used the suggestions each company made and my rooms came out exactly like they predicted. The Benjamin Moore room looks sleek and contemporary (like they say their CotY is) and the Sherwin Williams room is warm and rustic (like they said their CotY is). I hope this gave you some guidance on how to interpret suggestions and design trends for your Interiors and cleared up some of the confusion you might have had. You can really take them as your jumping off point and play with them to best suit yourself. Paint is the cheapest, easiest way to transform your rooms with major impact so consider using one of these CotY in your own space. What’s great about both of these companies is they both offer lots of advice and insight on how to best use their products. If you’d like to learn more about the tools they have available, I suggest checking out their websites or visiting a location near you.


Thanks for reading and feel free to comment on what you’ve read here or if there’s something you’d like to see a future post on in the comments section. Until next post, keep striving to live the Well Designed Life.


Steve