Stressed? Let in color
Paint companies are promoting friendly, warm tones for 2021
As with somany things, the pandemic has altered thewaywe see color, and specifically, what colorswe do— and do not— want to surround ourselves with while bunkered downat home. Some color trends have accelerated during the pandemic. Other long-popular shades are suddenly all wrong.
“There is a hugewave away fromgray,” said
Joa Studholme, the color curator for Farrow& Ball, the fancy English paint company. “There’s nothing about gray that evokes wellness.”
No, the classic pandemic home, she said,“would have a dark hallway in Minster Green and the colors coming off itwould beDead Salmon or Jitney in the living roomand Light Blue with its silvery quality in the kitchen. (Farrow& Ball has famously evocative names for their shades.)
Studholme, 59, was picturing aLondon town home, but she could easily have been conjuring a Brooklyn brownstone, a suburban Cape Cod or an old farmhouse in the country, freshly painted for the aspirationalwork-fromhome, shelter-in-place, when-will-this-be-over life.
“There is a tendency to cravewarm tones in challenging times,” she said. “It’s all about beingwarm and earthy and choosing deeply saturated color. It’s about trying something that gives you a great big hug.”
For Farrow& Ball, which recently released its 2021 color trend report, that means “friendly and relatable” tones likeTanner’s Brown, IndiaYellowand Dead Salmon, which, despite its unappealing name, is a lovely aged pink.
Other paint brands are in consensus. Consider BenjaminMoore’s color of the year for 2021, announced last month: AegeanTeal. Or SherwinWilliams choosingUrbaneBronze, a rich neutral that’s part of the brand’s “Sanctuary palette,” as its primary color for 2021.
In normal times, a paint brand proclaiming the stylishness of one color among thousands has more than the whiff ofmarketing— a trivial gesture meant to sell more paint. Butwe are all spending somuchtime at home, and color has been shownto affectmoodand ease anxiety, as Artnews recently pointed out, so finding the right shade for the moment does take on a certain significance.
Repainting couldmake your home office more pleasing, if not productive, or bring a desperately needed feeling of nature into your living room, or simply provide a little fun and uplift during a gloomy time.
“One of the things that’s happening with color and
the pandemic,” saidAmy Wax, a color consultant,
“is people are seeing their homes for the first time and saying, ‘This could feel better. I need tomake a change.’ ”
During the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, Wax’s clientswanted colors thatwere neutral and understated, and every appointment ended with the homeowners’mantra: in case I have to sell.
“NowI’m hearing, ‘I need a color I can spend a lot of time in,’ ” Wax said.
That rules outwhite
and gray, hard-edge and architectural shades with a formality to them. And while our homes are doing double duty as living and work space, so, too, does a wall color need to do more these days than just soothe.
“Our homes need to rejuvenate and inspire us now,” Studholme said.
She explained her current approach: “I’m creating two very different areas in the house. Somewhere bright and light to work in the day, and then if you have the luxury of another room, make thatmuch darker for the evening.”
Changing fromlight to dark follows the natural flowof the hours and “gives youmore structure to your day and a basic sense of well-being,” Studholme said.
AndreaMagno, the director of color marketing and development at BenjaminMoore, said meetings to decide the brand’s color for 2021 started in December 2019.
Back then, Magno,
43, and her team didn’t consider the coronavirus and itsworld-altering effects. But by spring, the lifestyle trends they anticipated— multitasking in thehome, finding fulfillment at homeinstead of at restaurants or other public spaces, a more introverted approach to life generally — fit thenewrealitymade by the pandemic andwere turbocharged by it.
AegeanTeal “had a presence about it,” Magno said. Itwasn’t too deep or too pale, while itsmuted mid-tone made it “easy to livewith.”
People are craving color, Magno added. “I love neutrals more than anybody,” she said. “But you see that need to bring some color into the home.”
TaraMangini, 37, did that bywalking through fields of wildflowers and using nature as a point of inspiration. Mangini and her partner, PercyBright, run the designfirmJersey
IceCreamCo. They are serial renovatorswho move fromhouse to house, rehabbing them for clients. Their latest project is a late1800s farmhouse in the tiny upstate hamlet of Parksville, NewYork.
“Wewere outside a ton this summer,” Mangini said. “The wildflowers there, the fields are filled with somany purples and yellows. I said, ‘This is the color palette.’ ”
Mangini and Bright,
36, also create the colors for their plasterwork by adding pigments towater that’s later mixed with dry plaster. For thewall of a guest bedroomin the farmhouse, they used a formula that left themwith a peachy pink plaster.
The color is both reminiscent of Farrow& Ball’s Dead Salmon and has the same sunbaked quality as the 12 colors in BenjaminMoore’s color trends palette.
Manginiwas unaware of those brands’ highlighted shades, but she didn’t think the overlapwas a coincidence. Colorworks on us inmysteriousways, and collectively, she said: “As muchas Iwant to think
I’m an individual thinker, I have a feeling I’m on the same colorwheel trajectory as everyone.”
Mangini offered a color trend of her own, inspired by her time outdoors.
“Purple is not there yet, but I feel it’s coming,” she said. “Alight lavender.”