15 of the Most Beautiful Wall Paint Colors We Saw This Year
Each year, paint and color brands will decide on a “color of the year,” and while they certainly can become popular hues, I also love to source color inspiration from house tours. Sure, seeing swatches or paint chips is helpful, but there’s nothing quite like seeing a paint color come to life in a real home, which is how I came to love these 15 colors below. Whether you’re looking for a vibrant blue, a charcoal green, or a nuanced pink, bookmark these colors for your next project — there’s a little something for everyone and every room.
Green walls are absolutely everywhere in the past few years, so much so that we’d venture to say that sage-y greens are more of a neutral than anything else. Lottie and Mike Goldsmith painted their bedroom in Farrow & Ball’s “Lichen,” a subtle hue that F&B says is “named after the ever changing, subtle color of creeping algae, which ages stone so beautifully. It has a quiet and subtle feel to it, due to its underlying blue tone.” What’s great is it’s a dark, rich green, but doesn’t seem too dramatic.
Courtney and John Achilli’s New Jersey home employs plenty of deep, traditional colors, but the one that we love most is in their primary bath: Benjamin Moore’s “Van Deusen Blue.” It’s just dark enough to feel bold and stately, but light enough not to feel oppressive in the bathroom. When combined with crisp white trim, the color leans coastal but is balanced with the vintage vibes of the decor in the room.
Farrow & Ball’s “Faded Terracotta” is described by the brand as soft, pale orange, inspired by “pots and tiles baked to a pale hue by the California sun,” but in Amina Camilleri and Antonio Paretas de Vega’s bold Barcelona apartment, the color reads more as a deep, tanned pink. Proof that sampling paint in your space is always key!
For those who want to go green all the way, Dunn Edwards’ “Charmed Green” is a super-saturated shade that can be totally playful while also working well with more traditional elements, like the portrait gallery in the entryway of Nonnahs Driskill’s Long Beach, California home. And Nonnahs’ best advice for decorating a home you love? “If you don’t like white and gray decor? Please, get something colorful… with glitter!”
Speaking of colors that really go for it, Little Greene’s “Ultra Blue” is right at home in Michael Pybus’ Manchester flat, which draws inspiration from several vibrant sources, including Nickelodeon, Edward Scissorhands, and Memphis Design. The electric blue is the perfect backdrop for equally vibrant furnishings and decor, and unapologetically bright.
For a timeless mix of Kelly and hunter green, Behr’s “Vine Leaf” will coordinate with endless other tones. But on the off chance you decide it doesn’t have the longevity you’d like, Maria Vasquez, the renter of this Upper West Side apartment, assures us not to be afraid of color. “Painting walls is such a great way to set the mood you want in your apartment,” she says, “whether you want to have a super bright and energetic home or a relaxed and neutral toned home. When I was growing up my mom would repaint walls all the time so I grew to love painting and learned that it’s OK to start again.”
Bright, turquoise-tinted blues aren’t just for your childhood bedroom; they can be happily re-homed into a playful adult space, like Yuka and Daniel’s bedroom in Echo Park, Los Angeles. “I painted my bedroom walls blue and that was the first time I’ve ever painted walls before,” Yuka says, “I’m obsessed with the color, it makes me so happy.”
How beautiful is this pink as a backdrop for colorful, mid-century pieces? Jamie and Mike swathed their Chicago living and dining room in Benjamin Moore’s “Conch Shell,” making a strong case for pink as a neutral.
Deniz and Konstantin’s 19th century Victorian terrace is home to several stately greens, grays, and blues, but our favorite might just be Valspar’s “Norway Spruce” in the bedroom. It’s a deep green-verging-on-black, which, depending on the light, can appear like a dark hunter green or a green-tinted charcoal.
Beth Diana Smith’s New Jersey townhouse doesn’t hold back on bold color, particularly in the powder room, where the door and top half of the walls are painted in Benjamin Moore’s “Elderberry Wine,” a nuanced purple that pairs well with black and white tile and vibrant art.
This brightly-colored Cincinnati rental is a favorite of AT editors and readers alike, thanks to the preservation of the original woodwork contrasted with experimental colors on the walls. The living room is decidedly bold, especially thanks to Benjamin Moore’s “Chartreuse” on the walls. Would you try out a vibrant color like this in your own home?
12. Behr’s “Gentle Sea“
We’ve seen plenty of bathrooms and bedrooms painted in varying shades of blue, but this bright sky color (Behr’s “Gentle Sea”) in Bryce and Stefan’s Pennsylvania rowhouse dining room makes the space feel impossibly light, even with dark wood furniture.
We love a monochrome moment, especially when it’s as saturated and dramatic as Deryl and Joanne McCauley’s living room in their Northern Ireland home. The magenta couch pairs perfectly with Farrow and Ball’s “Rangwali,” which the brand describes as “The most adventurous of our pinks, Rangwali is incredibly friendly and takes its name from the Holi festival of colors, in which brightly colored powders are thrown with enthusiasm. Though bright, it has an absorbing depth of color which is achieved by adding a small dose of black pigment.”
Instead of painting the entire wall in Behr’s “Flower Girl,” Maitri Mody opted for a trendy checkerboard pattern for one of the walls in her NYC apartment, which also ties into the painted arch in the kitchen in the same color.
Black might not be the first color you turn to when painting a studio apartment, but in Imani Keal’s D.C. studio, Benjamin Moore’s “Black” makes the space feel cohesive and somehow bigger. “My decision to paint the apartment black is pretty different,” she admits, “because I live in a studio apartment. I think people who live in small spaces should try to make their apartments look/feel interesting rather than larger. It was a bold choice (that could have gone terribly wrong), but I think it paid off.”