New Data Reveals These Neutral Paint Colors Are Replacing Gray and Blue

If you’ve been subscribing to interior design trends and keeping an eye on Color of the Year announcements, you already know that design professionals are in the midst of organizing a cool tone revolution. Glidden and Valspar just announced their 2027 Color of the Year, both of which are blue hues — and cool grays are commonly used in new builds and rentals to act as a calming, neutral base.

But according to new data from Samplize — a company that sells peel-and-stick paint samples of shades from several leading U.S. paint brands — Americans are actually stepping away from cool blues and grays as they paint their homes (or redo beloved rooms). In fact, homes are warming up nationwide, and the colors emerging as fan favorites might surprise you.

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The team at Samplize collected data on the millions of paint samples its U.S. customers purchased across the last three years to arrive at their findings. They’ve found that warm tones were by far the most popular, outpacing almost every other option on the market. According to the brand’s findings, warm color tones now account for nearly 70% of all samples acquired through Samplize — up from 64% two years ago.

Over the same three-year period, blue and gray fell in popularity on shoppers’ shortlists. Gray fell from 35.9% to 30.9%, whereas blue fell from 38.7% to 34.7%, which points to homeowners’ interests shifting elsewhere — specifically, warm earth tones.

Earth tones, which spiked in popularity in the 1970s and stayed steady through the end of the century and into the early aughts, are quickly becoming a clear-cut favorite for U.S. homeowners. Think: terracotta, clay, and all the trendy shades of browns designers have been debating for years. Brown tones, specifically, grew faster in popularity than any other earth tone shade and are now on 13.4% of customers’ shortlists, up from 9.2%.

Samplize’s report also indicates that “Greige,” warmer grays (like pewter!), and soft stone colors are also on the rise, acting as a bridge between the cool-toned gray you probably know well and the warm tone revival.

Now appearing on over 36% of shoppers’ shortlists, green is taking center stage on palettes across the country. It’s the one shade to range across cool and warm tones. Samplize states that green samples have been purchased across all brands — and the colors chosen “show a genuine range across sage, moss, and deeper botanical greens but all are moving in the same direction.”

All signs point to homes warming up. So if you’ve been looking for a sign to cozy up your space with a new shade of paint, here it is. Opt for moody browns, sandy grays, and earthy greens, and you might find that your home has actually never felt homier.