What’s In and What’s Out With Paint Colors

Have you ever wondered why certain colors become popular in interior design? Why was Agreeable Gray the go-to color for two decades? Or the avocado and harvest gold of the 70s? Paint colors that become popular often reflect broader cultural shifts. They can tell us what we as a culture are prioritizing, hoping for, and considering important. And the popular colors in 2025 are no different.

Telling Our Stories

This year, the dominant theme is colors that tell our individual stories. We want our homes to be unique and personalized spaces that make us feel like ourselves and that express something about us to others. This tracks with our cultural values of self-expression, self-discovery, and individuality. Gone are the days when we wanted everything in our homes to be perfectly matched and neutral. Now we want them to have a curated, layered look, highlighting things we love, souvenirs from travels, handcrafted or bespoke goods, and sustainably sourced materials. And this year’s popular colors reflect these ideals.

Examples of these storytelling colors are the vibrant, deep, and saturated hues we see becoming popular. Think jewel tones and muted jewel tones. In fact, Behr’s color of the year is Rumors, a gorgeous, deep, ruby red that is muted and yet bold. We will also see a variety of earthy purples–from dusty violets to rich plums. Benjamin Moore’s color of the year is a perfect example of this. Cinnamon Slate is “a delicate mix of heathered plum and velvety brown.” It’s a stunning and gentle purple.

These and other vibrant, saturated colors lend themselves to maximalist home styles, a trend we saw a lot of in 2024 that isn’t going anywhere in the new year. While last year’s maximalist homes featured pops of neon and lots of patterns, this year may see more color-drenching (painting the ceiling and walls the same color or shades of the same color, and repeating the color in the soft furnishings) in softer jewel tones.  

Calming Spaces

Another high priority in our culture today that we see reflected in our favorite colors is serenity. We want our homes to be refuges from the world, cozy and peaceful spaces that feel relaxing. We are looking for colors that are calm yet distinctive and confident. A perfect example of this is HGSW’s color of the year–and even its name describes the feeling we’re looking for–Quietude. This soft sage that leans toward blue brings a hushed and calm look to any room, especially when paired with the other gentle colors we’re seeing so much of this year. 

Blues are always a popular choice and this year is no exception. In terms of color psychology in design, blue is always recognized as a color that makes us feel calm, restful, and peaceful. From bold and clear blues, to saturated blues, to muted blues, this color is perennially popular. 

Soft and warm whites are popular calming colors as well. Warm whites have gentle yellow undertones and are more relaxing and peaceful than cool whites. Cool whites lean toward blue undertones and are great for increasing alertness and productivity–but not for relaxing. In our workaholic culture, we want our homes to lead us toward rest and away from the grind.

These soft and gentle colors are subtle and sophisticated. They lend themselves to peaceful retreats–what we all want our homes to be.

Natural and Grounded

In keeping with the calm, gentle, personal 2025 paint color trends, we’re also seeing a huge focus on warm neutrals and natural colors. We live in a fast-paced, technological era, and we are pushing back against that in our homes, asking them to be spaces that feel grounding, that connect us to nature and restore us. These modern paint colors are more subtle than in times past. They’re often muted, dusty, or heathered, which makes them more gentle. The above-mentioned Cinnamon Slate by Benjamin Moore is a perfect example of this.

Pantone’s color of the year, Mocha Mousse, is a comforting and lush rich brown that feels both luxurious and grounding, modern and timeless. It’s also an example of Latte Decorating, a newer trend that uses browns to add a calm, rich, earthy feel to the home. Browns look equally good in modern, minimal homes, traditional spaces, and rustic-chic designs. They can be used as a large-scale neutral or as an accent. Browns are grounding and restorative, connecting us with the earth. For a little more pizzaz, terra cotta combines the warmth of brown with a bit of orange, making it more distinctive.

Earthy reds, muted greens, any type of saturated blues, gentle goldenrods, and baked clays–these are the natural colors that are bringing peace and connectedness to our homes. Sherwin Williams, instead of picking one color of the year, chose a whole palette for 2025, and all the colors are gentle neutrals and soft pops of color.

What’s Out in 2025?

The colors we choose in 2025 tell our personal stories and lead us toward a calm and grounded year. And the colors we’re turning away from are crisper, cooler tones. 

• Gray is no longer the neutral of choice. And cool grays are definitely out. We’re looking for warmer and gentler colors like beige and tan.
• Stark white used to be a popular color, especially in kitchens. But today, most people prefer warm, nuanced whites.
• In fact, many cool tones are not popular, and warm colors are what we’re after.
• Some overused colors like olive green and mustard yellow are out in 2025, in favor of more muted and complex colors.

How to Incorporate Trendy Colors

If you love the new colors we’re seeing in 2025 and you want to incorporate them into your home, it can be hard to know where to start. Should you follow the trends? Should you repaint everything? You can! If you’re sure about a color, you love it, and you don’t think you’ll get tired of it soon, go for it. But there are also smaller ways to incorporate these popular paint palettes that won’t make your home feel outdated quickly. 

• Try painting an accent wall or a bathroom in a new color you love. This is less of a commitment than painting a whole house, so if you decide it’s not for you, you can change it easily.
• Many designers use the 60-30-10 rule: 60% of the color in a room is your dominant color (generally walls), 30% is your secondary color (upholstery, rugs, etc), and 10% is the accent color. If you don’t want to repaint your walls, try leaving them as they are and incorporating a new color scheme in the 30% and 10%.
• You can make a color feel like it’s used more often if you use it in every room. For example, you can use a dusty purple for your bathroom vanity, an end table in the living room, throw pillows in a bedroom, and an accent wall in the dining room. Suddenly your home feels like it has a trendy color scheme–but it’s easy to change when the trends change.
• For more ideas on incorporating colors into your home’s decor, check out our gallery photos. Our designers are great at adding color to tell your family’s story.

If you’re ready to remodel your home, it’s a great time to start thinking about how the colors you choose will make your home feel, how they will display your personality, and how they will bring a sense of calm and connectedness to your home. We’re here to help. Our team is ready to make your home the best it can be. Contact us today and let’s get started.