It’s the time of year when many paint manufacturers and color forecasters release their picks for top shades for the coming year. And while these selections typically vary widely from company to company, one emerging trend for 2016 is what some would call a colorless color: white or, more specifically, shades of off-white. Here are four major paint brands’ achromatic color picks and how best to use them in your home.
Benjamin Moore and Glidden have made off-white hues their “color of the year” for 2016, while Sherwin-Williams and Behr are each showing an off-white in their 2016 color trend forecasts.
Shown here: Simply White from Benjamin Moore, Ivory Keys from Behr, Alabaster from Sherwin-Williams and Cappuccino White from Glidden.
Alabaster also works well as a soft accent to a more true white. Here it subtly sets off the house trim from the pure white exterior.
Cappuccino White from Glidden is a creamy white that works best with warm hues. Here it contrasts with the room’s dark brown accents. It’s a good choice if you need to boost the light in a space, as it mimics the warm glow you get from a sunny day.
Here’s another room clad in Simply White, from Benjamin Moore. White spaces can often feel cold and sterile, but you can counteract this if your space has striking architectural details and charming furniture, fixtures or accessories. In fact, the white wall color allows these details to take center stage where a vibrant color would be too distracting.
For those who want a mix of colors in a room but aren’t fans of brights and bolds, try a sampling of neutral whites, grays and browns instead. It makes a visually interesting, warm and welcoming space without going over the top with color. A bonus of a neutral-only room is that it won’t feel dated as quickly as one clad in vibrant trendy colors. The walls here are painted in Alabaster, from Sherwin-Williams.
Even lovers of bold color need white or light neutrals to break up the palette. I like to think of this as the critical “negative space” that artists incorporate into their works. It’s the white or blank space necessary to allow the main elements of the composition to shine. This vivid door gets a visual break via trim painted in Behr’s Ivory Keys.
Likewise, Benjamin Moore’s Simply White offers a nice break here from the more intense colors. It’s clean and crisp whether you pair it with warm or cool hues.
Tell us: Are you on board with these off-white selections?
From Jennifer Ott on Houzz: http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/54931197