Guessing the Color of the Year is one of our favorite pastimes. We used to predict them on our podcast and now continue the tradition on Instagram Stories. Each time the next Color of the Year season arrives, we like to collect all the previous picks in one place. Below is a snapshot of every 2024 Color of the Year from major paint and color companies, plus a quick comparison to recent selections. Buckle up, fellow color nerds!
As more companies join the color forecasting trend, we focused on major paint and color brands for this roundup. Some brands release full yearly palettes rather than a single color; for clarity, we omitted multi-color palettes and narrowed the list to single Color of the Year picks. Sorry if your favorite niche brand didn’t make this list.
What Is The 2024 Color of The Year?
There isn’t one universal “color of the year.” Instead, multiple companies announce the hue (or hues) they believe will trend in the coming year. Below are the major brands first, followed by other notable picks. We’ll describe the selections in more detail further down.
- Pantone: Peach Fuzz
- Benjamin Moore: Blue Nova
- Sherwin-Williams: Upward
- Behr: Cracked Pepper
- HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams: Persimmon
- Glidden: Limitless
- Valspar: Renew Blue
- Dunn-Edwards: Skipping Stones
- Dutch Boy: Ironside
- Krylon: Blue Bird
- Rust-Oleum: Satin French Blue
- Minwax: Bay Blue
- Graham & Brown: Viridis
- C2 Paint: Thermal
- Stainmaster Paints: English Green
Aside from a few warm corals and dark neutrals, 2024’s Color of the Year picks were dominated by shades of blue.
What Is Color Of The Year?
Each fall (and sometimes late summer) paint companies and color organizations announce their predictions for the next year’s trending colors. These Color of the Year choices are frequently presented with coordinating palettes that convey a mood or aesthetic the brand expects to be popular. The announcements reflect research and trend forecasting, but they also serve as publicity moments for each company, often accompanied by events and media coverage.
Pantone began the Color of the Year tradition in 2000, and many paint brands followed. Companies choose colors based on predicted popularity and the emotional or conceptual associations of the color name—hence selections with names like “Upward,” “Limitless,” and “Renew Blue.”
Pantone Color Of The Year 2024
Pantone’s 2024 Color of the Year, Peach Fuzz, is described as a velvety, gentle peach that encourages warmth, nurturing, and kindness. Pantone forecasts across industries—fashion, media, design—so their picks tend to be bolder and more saturated than many paint-focused selections.
Over the years Pantone has favored reds, pinks, and purples and occasionally pairs colors as their annual pick.
Benjamin Moore Color of the Year 2024
Benjamin Moore’s 2024 Color of the Year, Blue Nova, is a sumptuous mid-tone where violet meets blue. Mid-tones like this are versatile enough to function as accents or full-room colors. Blue Nova’s purple undertones set it apart from other blue-green choices in 2024.
In recent years Benjamin Moore has tended toward deeper, more saturated colors, perhaps reacting to past criticism when very neutral choices drew strong reactions.
Sherwin-Williams Color Of The Year 2024
Sherwin-Williams’ 2024 Color of the Year, Upward, is described as a breezy, blissful blue that conveys positive energy and creative thinking. It can read silvery-gray in certain light, which makes it suitable for walls, cabinets, and many applications.
Sherwin-Williams often strikes a balance between interesting and usable colors, producing picks that are creative without being impractical for everyday spaces.
Behr Color of the Year 2024
Behr’s 2024 Color of the Year, Cracked Pepper, is a versatile soft black with subtle undertones that give it a truer black appearance. Each year at least one brand picks a dark hue; in 2024, Behr offered a near-black that pairs well with many other colors.
Behr’s Color of the Year selections show consistent thoughtfulness; their palette choices could easily be combined throughout a home.
HGTV Home Color of the Year 2024
HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams, sold at Lowe’s, named Persimmon as part of their 2024 Color Collection of the Year. Persimmon is the bold terracotta accent in a trio called “Renewed Comfort,” which pairs it with a soft tan and a pearly white to create a balanced, comforting palette.
HGTV Home’s picks tend to be bold and magazine-ready, offering eye-catching accent colors that create impact on camera or in print.
Glidden Color of the Year 2024
Glidden’s 2024 Color of the Year, Limitless, is presented as a warm alternative to gray that reads neutral without leaning yellow. It’s intended to pair with both warm and cool tones, though yellows can shift in different lighting, so test samples before committing to full walls.
Glidden’s palette choices favor pure, vivid colors that often work best as accents rather than muted wall tones.
More Color Of The Year Picks
Here are additional single-color picks from smaller or newer COTY participants. A clear blue trend emerges across these selections.
Valspar’s 2024 Color of the Year: Renew Blue
Valspar’s single 2024 pick, Renew Blue, is a green-leaning blue chosen for its calming, restorative qualities, offering a sense of relief from daily overwhelm.
Dunn-Edwards’ 2024 Color of the Year: Skipping Stones
Skipping Stones is a blue-green tone selected for meditative, energizing associations reminiscent of the sea.
Dutch Boy’s 2024 Color of the Year: Ironside
Ironside is a deep, moody hue with olive-brown undertones. Dutch Boy highlighted dark interiors as an elegant trend and noted this color’s one-coat coverage appeal.
Krylon’s 2024 Color of the Year: Blue Bird
Krylon chose a bold Blue Bird for their spray paint-focused pick—loud and attention-grabbing, yet described as soothing by the brand.
Rust-Oleum’s 2024 Color of the Year: Satin French Blue
Rust-Oleum’s Satin French Blue offers a softer periwinkle-leaning blue that’s more subdued than some spray paint choices but still lively.
Minwax’s 2024 Color of the Year: Bay Blue
Minwax extended the blue trend to wood stains with Bay Blue, a notable choice from a brand better known for warm wood tones.
Graham & Brown’s 2024 Color of the Year: Viridis
Viridis, a muted green from the UK wallpaper and paint company, was chosen for its calming, nature-connected effect and pairs well with the brand’s “New Eden” wallpaper theme.
C2 Paint’s 2024 Color of the Year: Thermal
C2 Paint’s pick, Thermal, is a punchy blue meant to be a call to action, encouraging bold living rather than quiet calm.
Stainmaster Paint’s 2024 Color of the Year: English Green
Stainmaster’s first Color of the Year, English Green, is a deep, grounding hue chosen to convey calm and stability.
Our 2024 COTY Guesses
One of our favorite aspects of Color of the Year season is guessing the winners in advance. We share predictions on the podcast and Instagram—some years we’re close, others not. For 2024 we made two typical guesses and a playful, wilder guess. My “light, cool gray” prediction landed near Valspar’s and Sherwin-Williams’ cooler tones, while my “deep brown, almost black” guess was in the same neighborhood as Behr’s Cracked Pepper and Dutch Boy’s Ironside, though their undertones differ. We’ll try again with our 2025 Color of the Year predictions.
More Paint Colors We Love
If you want more color inspiration, we’ve shared favorite go-to paint colors across our home tours and written deep dives on specific shades. Below are a few of our detailed posts and guides for painting ideas and classic neutrals.
- Every 2025 Color of the Year… So Far
- The 12 Best White Paint Colors
- The Best Greige Paint Colors
- Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray
- Benjamin Moore Simply White
- Sherwin-Williams Pure White
- Sherwin-Williams Extra White
- The 12 Best “Haint Blue” Paint Colors