The home remodeling website Fixr.com has just released its 2021 Paint & Color Trends Report in which 68 interior design experts shared their take on which would be the hottest trends in paint and color this upcoming year. After unprecedented circumstances during 2020, the findings in this report will particularly come in handy this year as 2021 is poised to bring even more changes and trends to home decor than in recent years.

Staying At Home Influences Color Choices

Due to the effect this situation has had on people, an overwhelming 81 percent of experts agreed that staying at home has strongly affected homeowners’ color choices. As work, school, and leisure activities transitioned from outside to inside the home environment during 2020, homeowners began to more closely examine their new surroundings.

Pat Valentine Ziv, ASID, refers to how we and our homes are adapting to this new reality: ‘’We are all adjusting and will need to continue to adjust until we find a new normal. The home has become our fortress, our play and work area, our haven. (…) The home is the place we will want to invest in to enhance our communal experiences.’’ After so much time at home, it is no wonder that people have put more time and attention into upgrading their living spaces.

Earthy and Warm Neutral Tones Replace Gray

Gray has dominated the last few years for both interior and exterior design, but homeowners want color back. Maybe it’s not so surprising that after spending most of the past year isolated and socially distanced, people don’t love gray anymore.

The top three interior palettes selected by the experts bring color and warmness back. It’s no wonder neutrals with a pop of color (54 percent), warm neutrals (50 percent), and earthy tones (46 percent) make the cut since neutrals (especially warm ones) complement earthy tones particularly well.

During the pandemic, people realized that cultivating greenery in their homes was therapeutic, and the industry is expected to grow by $29 billion over the next four years. This newfound (or rediscovered) love of greenery is likely driving designers and homeowners to incorporate plant-inspired colors with 41 percent of experts finding their clients beginning to use plant-inspired color palettes and 21 percent saying plant-inspired colors will be sporadically used as accents in the home.

Aegean Teal and Urbane Bronze, most used “Colors of The Year”

Each year, the top paint companies and manufacturers select and announce their “Color of the Year” to the public. Of the colors released in 2021, two top the charts with 53 percent of experts indicating that most homeowners will select Benjamin Moore’s Aegean Teal and 43 percent feel that Sherwin Williams’ Urbane Bronze will be used. This falls in line with the top interior color palettes picked by experts as Aegean Teal can be used as a pop of bold color and Urbane Bronze is warm, natural, and neutral.

Mixed Opinions for Home Office Colors

According to the Pew Research Center, the number of people working from home has risen during the past year, with 71 percent of surveyed people working from home, compared to 20 percent from previous years. This change in working conditions has made the home office space more important than ever before. With this high degree of importance, it is natural to believe that one color trend would emerge to dominate. The survey, however, found that experts had mixed opinions on the subject.

Off-white came in at the top, with 24 percent of experts selecting it as the preferred color. The next three were close, with navy blue at 18 percent, blue/green at 16 percent, and blue/gray at 15 percent. The lack of an overwhelming majority pick for the home office is quite likely due to the fact that while some home offices are designated office spaces, many others may be shared spaces in living, dining, and even bedrooms. Also, as this change is relatively recent, it is normal that there is not a fixed trend or preference among designers and homeowners.

Blue to Bring Serenity

As we prepare to enter our second year of the pandemic, new research is finding that adults in the U.S. are feeling their highest levels of stress since it began in March 2020. This means it is becoming more and more important to have soothing vibes throughout our home.

The color blue is known to have a calming effect on people so it is no wonder that an overwhelming 48 percent of influencers agree blue was the color of choice to apply in personal spaces.

Blue has been a popular trend in the last few months with many 2020 colors of the year being blue, and as mentioned above, Aegean Teal is anticipated by our experts to be the most-used color this year supporting further the trend of using blue for soothing spaces. Green, another color associated with a calming effect, came in at a distant second with 16 percent of experts agreeing while white came in third at 13 percent.

New Colors for a New Reality

In 2020, many people faced a new reality of being at home more often than not for work, school, and even leisure activities. This change in behavior has poised 2021 to be a year where many will shift away from the grays of the past few years into warmer, earthier neutrals. Color is an easy entry into transforming a living space to be warmer, soothing, and more comfortable than ever before. It will be interesting to see what other trends these new colors may spark off inside the home.