Have you noticed lately that all the big shelter magazines are flooded with content about COLOR? Specifically, PAINT COLOR. The latest issue of House Beautiful featured a survey that asked thousands of readers and several hundred interior designers and design bloggers about their favorite (and least favorite) paint colors.
Photo by Matt Barker for The Decorologist
America’s top 2 favorites by far are: #1 BLUE
And #2 was GREEN.
RED and PURPLE tied at a distant third. 77% of readers either just completed a painting project or were planning on painting in the next 6 months.
In the southeast, ORANGE is a polarizing color. It was voted as a hot color, but it’s also the color most people are “so over.” You think FOOTBALL has anything to do with this???
YELLOW barely edged out WHITE as the favorite color for kitchens.
BLUE won big-time for the favorite color for bedrooms.
The #1 choice for dining rooms? GREEN. RED came in #2.
And the hot choices for living rooms? WHITE, BEIGE, and GRAY.
Better Homes & Gardens via Pinterest
As a Nashville Color Consultant, I find that age also affects paint color preferences. House Beautiful found that to be true, as well. If you are under 45, you may be more partial to GRAY and BLUE and prefer WHITE kitchens. They found that the color in this demographic most considered “not hot” is RED.
If you are over 45, you may be leary of GRAY and PINK. This demographic prefers yellow kitchens, and likes GREEN, ORANGE, and RED a bit more than the younger crowd.
Which colors are currently on the design bloggers’ radar as the next “hot” paint color? GREEN came in first place, with PURPLE in close second.
What’s your favorite paint color? Do your choices line up with this survey, or no?
I love this. color voting. I vote for BLUE first….then Green…then yellow and white
I love it when you talk color! You had me at “blue”! 🙂
I’m just glad that red is out! This is really just speaking from experience of trying to paint over said color, but regardless, yay! Greens and yellows are still my favorite. They remind me of my favorite flowers, daffodils 🙂
I find this interesting Kristie. As a color consultant, I find the same to be true of my clients. The differences are also further divided between men and women in the same age groups. Men must be ahead of the curve in color because purple, is by far, their favorite color at any age!
I thought your example of green was interesting because the walls are actually white and the accessories are green. Love this combination but could never live with green on the walls! I also love Blue-Gray with lots of white. Must be my age 🙂
My husband and I just moved into our first home and the colors we are choosing to paint the house lined up exactly with that issue of House Beautiful. When I told my mom some of our paint choices she made an eww face – especially when I mentioned Gray. Her house is full of a lot of red!
There aren’t too many colours I don’t like but I have always had an aversion to red walls. I love red accents and I love to wear red but for some reason I just can’t learn to enjoy red on a wall. Great post as always!
At our house, greens, creams, with red accents and lots of wood (we live in a log home). I still like red regardless of what others might think. The sheet rock wall in my kitchen is painted a tomato red or orange-red. We have blue in one bathroom. Since I am in the under 45 crowd, I guess I am going against the grain.
It is BLUE all the way for me. Every room in my house has blue somewhere. Next would be certain shades of yellow, burgundy, white. No green or orange for me.
I have been loving all the focus on color in magazines lately. Using color in a purposeful way is new to me so I’m having a lot of fun learning about it and using it in my home. My favorite color is green, but I’ve been branching out and using blue/blue-green for the first time in my life. I do like white kitchens because they look clean to me. I’m also experimenting with some gray even though I live in Seattle where it’s gray much of the year. I’m almost 44 so I guess I’m in line with my demographic group.
from my email:
I am in the “over 65 but still kicking up my heals” group. I recently had a friend who is a designer help me pick new wall colors & had the interior of my home (A Southern traditional in Wmsburg, VA) painted. I moved away from beige & beigey taupe to grayish greens, and bluish greens. I still like muddy colors for the most part, but these are more current (Several were PB colors from the past 2 years.). I used Benjamin Moore colors, but my painter converted them to Sherwin Williams paint. I am SO happy with the choices and everything feels so fresh.
Just started enjoying your website…Betsy
I love that blue bedroom picture, was trying to follow the credits trail to find out more and all I saw was it was from a Lennar home. Any ideas on what paint color that might be? Or where to find pillows like that?
LOL on your orange-is-it-football comment. Angie from You Look Fab had a post yesterday about orange/black vs. orange/blue in clothing and you can guess anyone with football ties of any kind had strong opinions!
Yes, I’d say orange can be a polarizing color in the south – you either love it or hate it, right? Let me see if I can check on those bedroom details you asked for.
Lee,
That color is similar to Ben Moore’s Beach Glass. Those pillows are custom, my dear – you won’t find those in a retail store. You might check out Etsy for some beautiful options in pillows that are not mass-manufactured.
This is really, really interesting. I’d love to know more about what colors are popular in different areas of the country.
I will pick anything but yellow ( and I am not speaking of a white with yellow undertones, those are fine). Nothing makes me go more blech than a yellow painted kitchen with oak cabinets. Maybe it’s because I am in the under 45 age group.
Grays, whites, blues and greens, yes!
I am a blue girl too with green now coming in as a close second!
Any color found outdoors will find it’s way into my home. It makes for a beautiful and soothing atmosphere in every room.