Interior design color palettes with organic textures and muted accent colors never go out of style.
Color helps set the tone for a room’s mood and atmosphere. Many elements inspire popular Interior Design Color Palettes, such as seasonal colors, historic colors, designer colors, gender colors and timeless colors that never go out of style. Although colors in some of these types of palettes vary from one year to the next, the basic ideas and inspirations tend to remain consistent.
Trending Interior Design Color Palettes
Neutral Palettes
You’ll never have to worry about a room layered in neutral colors going out of style. Neutral colors create a space that is welcoming, comfortable and effortlessly sophisticated. Classic neutral hues in shades of white, beige, brown, black and gray can be accented with practically any color in a muted, toned-down shade. Muted hues of blue and green appear in many neutral palettes, as do shades of greige: a mix of beige and gray. Include natural materials for rich, organic texture, such as bamboo, jute, abaca, rattan, teak and sisal. Natural stone on floors, counters, tabletops and walls adds an earthy, rustic feel. The various natural neutral tones in wood furnishings ranges from pale, washed-out grays and blondes to deep amber, gold and red and on to nutty browns and dark ebony.
Seasonal Palettes
Seasonal palettes vary slightly each year, as trends in interior decor closely follow trends in the fashion world. Fall colors are very warm, typically consisting of earthy shades of brown, orange, yellow, red, gold and accents of muted green. Winter has a cool palette of icy blue, white, gray, silver and purple with berry red and evergreen accents. Spring and summer are full of bright, cheerful colors. Spring palettes tend to include light green and yellow, with pale or pastel shades of blue, pink, lilac, apricot and rose. Summer hues can be bold, with highly saturated shades of green, yellow, violet, orange and red or beach-inspired with varying hues of blue, green, white, tan, yellow and coral.
Historic Palettes
With a large number of Americans living in historic homes, historic Interior Design Color Palettes are popular for those wanting to restore and preserve the integrity of these homes. Many national paint brands offer period-appropriate palettes for Colonial, Victorian and Arts and Crafts architectural home styles. A Gothic Victorian palette inspired by the Lyndhurst Mansion in upstate New York combines a deep, muted aubergine with a light lavender and accent colors in cool bluish-white and olive. A palette inspired by historic Colonial Williamsburg includes muted shades of teal and dark blue with a mustard yellow accent. A simple Arts and Crafts-inspired interior combines an earthy terra cotta hue with a medium gray-green and a warm beige. Research has proven historic paint colors to be much more vivid than originally thought. Historic paint formulas made with organic materials and natural pigments, such as milk paint, are also available.
Gender-Inspired Palettes
Masculine and feminine Interior Design Color Palettes create rooms that each gender is likely to gravitate toward or feel comfortable in. Masculine palettes tend to have rich, dark colors such as navy blue, hunter green, black, charcoal gray and dark brown. Feminine palettes tend to be lighter, with white, light pink, lavender, peach, pale blue and yellow. Romantic or sensual colors also appeal to women, especially in bedrooms, such as dark red, fuchsia, burgundy and deep purple. In shared spaces such as master bedrooms, couples often have to compromise on gender-neutral palettes. Neutral and muted colors help accomplish this, as well as a mixture of textures such as leather, burlap, soft cottons and silk.