Sherwin

By Tim Nelson

When it comes to articulating the design zeitgeist, there’s nothing today’s paint brands—Sherwin-Williams included—love more than a good color story. Each year trend forecasters take stock of the pigments percolating on runways, at trade shows, and online, organizing colors into palettes that attempt to distill and define a specific movement within the world of interiors or popular culture at large.

But with how adept today’s trend forecasters are at distilling disparate inputs into an aesthetic narrative, there’s been an increasing tendency for different brands to publish annual color stories that can start to feel like different chapters of the same book, Sue Wadden, the director of color marketing at Sherwin-Williams, tells AD PRO. “The storytelling was kind of blending. Everyone was talking about a nature palette, or a brights palette. I was interested in cutting through the noise.”

That interest led Wadden and Sherwin-Williams to shift gears with the introduction of Anthology: Volume One. The 48 hues found in the brand’s Colormix Forecast for 2024 aren’t grouped into abstract, mood-based categories but four immediately intelligible chromatic families: blues and greens, reds and purples, deeps and darks, and delicate tints.

Wild Currant (SW 7583) and Intuitive (SW 6017) are among the 12 colorways that make up Palette No. 2: The Poetry of Reds and Purples.

As do a few spirited hues, like Rhapsody Lilac (SW 6828), shown above, and the Barbie-movie-inspired Dragon Fruit (SW 6855).

For Sherwin-Williams, this remixed approach isn’t just about reorganizing how it presents the colors that will define the year ahead. By analyzing trending colors from 2020 to today, the brand seeks to celebrate the defining shades of the decade thus far, while looking for the inflection points and surprising new trends we might look back on in 2030.

The incorporation of both present and future is evidenced right away in the composition of the blues and greens collection. “We’ve talked about how important green has been for the first part of this decade, [but] blue is going to sort of take over for green in the second half,” Wadden says of this versatile palette that runs from statement-making Aquastone to the quasi-neutrality of Stardew. “From layered textures to tiles to painting your kitchen cabinets or the vanity in your bathroom, the chromaticity of blues and greens fit the bill.”

Palette No. 3: A Gathering of Deeps and Darks includes Gale Force (SW 7605), a versatile blue.

The palette of reds and purples is a statement built around colors like “energetic” reds and bright pinks that pay homage to the Barbie-movie moment. These fun, feisty shades “look great in kitchens, on cabinets and furniture, and in areas that you need more of an energetic space.” Though Fireweed is as strong as its name implies, other options like Rhapsody Lilac also prove that it’s possible for colors in this family to stand out and soothe simultaneously.

Palette No. 1: The Convergence of Blues and Greens features Billiard Green (SW 0016).

Rich, depthful Sealskin (SW 7675) makes the cut for Palette No. 3: A Gathering of Deeps and Darks.

If there’s one palette that’s most prominently linked to the aura of the present, it’s deeps and darks. “In times of turmoil, you need a sanctuary,” Wadden observes. To create a comforting space in a bedroom or living room, bathe yourself in the alluring blue of Gale Force, or opt for Seal Skin’s fusion of black and gray into something more stately.

While Wadden believes gray was the defining shade of the 2010s, Sherwin-Williams’s selection of delicate tints shows how “our new neutrals” have moved in a whiter, crisper direction. Evoking notions of serenity and stillness, Drift of Mist, Snowbound, and others in this family show that you can tap into the trend toward brightness without going too bold.

Among the selection of 12 neutral hues in Palette No. 4: A Study in Delicate Tints is the crispy, airy Snowbound (SW 7004).

Going forward, the plan isn’t to abandon the Colormix Forecast’s emphasis on 12-month trend cycles entirely. But for now, the Anthology approach will provide design pros and savvy consumers with a longer view of what’s happening in the color world, while trusting them to pick a trending color fit for whatever mood resonates.

“You can see the application based on pure color alone,” Wadden states. “It gives a little more flexibility to the world of interiors.”