Dunn-Edwards Unveils Its 2022 Color of the Year: Art and Craft (DET682)

Dunn-Edwards 2022 Color of the Year—Art and Craft—is a timeless, versatile hue that beckons us to revisit the classics. It evokes an earthy, sophisticated quality—the perfect backdrop for showcasing handmade objects and works of art. Inspired by academia, 17th-century painters, cottagecore and artisans everywhere,  Art and Craft infuses any space with effortless opulence.

The Color

As a vital color in our 2022 color + design trends story Naturrensing, Art and Craft features the need for experimentation in handicrafts—the rethinking of design skills through a prism of technological development and upcycling to develop a new experimental style. An appreciation for nature brings with it a newfound desire to know where our products come from, and the processes used to make them.

Art and Craft is a new take on traditional colors—a nature-based hue that is moody and complex. The sophisticated darkness of this color is destined to make it become a new classic; a foundation color that ties other colors together. Comfortable, cozy, calming and versatile, as a warm and welcoming color, it makes us feel tied to the earth and nature’s seasons, evoking another era that highlighted arts and crafts.

Six Key Influences

So much research goes into the selection of a color of the year and what influences the outcome. Here are the six major influences that culminated in the choosing of Art and Craft (DET682) as our 2022 Color of the Year:

• Nature’s Inspiration

There’s something about emerging from quarantine with a renewed sense of awe for nature, and Art and Craft perfectly represents this human connection to the earth—and each other—a plush, tactile brown that is rugged and strong.

Art and Craft is a warm, earthy shade that creates a feeling of stability and calm, while allowing for a large range of play with creativity and change. An invitation of retreat, renewal and nourishment,  Art and Craft  is of the earth and its minerals. It is the origin of everything that has life. We are born from the earth and live from it, from what we grow and harvest.

• The Trend of Browns and Warming of Colors

Browns move to the forefront of influential colors, from toasty browns to cinnamon to yellow-influenced warm neutrals ... all inspired by nature, cozy and warm atmospheres, the sustainability movement, and an arts and crafts resurgence.

• A New Era of Artistic Rebirth

Art and Craft  highlights the trend of experimental handicrafts—a rethink of skills through the prism of technological development and upcycling challenges to develop a new, experimental luxury style. This trend uses principles of repairing to give life to new textures or decorative finishes, elevating accidents and/or offering novel ideas.

As a documented historic color within our Then, Now & Forever® Collection, Art and Craft is named for the Arts and Crafts period in American architectural history, which was noted for eschewing stuffy, Victorian, mass-produced design and bringing thoughtful, handcrafted design and nature-based color palettes into the home. The use of local, indigenous materials was a key element, as well. This dark cinnamon brown hue is emblematic of the natural browns found during this period.

In the past, creativity was connected mostly to surface aesthetics, while today it’s about finding solutions to improve daily life and making do with what we already have. Exploring transformation and rehabilitation with inventiveness and creativity, the need to cultivate true artistic freedom to express charm, surprise and uniqueness elevates a range of design styles.

And toasted browns, such as Art and Craft, elevate creations in terra-cotta, leather, wood and natural fibers. From decorative-rustic to earthy-sleek, new authentics are warmer and more delectable.

• The Classics, and a Rural Fantasy Comes to Fruition

From the heart of rug-making and passementerie to copperware and marquetry, a new generation of designers is giving classic codes and techniques a modern spin.

Reinventing a local design vernacular from ruins and recycled materials to meet a desire for sustainability, the rural fantasy comes to fruition, tapping into folklore and local craftsmanship, understated shapes and warm textures to closely match modernized country aspirations.

Cottagecore focuses on this return to time-honored design, bringing back a look harkening to the 1800s with Jane Austen-novel overtones, while light and dark academia create a world of quiet, classical calm.

Whimsical country style and simple creations reconnect with the appreciation of ancestral legends and folktales. Objects and furniture stand out in naïve shapes and morphing details, as strange and endearing creations.

• A ’70s Rebirth

Art and Craft is also inspired by the continued trend of 1970s interior design style. Prairie gardens, bohemian flair and folkloric design continue moving forward, and earthy hues delight in showcasing the best of that free-flowing decade.

At the same time, the reinterpreted 1970s penthouse showcases the era’s more refined sensability with rigor and sophistication. Using marble or finely crafted decoration, the classic design arrangement is crossed with global influences to create interiors inspired by travel.

• The Health and Wellness Connection

Art and Craft is a grounding color that taps into nourishing, stabilizing and calming atmospheres. As an alternative to black, browns—including Art and Craft—are reassuring and warming. Brown is honest, genuine and sincere, and generates feelings of wholesomeness, creating a sanctuary from the worries of life.

Six Brown Color Palettes Using Art and Craft

Take a look at these six schemes incorporating Art and Craft (DET682) to get you inspired:

The Beauty of Brown

Retro Picnic

Nature's Beauty

Desert Sunrise

Bohemian Flair

Warm Scandinavian

“I am the past. And the promise of a new future. Look inside. Find the universe in the details and make your mark on this world. I’ll be here. Just as I always have.” - Art and Craft (DET682)

2022 is here! Dunn-Edwards 2022 Color of the Year - Chosen for its influence on color and design through 2022.