Warm Paint Colors: 5 Inspiring Highlights of This Trend

As we predicted over the past several seasons, color continues to trend warmer. We’ve talked of this for some time, with this movement culminating in naming Art and Craft (DET682), a toasty brown hue, our 2022 Color of the Year.

Warm hues are predicted to be center stage through the 2020s, fueled by a variety of design resurgences and newer movements in design aesthetics such as light and dark academia and cottagecore, as well as overall sociological shifts in focus on nature, community and comfort.

Warm, neutral stone tones create spaces that feel inviting, intimate and familiar. And these earthy tones, alongside greens, provide nature-infused restful spaces, elevated to sophisticated cocoons.

Here are five illuminating highlights on the recent evolution of the warming of color:

• The Idyllic Rural Life

Rural life in all its idyllic glory has inspired the masses these past couple of years as we’ve muddled through the pandemic. Focusing on space, quietness and getting back to nature has created a whole subset of trends focused on bringing this lifestyle into the home.

Warm tans, beiges and deep brown paired with olive and sage greens are versatile and play well with a variety of décor styles. Natural textures and wooden accents add tranquility to spaces.

Cottagecore, as well as light as dark academia, exemplify the warm palettes perfectly. From quiet farms to libraries filled with serene corners to hide away, the array of examples displaying warm color tones is abundant.

• Nature’s Palette

Similar to rural life, bringing the outdoors in has defined many styles of architecture over the past several years, and for some styles, even longer. But for the past several seasons, there’s been an intense focus on nature-based design and color palettes.

And with this intense focus on nature, including its many unsolved mysteries, the range of warm hues trending has expanded in popularity to include beiges, tans, terra-cotta and honey. Back in 2017, we named our Color of the Year Honey Glow (DE5354) as a reflection of that push to the warming of color and the focus on nature.

• Desert Sun Vibes

Desert living has surged in recent years with the renewed interest in Mid-century design. And with the pandemic, the push to get out of the city has created near panic levels of home buying and property leasing in many desert communities. With cities like Palm Springs, Calif., and Tucson, Ariz. rising in popularity, interest in desert design and color has naturally followed.

Color in desert design leans to warmer and brighter tones; hues ranging in inspiration from desert sunrises and sunsets to the wildflowers and cacti dotting the landscape.

• Post-Millennial Pink

The trend and mass-hyped Millennial Pink created its own niche set of cottage industries revolving around this color, such as the Museum of Ice Cream. With this intense focus on pink, a need to provide more information on how to design with pink became a subject of many design firms and influencer accounts. Now, pink has pushed forward to a more peachy-beige pink hue and is considered a warm neutral; globally-influenced and less sweet. A pink for all.

• ’70s Resurrection

The ’70s design aesthetic has come roaring back in recent years and, with it, the iconic color palettes of that era. Hues of that historic time are full of warm, rich neutral shades, including yellows, browns, oranges and greens. And this easy-to-revive nostalgic trend brings comfort and as sense of warmth to the home with a range of neutrals and naturally-grounded hues.

The range of warm hues will continue to stimulate design for years to come. Find inspiration to incorporate them in your space from our recently launched 2022 Color + Design Trends and 2022 Color of the Year.