Welp, we didn’t think we’d be starting this round-up in AUGUST. But alas, the first 2026 Color of the Year was announced at the end of July of 2025 (!!!), so here we go:
The annual Color of the Year announcements are one of our favorite traditions to follow (and predict, with varying degrees of sucess). Each year, a lot of the largest paint manufacturers select a hue and/or palette they believe “captures” and/or “forecasts” design trends. Some are bold. Some are boring. Some are straight-up bonkers (who remembers the color we affectionately dubbed “hot dog”?). So we’ll continue to update this post as the 2026 COTYs are announced over the next six months. And be sure to check out our 2024 and 2025 round-ups as a recap!
Like we did last year, we’re also showing you each company’s picks over the last few years right here in this post, because it’s a fun way to see how styles shift and brands swing from year-to-year. And you can find our predictions at the bottom!
What is the 2026 Color of the Year?
There isn’t one single “color of the year.” Instead, several companies like Benjamin Moore, Sherwin-Williams, and Pantone, declare their own individual color. There are different methods for how each brand makes their choice, but the goal (besides marketing) is to comment on what they’re seeing or predicting in the design world. Sometimes they also use it to represent larger trends or consumer moods like feeling hope, a returning to nature, or embracing rest.
What Were Last Year’s Colors?
Below are our recaps of every Color of the Year for both 2024 and 2025 – and you can click those two years for an in-depth look at previous selections. The 2025 colors that were chosen were dominated by moody browns, purples, and mauves. It was actually surprisingly consistent across most of the brands! Especially when you compare them to 2024, where we saw a lot more variety (some warm, some cool, some light, some dark).
It will be interesting to see if any brands richocet back to lighter, brighter, or cheerier colors in 2026 since we’d generally describe last year’s as… very brown. Will we see a lot of commonalities across brands again this year? Or will the different companies make bold choices to distinguish themselves from the pack?
Every 2026 Color of the Year
With five months of 2025 still left, it’s no surprise that only 1 of 15 brands has announced their Color of the Year. We will update this list as more roll out. Last year we didn’t get the final announcement until January, so be patient!
- Behr: Hidden Gem
Here’s a closer look at each color we know so far.
Behr’s 2026 Color of the Year
Behr kept things dark & rich for the third consective year with their 2026 Color of the Year pick: Hidden Gem. Described as a “smokey jade with an air of mystery,” it’s bold & colorful but still desaturated enough to make it suitable as a wall color. It’s also reminds us of one of our favorite accent colors from around 15 years ago (this one).
As you can see, the last 3 years have been a notable shift from the lighter and breezier colors Behr used to select. We’re not too surprised, given the prevalence of deep, moody colors lately (and full room color-drenching, which means painting the trim/molding as well as built-ins or cabinets the same rich hue).
Our 2026 Color of the Year Predictions
In addition to tracking these announcements, we like to make our own guesses. You can see how we did with our predictions last year right here in this recap. And here are our 2026 predictions, which we made on August 1, 2025 on Instagram stories (that’s typically where you can find them each year).
Sherry’s Guesses
- A taupey-purple
- Emerald green
- Fire engine red
John’s Guesses
- A creamy white
- Rich navy
- Pink-ish terra cotta
We will update this graphic anytime a new color is announced is “in the neighborhood” of any of our guesses. This isn’t terrible scientific… it’s mostly for fun & bragging rights in our house (Sherry & I have a friendly competion to see who can get more each year).
More Paint Colors We Love
You can check out more of our favorite go-to paint colors by touring our homes in the menu at the top of our blog. We’ve also written these detailed deep-dive posts about our favorite paint colors:
