If you’ve been wondering how to stay on trend with your planned interior updates, you’ll want to look past the off-whites and gray palettes and focus your attention on blues and browns.
Blue is Back
As House & Garden reports, one unquestionable message their editors are getting loud and clear is that blue is very much the color for 2026. Not, of course, that it ever went away – we’ve been enjoying greeny shades of sky blue for several years now, often paired with brown (for more on which see below). But it’s a resurgence of darker blues that is changing things up in the new year.
Dulux named a trio of moody blues as its color of the year, including the bold cobalt blue ‘Free Groove’ and the dark grey blue ‘Slow Swing’. We’ve also been seeing an upswing in the use of teal, as other paint companies (including Mylands, whose color of the year is their ‘Burlington Arcade No. 216’), have called out teal shades and launched new versions. If this is all feeling a bit 2010 for you, take a look at our pieces below for tips on how to do these colors in style.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have a strong suspicion that we will also be seeing more icy-blue shades, such as Farrow & Ball’s ‘Sizing’ which is reminiscent of the color of the sky on a frosty, clear day. It’s particularly good when paired with light, biscuity browns such as oak or ash furniture or joinery.
Browns have gotten browner this year
Additionally, the last few years have been all about coffee and biscuit shades, but these gateway shades of brown seem to have emboldened us, and we’re seeing more and more rich, chocolatey browns on the walls of stylish houses. The editors at H&G absolutely adore this direction – deep brown walls are a brilliant backdrop for art and textiles, they can create a super cocooning effect in a room which doesn’t get much natural light (or where you spend a lot of time in the evening), and they just make everything look more considered and sophisticated.
Some favorite paint shades include ‘Salon Drab’ by Farrow & Ball, ‘Bird’s Nest’ by Atelier Ellis and Crosby by Abigail Ahern. For darker red-leaning browns, give ‘Deep Reddish Brown’ by Farrow & Ball, ‘Brown Betty’ from Atelier Ellis or ‘London Brown’ from Edward Bulmer a go.
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