The first 2026 Color of the Year was announced at the end of July of 2025! And one month later we’re up to FIVE total announcements. So here’s the latest list:
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 2 of 15 brands we track have 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!
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).
Glidden’s 2026 Color of the Year
Glidden announced Warm Mahogany as their 2026 Color of the Year. It’s described as a “rich, grounded red” that anchors an annual color trends collection that’s all about “rest, connection, and creativity.” This echoes some of the same language used in Valspar’s announcement (see below) which, ironically, is another color with “warm” in the name.
Interestingly, Warm Mahogany is not too far off from last year’s selection, Purple Basil. Both are dark, saturated, warm tones that are a noticable contrast from previous years.
Valspar’s 2026 Color of the Year
Valspar’s 2026 selection, Warm Eucalyptus, is muted, earthy gray-green that the paint company describes as “restful to the eye” and therefore “restful to the soul.” Their announcement talks a lot about redefining how we think about neutral colors, and they say that neutrals aren’t colorless, they’re just inviting, calming, and grounding colors that feeling “restorative.”
This is Valspar’s third year of picking a single COTY (prior to 2024, they announced a mutli-color collection). It’s definitely a popular color that has been trending for a while that, like their picks before it, is a safe choice that’s pretty easy to use in a lot of applications (without being white/beige/tan). It will be interesting if we see them swing back to traditional colorless “neutrals” like grays, creams, or charcoals in the future.
Dutch Boy’s Color of the Year 2026
The 2026 Color of the Year from Dutch Boy (available at Menard’s) is Melodious Ivory. This warm cream color was selected for it’s “nostaglic, elevated vibe” and it’s ability to layer with bolder, accent colors. The imagery used in Dutch Boy’s announcement showcases a sort of rustic, almost modern farmhouse look.
Melodious Ivory fits well with Dutch Boy’s past selections, which all tend to be quiet, comfortable colors that tend towards warm neutrals (apart from 2024’s Ironside). And if you scroll to the bottom, you’ll see this “creamy white” isn’t too far off from one of my predictions for the year!
Minwax’s 2026 Color of the Year
The wood stain brand Minwax gets in on the COTY action every year, and this year selected Special Walnut. This is often our go-to stain color (we even refinished the duplex floors in it!) so we fully support this selection. Minwax says they’re reflecting a trend towards rustic wood tones and even “wood drenching” spaces across ceilings and walls. They use the word “grounding” that both Glidden & Valspar referenced also (FYI Minwax & Valspar are both owned by Sherwin-Williams).
And when we look back at Minwax’s 6 Color of the Year selections, Special Walnut is really the first time they’ve chosen a classic, medium wood tone.
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. 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
While we haven’t nailed anything so far, I have been close on a couple. Dutch Boy’s Melodious Ivory is a warmer than the “creamy white” I imagined, but it’s pretty darn close.
Glidden’s Warm Mahogony is like a darker version of the “terra cotta” I guessed. Almost like I got the hue right, but the value wrong. And obviously 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: