Earlier this year I sensed a change happening in the sort of colors designers - and the wider world - were being drawn to. For years we have all craved warm tones and the feeling of being held by color, and I began noticing a move towards cooler, fresher pigments.
I called Ruth Mottershead, creative director of the high end paint and wallpaper brand Little Greene. And she agreed. In fact, she had evidence to back me up. 'Actually, later this year, we are launching some new paint colors that fit what you're saying exactly. We've taken the red oxide out (a pigment that has been very popular up until now). I can't say more than that but watch this space!'
Well, I watched that space, and those new colors have just launched - 27 of them under the collective name Colors of England. There is a harmonious mix of greens, yellows, whites, blues and a knocked back pink thrown in for good measure, and when I heard Ruth was launching them to American designers I felt the time was right to discuss how and why this color shift was happening. So on behalf of Livingetc I hosted a discussion at Little Greene's pop-up space in downtown New York, attended by an audience of some of the most dynamic local designers who were all curious to find out more.
We were joined by Joy Moyler and Katie Harbison, two New York-based designers I look up to a lot for their very different takes on using color, and together we talked about why this new mood is happening now, what it looks like and how to get it right. This is what I learned.
1. Color choices are cooler now
Designer Nina Barnieh-Blair, a guest at the Livingetc x Little Greene event, in front of some of Little Greene's new colors
This new shift in what people want has come in the three years since Little Greene launched its Sweet Treats collection back in 2023. 'The colors in that launch were very orange-y,' Ruth said. 'Now we're going fresher, taking out that orange pigment, using tones that are more gentle and actually more easy to use. There is something a little bit fresher about this approach, reflecting how the mood has changed slightly.'
Think of these new colors as being the decorative equivalent of throwing open the windows and doing a Spring clean at the end of winter - those heavy, rich tones we've all been loving replaced by this new set of paints which feel like the gentle sunlight of an April morning.
'We've been mixing cooler tones into the paint colors in this collection,' Ruth said. 'The greens have less yellow in them, there is less red oxide overall. These shades are still warm but not as warm as previous collections. They don't have umber in them. The pink is everso slightly more blue than what we've done before, while still very much being pink and not blue! And they're easy to use! Without that orange intensity they're wonderful to drench with. Think of them as neutrals.'
2. The big new color is....blue
Millwork in Celestial Blue by Little Greene
Katie Harbison said her favorite colors are variations on bone, stone, terracotta (all tones I associate with her neutral schemes), while Joy Moyler's personal favorite for a long time has been ivory. But both are being drawn to blues - Joy used an azure in a Mediterranean project which made her heart sing, Katie is in talks with a client who wants it for her great room and is surprised to find that she can tolerate it, despite it being so far from the palette she normally decorates with.
And both designers picked out Celestial Blue from Little Greene's new collection of colors as a highlight. 'That's a blue I can work with,' Katie says, of this knocked back shade. 'It's just heavenly, I love it, I can see it working with so many other tones,' added Joy. So there you have it. Blue is the new big trend.
3. The past has a bearing on the future
Little Greene has a rich connection to history, working with National Trust to take shades from its archive and put them into collections today. 'Invisible Green was created by the 18th century landscape designer Humphrey Repton, using it to paint railings in London's Regents Park so that they became invisible,' Ruth told a rapt audience. 'And now it's the most popular color specified by designers in San Franciso!'
While Invisible Green isn't in the new Colors of England collection, many of the colors included are there a result of what has happened in the past. Floss, a knocked back pink, is there as a reaction to Carmine, a pink from the 1950s that has been in Little Greene's collection for a while and Ruth has been sensing has become too strong for current tastes. 'We've been creating a calmer pink for use in wallpaper patterns because Carmine just seemed a bit too much, and with this shift in the zeitgeist it was time to put this new pink on the color card,' she added.
It's what makes Little Greene's colors so interesting - Ruth doesn't use trend forecasters and instead relies on gut instinct, looking at what designers like Katie and Joy are using and her own authority to make a palette that just works for today.
What the Colors of England do is tap into a new style of decorating our homes. They create a feeling of freshness, and fill gaps in the Little Greene color card that plug into the zeitgeist. They're a usable selection of 27 new shades that the designers who came to our event enjoyed playing with and putting into almost infinite new palettes. They're the start of a brand new mood.
See the full Colors of England paint collection by Little Greene here