It’s been a vibrant quarter century since the Pantone Color Institute, a global leader in color trends, announced its first Color of the Year in 1999. This year’s winner is Peach Fuzz, “a velvety gentle peach whose all-embracing spirit enriches heart, mind, and body,” according to the company’s website.
“In seeking a hue that echoes our innate yearning for closeness and connection, we chose a color radiant with warmth and modern elegance,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute in a statement. “A shade that resonates with compassion, offers a tactile embrace, and effortlessly bridges the youthful with the timeless.”
The Pantone Color of the Year is presented as a consumer trend forecast based on global influences from around the world in various realms, including entertainment, art and design. We asked designers to weigh in on how Peach Fuzz might inspire a new look for your own space.
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How to Welcome Pantone’s Color of the Year into Your Home
Kate Dawson, an interior designer based in Millburn, New Jersey, says it’s easy to build a Peach Fuzz buzz in your home. “All you need to do is make sure you play up the color with multiple accessories that give pops of the peach throughout the room,” she says. “Multiple” is the operative word here because as she explains, “It will only look weird if you just add one peach item because it has to relate to other items in the space.”
One of Dawson’s favorite ways to add color quickly and easily to a room is with throw pillows. “The power of pillows is real,” she says. Dawson recommends solid peach for your sofa and accent chairs offset by patterned pillows that have a hint of peach. Add in a throw blanket “to keep the cozy factor high.”
Mimi Meacham, founder and principal designer of Marian Louise Design in Houston, is another fan of colorful throw pillows, but she also suggests area rugs to further infuse tones of peach and apricot throughout a space. Pops of color can also be incorporated in window treatments and lampshade fabrics, says Meacham.
If peach looks good on the floor, it also works up high in a room, says interior designer Joshua Smith, principal and founder of Joshua Smith Inc., in Vermont and New York. The ceiling is often referred to as the “fifth wall” in interior design and can be treated as such. Smith says Peach Fuzz works as a ceiling color because the warm tone flatters skin tones.
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Go Bold or Shift to Neutral
“Use Pantone’s Peach Fuzz as a bold color statement or treat it as a neutral, depending on your style,” says Elizabeth Rees, co-founder of Chasing Paper, a home decor company known for its peel-and-stick wallpaper.
Rees says Peach Fuzz can work as an accent color, particularly in a large-scale wallpaper design. But it also works as a bright pop of tile in a prominent spot like the bathroom or kitchen — take that, all-white kitchen trend.
To complete the space, Rees recommends neutrals to frame the Peach Fuzz, or add complementary colors for an even bigger impact. “Pairing the Peach Fuzz with a bright color such as blue or green will make the color pop and draw your eye,” she says.
Smith also likes combining peach with blues and greens, but for an even bolder look, he recommends pairing it with magenta or purple.
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Libby Palmieri, owner and lead interior designer at House of L Designs in Solon, Ohio, welcomed Pantone’s selection this year, noting that the color’s base notes of yellow and red “immediately reach into feelings of positivity, warmth and happiness.”
She says the trick is to let Peach Fuzz “play its role in the color story, whether it’s the leading role or part of the supporting cast.”
Palmieri calls Peach Fuzz “the quiet chameleon in the color wheel.” It pairs well with earth tones like mustard, moss and olive in a grounded biophilic design palette. It can also make a stronger statement in a “stunning modern color story” when combined with brighter colors like poppy red, marigold and tangerine. It can even neutralize fuchsia and “make a sugary pastel composition of pinks and lavenders feel regal,” she says.
If you haven’t caught the Peach Fuzz buzz, that’s not a problem. Most interior designers would agree that even in the face of global color trends, your personal preferences reign supreme when decorating your space.
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How to Decorate Your Home with Peach Fuzz originally appeared on usnews.com
