For more than a decade, the American paint manufacturer Benjamin Moore has selected a “colour of the year” in an attempt to capture the spirit of what’s trending in interior design. Take a look back at the last few winners and you’ll see some similarities: 2022’s “October Mist” is a quietly minty green; “First Light,” from 2020, is beige with the faintest hint of blush pink; and 2019’s “Metropolitan” is essentially a glorified grey. Each one looks diluted: the ghost of a formerly vibrant shade tossed into colour jail and forced to wear an ugly, muted uniform.
Yet, compared to the paint colours people are actually buying, the annual winners seem bold and adventurous. In the US, “Classic Gray,” “Pale Oak,” and “Swiss Coffee”—all shades of off-white, barely distinguishable from one another—made Benjamin Moore’s bestseller list. Those north of the border, according to an HGTV list titled “The 10 Most Popular Paint Colours in Canada Might Surprise You,” enjoy “White Dove” and “Chantilly Lace” (both are, perhaps unsurprisingly, fancy ways of saying “plain white”).
