How to Decorate

Ep. 69: 2019 Color Trends with Benjamin Moore's Ellen O'Neill

01.01.2019 - By Ballard DesignsPlay

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On the first day of the year, we thought it apropos to talk about 2019 color trends, so of course, we went straight to the source - Benjamin Moore's Ellen O'Neill. As the Director of Strategic Design Intelligence, Ellen and her team pick the color of the year. Naturally we had to get the lowdown on how the color is picked, why they chose this year's color, how paint is named, and many more of your top paint and color questions.

What You'll Hear on This Episode:

Ellen talks through how they pick the color of the year, including what she calls 'color embeds' or when her first hints of what trending colors areWhat type of influences there are in picking the color of the yearEllen's 'personal palette' and why she is drawn to itWe talk about this year's Color of the Year -- Metropolitan AF-690What makes Metropolitan special, why it's the color of the year, and why we should love this hueColor naming -- how the name of a paint color factors into whether it becomes the color of the year, as well as the complications of naming colors in generalWhat is a 'chip pull' and how it changes once the color of the year is announcedWhat the word 'metamaric' means and why that makes matching colors trickyWhy Benjamin Moore hasn't added any new colors in a number of yearsWhether you'll get the same quality and color of paint if you have another paint company color match a Benjamin Moore colorEllen shares with us the top 10 grays in Benjamin Moore's catalogThe secrecy involved in the Color of YearWe talk about the timeline -- when they pick the next year's Color of the YearEllen's background and how one starts to work in colorHow to get started picking a paint color for your space

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