Trends: Dark is the new black

This year, trends are clearly headed in the direction of deep, rich finishes with a luxurious appearance. This continues a long-time trend of richer, darker colors.

In the 1990s, lighter woods with more texture became very trendy,” says Faith Allen senior product manager for Merillat. “Today, we’re seeing trends going even deeper and richer, crossing over into the truly dark black and brown look.”

Pantone®, a worldwide authority on color and provider of color systems, regularly surveys and reveals the latest color trends. Statistically, in the last few years color, ranked anywhere from 60% to 75% in a new product’s success. Today, this has risen to as high as 80% because consumers are much smarter and there is more information available to them.

“The kitchen is absolutely the key place for color,” says Lee Eiseman, executive director for the Pantone Color Institute and director for the Eiseman Center for Color Information Training. “It’s the place where people gather and so it is the area that is more likely to have mixing and matching.