Benjamin Moore's Color of the Year Has All of the Cozy, Chill Vibes
It's comforting. It's relaxing. It's...
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Photo by Benjamin Moore
It feels like just yesterday we were painting the town kitchen Caliente, with Benjamin Moore's pick for last-year's color. And it sounds like we're not alone in wishing we could hit the pause button, for a sec: stepping up to the plate as the hotly anticipated 2019 color of the year is a soft, silvery gray that epitomizes silence and serenity.
You can find us sitting by this window with a book for the next, well, forever.
“Comforting, composed and effortlessly sophisticated, Metropolitan AF-690 exudes beauty and balance,” said Ellen O’Neill, Benjamin Moore director of strategic design intelligence, in the press release. “It’s a color in the neutral spectrum that references a contemplative state of mind and design. Not arresting nor aggressive, this understated yet glamorous gray creates a soothing, impactful common ground.”
In an interview with Architectural Digest, O'Neill comments on why a gray, neutral color palette resonates with her for 2019: "I came back to the office and I said, 'I don't know about any of you, but I need quietude. I need a pause. I need earplugs.' I don’t even know what was going on at the time, but it was just like, stop the aggression, the crescendo of voices, the cacophony of tweets and breaking news. It’s so invasive. I said, I know this is totally uncharacteristic of me personally, but I have a feeling that we should look in this [neutral] spectrum of colors."
Full disclosure: My kitchen has been this calm and clean approximately zero times.
As far as neutral-tone fandom goes, we're about as die-hard as it gets over here at Food52—we're basically like the Deadheads of oatmeal-shade linen. We've been touting "greige" since the days when Google still thought it was a typo:
Will this be the excuse we need to dial it up even one notch further? It's too soon to tell—frantically paints entire house Metropolitan AF-690 and downloads a deep-breathing app—but we're certainly not lodging any complaints over Benjamin Moore's choice.
Here are a few ways you can join us in (softly) celebrating this tranquil development:
Put Some Neutral Tones On Your Plate
Is there any better tone with which to contextualize wistful gazing?
Deck Your Home In Soothing Grays
One more, for good luck!
What do you think—are you all in on gray, or do you prefer a pop of color? Let us know in the comments!