As the end of 2015 draws near, many await on what the color of the year will be for next year. In a blog posted on Apartment Therapy, described by Forbes as "one of the most influential interior design sites on the Web," it is shared that every October, designers get excited for that big day when paint company Benjamin Moore reveals their Color of the Year. But this year's announcement was something quite unexpected. Why? Because the choice is Simply White OC-177.
The revelation drew various reactions with one asking if white is even a color. The design bloggers of Apartment Therapy defend that they can not be faulted for expecting something theatrics or more dramatic, although in the end, they realized that "white is the backdrop for the drama. And in some cases, the drama itself."
The present leader and founder of Apartment Therapy, Maxwell Ryan, agrees. "White has always been my go-to color, and I've always looked for whites that are not blank canvases - they have to have some color and warmth in them. When you have a really good white on the wall it brings out the colors of the most important things in the room," he says.
Ellen O'Neill, Creative Director at Benjamin Moore, describes white as "timeless and transcendent." She adds, "From weathered wainscoting to crisp canvas shades, porcelain tile to picket fences, white is everywhere in every form - that's why we chose it as our Color of the Year."
But picking the right white can also be tricky. As there are a million shades to choose from - from cool blue-toned whites to buttery creams - the Benjamin Moore team spent months going through 250 variants of white in their catalog and testing each one of them. They finally landed on Simply White OC-177 due to its versatility. This means that it works well with cool or warm palettes, is able to retain neutrality and remains constant under different sources of light.
For samples of artists' spaces using Simply White, you may check on Benjamin Moore's 2016 color trend report.