How to use Pantone Color of the Year 2020 in your home

In December, Pantone announced its Color of the Year for 2020, which is Classic Blue, “a timeless and enduring blue” that’s “suggestive of the sky at dusk,” according to Pantone. It is no surprise that this simple color — a rich, dark blue — is a favorite color to work with for many interior designers. It’s versatile and luxurious and calming.

When the color experts at Pantone first decided to name a color of the year 20 years ago already, they knew that they were being bold. At that time, Pantone was hardly a household name – rather an underground resource for designers both textile and digital. “The person on the street didn’t know what Pantone was,” said Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the company’s Color Institute. Common reactions to being questioned about Pantone were “You mean the shampoo? The Italian bread?”

Two decades after the new millennium was painted Cerulean Blue, Pantone’s color forecasts are the reigning authority nearly every industry, from interior design to fashion design, to multi-media artistry, car manufacturing and more. To bring the ball down on yet another era, the company announced that the Pantone Color of the Year 2020 is Classic Blue— an elegant hue and calming shade of azure.

Pantone’s insights seem to be perfectly aligned with interior design’s gradual return to traditional decorating styles. The color blue unites classic design genres ranging from chinoiserie to Americana, according to Architectural Digest.

To augment the 2020 reveal, Pantone included a unique ensemble of its own: As part of its marketing campaign, the company partnered with several brands to develop the smell, sound, taste, and texture of Classic Blue. The resulting package included a swatch of suede-like fabric, a musk-and-sea-salt-scented candle, a blue, berry-flavored jelly, and a three-minute audio track titled “Vivid Nostalgia.”

You may be interested in how to use this elegant hue in some “Pantone Color of the Year 2020” inspired ideas.

Preserved Flowers

In August of 2019, we introduced our new preferred flower vendor, Taylor Skye Flowers in the article “Using Preserved Flowers in Interior Design“. As 2020 rang in, Taylor Skye Flowers shows us her Pantone Color of the Year 2020 classic blue rose.

Classic Blue in Fashion Design

Taylor also incorporates the Pantone Color of the Year 2020 into her fashion statements accompanied by her classic blue roses. Did we mention she’s model? Brilliant!

Visit Taylor Skye Preserved Flowers

Furniture

A sure-fire way to bring Classic Blue to your home is in your furniture selection. You can bring small pieces that make big splashes into any room in your house by adding a contrasting element for warmth and simplicity – classic blue is a perfect choice.

Though not “classic” blue, these Cobalt blue chairs and bar stools are the most striking element of Los Angeles’ Color Camp nail salon by American architect J Byron-H.

You can also see how this couch really makes a statement in a subdued, modern family room environment.

Accent Walls

Another great way to make your Blue statement is through accent walls. As an interior designer, oftentimes I find myself looking for that one accent wall, a divider wall, or a hidden supporting wall that could really use a “pop”. Once you implement color into these carefully selected spaces, you’ll have a room that screams DESIGN.

This example below of urban loft design in Brooklyn, New York is a prime example of a design style I love with a prominent accent wall.

This example of a supporting island counter accent wall is also just wonderful. Look how it transcends this studio kitchen in an apartment in Paris from drab to exciting in just one small section of detail.

Wallscapes

Entire walls or partial walls in blue can also be achieved through careful placement in your home’s design scheme. The hue shown below, known as Pantone 19-4052, is used to mark the takeaway area of this cafe and bakery in Odessa, Ukraine. The cabinets are beautifully colored in Pantone’s contrasting 2019 shade Living Coral.

How about Classic Blue-inspired paint color on kitchen cabinetry? In the space pictured below, pairing the primary color with a luxurious black-and-white countertop and metallic accents brings this cozy kitchen to life!

Bathrooms

Whether a kitchen island or a bathroom vanity to wet bar cabinets, Classic Blue can be used in many, many ways. Just think of all the ways you can design the life you love with the Pantone Color of the Year 2020 – Classic Blue!

Interior Design for your home in 2020

Regardless of whether you like Classic Blue or not, many of the same design ideas apply to nearly every Pantone Color of the Year or your unique design aspirations.

For a consultation to see if Tiffany Hanken Design can help you design the life you love, just contact us. We’d love to hear all about your dreamy home design ideas.