Every year interiors designers await Pantone’s announcement with bated breath. And every year, designers and colour enthusiasts alike, have something to say about it. 2025 welcomed the warm rich Mocha Mousse brown (PANTONE 17-1230) with a shift toward natural and earthy tones. The first ever brown to win the coveted colour of the year. And while many deem it an unpretentious and luxurious choice, others felt it was a little dull and dated.
Well, for those who were disappointed with this earthy shade, hold on to your hats because 2026 is not without controversy. Pantone has announced Cloud Dancer (PANTONE 11-4201) as the colour of 2026. The name may suggest an ethereally playful colour full of eccentricity and frivolity, but the cynics are calling it white!
And it is white, but we are told it’s a very special white.
Sharp eyes and trained designers know that there are many, many, many, many, many shades of the humble white, making it as frustrating as it is beautiful. Enough white and you go snow-blind trying to decide how warm or cold you want your pristine clean space to feel. But in a year of social and political division, of war and unrest, some are asking why such a lack of fun in an already bleak landscape. Wouldn’t an explosion of hot pink or a pop of periwinkle blue brighten up our palettes?
Even the terrifying depths of a Vantablack abyss would be more exciting than white?
But maybe Pantone has a point. Cloud Dancer is said to symbolise quiet, calm reflection, and wouldn’t a little calm go a long way in 2026? It is also said to evoke feelings of hope, balance and to suggest inner focus and visual escapism. All of which sounds more fitting than simply, more white.
But the prediction is also raising an important question – have we finally lost the art of nuance and are simply unable to appreciate the subtle difference of the clean purity of white? Perhaps Pantone is in fact the oracle of life’s colour, both literally and figuratively.
Is it time we made a fresh start, scrapped all the chaos of life’s kaleidoscope and started over. There are many who would jump at that chance, and other clinging on to their dirty Mochas in the hope the brown hides their murky little secrets. Either way, Cloud Dancer is bound to be seen in fresh, airy spaces, breathing a sense of hope and new beginnings on walls around the world. After all, Pantone have said so!
“Similar to a blank canvas, Cloud Dancer signifies our desire for a fresh start. Peeling away layers of outmoded thinking, we open the door to new approaches. An airy white hue, PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer opens up space for creativity, allowing our imagination to drift so that new insights and bold ideas can emerge and take shape.”
Laurie Pressman, Vice President, Pantone Color Institute.
For interiors designers who are eager to follow trends, this one will be easy to adopt, after all, everything goes with white. It is a reliable base and a blank canvas, easy to launch from and can be powerful to drench a space with. But while white will always be that base colour from whence everything is sprung, perhaps the subtleties of these endless shades of white, will never get old.
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Pantone® and Colour of the Year are trademarks of Pantone LLC. Used for editorial purposes only.
