Kuchar Owner and Creative Director Sarah Kuchar-Parkinson and Chicago painter/muralist Emmy Star Brown talk top color trends for 2025 — and which hues have the most staying power.
The Pantone Color of the Year for 2025 is Mocha Mousse. Do you like the color? And do you agree it will be a leading color trend this calendar year?
SARAH: I love Pantone’s Color of the Year 2025. We’ve been on this really warm brown train for a few years and Mocha Mousse is a natural progression. It’s a mellow brown that evokes feelings of comfort and indulgence. It’s sophisticated and rich, yet also unpretentious and classic. At home and at work, warm, comfortable, and inviting spaces are the new standard. It’s what people are drawn to, and we are designing with that in mind.
EMMY: I like it a lot, too. And I see it sticking around and fitting right in with the neutral family of colors. For my work [abstract paintings and large-scale murals], I like the idea of swapping traditional canvases for linen or burlap — using Mocha Mousse as a base color and texture — and then tying in ivories, tans, and browns; integrating those into the work itself. Canvas can be really contrasting, so playing with other softer materials, with my work as the overlay, is something I’m experimenting with more.
In the fashion world, a saturated merlot-ish oxblood hue has been trending from the runways down to workout wear. Has this color made its way into interiors?
SARAH: At Kuchar, we are huge fans of oxblood. The accents in our office are all high gloss in this color! For interiors, this color’s popularity isn’t brand new. We’ve been seeing its resurgence more and more since 2022. It just takes more time to hit the mainstream, which is why you’re seeing it now across the masses. That’s the full arch of a color’s trend story, so to speak. We pair oxblood a lot with softer pinks and mints for an impact that’s cool and moody. But I also like a monotone look — an entire room or space awash in the richness of this color for an enveloping effect. The Red Room installation at Apparatus Studio’s flagship in New York is a great example.
As interior designers, a fun part of what we do is looking out for and taking note of the infancies of color trends. We'll be studying, talking about it, or using it for a couple of years before that color is everywhere. We try to get ahead of it — and then it’s all about getting people to believe, to open up to the color more. If we are doing our job well, by the time a color is mainstream, we are already onto the next one.
EMMY: I’m a big fan of oxblood and deep shades of merlot as well, and I’m really excited about exploring this palette more this year. Like a Renaissance painting, there’s something timeless and beautiful about mixing neutrals with darker, richer, more rooty sages, burgundies, merlots, and plums. But it doesn’t have to feel ‘old.’ In fact, I just got back from Art Basel Miami Beach and a big trend is using lots of gradients of these darker, moodier colors for paintings and sculptural pieces, in both resin for gloss and matte. How today’s cutting-edge artists are interpreting age-old colorways in a modern way is incredibly cool.
In addition to Mocha Mousse and merlot, what colors do you predict will be trending in 2025?
SARAH: We’re going to see colors that coordinate well with this big Mocha Mousse announcement, like muted jewel tones — think dusty mauves paired with greens that go yellow and muddy blues. And in addition to using these trend-forward colors for accent hits, we anticipate that color-drenched room look — covering the walls, the trim, and the doors — will become even more prominent. It’s a bold move for sure. But when we can connect with a client over the emotional response that you can get from a room that isn’t white or gray, that’s when things get exciting.
Rust is another color that’s still going strong, and it pairs well with oxblood. I’m also loving this butter yellow that showed up a lot in fashion for Spring 2025, which makes me wonder if pastels will be the next color wave to infiltrate interiors. We’re watching things closely and already tracking some pastel purples and blues popping up in furniture. It’s also interesting to see that saturated colors aren't just for surfaces, fabrics, and art anymore. At Salone del Mobile in Milan earlier this year, I saw a lot of color on products that have typically remained neutral within the residential sector. Sage green toilets at Kohler, pale blue hardware from Plank, mustard yellow sink faucets at Roca… When the big brands start getting comfortable with a color, you can be sure it’s gone beyond just trending to a full-blown trend.
EMMY: Similar to what Sarah said, I foresee things moving away from safer, more minimal grays and whites, and it’s truly empowering to watch as more and more people stand confidently in their selections. Rusts are on my radar, too, as well as forest greens. I really like the idea of more monochromatic palettes and working within the nuances, especially with more muted shades of the same color. Personally, I want to scale back on the jewel tones and pastels a bit and pursue these darker colors with punctuations of bright colors like fluorescent pink and aquamarine.
What do these color trends say about the emotion your clients want their spaces to emote?
SARAH: Pantone is billing Mocha Mousse as a color that is “capturing a global mood of connection, comfort, and harmony” — and I think that’s the mindset. Since COVID, there’s been a big shift toward designing for comfort and security; people wanting to feel warm and cocooned in their spaces. Just as dark colors can add sophistication and elegance, warm colors like terracotta or dusty pink, for example, can swaddle a space in hominess.
Sarah… Do you predict these color trends will be seen across both residential and hospitality design? Or will they be more prominent in one vertical over the other?
SARAH: At Kuchar, we don’t really differentiate. Certainly with residential and hospitality these color trends will take shape. And it’s nice to see that color adopting is becoming more prevalent across office spaces as more and more business owners are investing in design that promotes productivity and well-being. Food and retail can be a different story. They don’t always want the interiors to take away from the product or dilute existing branding, but it depends on the project type.
Emmy… How will these color predictions affect your color selections for art as it pertains to changes in interior colors?
EMMY: Sometimes I spend more time choosing colors than painting! It’s a very, very intentional process. For smaller pieces, it’s almost always determined by the surrounding room colors. If I’m commissioned to create a statement piece on canvas or a large-scale mural for a home, hotel, or office, I can definitely incorporate some of the interior hues into the piece so that it's complimentary, or work alongside the designer if it’s still coming together. But it’s also fun to create intentional contrast with art that’s more colorful or vibrant by completely flipping the palette.
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