Really Panton? A periwinkle blue and a pink that borders on mauve? Those are fighting words for some...

The word on the street is that white is the hot color for the New Year. Recently, several of the major paint retailers across the US released their top picks. And almost across the board, various and layered shades of white were at the top of the heap. Benjamin Moore, which had featured shades of blue and green as their top picks for the past two years, has selected “Simply White” as its “color” for 2016.

Justin Riordin, owner of Spade & Archer Design Agency says, “I could not agree more. The American populace has been beaten over the head with color during the last umpteen design waves. Every HGTV DIY show has been screaming about color pops since HGTV started doing DIY shows. We are just sick of it. We need a rest, a place to go to that allows us to change our minds a year later or even an hour later. White is the new easy; it allows us to update, swap, change, mix and match, and it stays out of the way. White allows us to be creative on a daily basis, rather then once every 10 years when we decide to paint again. I think Simply White was not a brave choice, it was the right choice.”

But maybe you’re not quite ready to make the jump to such a bright white? You can still stay on trend with the slightly deeper “White Dove” by Benjamin Moore. David Peterson, owner of Synergy Staging says “We have tended to lean toward White Dove more often than not because it’s soft and not too bright. We recommend it for trim color as well when the wall isn’t white.”

Sherwin Williams, Behr and Glidden have all followed suit as well. And while the shades vary within their depth and tone, it is very clear that white is hot for 2016.

To read more about the color trends for 2016, please visit Benjamin Moore's site and video.