Color of the Year 2025: What On Earth?!?!

You all know I LOVE to follow the color trends. I love seeing colors evolve, I love seeing what people do with the colors in their homes, I love reading about the behind-the-scenes meaning of the color selections. Love, love, love. But, this year’s choice, Pantone’s Mocha Mousse, which I promptly named “disappointment,” hits different. The color of the year 2025 is a neutral, and the announcement felt like the audible sigh you let out on Monday morning when you have a long week ahead.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with brown. I have browns all over my home. But, color of the year? It feels lazy. It feels as though they couldn’t make a decision, and at the last minute, someone looked down at the hot dog they were eating from the cafeteria at lunch and said, “Hey–we’ve never done THIS color before!” To their credit, hot dogs look delicious with green relish, yellow mustard, red ketchup and on a poppy seed bun. It’s really an everyday hue, and it pairs well with everything, so why not? In my defense, someone called it the color of a raw hot dog, and I just can’t unsee that.

What Do We DOOOOO?

I’m amping myself up to do an ENTIRE series of articles on color of the year 2025, y’all. I’m in charge of blog content for 15 companies, and they all get a feature on this major event in the design world. It’s a big announcement…color of the year. As it should be, as it always HAS been. So, I’m going to use this platform to make light of this bizarre decision, and then I’m going to put on my big girl britches and march on, finding inspiration for everyone’s homes. Curious about the collabs involved? Society 6 has launched a collection of home decor and wall art. Joybird has curated home furnishings inspired by Mocha Mousse. If it’s just brown hues we’re going for, I’ve been shifting our style to warmer tones ever since we moved into our fixer upper in the fall of 2023, including the Laundry Room Makeover and Kitchen Renovation we completed. I just would never have thought this neutral of all neutrals would be crowned a color, but look out white, next year, Pantone is winking at you 🙂

I Stare. And Stare. And Stare Some More.

Finding inspiration for this year’s color made me *really* consider the way I look at color. I’ve always done it, I suppose, I’ve just never really thought about it. I stare. And stare. And stare even more. I have to spend time evaluating the tones, the colors that come together to actually create the shade in question. Is there yellow? Red? Blue? Then, I scroll. I scroll through picture after picture…after picture. But I do it with the swatch pulled up on the screen as I’m scrolling, so I can easily identify the hue when it’s used.

Yep. This is my life. Usually this is one of my favorite things to do. This time? It felt monotonous. I grew more and more despondent as I scrolled.

And then…I realized something.

The Actual Color

I had begun scrolling with the search term ‘light brown.’ But the more I stared, I started to see red and yellow undertones. Even more so, the photos that even came close to featuring similar colors weren’t *really* brown at all. Mocha Mousse actually seems to belong more to the terra cotta family of colors than anything else. That realization changed my thinking. The literal meaning of terra cotta is “baked earth.” It was when I started to search that color family that the resemblance was clear.Tell me you can see the tones.

Let’s Talk Paint Colors

That set me on the hunt for paint colors. I decided to look up terra cotta colors to see if I could come close to defining the actual color. I will say–digital colors are tough. I can actually pop something into photoshop, and it looks different when it’s saved due to the settings and the determined quality of the photo. But, for all intents and purposes, I did TRY to find the best comparisons from some major brands.

Take all this for what it’s worth, but I’m here to say…Color of the Year 2025 is more of a terra cotta than brown. I’m not saying I love the decision, but I can get behind an earthy vibe. Let’s see how shades of brown and terra cotta are creating inspiring looks in home design…

Old World Rustic Charm

I’ll put it out there…this is not my style. It’s just not. It’s rustic, vintage and full of raw, natural materials. BUT. I can appreciate beautiful design elements when I see them, and this kitchen is full of gorgeous pieces. The hood over the stove is my favorite. The arched wood above the window with detailed carving–gorgeous craftsmanship. So…the reason I pulled this photo is the flooring. It falls into the Mocha Mouse color family, with some soft terra cotta roots. I do believe that this is the way design is moving. I know it’s commonly used in Mediterranean or Southwest style homes, but you’ll start to notice that it’s creeping its way in with cobblestone-inspired flooring and brick wall accents.

A Chic Dining Room Moment

This dining room has all the elements it needs to be a beautiful, modern space…the sleek dining chairs, a minimalist table and simple centerpiece, the large round mirror, patterned black and white curtains, some corner greenery. And, that light. What caught my attention was the color of the chairs. It’s not Mocha Mousse, but that soft brown hue is bringing comfort to this space in a way that the same chairs in white, black or clear acrylic wouldn’t have been able to achieve.

Dreamy Office Space

If I ever had to live in the middle of the woods again, this is what I would want my home office to look like. The green walls, the huge windows surrounded by forest…it’s really an incredible design. Notice how the browns used in this space include varying natural elements and fibers–and hues. The individual accents all offer up their own pattern and texture so the design features dynamic visual interest.

A Wall of Color

This wall is brighter than the color of the year 2025, but that’s what it’s all about–a jumping off point. For the record, it’s Sherwin Williams’ Reddened Earth. Color announcements are a great way to inspire design, to investigate the use of color, to see new ways to surround yourself with elements you love. The textures in this space are on-point. With a variety of accents, from carvings to textiles, from the beaded lamp to the Spanish-inspired tile floor, this room is an eclectic mix of globally influenced decor.

The Courtyard Retreat

An outdoor courtyard…there’s just something about this feature that feels cozy and quaint. It’s like having a tucked away, private escape. This exterior is giving me earthy, old warm charm vibes that I can’t help but love. (There’s that terra cotta-ish colored tiling again!)

Oooh…Another Patio

Ok, so the more I scrolled, the more I found myself swooning over these Mediterranean patio areas. I’ve officially determined my favorite use of color of the year 2025. I like the warm tones and the contrast with the black. Plenty of greenery. Yes, this is my jam.

Will You Use Color of the Year 2025?

Ok, I made it. (Phew!) I found a number of ways to bring this new champion into home design. The first round of articles get published next week, and I may just come back to add them in here, so stay tuned, friends. On that note…Who’s in for Mocha Mousse? Do you have it in your home? How are you using it? Drop me a line to tell me what you think.