Why Pantone’s Colour of the Year feels like a glass of water when everyone wanted a nice cup of tea.

Pantone announced their Colour of the Year called Cloud Dancer. And it’s white.

The name maybe gentle and poetic, whimsical even, but it feels like the visual equivalent of turning the page and finding nothing written on it. The immediate online reaction was a mixture of confusion, frustration and, in some corners, outright disbelief. My social feeds were awash with extremely cross people and they did not hold back.

Now, because I don’t design in a trend led way,  I tend to view Colour of the Year announcements with interest but nothing more invested than that.  I see them for what I believe they are, which is at heart, a marketing exercise and often more useful to global brands than to anyone choosing paint for their home. But sometimes the choice itself reveals something interesting, not because it is a trend, but because it shows a temperature has been taken and the result was concerning.

This year white feels especially out of step with how people are living.  Homes right now are moving towards depth, tactility and character. I feel a shift in the conversations I have with clients. People want rooms with soul, not rooms that feel wiped clean. They are choosing earthy, rich colours that help them feel grounded and genuinely at ease. It is not about being brave. It is simply about wanting to live in spaces that support them. Aren’t we just done with a white on it’s own like this? One of my clients, on looking back at a photo of her previously white hallway, told me it made her feel ill to loik at how it had been. Once you’ve brought the right colours in, whitewashing is off the table.

Cloud Dancer isn’t just breezy, it feels so paired back its almost hurtful. While I take the view that no colour is a bad colour inherently, this is like a plain glass of cold water at the moment you want a strong, hot cup of tea.  It’s a nice enough white, but it leaves you wondering whether the person handing it over was listening to the question in the first place. A better way to go would have been a palette of the year.  Cloud Dancer could be a great companion (and given much needed context) with something stronger to talk to.

Pantone’s choice also feels oddly disconnected from the cultural mood. In the lunar calendar we are moving into the Year of the Horse. The symbolism around the horse is all about momentum, expression, action and vitality. It is a year that carries energy. A sense that things are moving forward. Whether or not you follow the zodiac itself, you can feel the wider appetite for exactly that. People are ready for more colour, not less. They are choosing homes that feel more personal.

If anything, the choice of Cloud Dancer highlights how little these announcements relate to real homes. Pantone’s decision-making sits within commercial forecasting and product design. It is not based on the way light falls in a Victorian terrace in the North West. It is not based on the nervous system of a family trying to make a calming living room that does not tip into dullness or glare. It is not based on the sensory experience of how colour behaves in a hallway or a bedroom or a child’s study. It is not based on how people actually live. Your architecture, your natural light, your habits, your personality, your sense of comfort and clarity. These things matter far more.

If Cloud Dancer has done anything at all, it has taken the temperature and found it wanting. The public response tells its own story because people are reacting to the disconnect. They can sense that it does not reflect where we are. Most are looking for something with warmth, subtlety and character. Something that feels lived in. Something that supports that gentle, grounded feeling we are craving in our homes.

White can be beautiful when it is chosen with intention, just as any colour can. It can soften a room. It can lift it. It can balance deeper tones. But it is never neutral in effect and it cannot stand in for personality. Used without thought it becomes glare rather than clarity. Cloud Dancer will have its place, but not as a cultural compass.

Colour of the Year will always have a role to play in branding and trend setting. For the average person it offers little beyond a conversation point. Colour in a home is not a global announcement. It is a lived, daily experience. It is the feeling you get when you walk into your bedroom at the end of a long day. The way morning light touches the kitchen wall. The sense of belonging you feel when a room finally seems to recognise who you are.

So for me, Cloud Dancer is simply a headline, not to be taken too seriously. If anything, it has shown us that people are already embracing richer, more grounded and more supportive colour in their homes and they do not want to go back.  And that tells us far more about the year ahead than any colour swatch ever could.

Until next time,

Ashley x

I’m an interior painter & decorator and colour consultant. I help home and business owners take the guesswork out of decorating and create spaces that feel just right. This is More Than Four Walls where I share the deeper side of decorating – colour choices, creative process, and the quiet power of home.  Join me on Instagram or to book a personal appointment click here.